But historian David Brewer in his Greece, The Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence disagrees, stating that the story of the flag raising at Agia Lavra was apparently an invention by Francois Pouqueville, a prominentĪrchitect of the Philhellenism movement throughout Europe, who contributed to the liberation of the Greeks, and to the rebirth of the Greek Nation. On March 25th 1821 Bishop Germanos of Patras raises the flag of revolution at the monastery of Agia Lavra near Kalavrita and the battle cry of 'Freedom or Death' becomes the motto of the revolution. But in the Peloponessos the rebellion is making progress and combined with Ali Pasha's rebellion in Ipirus the Turks have their hands full. The Phanariot Greeks fall in line behind the new patriarch and condemn the revolution. Which they considered his duty for the vast privileges they allowed him.

When the revolution breaks out in the Peloponessos, the Sultan in Istanbul hangs the Patriarch Grigorios V for failing to keep the Greek Christians in Instead they attack their wealthy countrymen and the Greeks have to escape. In 1821 the land that was known as Greece is controlled by the Turks, except for the Ionian islands which has been occupied by the Venetians, then the French andīegins in Moldavia when an army of 4500 Hellenes led by General Alexander Ypsilantis, a Phanariot from the so-named district of Istanbul, a member of the Philike Hetairia (Friendly Society), invades hoping to encourage the local Romanian peasants to throw off the yoke of the Turks. When rebellion against the Ottoman Empire gave birth to Hellas, Hellenic-speaking people had a national homeland for the first time in history. Contrary to popular opinion there never was a country called Greece or Hellas until the Revolution of 1821.

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