Michael Sionidis

Michael Sionidis (Μιχαήλ Σιωνίδης or Μιχάλης Σιωνίδης) was a prominent Greek leader in the Macedonian Struggle.

He was born in the village of Grciste, Ottoman Empire (nowadays in Bogdanci, Republic of Macedonia) in 1870. At the outbreak of the Macedonian Struggle in 1904, he organized a troop against the pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization komitadjis, acting in an area covering Grciste, Gevgelija and Doirani. In the autumn of 1904, Bulgarian komitadjis came to Grciste (which means "village of the Greeks") and killed many Greek inhabitants, including the teacher Chatzigeorgiou, who was a cousin of Captain Michalis, teacher Konstantinos Sionidis, his daughter, and another relative, Leonidas Sionidis. When captain Michalis returned, he organized a troop and went to the village of Mervintsa, where the komitadjis were hiding. In the subsequent battle, he was wounded and went to Gevgelija to recuperate (January 1905).

After the First Balkan War, Grčište came under Serbian control, and Sionidis moved to the village Matsikovo (modern Evzoni), on the then Greco-Serbian border. During the Balkan Wars, King Constantine I of Greece established his headquarters in his house. Sionidis participated in the Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas, where he was injured. Sionidis also participated in the Battle of Skra-di-Legen during World War I, and worked as a secret agent of Third Army Corps behind enemy lines, in the area of Strumica.

Following the end of World War I, Sionidis, as president of Matsikovo community, retrieved the remains of nine evzones who had been killed by the Bulgarians during the Second Balkan War, and buried them in his village. In 1927, the Renaming Committee renamed Matsikovo as Evzoni. Michael Sionidis died in 1935.

For his services, he was awarded the Golden Cross of Valour, Greece's highest bravery award, with the War Cross, and with the Commemorative Medal of the Macedonian Struggle.