The next instalment of the 2026 Greek History and Culture Seminars of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) will feature historian Dr Dilek Özkan Pantzis, who will present an online lecture examining Ottoman military strategy in the Peloponnese during the 18th century.
Titled Fortress-Towns and Frontier Dynamics: Ottoman Military Strategy in the Peloponnese (18th Century), the seminar will explore how fortress-towns functioned as centres of military organisation, administration and imperial control following the Ottoman reconquest of the Morea in 1715.
Rather than viewing fortresses solely as defensive structures, Dr Pantzis argues they played a crucial role in maintaining Ottoman authority through repair works, garrisoning, provisioning, labour mobilisation and the management of surrounding rural populations.
The presentation will focus on key fortress-towns including Navarino, Nafplio, Methoni, Korinth, Koroni and Patras, highlighting how these sites adapted to changing military, political and local conditions across the region.
Dr Pantzis is a historian of the Ottoman Empire specialising in borderlands, fortresses, and the political and environmental history of the Eastern Mediterranean. She completed her PhD at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where her dissertation examined the first Ottoman-Greek borderlands in Thessaly.
She recently completed a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship at The Cyprus Institute, researching Ottoman maritime borders and fortresses in the Eastern Mediterranean.
She currently teaches Modern Greek History as a contract lecturer in the Department of Primary Education at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Event Details
- Date: Thursday, 25 June 2026
- Time: 7pm
- Speaker: Dr Dilek Özkan Pantzis
- Topic: Fortress-Towns and Frontier Dynamics: Ottoman Military Strategy in the Peloponnese (18th Century)
- Platform: Online via Facebook and YouTube
- Language: English
