Due to his fighting prowess, he was known as Turkofagos or Turkophagos (Greek: Τουρκοφάγος), literally meaning the "Turk-Eater".

[1] The date and place of Nikitaras' birth are disputed, but he is thought to have been born either in the village of Nedoussa (Νέδουσα) in the Peloponnesian province of Messenia or in Leontari in Arcadia circa 1784.

[1] In June 1839, Nikitaras founded the Filorthodoxos Eteria secret society with Georgios Kapodistrias and other members of Russian Party.

Its aims included the promotion of the Christian Orthodox faith and the annexation of Ottoman controlled Thessaly, Macedonia and Epirus into the Greek state.

[3][4] In December 1839, Filorthodoxos Eteria's members decided to act upon their plans in anticipation of a rumored Russian army attack on Constantinople.

The judges accepted the argument that Kapodistrias and Stamatelopoulos had declared themselves leaders of the Filorthodoxos Eteria on their own accord and that the formation of the secret society had not been completed.