Paylos Karolidis

Pavlos Karolidis (1849-1930) was a historian, politician, and university professor. He was born in Andronikio (Edirlik) in Cappadocia in 1849. After completing his primary education at the Great School of the Nation in Constantinople and the Evangelical School of Smyrna, he studied philology at the University of Athens and pursued further studies in Germany. He taught in Constantinople and Smyrna until 1886, when he moved to Athens and was appointed as a lecturer. In 1893, following the death of Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, he became a professor of general history at the University of Athens. He was dismissed for political reasons in 1918 but was reappointed to the same position two years later. Following the Young Turk movement, he became a member of the Turkish parliament as a deputy for Aydin (1908-12). His initiatives during this period and his overall political stance sparked significant reactions and criticisms in Greece, as he believed that the realization of the "Great Idea" should and could be achieved not through war but through the peaceful integration of Greeks into Turkish political and social life, thereby establishing them as a dominant factor within the Ottoman Empire. As a historian, he focused on the Hellenism of Asia Minor, the Greek nation, and other peoples.