THEORETICAL ITALIAN PROVINCES IN GREECE'S AEGEAN ISLANDS/PROGETTATE PROVINCE ITALIANE NELL'EGEO

Few scholars have thoroughly analyzed the Italian occupation of the Sporades and Cyclades islands in the Second World War.
After all, Italy - with the "suffered" victory over Greece - in 1941 obtained control of most of mainland Greece (Epirus, Thessaly, Attica and Peloponnese), in addition to the Ionian islands with Corfu, Zante and Kefalonia, Cyclades, and the southern Sporades with Samos, Furni and Icaria and a territory at the eastern tip of Crete.

HISTORICAL SITUATION IN 1941-1943

The territorial division of Greece was fundamentally decided by the Germans and communicated to the Italians as a 'fait accompli' ("the Germans communicated a boundary to us, we could not but acknowledge" Mussolini himself recognized), as was the Athens settlement of the Tsolakoglu government.

Italy's plans for the annexation of various Greek territories (the Ionian Islands, the Cyclades and the Sporades to be added to the Dodecanese, the Epirus to be annexed to Albania) were postponed by the Germans themselves at the time of the final victory in the war.

The military occupation of the Greek regions, entrusted to the XI Armata, represented a heavy commitment for Italy in terms of men and resources employed, even if very uneven in terms of the armed opposition encountered: the Greek Resistance was very active in the northern regions, Epirus and Thessaly, while in the Peloponnese and in the islands it was never particularly strong, leaving to the Italian units there more police-related tasks than violent repression.
However, in spite of the hostility shown at the time of surrender in April 1941, with the passage of time the attitude of the Greek population became more benevolent towards the Italians, whose behavior in principle had little to do with the methods of violent occupation of the Germans. After all, it is enough to see a famous film about the Italian occupation of Kefalonia - "The mandolin of Captain Corelli" - to understand how the Greek populations showed themselves "benevolent" towards the Italian occupants (and vice versa).

CYCLADES AND ITALIAN SPORADES: "PROVINCE OF THE CYCLADES" AND "PROVINCE OF SAMO"
The irredentism of Fascism wanted to include in its project of enlargement of imperial Italy - going back to the maritime republics of Venice and Genoa - even the islands of the Aegean between the Dodecanese and the Ionian islands. In this way Mussolini wanted to create (after his victory in WW2, as he hoped) a historical-geographical continuity of Italian islands that from Corfu '(in front of Albania) arrived until Castellorizzo (in front of southern Anatolia).
For this purpose - after the occupation of almost all of Greece in April 1941 - proceeded to implement a forced "Italianization" of the local populations of these Greek islands together with the administrative creation of "Italian Provinces" (such as the Ionian provinces, p[us the Cyclades and Samo provinces). For Corfu 'Mussolini went back to the "Italian Corfioti", immediately detaching the Ionian islands from Greece (at least administratively), while for the Aegean islands he limited himself to wait until the end of the war in order of not going against the will of Hitler. The Cyclades islands and some of the Sporades islands were militarily occupied in the spring of 1941 and were immediately incorporated into the "Italian islands of the Aegean". Ettore Bastico had the title of Civil and Military Governor of the Italian Isles of the Aegean, just like the previous governor of the "Islands of the Dodecanese" Cesare Maria De Vecchi of Val Cismon. ETTORE BASTICO was governor from 10/12/1940 to 1/7/1941. Admiral Inigo Campioni, later shot by the Germans, succeeded him from 15/7/1941 to 11/9/1943. Consul General Igino Ugo Faralli was its last governor, from 11/9/1943 to 18/9/1943. Indeed Ettore Bastico was an artillery general. Thanks to his noble conduct, he earned the esteem and affection of the civilians and the military in the Italian Aegean islands, taking measures to improve their lives. He occupied Castellorizzo, the Cyclades, Samos and Icaria as well as the east part of Crete. He was suddenly transferred, perhaps as a reward, to the African front (Fanizza Rugerro: "De Vecchi, Bastico, Campioni, the last governors of the Aegean." Vasbonesi, Forlì, 1947). INIGO CAMPIONI followed Bastico. He tried to impose a process of "Italianization" in these islands, but with only minor results. ITALIAN CYCLADES
CYCLADES: The Cyclades were administered as a future "Italian province": the "CIVIL COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROVINCE OF CYCLADES" was established on the island of Syra (also called "Siro" in Italian). Ermopoli, the administrative capital of the Cyclades islands, was and is the capital of the island. In Siro, the Italian authorities created a police station that promoted - among other things - food aid to the civilian populations of the Cyclades: in this way the terrible famine that the Greek population in 1042 did only a few thousand victims in the Cyclades (as were relatively few in all the other Greek islands that, in Mussolini's projects, should have been annexed to Italy at the end of the "victorious" world war). Only a few minor islands suffered a great deal initially - but they were immediately rescued by the Italian government, unlike the huge disaster (with many deaths: over 300,000 between 1941 and 1944!) That occurred in the Greek mainland. If interested, read on page 144-149 the book "Famine and Death in Occupied Greece, 1941-1944", written by Violetta Hionidou
The Italian occupation began on the islands in the Aegean on May 6, 1941. The island of Siro, with the capital of the Cyclades, was occupied after only five days. The invasion force was formed by units of the "Regina" Division, which were transported by destroyers Crispi and Sella (departing from the nearby Dodecanese). The following 10 July 1941 took over the "Cuneo" Division to the "Queen" units in the southern Cyclades and Sporades garrison. An air link between Rhodes and Siro guaranteed the postal service. In Italian Cycladic schools the study of the Italian language became compulsory.
Among the civilian population there was a substantial approval of the Italian presence only in the area of ​​the capital of Siro and in the island of Tino, where many boasted distant Venetian roots and were numerous Catholics for centuries - especially in the town "Ano Syros", founded in 1200 by the Venetians. Ano Syros, the Catholic stronghold in Siro, supported the Italianization of the Cyclades even if moderately: this was assisted by the Italian authorities and did not suffer death from the famine that damaged the Greek population especially in February 1942. Many Catholic inhabitants of Ano Syros (and someone from Tino) were later imprisoned by the Greeks (Orthodox) with the charge of collaborationism in 1945. ITALIAN SPORADES SPORADES: The same happened with the southern Sporades islands occupied by the Italians. In fact the three main islands of the Italian Sporades (Samo, Icaria and Fourni) were administered with the creation of the "CIVIL COMMISSIONER FOR THE PROVINCE OF SAMO". Also in this case it was expected that at the conclusion of the war these islands were to unite to the Kingdom of Italy in the newly created "Province of Samo".
On May 9, 1941 the island of Samo, the main island of the southern Italian Sporades, was occupied by the "Regina" Division and Vathy (near the historic town of Samo) declared its administrative capital. In the following September, the "Cuneo" Division took over the "Regina". In Samo a first telegraph service was set up in September 1941. A forced attempt at Italianisation was also begun here, especially in schools.
The attempt by the wife of the political commissioner Bianco Tizianotti to organize social events in Samo and Icaria, failed miserably. The antipathy of the population was such that very few local Greeks (less than a hundred in all) were accused of collaboration after the end of the war (in 1945).
At Samos from the end of 1942 there was a reduced action of Greek partisans against the Italian troops, unlike the other Cycladic islands and Sporades where until September 1943 - when Italy surrendered to the Allies - there was no military or paramilitary activity.
In fact, at the time of the Badoglio armistice, in September 1943, on the island of Samos, there were two groups of resistants of about 300 men. These groups, which politically were of the extreme left, had been organized in October 1942. The ELAS (Greek Resistance Army) of Samos received the armament and financial help of the British service SOE, located in Asia Minor, with whom it had been in permanent contact since the end of 1942. The essential contribution of this resistance was the harassment of the Italian authorities and the main purpose was a general uprising. The plan failed because the anti-fascist committee, waiting for the maneuvers of Badoglio who took over from Mussolini, did not dare to move openly. Restless, the Italian authorities of Rhodes sent two battalions of Italian fascist 'Black Shirts' to observe the possible maneuvers of these resisters.... and all remained quiet (Nicola Tsagas: "Icaria under the Italian occupation, 1941 - 1943").

Map of the theoretical provinces of Italy in Greece's Aegean sea/Mappa delle "progettate" Province italiane in Grecia/

PROVINCIA DELLE CICLADI:

PROVINCIA DI SAMO:

OPINIONS ABOUT VITO, THE ADMIN/STEWARD OF WIKIPEDIA

There are many opinions & comments about Vito, the insane admin of Italian Wikipedia, who has also been a "Steward" of this famous multilanguage encyclopedia in the last years. What is more shocking is that, despite these opinions & comments are nearly all NEGATIVE,  Vito (called also "Vituzzu")  continuously remains "untouched" -by punishments and/or blocks- inside Wikipedia & Wikimedia. And this even if -since he has taken control of the Italian Wikipedia with a group ruled by F. Brioschi- this wiki is losing importance in comparison to the other wikipedias, mainly because of his abusive rule: the Italian Wikipedia  was fourth in 2009 (when Vituzzu appeared) after the English, German and French wikis but now -after just ten years- it is ranked nineth!!!

Don VITO Corleone, the Hollywood Godfather, who "has something" of the Wikipedia's  Vito

Indeed it seems that someone protects him inside Wikipedia.....but who and for what reasons? One of the explanations can be that he is supported by "Leftist/Marxist" groups of Wikipedia. Indeed he always shows up, after someone writes something pro-Italy in en.wikipedia that is not accepted by the leftists-marxists members of a "Yugoslavian" group of Wikipedia, erasing all he can of what it is writen: last February 13/2019 someone wrote about venetian Cattaro (a city that is called Kotor only since 1918) and suddenly he started erasing hundreds of his posts.....and the same he did in other previous circumstances..... (please read these related comments:"Indeed the Vito's submission to this group can be clearly seen when fanatical admin Joy on the English Wikipedia sent him a post ordering to "check up" (meaning: attack erasing) articles posted by user Brunodam here: Brunodam_check_please.........and TRAITOR Vituzzu quickly obeyed erasing many wiki-voices on Italy that were judged favorable to the Italians by "pro-Croatia" Joy, who a week before had made "disappear" -with his usual tricky ways- an article on Italian Cattaro (actual Kotor) that was named Venetian Cattaro: all this happened because Croatian (left & right) nationalists want to erase all evidences of Italian presence in coastal Dalmatia and in Istria/Venezia Giulia.  The servant Vituzzu even answered to his "boss" Joy as soon as possible here: User_talk:Joy#Re:AT YOUR ORDERS! What a shame this disgusting coward submission of TRAITOR Vito!")……….

Vituzzu is a southern Italian young man, from Calabria's Nicotera region and "small" in stature and appearance: his biggest ability is to show a friendly smile & attitude to his friends (and -for convenience- to his bosses like Brioschi, the "fat queen" of Italian Wikipedia) but at the same time to hide a sharp knife behind his shoulders in order to hit -without any pity and often with some sadism- whoever he doesn't like and/or is an obstacle to him and his ambitions. It is noteworthy to pinpoint that these are the same characteristics of the famous Mafia-boss Al Capone, when he was young. The researcher P. Famian wrote that "Vituzzu is like a cancer growing inside Wikipedia/Wikimedia, a tumor that has already taken full control of Italian Wikipedia and now is starting to 'invade' all the Wikis as a Steward".Indeed to understand the "bad to the bones" admin Vituzzu, please read his "OUTING MY EVILNESS" at  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Vituzzu&diff=662072374&oldid=596379010 . And when he erases all he can (even if helpful to Wikipedia & sometimes awarded by serious wikipedians -like happened last February 13, 2019), Vituzzu seems to lose control of his mind like in a sharks' feeding frenzy (here can be seen how he erases even normal grammar corrections:  https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prostitution_in_Eritrea&diff=883158638&oldid=878247935 !) May be he needs psychological therapy, as some of his many critics (there was also a doctor!) have suggested.....if interested, read the following opinions & comments.

Here it is a list of the most interesting opinions & comments about this Vito:

1) A professor of the University LUIC C. Cattaneo: "VITUZZU NEEDS PSYCHIATRIC THERAPY!!!"

Last but not least, we must remember that a lot of persons are complaining about the psychological problems of Vituzzu (similar to those of many mafia bosses). From calling him a "psychopathic mind" to requesting "psychiatric treatment" for his mad behavior, a lot of people have doubts about his brain normality. May be the most precise & indicative is the following comment done by the "Universita' LUIC Carlo Cattaneo": Unequivocally it is clearly demonstrated that Vituzzu is a real case of human person suffering from pathological egocentrism and narcissistic personality disorder. It is needed urgent psychiatric therapy for his psychosis.

Vituzzu indeed has a psychosis that makes him to act as a damaging psychopath inside Wikipedia: he is a not too much clever young man who is excessively ambitious and a bit sick of sadism. He likes to rule the Italian Wikipedia like a little red "ducetto" (dictator), but he has his limits.

Limits that have been identified with accuracy by the (English Wikipedia) expert Abd when he wrote that "Vituzzu is a loose cannon, and he, with the collaboration of a few others, has been causing massive global activity damaging the projects (of Wikipedia),.......his error rate is enormous".

Furthermore, Vituzzu seems to enjoy to "ban" people on Wikipedia with a sadism that is probably related to a kind of psychological vengeance because he is not working full time (he lives in Calabria, the poorest region of Italy). Additionally he seems to have relatives that are linked to the 'Ndrangheta, a dangerous mafia of Calabria, and he is "bad to the bones" (as a person, who knows him personally, wrote). But -worst of all- he is connected to extreme leftist organizations (like the national-communists of Croatian Wikipedia) and he is shamefully at their service: someone has defined him as "a TRAITOR of his own  Italian people" always ready to erase and attack all that can show that the Italians are one of the best & important people in the world.

In a few words: VITUZZU IS DAMAGING WIKIPEDIA! HE DOESN'T CARE OF THIS WONDERFUL ENCYCLOPEDIA: HE ALWAYS USES HIS POWER INSIDE WIKIPEDIA  FOR HIS 'PERSONAL VENDETTA' AGAINST THOSE WIKIPEDIANS HE DOESN'T LIKE. THAT'S WHY HE ERASES MANY WELL WRITTEN ARTICLES (EVEN AWARDED WITH WIKI BARNSTARS!!!), LIKE HE DID WITH THOSE DONE BY USER ONOMATICUS ( http://manmer2.blogspot.com/2015/08/onomaticus-case-of-lack-of-justice.html ) & MANY OTHERS.

2) BLOCKED USERS & OTHERS:

1. 2.1
   bunnyMay 6, 2016 at 10:05 AM

   Between the italian admins of wiki, expecially Vituzzu is one of the worst person. He keeps blocking people and changes on wiki just for personal revenge. All changes I did on wiki were with source and respecting wiki rules, but he will block you the same. Wikipedia is not about democracy, it gives power to single peoples without control.

2.2 Engineer Andrea

Vituzzu has blocked a group of persons with his tricky tactics and his behavior is "contrary to policy", as stated by the honest Wikipedia expert Abd.
Many others have done similar complaints against this mafioso admin....so why he "keeps going and going and going" inside Italian Wikipedia? The answer can be found in the comment done on Wikiperle website: "Blackcat (an admin cousin of Frieda Brioschi, the "fat queen of Italian Wikimedia") and his friends are those who support the web helping Vituzzu in the italian wikipedia; and they work together in the other areas of Wiki on commission. If you pay attention the "Cricca"(Wikimafia) of Vituzzu has jobs everywhere: Blackcat & Jaquen in Commons, Sannita in Wikidata, M7 in Wikiquote, so when a favour/help is needed it is sufficient to do an e-mail message and the evidences disappear. And nobody dares to denounce because afraid to be banned.....

2.3 Ex-admin (of en.wikipedia) Voice of Clam: Please think before mass reverting.

Could I ask you  (Vituzzu) to slow down and look at the reverts you're carrying out before you make them? In several cases I've seen, you seem to be making the encylopedia worse by removing good edits. From Wikipedia:Blocking policy#Evasion and enforcement: "This does not mean that edits must be reverted just because they were made by a blocked editor...". Removing refs, etc. just because they were added by a banned user, does not help anything. Thanks. O Still Small Voice of Clam 21:10, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

2.4 Giovanni Noferi on "BlastingNews" website  wrote that "The worst admin is Vituzzu, who is responsible of the erase of some articles without notification to the Wikipedia community and even of the creation of cheated votes...he does the same in other wikis, like the English wiki where he erases the articles he does not like

2.5 Perle Complottiste website. Here it is a group of excerpts translated from the Wikiperle article "il caso vituzzu" in Italian:

A) Vituzzu is an emblematic figure of Wikipedia for several reasons and is well suited to clarify the concepts of "Cricca" and "Wikimafia" that recur often in our Wikiperle with related comments.We have written many times that we use those two terms to simplify a reality much more complex and varied. To tell the truth on (Italian) Wikipedia there is not a real "cricca" (in English: "gang") firmly and rigidly organized. There are, rather, relations of friendship and mutual interest, exchange of favors and defenses of the (admin) role that too often end up stepping on the same pillars on which Wikipedia is based and so always end up crushing vulnerable customers.....(because of these relations) Vituzzu rushed like a train to defend the articles of his friend Montesacro (an admin of Italian Wikipedia now banned) and later tried to put on the wiki "black list" the blogs 11-settembre  &  Crono911 not appreciated by Montesacro (but Vito was later forced to admit his mistake).

B) The determined defense that Vituzzu did for Montesacro was clearly evident even in the voting reconfirmation ( votazioni di riconferma ) of the latter. In the reconfirmation of December 2011, Vituzzu even accused those who expressed a vote against Montesacro to obey orders from somebody (see the comment: vedi il commento al voto di Drakkar). In that of December 2010 Vituzzu attacked one by one the users who voted against the reappointment ( gli utenti che votavano contro la riconferma ).

C)  Vituzzu is the administrator most named in the critics & reports Wikiperle receives from Wikipedians, who (even) keep an eye on the "chat sessions" on the channel of Wikipedia where Vituzzu often is showing the (uncivil) authoritarianism and arrogance with which he relates with the Italian wiki community.

 D) Vituzzu used to defend to the death his friends even when they commit abuses and harrassments, and this is certainly not good for Wikipedia. In addition, the "enemies" of his friends automatically become his enemies and Vituzzu attacks them deliberately and with impunity in order to trigger their reactions that can lead to a block (ban). Vituzzu has little consideration of consensus and believe that his opinion must prevail over those of all the others; he does not admit his mistakes and he pays attention to never apologize. Vituzzu is arrogant with newcomers and despises the opinions expressed by new-users and unregistered users (IPs), as if only the old registered wiki-users had a right to express themselves (but even then he does not renounce to his (uncivil) attacks, if the views expressed are not to his liking).
  
E) Vituzzu is one of those who prefer to hit those who have less opportunity to defend themselves, and he likes to do it quietly, in the shadows and hitting from the back the shoulders, hoping that the victim does not notice anyone ...(even from "Perle Complottiste")

3) A professor of the University "Statale di Bologna": translation from Italian of some of his comments & writings.

A- The admin Vituzzu since a few years ago has obtained to be a real dictator of the Italian Wikipedia, with his own group of associates and supporters that we call "Wikimafia" (in "L'ora di Vigevanese" of  January 2013).
B- Many admins work like they were small emperors and policemen without pity, ready to punish whoever doesn't bend to them and to help whoever is fully faithful  to their POVs. One of the worst of them is Vituzzu, who is experienced and active, but he is a bully with sly and arrogance.(in "Wikipedia come la Gestapo" of December 2013).
C-Vituzzu is the unlucky guy who is without a real good life to show proudly, and so he is self-giving importance socially trying to be a boss in control of en.wiki. But on the contrary what he gets is similar to the little bully in high school who rules on the elementary kids, but when dealing with those in college is ridiculed as worth "nothing"...and meanwhile cannot stop the laughs from everybody behind him. Exactly what happened to him at his school. PS: someone has understood who is this Vituzzu? Is he a problematic kid/teenager or a fortysomething without social life? (in "Vituzzu contro il prof. Drago" of July 2015).
D- These idiots (like Vituzzu) have the guts to feel offended if someone accuses them to be worst than the Gestapo! This is the way Wikipedia works, the free and public encyclopedia...until you don't bother one of these (Mafiosi) who got authority thanks to their dirty methods and is supported by this mafia group! And you cannot defend yourself because these guys are at the same time judges (they ban you), prosecutors (they find all excuses) and one-side defenders (because they help each other in order to promote their consensus inside the (Wikipedia) system and don't care about other users' reasons and rights (in "Wikipedia:mai criticare la famiglia" of  May 2013).

E- Vituzzu has cowardly cheated creating a software BOT that should have put the one million article in the Italian wikipedia, while he was quietly sleeping in his bed...in other words, Vituzzu has cheated in order to be historically remembered as the one who wrote the one million article of Italian Wikipedia. It is a bit like the athlete who uses a drug to win a race competition. This fact explains in great detail which kind of user/admin is Vituzzu (in "Wikipedia:la milionesima bufala" of January 2013).

4) Vincenzo Rodota' on Wikiveliero website ( December 27, 2018): I can say that this story about this Vituzzu is scandalous and serious, not only because this phantom Mr Vituzzu uses aggressive, violent, boring, truculent methods, but also because it impoverishes Wikipedia. This admin/steward is a CRIMINAL BANDIT that should be banned from any civil consortium, a villain who should be spotted, tried and convicted, an insolent person who has no qualms  & who does not like civil tones, common sense and parsimony, an imbecile of the first order who loves offending those seeking to improve Wikipedia. If he really exists,  he is to be investigated, to have lightened his innumerable abuses up to surface, and to be subject to exemplary punishment by justice for all the times he has defamed authors of values, moral exponents, and hit serious people who love the normal interviews
, culture, reasons.


5) B.D. In the last years -even if "unjustly banned"- I have written more than 130000 posts in Wikipedia and I have never created damage to this nice encyclopedia. Years ago I was blocked forever by an Italian admin only because I "hinted" to the need to get help from an attorney, because offended by the false accusations of using 3 different accounts together. That's all my '"crime" …..(furthermore, nobody has ever warned me that I was going to have this infinite ban for just hinting about legal threats!)....and there it is no possibility of "redemption" in the Italian Wikipedia, that is ruled by admins like Vituzzu (who is receiving many critics: please read http://www.wikiveliero.org/ in Italian or http://manmer2.blogspot.com/ in English; of course he has blocked both websites inside wikimedia). This Vituzzu never, never, never allows me to defend what I write: he -abusing the power of his stewardship- is always erasing some of my posts (like he did yesterday (02/13/2019), erasing one fourth of what I wrote in the last 5/6 months) and offends me writing that I use & do "crappy blogs as sources, copyvios on a large scale but, above all, a grotesque ultra-nationalist POV which causes him to add pure hoaxes. Persistent harassment and more than ten years of weird legal threats". Of course he never allows me to demonstrate that all these accusations are shameful LIES: I am always ready to bring references well documented about what I write, but he -after erasing- quickly blocks all my tentatives of giving explanations! I am a graduate "summa cum laude" from an Italian university (that has published some of my researches & essays) and I have a MBA from a USA university: he is the ONLY person who attacks continuously me and what I write, with an attitude that looks like a kind of sick "sadism".

6) Dr Alberto Merghi Tomasini: VITO IS A CONTROVERSIAL & INSANE PERSON, WHO NEEDS THERAPY

Undoubtedly, the most controversial figure turns out to be an it.wikipedia administrator who comes with the pseudonym of 'Vituzzu'. He, among other things, was the protagonist of the cancellation of a series of voices, in some cases without asking the opinion of the community, in others organizing false votes. Basically, the modus operandi of this "insane" administrator seems to be the following: 'If a page I do not like because the people or things mentioned in it are not nice to me, I delete it'. As if this were not enough, 'Vituzzu' is known to also go on encyclopedias in other languages ​​(in particular the English one, generally considered much more complete than the one in Italian), to get rid of the unwanted foreign pages. All this behavior shows a need for therapy at least psychological, in my professional opinion. If the criticism proved to be true, it would not be surprising that the growing and incessant decline of users and contributions that the Italian Wikipedia has suffered in recent years is due mainly to this Vituzzu. This would not have to do with the controversial reliability of some items, nor with the increase in the use of mobile devices. In reality, many users now ask themselves: is Wikipedia really a free encyclopedia? And of course, the behavior of this Vituzzu is insane?