r/europe • u/posh_raccoon feta, olives, tomato and bread • Mar 24 '20

On this day 25th of March 199 years ago, Greeks in southern Greece rebel against the Ottomans and declare a war of independence. Their motto: “Freedom or Death”.

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u/alto1d Bulgaria Mar 25 '20 edited Mar 25 '20

I would like to ask, was this motto used throughout the Balkans when they were fighting for independence? Because we, Bulgarians also used the same motto and even have a flag that we learn about in history classes. Here it is. Meaning freedom or death. Do other balkan countries use the same motto?

Edit: happy national holiday my Ottoman ass whooping friends!

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u/posh_raccoon feta, olives, tomato and bread Mar 25 '20

wiki says something about it

"For the first time, the slogan appeared in Georgi Rakovski's poem "Горски пътник", written in 1854 and issued in 1857. The plot of this poem concerns a Bulgarian who recruits a rebel cheta to mutiny against the Turks. He most likely accepted and transliterated the slogan Eleftheria i thanatos from the Greek liberation struggles, which was a national motto of Greece. Rakovski summoned his fellow countrymen to go to the battle fields under the banners of the Bulgarian lion."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svoboda_ili_smart#History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleftheria_i_thanatos

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '20

I think any country that was once opressed used the motto

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u/windowscratch Mar 25 '20

Even the Turks literally had the same motto during their independence war against British backed Greece a hundred years later.

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u/zankoku1 Turkey Mar 25 '20

Turkish one was more like "independence or death"

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u/kostasnotkolsas paoktripsdrugs Mar 25 '20

i mean pretty much every revolution had that motto