Omer Vrioni

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Omer Vrioni (also Omar Vrioni) was a leading Ottoman figure in the Greek War of Independence.

Omer Vrioni was actually Albanian but, when Ali Pasha revolted against the Porte, he chose the Sultan's side rather than that of his own countryman and ruler.

After the fall and execution of Ali Pasha, Omer Vrioni was sent to suppress the Greek Revolution which had broken out on March 25, 1821. On April 24, 1821, he defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Alamana and had their commander, Athanasios Diakos, impaled and roasted alive. Vrioni's advance was temporarily halted by Odysseus Androutsos who, with a handful of men, inflicted heavy casualties upon him at the Battle of the inn of Gravia on May 8, 1821.

Omer Vrioni along with Kutahye, the Turkish commander of Central Greece, led the Ottoman army in the unsuccessful First siege of Mesolonghi in 1822.

The two commanders were largely antagonistic and, in 1824, Omer Vrioni was recalled by the Porte and assigned a command in Macedonia.