Lazaros Tsamis

During the period from 1900 to 1902, Lazaros Tsamis became a successful merchant and developed a network of shops in Lefkona (Popli), in Bilisht, in Liqenas of Great Prespa, in Drenovë and Korçë, in Nakolec of Pelagonia.

[5] His contacts with wealthy Muslim merchants and Albanian politicians and military officials in Korestia, Prespa and Korçë quickly made him a valuable, trusted and passionate partner of Germanos Karavaggelis, Bishop of Kastoria, and the Greek Consulate of Bitola.

[7] At the instigation of Bishop Germanos Karavaggelis and with the consent of the Greek Consul of Monastiri Stamatios Kiouze Peza, Lazaros joined the pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) along with his brother priest Stavros and other members of Pisoderi committee with the sole purpose of gathering information about the movements and activities of the Bulgarian revolutionary committee (pp. IMRO).

In the next update, Lazaros informed the Bishop of Kastoria that the envoy of IMRO would be the capable and passionate voivod Vasil Tsakalarof, who has excellent knowledge of the Greek language from the village Krystallopigi (Smardesi) of Florina.

Tsakalarof, despite the information they had at their disposal the Greek authorities, managed to cross the Greek-Turkish border and arrived in Athens, where he visited the factory arms "Bros Maltsinioti" pretending to be Arvanitis from Ioannina and falsely stated that he wanted to buy weapons to equip Albanian rebels against Ottoman domination.

Then Bishop Karavaggelis sent two members of his organization to Athens, George Gkiamos and the priest Elias Papadimitriou from Chalara (Podovista) Kastoria, with a mission to identify Vasil Tsakalarof and to designate him to the Greek police.

[17] Lazaros informed the meeting attendees that last August 1902, had reached the region of Korestia, the villages at the foot of Mount Vitsi, a Colonel of the Bulgarian Army, Athanas Giankof.

In the spring of 1903, Lazaros, after a command from Bishop Germanos Karavaggelis, successfully ensured the smooth entry in the area of the Ottoman Empire of the first fighters from Creta.

[20] The non-participation of the inhabitants in the revolution caused the wrath of the leader of the Bulgarian revolutionary committee Boris Sarafov, who ordered the execution of five men from Pisoderi and the arson of premises at Lefkonas village of Prespa, belonging to Lazaros Tsamis.

[23] On Holy Wednesday of 1904, a group of [3] persons, Lazaros Tsamis, Andreas Gkogko or Gogos and Nahum Papastergiou escorted and Pavlos Melas [as supposedly sick animal trader] and passed by the Turkish checkpoints, and handed him over to Vasilis Agorastos an official of the Greek Consulate of Bitola.

[27] Lazaros Tsamis got the information that the Ottoman authorities suspected him for involvement in the business of smuggling the Greek Delegation from the region of Korestia, and in order to mislead and distract the Ottoman authorities, he offered to lead Turkish military section of fifty men in the village of Trigono Florina ( Ostima), where the gang of Bulgarian Aromanian guerilla Mitre the Vlach.

Conducted extensive surveys and interviews that based on information leaked to the cared Mitre the Vlach, led to the arrest of Lazaros Tsamis and sentenced him to six months in prison in Bitola.

At the same time Lazaros Tsamis and his brother priest Stavros Tsamis, accepted the request of the Bishop of Kastoria Germanos Karavangelis to assist him to reveal the action of pro-Bulgarian members of the British Relief Fund towards the Macedonian People, led by journalist H. N. Breilsford, his wife, Lady Thompson, Mrs Edith Durham and others, mission that was supported by the British Consul General in Thessaloniki.

Brailsford warned the Ottoman authorities of an inevitable epidemic that swept across the province and requested by telegraph Hilmi Pasha, the creation of a military exclusion zone around the infected villages and the operation of a hospital of the British Relief Fund, which had already begun to work.

From that moment, the supervision and control from the Ottoman authorities, reduced the activities of the British Relief Fund for the care of IMRO guerrillas, a situation mentioned in his memoirs the mission chief and journalist Henry Noel Breilfornt.

The opened letter of Lady Thompson was perceived by someone in the office of Bishop of Kastoria Karavaggelis and informed about the members of the British Relief Fund,[29] This was followed by the bounty of Lazaros Tsamis from the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee for the sum of one thousand Ottoman pounds, demonstrating the severity of shock on the disclosure of the purpose of the operation of field hospital for hospitalization Bulgarian rebels under the banner of the Commonwealth.

During the battle, the Greek rebels, were helped by volunteer militants from Pisoderi,[30] including Lazaros Tsamis who by chance escaped death when a bullet wedged in his metal snuff box.

Later, for his participation in the Battle of Zelovo the Cretan chieftain Pavlos Giparis devoted to Lazaros Tsamis the couplet:[31] Two captains from the Greeks were wounded – Ioannis Seimenis and Emmanuel Skountris.

The result of an "understanding" was that Captain Dimitrios Dalipis, deposited four gold coins every first day of each month in the hollow of an old beech tree at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, to bribe him.

How to hide their enthusiasm in their breasts these patriots...."[34] It has been reported that Pavlos Melas had sent letters of thanks and the photos of his family to the Tsami brothers, while the latter had high appreciation on his face.

[37] On 30 November 30 1904, Lazaros participated, along with 25 volunteers from Pisoderi,[33] in another victorious battle in the village of Antartiko [Zelovo] that gave the captains Georgios Katehakis, Pavlos Giparis and Efthimios Kaoudis with numerous Bulgarian corps under the command of Mitre the Vlach and Athanas Karsakof.

The armed group of Giparis, pursued by the Turkish detachment fled to the dense forest surrounding the monastery of Agia Triada Pisoderi, where they met Lazaros and Papastavros who organized an escape.

During this meeting Tsontos Vardas delivered to Lazaros, for transmission and distribution, the salaries of all Greek guerrilla groups operating in the region of Korestia and Prespa and documents with instructions for their future actions.

The second week of October 1905, at the 18th km of provincial road Pisoderi–Prespa in a place named Seltsa, was staged a murderous ambush from which Lazarow fled under the pretext that he was an innocent person and that Lazaros was coming behind.

Papastavros) got a letter with the stamp and signature of Tsontos Vardas, by asking him to join the body of Captain Lukas Bellos at the forest location Lakos.

[40] Papa-stavros took with him the Commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie extract Hussein Ibrahim but was murdered by Voivode Kousman Popntinof (Kuzu) in the ambush that had been set up by the fake letter.

The General Staff of the Greek Army, in spite of Lazaros fatigue, asked him to guide safely a regiment of evzoni, under Major Georgios Iatridis to the village of Agios Germanos.

After these events, Prince Nicholas as Chief of Staff of the Greek Army presented Lazaros Tsamis a written praise as shown "in the fulfillment of duty in such bravery".

After the liberation of Korçë, Lazaros met Mrs. Edith Durham in a humanitarian mission, whose point of view towards the Macedonian people during her participation in the British Relief Fund he knew.

In 1928, symptoms of eye disease recurred and he was forced to go to Athens, and after months of expensive treatment in ophthalmology clinic of Ioannis Haramis, managed to salvage a reasonable eyesight, but was driven to financial ruin.