In 1913 on Sunday 23 February the Ottoman commander Celio Muliazimi surrendered the keys to the city of Parga to Lieutenant Angelos Fetsis Greek commander of the Acheron battalion at the time.
Two days after the liberation of Ioannina during the Second Balkan War, Parga was returned to the motherland freed from the suffering caused by the Ottomans and the treachery of British politics. We honor that great day every year on 23 February. The day of Parga’s liberation. Parga – where myth, history and natural beauty meet to excite all senses. Parga which was a bright beacon of hope for the national resurrection of the Greeks enslaved by the Ottomans. Parga – the birthplace of some 1821 revolutionaries such as Konstantinos Kanaris and Ioannis Dimoulitsas Patatoukos. Parga – the home of the benefactors who worked tirelessly during the Turkish occupation and later on such as Vasilios Vasilas, Athanasios Deskas, Georgios Themelis, Spyridon Livadas and so many others. Parga gave us some important scholars and intellectuals like Thomas Dimoulitsas, Nikolaos Maniakis, Konstantinos Mavroyiannis, Panagiotis Aravantinos and Andreas Idromenos, who was the first teacher of the Greek language in the first public Greek school founded in Corfu in 1803.
Parga whose history was praised, during the return of its sacred relics in 1930, by the then Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos with the phrase “Parga entered into legend and the Greek pantheon, as one of the most brilliant symbols of the Greeks”. Parga which the Greek Parliament honored with a trophy, inscribed with the phrase “From the Hellenic Parliament to the sold, now free Parga”. So every 23 February is a Day of Remembrance and Honor for Parga.