Greece’s Parliament president, Costas Tassoulas, on Monday opened a plenary session of the legislature with an honorary reference to the 200th anniversary of the crossing of the River Prut in Wallachia, modern-day northeast Romania, by Greek revolutionary leader Alexandros Ypsilantis and his band of volunteers.
The crossing and the subsequent proclamation, two days later, of a manifesto in support of the faith and homeland, ranks a landmark event and as a precursor of the Greek War of Independence, which erupted in southern Greece roughly a month later.