[BALKANS / TRAVEL / THE 1897 GRECO-TURCO WAR] Tesalya'da bir cevelân ve dört aylik seyahâtim. [i.e., A tour in Thessaly and my four-month voyage].

Istanbul: Mahmud Bey Matbaasi., [AH 1315], 1898. 1st Edition . Leather. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. In contemporary handsome 1/3 leather bdg. Raised five bands to the spine. The third and fourth compartments have a lettered gilt title and a personal name (Fikri) in Ottoman script. Other ones have decorated gilts. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 359 p. First and only edition of Süleyman Tevfik's eyewitness travel account to Thessaly, who participated in the Turco-Greco War in 1897 as a war correspondent in the Thessaly Front between April 27 - May 20, 1897. The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 or the Ottoman-Greek War of 1897, also called the Thirty Days' War and known in Greece as the Black '97. It was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Its immediate cause was the question over the status of the Ottoman province of Crete, whose Greek majority had long desired union with Greece. Despite the Ottoman victory on the field, an autonomous Cretan State under Ottoman suzerainty was established the following year (because of the intervention of the Great Powers after the war), with Prince George of Greece and Denmark as its first High Commissioner. This was the first war effort in which the military and political personnel of Greece were put to test in an official open war since the Greek War of Independence in 1821. For the Ottoman Empire, this was also the first war effort in which the reorganized military personnel were put to the test. The Ottoman army was under the guidance of a German military mission led by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, who had reorganized it after the defeat in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). In Thessalian Front, war was declared on 18 April when the Ottoman ambassador in Athens, Asim Bey, met with the Greek foreign minister announcing the cutting of diplomatic ties. Heavy fighting occurred between the 21-22 April outside the town of Tyrnavos but when the overwhelming Ottoman forces converged and pushed together, the Greek general staff ordered a general withdrawal, spreading panic among soldiers and civilians alike. Larissa fell on 27 April, while the Greek front was being reorganized behind the strategic lines of Velestino, in Farsala. Nevertheless, a division was ordered to head for Velestino, thus cutting Greek forces in two, 60 km apart. Between 27 and 30 April, under the command of Col. Konstantinos Smolenskis, Greek forces checked and halted the Ottoman advance. On 5 May three Ottoman divisions attacked Farsala, forcing an orderly withdrawal of Greek forces to Domokos, while on the eve of those events Smolenskis withdrew from newly recaptured Velestino to Almyros. Volos fell into Ottoman hands on 8 May. At Domokos, the Greeks assembled 40,000 men in a strong defensive position, joined by about 2,000 Italian "Redshirt" volunteers under the command of Ricciotti Garibaldi, son of Giuseppe Garibaldi. The Ottoman Empire had a total of about 70,000 troops, of whom about 45,000 were directly engaged in the battle. On 16 May the attackers sent part of their army around the flank of the Greeks to cut off their line of retreat, but it failed to arrive in time. The next day the rest of their army made a frontal assault. Both sides fought ferociously. The Ottomans were held at bay by the fire of the defending infantry until their left flank defeated the Greek right. The Ottoman formation broke through, forcing a renewed withdrawal. Smolenskis was ordered to stand his ground at the Thermopylae passage but on 20 May a ceasefire went into effect. Özege 20762.; OCLC 65794449 / 775132812.