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Eastern city wall of Thessalonica

The siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430) was a successful campaign to capture the city by the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad II. It remained in Ottoman hands until 1912, when it became part of the Kingdom of Greece. Thessalonica had already been under Ottoman control from 1387 to 1403 before returning to Byzantine rule in the aftermath of the Battle of Ankara. In 1422 Murad attacked the city. Its ruler, Andronikos Palaiologos, was unable to provide manpower or resources for the city's defense, and handed it over to the Republic of Venice in September 1423. The Ottomans blockaded the city and attacked it by land. The blockade reduced the inhabitants to near starvation, and many fled the city. In 1429 Venice declared war on the Ottomans, and on 29 March 1430 Murad's forces took the city. The siege and the subsequent sack reduced the city to a shadow of its former self, from perhaps as many as 40,000 inhabitants to around 2,000. ( Full article...)

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