The Greek Etheria began in the Odessa – Chisinau – Iași triangle. Three cities brought the essential impact for the liberation of Greece from the Ottoman yoke, which lasted more than 400 years. One of the initiators of the revolt was Alexandru Ipsilanti – the son of a lord Constantin Ipsilanti, of Moldavia and Wallachia and grandson of the warlord of Wallachia, of the same name, Alexandru Vodă Ipsilanti. Alexandru Ipsilanti was a direct descendant of Constantin Brâncoveanu.

His active participation in the struggle for the independence of Greece began in 1820, when, on the advice of his friend I. Kapodistrias (at that time the minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia), he accepted the offer of members of Filiki Eteria (community “Friendship”) to become its president. Organizing secret meetings in Chisinau and Odessa, on February 20, 1821, the army of 6000 men, which was formed in Bessarabian from the Greeks, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Serbians, Albanians, and Arnauts, passed over the river Prut into principality. He relied on the support of the population here, mostly on the support of the moldovan ruler Mihail Sutsu. The revolution initiated by Alexander Ipsilanti was quickly suppressed by the Turkish army, but his ideas of liberation formed nuclei of uprisings throughout the whole Greek territory…

Greek by origin, born in Constantinople and dead in Vienna, he was not allowed to see Greece at least once. The commander of the army of Central Greece – Dimitrie Ipsilanti, received the news of the death of his brother in the camp in the city of Megara in Attica. On May 15, at his command, a salvo of 7 thousand rifles was fired simultaneously in honor of the man who started the war of independence. It was Dimitrie Ipsilanti who was destined to end the war, begun by his brother, in his last victorious battle, which led to the liberation of Greece from the Ottoman yoke – the Battle of Petra in 1829.

Note:

In the following years the suppression of the revolution, led by Tudor Vladimirescu and the Eterist movement, countless Romanians and Greeks from the principalities took refuge in Chisinau, frightened by possible Turkish repressions. Thus, in Chisinau arrived: Prince Of Moldova Mihail Sutsu with his numerous family; postelnic Ioan Schina, son of the former Lord of Muntenia Caragea, with his wife; Rosetti and Moruzi families; treasurer Gheorghe Roznovanu; Postelnic Dimitrie Statachi; two Postelnic Plaghino; widow of Hatman Bogdan with her daughter Mariola Bogdan; postelnic Iacovachi Rizo, one of the most ardent eterists; Boyar Mano; Bessarabian Boyar Petrachi Mavrogheni, who spent a lot of time in Iasi, brother-in-law of Mihail Sturdza, future Lord Of Moldova; former highlander Boyar Varlam; Constantin Ghica, brother of Prince Gheorghe Ghica, etc.

Alexandr Veltman (1800 – 1870) – Russian cartographer, linguist, archaeologist, poet and writer, a member of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, wrote in those years: “ …due to the exodus of etherists and phanariots, the population of Chisinau had grown from 12,000 to 50,000 souls”. He said: “Chisinau at that time was the reservoir of princes and Noble boyars from Constantinople and the two principalities.”