[1][2] For many years, Papagiannis attempted to convince various rulers of Western Europe to lend him military support for an uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
[3] Papagiannis was born in Gjirokastër (modern southern Albania), Epirus region, Ottoman Empire to a local Greek family.
[2] He initiated correspondence with various Western European rulers, where he propagated that his compatriots were eager to cast off Ottoman rule.
[7] The following year, Papagiannis, together with another local noble from Argyrocastro, Panos Kestolikos, moved to Naples and asked the Spaniards to support their revolutionary plan.
They also discussed the possibility of an anti-Ottoman armed struggle with the head of the Holy League, John of Austria, "as Greek representatives of enslaved Greece and Albania".
[12] The following year, he was located in Himara, on the Ionian coast, together with Basque spy Antonio de Echavarri, in order to determine if the situation was ripe for that purpose.