• Hellenic Republic • Prefecture of Drama

The Ottoman domination of the area of Drama for almost five and half centuries (1383-1912) assured stability, at least theoretically, and an end to the frequent changes in power which had marked previous periods. Nevertheless, at the same time Ottoman domination meant a serious threat to the continuation of the presence of a Greek population in the area.
Drama was for a long time part of the wider administrative unit (beylerbeylik in Turkish) of Roumeli (later an "egialet") and so it remained an agricultural region within the Ottoman Empire.
The settlement of Muslims from the east in the area and the retreat of the Christian population to the mountainous areas of the region changed the demographic data with the number of Christians constantly declining up to the mid 16th century.
Fearful of the religious fanaticism of the conquerors as manifested in the case of the massacre of the monks of the Monastery of Ikosifinissa in 1507, meant that the Christians gathered together in the mountains of the north of the area though they did not completely abandon the city of Drama. The Muslim population lived in the former Byzantine castle and in the countryside busying themselves in the main with the production of rice as the abundant running water which favoured the growth of the paddy fields of Drama, which fed other areas of the Empire.
Economic development, thanks to the trade in rice, brought about an increase in the Muslim population as occurred in other Macedonian cities during this high point of the Empire that lasted up to the mid 17th century. Perhaps it was during this period that the Christian population began to return to the valleys and plains. From the mid 17th century onwards with the Sultan having lost control over the provinces of the Empire, the residents of Drama suffered much from heavy taxation and the corrupt government of local rulers who were also large landowners. Raids carried out by mountain-living tribes also inflicted much suffering. During the 18th century support given to the traditional cultivation of rice together with the operation of textile industries and cotton dye industries gave the area a new lease of commercial life. The area became associated with mainland trading routes that followed large caravans to the centre of the Empire, the Balkans and Central Europe supplying centres in the internal market of the Empire, such as Thessaloniki, with their goods. The economic development during this period was particularly favourable to those who controlled the administration and the land and in particular for Mahmut Dramali Pasa (1780-1822) and for his sons following the death of their father in his campaign against the Greek revolutionaries.
At least until the mid 19th century, despite the fact that Drama was the administrative and military centre of the local imperial administrative unit which stretched as far as Xanthi, the economic importance of the city of Drama was steadily decreasing, which may have brought about the reduction in population noted at this time. The repression from the governors and the suffocating control of economic life by the large landowners favoured the development of the region's harbour, Kavala, which connected the whole area with commercial sea routes.
Real changes in the region of Drama began to occur with the development of the cultivation of the tobacco that commenced around the 1840s. At first economic growth was gradual but by the end of 19th century the economy had taken off. The whole modern history of the area has been marked by tobacco. The economy took off, the population increased, mainly the Ottoman population but increases too were noted in the number of Greeks with people coming here to work from other areas of Macedonia and from Epirus. The city and the tobacco-producing towns of the countryside, such as Prosotsani, Horisti, Doxato, Adriani and Kyria, became wealthy and grew thanks to the production and trade in tobacco.
With a stronger economic footing the Greek communities in the city, the towns in the southern plain where many Greeks lived and the villages on Mounts Falakro and Menikio took a strong interest in cultural matters. In particular, in the latter villages the local dialect was used with its mixture of three languages. Churches were built, schools and fraternities established helping to keep alive and reinforce the sense of what it meant to be Greek among the majority of the population.

The Boundaries redrawn in the 20th century
From 1880 to 1908 groups of Bulgarian guerrillas carried out violent attacks against the city and the northern villages of the prefecture with their Greek or mixed populations in order to gain control over the Christians in the area. The formation of Greek guerrilla groups saw the beginning of the Macedonian Struggle, a violent guerrilla war carried on under the indifferent and even guilty nose of Ottoman authorities. From the beginning of the 20th century the Macedonian Struggle took on shocking proportions in the north of the city with many local Greek residents with nationalistic sensibilities fighting hard for national unification. Among the many victims was the young Armen Kouptsio from Volakas. The Bishop of Drama and later Smyrni, Chrysostomos (1868-1922) was the leader of a secret organization of Greeks who acted in cooperation with the defence committees of the local villages and the guerrilla units. The intense nationalistic activity in Drama between 1902-1910 led to the Ottoman authorities temporarily ejecting it from the Empire (1907-1908).

The area came under Bulgarian Occupation for the first time in October 1912 during the First Balkans War, the occupation being marred by the group massacre of 600 Greeks from Doxato and the setting on fire of the wealthy town on 30th June 1913, one day before the liberation of Drama by the Greek army. A second Bulgarian Occupation during the First World War (1916-1918), tested the resolve of the Greeks more, due to starvation, epidemics and the transportation of the male population to work camps in Bulgaria.
The exchange of populations between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey during the early 1920s was a new starting point for Drama. At least 85,000 Greeks from Asia Minor and Thrace settled in the Prefecture, tobacco production increased thanks to the marshes in the southern plains of the prefecture being drained and with trade picking up Drama flourished and enjoyed a "Golden Age" until the end of the 1920s.
Following the negative repercussions of the world economic crisis of 1929 on exports of tobacco, the economic climate improved again up until the Second World War. During the German invasion of Greece launched from Bulgarian soil on 6th April 1941, the defensive line of forts in the Nevrokopi valley was hard tested while the few soldiers there defending Greece put up a valiant struggle.
In the same month the area in effect passed into the administrative and military control of the Bulgarian authorities until liberation came in 1944. The Greeks put up fierce resistance on the plains and in the mountains of Drama with the leading acts of resistance being the resurrection of September 1944 and the battle for bridge of Papades in May 1944.
Since the war, the reduction in economic activity has by and large been due to the wave of emigration from the area, mainly to West Germany, which began during the 1960s, causing depopulation of rural areas. Following the political changes in Eastern Europe and the improved relations between Balkan states at the end of the 20th century, the population of Drama now hopes to be able to take part in the large economic changes taking place in Europe.