ESSAT PASHA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The recent great victory at Janina, by the Greek Crown Prince, which makes him more than ever the central figure in the Balkan drama to-day, brings into prominence also the figure of his brave though unfortunate opponent, Essat Pasha, whose soldierly qualities and manly, straightforward conduct in the defence and surrender of Janina have won for him universal esteem and sympathy. Throughout the four months of the siege he has given abundant proof of courage, skill, and endurance, and his reputation as a soldier will not suffer from the fact that he bowed to the inevitable at the last moment, and would not sacrifice his troops further by ref using to acknowledge defeat. By a curious coincidence,Essat Pasha was formerly a fellow-student at the Military School in Berlin with H.R.H. Prince Constantine, so that they were in a sense old acquaintances, and had completed their military studies under precisely the same auspices. Essat Pasha is a native of Janina and received his early education there, supplementing it later by study in Western Europe. He is a good linguist and well informed generally. His father, Mechmet Effendi, was for many years Mayor of Janina, in which position he earned a reputation for rectitude and pro- gressiveness, and the nickname among his Ottoman fellow- citizens of "The Destroyer," from his passion for pulling down old houses for the purpose of widening streets and making public squares. A number of public edifices and institutions are due to his energy and initiative. Though a Mussulmau, he was by birth a lineal descendant of the well- known (Greek) ¬e family of GISky, a member of which in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was the celebrated publisher, Nicholas Glfrky, of Leipzig. The younger brother of Nicholas, being left alone and friendless in his native Suli, eventually went to Janina, where he found favour with the all-powerful Ali Pasha and became Islamized. It is from this younger brother that Essat Pasha is descended.
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