On December 1st, 1913, the island of Crete was officially integrated into the Greek state, after Sultan Mehmet V had finally relinquished all sovereignty over the island exactly one month earlier, according to greekreporter.com.
Crete’s liberation from Ottoman rule was the result of a violent struggle that lasted close to a century and cost a great deal of blood to gain, as Cretans joined Greece’s War of Independence on June 14, 1821, according to the majority of historians.
Nevertheless, on Sunday, December 1, 1913, the official announcement of the island’s union with Greece took place in a festive atmosphere in sunny Chania, in the presence of King Constantine and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Eric Gaba
