During the period of the 1821 revolution, Thassos breathed a short period of freedom, when the Greeks arrived to the island and the tzormpatzis was set head of the revolutionary movement. The Turks were defeated and expelled to Kavala. However, this did not last long, because the fear of pirates led the Thassians to seek help from the passa of Thessalonici.
Thus, in the end of 1821 they signed a treaty with him, fact which enraged the sailmen of Psara because it led the revolution to failure. During the Greek revolution, Thassos and the rest of the islands raised the flag of revolution. More than 1000 people were cruelly butchered, others were tortured and many lost their properties.
The Neoturks, after the proclamation of the Turkish constitution, and when viceroy of Egypt was Ampas Hilmi Passa, they removed all privileges had been given to the island by Muhammad Ali. Thassos remained under the rule of Ampas Hilmi until the Balkan Wars and then was liberated by the Greek army and fleet (October 1912). Since then it comprises a part of the Greek Republic, as resulted from the Bucharest Treaty. During the Turkish reoccupation (1902-1912), teachers, priests and literaries cultured the national conscience of the people. Thus, September of 1912 found the Greek people patriotically, psychologically and mentally ready to fight together with the Srbs and Bulgarian in order to shake off the Ottoman yoke from the islands and the territory around the Mountain Olympus. In June of 1912, the Bulgarians attacked the Serbs in Gevgeli and the Greeks in the liberated areas, fact that set the start of the 2nd Balkan War. That time also started the activity of the Greek fleet in Aegean Sea which in October 1912 led admiral Kountouriotis to sign the proclamation. In the 18th of the same month, the strew-cans of the fleet “lance” and “storm” together with the troopship “Pellos” occupied Thassos. After the liberation of Thassos, Constantine Mellas, brother of the famous Macedonian-fighter Paulos Mellas, is appointed as a temporary commander. In a letter that he sent to Penelope Delta, he refers to Thassos as the most beautiful Greek island, a paradise with genuine Greeks, unshakably patriots and sensitive people.
Right after the liberation of Thassos, the professor of Athens University Georgios Sotiriades was sent there, the first Greek curator of antiquities and Christian monuments of the island.
As refers to the years between 1920-1940 period, the most important events of the island were the arrival of the refugees of the Asia Minor and Thrace after the Destroy of 1922, and the expropriation of the real estate of the Agion Oros monasteries, which was shared to the inhabitants to the island, after an initiative of the private member Augustos Theologitis.
In the 2nd World War, Thassos and the rest of Greece was occupied by the Germans who later left their place to the Bulgarians. The Bulgarian military and political authorities treated with cruelty the Greek population. Greece was liberated in 1945.
Today, the island of Thassos is a beautiful touristic area. The construction of hotels and roads, the frequent service with ferries and flying dolphins, contribute in the economical development of the island. Gradually, Thassos begun to regain its previous glory and once more turned into the beautiful paradise that Constantine Mellas and many Greek and foreign writers, poets and travelers have written about.
