The Turks first invaded the Eastern Thessaly in 1393 and proceeded to its colonization with Turks from Minor Asia. Two years later, in 1395, they occupied the western city of Trikala, which was rendered as an advanced military base against the undisciplined residents of Pindos and Agrafa. The conquest of West Thessaly was completed in a peaceful way and without resistance, because of the heavy taxation and the oppressions, that had impoverished the free farmers. The big expansions passed to the Turks and the first Turkish properties “tsiflikia” were created in Thessaly.

In 1444 a victorious revolt of the Thessalians against the Turks was marked. The mogul of Mystras Konstantinos Palaiologos was the head of this, the last emperor of Byzantium. In the revolt the Vlachs of Pindos took part. Temporarily a Greek governor of West Thessaly with was placed in Fanari. In the spring of 1446 however, the Turkish general Toyrachan Bey marched with a numerous army against Thessaly and forced Konstantinos to abandon it to the sovereignty of Turks, which lasted until 1881.

Administrative Division

During the period of the Ottoman domination, Balkan was governed in Egialeti [=Bilaeti] of Roymeli, that was subdivided in three parts. In 1600 these approximately increased to 24 and before 1821 had been decreased to 16. The parts of Trikala, Ioannina, Preveza, Argirokastro, Mperati and Debres belonged to the left part of Bilaetioy of Roumelis. The Santzaki of Trikala was separated in 23 districts or municipalities. According to an English colonel W.Leake (Lik) (November 1809), during the time of Ali Pasa of Ioannina, the district of Trikala was separated in 8 departments [=kolia], which all included 180 villages. The safety of each department had been assigned to a captain, the “Kolitzis”.

The Tours of Kosmas of Aetolia

In the traditional folk tales of the residents of Pindos, the passage and the teaching of Kosmas of Aetolia is intense. In fact, in the 18th century Patro-kosmas visited twice the villages of Aspropotamos. On 23 February 1777 he taught in front of an aggregation of residents of many villages of Pindos: first Kotroni(Dramizi) then in Elati(Tyrna) and in Neraidichori (Beterniko). On 27 February 1778,   corresponds with the Scholar bishop Stagon Parthenios. One year later, in February 1778, he came back to Aspropotamos and preached  in the villages of Elati, Neraidochori, Pyrra, Desi, Milia, Krania, Klinobo etc, where he founded schools. From there, he went to Trikala and Larissa and then as he was going to Grevena he passed through Malakasi.

After the release

The war of 1897. In the beginnings of 1897 the government of Th. Deligiannis sought the conflict with Turkey aiming to driving the Turks out of the regions B’ of Thessaly. This war, of which the enterprises were carried out in Thessaly, was completed with the Greek Army being defeated.

In the village Theopetra of Kalampaka, the National Company was established, which undertook the organization of military bodies. On 27 and 28 of March, 3.000 armed invaded Macedonia in 3 bodies. Initially, they marked certain successes, but when two days later they were attacked by the regular Turkish Army, they dispersed and returned to the Greek territory. This energy, however, constituted the reason on behalf of Turkey for the declaration of war in the beginning of April 1897.

The most important missions took place in the regions of Larisa and Zarko. In the region of Agiofyllo in Kalabaka, the Greek troops retrieved on 12 April and the Turkish troops marched towards the direction of Agiofyllo- Kalabaka- Domokos. Then a lot of residents (women and children mainly) from the villages of Chasia and the plain, resorted to the villages of Koziaka for better safety. The crisis was terminated with the signature of the treaty of peace of Istanbul on 22 November 1897, with which Greece re-obtained Thesssaly, but the line of boarders was improved in favor of Turkey.  Then Nea Koutsoufliani (current Panagia) was built from the residents of Palias, which belonged to Turkey.

Occupation-Resistance

During the German-Italian Occupation (1941-44) the mountainous region of the prefecture of Trikala existed as one of the most important centers of Resistance and was under the control of EAM-ELAS, that had in fact its General Headquarters in the mountainous village Pertoyli of Pindos. In the same village the General Headquarters of the revolutionary organizations ELAS, EDES, EKKA and the English Mission were established.

The more important battles of insurgent teams against the troops of occupation in the region of Trikala are: the Battle of Meritsa (Oxyneias) that took place on 12 February 1943 during which the ambush of the rebels cost the Italian Army 164 dead and 184 hostages. From the Greek side, there were 7 dead and 3 wounded people. The battle of Kalabaka, on Great Thursday, 23 April 1943, ended with 70 Italians dead.

At the battle of Porta (8-9 June 1943), the forces of ELAS caused important losses to the Italians. Thanks to the action of rebel teams the regions of Chasia and Pindos were free from the presence of the troops of Occupation. However, the region of Trikala and particularly the mountainous was challenged by the retaliations of the Germans, who in October 1943 burned a lot of villages and executed a lot of Greek Patriots. The flat region of Trikala was released by the Germans on 18 October 1944 while the mountainous was a part of ”Free Greece” and was never really conquered. The head of the Military of ELAS was general Stefanos Sarafis from Trikala.