connections at court to secure his reappointment as voivode, with the support this time of the powerful Athenian Turk Makfi, the Vlastos family, and of the Metropolitan Bartholomew, who hoped to use Haseki's influence with the Sultan to be elected Patriarch of Constantinople. On his return, he forced the Athenians to recompense him for the financial losses incurred due to his temporary removal, which he put at 60,000 piastres. 1778 saw devastating raids by Turco-Albanian warbands into Attica, which served to strengthen Haseki's position. Albanians had been brought in by the Porte to suppress the Orlov Revolt in the Morea in 1770, and remained a menace to the area for many years thereafter: taking advantage of the weakness of the Ottoman administration, many Albanians moved south in search of plunder or employment as a kind of condottieri. Before Haseki's arrival, the Albanian Yiaholiouri had held the post of meydanbashi, one of the heads of security in Athens, at the head of some 50 to 80 men, of whom about two thirds were themselves Albanians. Haseki dismissed him, whereupon Yiaholiouri returned to his homeland, where according to Skouzes he recruited some 750 men to support his return to Attica. Yiaholiouri was joined by more Albanians and the poor and dispossessed as he marched south; his men sacked Thebes on their way. Once they arrived at Kapandriti near Athens, the Albanians sent emissaries to the Athenians, threatening to burn the city unless they received provisions and an official document hiring them as guards of the city. Haseki gathered the Athenians, both Turks and Greeks, in council, and resolved to meet the Albanians in the field, as the city was unprotected by wall. In a battle that took place near Halandri, the Athenians defeated the Albanians and drove them back to Kifissia, killing about a fourth of them in the process. To secure the city against another attack, he immediately began construction of a new city wall, the "Wall of Haseki". Work had not progressed far when a second and far larger force of 6,000 Albanians approached, under a certain Maksut, on their way to the Morea. The Turks then abandoned the city and found refuge in the Acropolis of Athens, while Haseki allowed the Greeks to move to Salamis Island for safety. There they remained for 13 days, until the Albanians departed, after receiving a substantial sum as a bribe. Construction on