Goudi military revolution of 1909 {{Quote box In May 1909, a number of officers in the Greek army emulating the
Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress, sought to reform their country's national government and reorganize the army, thus creating the
Military League. The League, in August 1909, camped in the Athenian suburb of
Goudi with their supporters, forcing the government of
Dimitrios Rallis to resign, and a new one was formed with
Kiriakoulis Mavromichalis. An inaugurating period of direct military pressure upon the Chamber followed, but initial public support for the League quickly evaporated when it became apparent that the officers did not know how to implement their demands. The political dead-end remained until the League invited Venizelos from Crete to undertake the leadership. Venizelos went to Athens, and after consulting with the
Military League and with representatives of the political world, he proposed a new government and
Parliament's reformation. His proposals were considered by the King and the Greek politicians dangerous for the political establishment. However, King George I, fearing an escalation of the crisis, convened a council with political leaders and recommended they accept Venizelos' proposals. After many postponements, the King agreed to assign
Stephanos Dragoumis (Venizelos' indication) to form a new government that would lead the country to elections once the League was disbanded. In the elections of 8 August 1910, almost half the seats in the parliament were won by Independents, who were newcomers to the Greek political scene. Venizelos, despite doubts as to the validity of his Greek citizenship and without having campaigned in person, finished at the top of the electoral list in
Attica. He was immediately recognized as the leader of the independents, and thus, he founded the political party,
Komma Fileleftheron (Liberal Party). Soon after his election, he decided to call for new elections in the hope of winning an
absolute majority. The old parties boycotted the new election in protest and on 11 December 1910, Venizelos' party
won 307 seats out of 362, with most of the elected citizens being new in the political scene. Venizelos formed a government and started to reorganize the economic, political, and national affairs of the country.
Reforms in 1910–1914 and
National Statistical Service, various open source bulletins and reports. Venizelos tried to advance his reform program in the realms of political and social ideologies, education, and literature by adopting practically viable compromises between often conflicting tendencies. In education, for example, the dynamic current in favor of the use of the popular spoken language,
dimotiki, provoked conservative reactions, which led to the constitutionally embedded decision (Article 107) in favor of a formal "purified" language,
katharevousa, which looked back to classical precedents. On 20 May 1911, a revision of the Constitution was completed, which focused on strengthening individual freedoms, introducing measures to facilitate the legislative work of the Parliament, establishing obligatory
elementary education, the legal right for compulsory
expropriation, ensuring permanent appointment for civil servants, the right to invite foreign personnel to undertake the reorganization of the administration and the armed forces, the re-establishment of the State Council and the simplification of the procedures for the reform of the Constitution. The aim of the reform program was to consolidate public security and the rule of law as well as to develop and increase the wealth-producing potential of the country. In this context, the long-planned "eighth" Ministry, the
Ministry of National Economy, assumed a leading role. This Ministry, from the time of its creation at the beginning of 1911, was headed by
Emmanuel Benakis, a wealthy Greek merchant from
Egypt and friend of Venizelos. Between 1911 and 1912 a number of laws aiming to initiate
labor legislation in Greece were promulgated. Specific measures were enacted that prohibited child labor and night-shift work for women, regulated the hours of the working week and the Sunday holiday, and allowed for labor organizations. Venizelos also took measures for the improvement of management, justice, and security and for the settlement of the landless peasants of Thessaly.
Balkan Wars Background . At the time, there were diplomatic contacts with the
Ottoman Empire to initiate reforms in Macedonia and in
Thrace, which at the time were under the control of the Ottoman Empire, for improving the living conditions of the Christian populations. Failure of such reforms would leave a single option to remove the Ottoman Empire from the
Balkans, an idea that most Balkan countries shared. This scenario appeared realistic to Venizelos because the Ottoman Empire was under a
constitutional transition, and its administrative mechanism was disorganized and weakened. There was also no fleet capable of transporting forces from
Asia Minor to Europe, while in contrast, the Greek fleet was dominating the
Aegean Sea. Venizelos did not want to initiate any immediate major movements in the Balkans, until the Greek army and navy were reorganized (an effort that had begun from the last government of
Georgios Theotokis) and the Greek economy was revitalized. In light of this, Venizelos proposed to Ottoman Empire to recognize the Cretans the right to send deputies to the Greek Parliament, as a solution for closing the
Cretan Question. However, the
Young Turks (feeling confident after the
Greco-Turkish war in 1897) threatened that they would make a military walk to Athens, if the Greeks insisted on such claims.
Balkan League in 1913. Venizelos, seeing no improvements after his approach with the Turks on the
Cretan Question and at the same time not wanting to see Greece remain inactive as in the
Russo-Turkish War in 1877 (where Greece's neutrality left the country out of the peace talks), he decided that the only way to settle the disputes with Ottoman Empire, was to join the other Balkan countries,
Serbia,
Bulgaria and
Montenegro, in an alliance known as the
Balkan League.
Crown Prince Constantine was sent to represent Greece to a royal feast in
Sofia, and in 1911 Bulgarian students were invited to Athens. These events had a positive impact and on 30 May 1912 Greece and the
Kingdom of Bulgaria signed a treaty that ensured mutual support in case of a Turkish attack on either country. Negotiations with Serbia, which Venizelos had initiated to achieve a similar agreement, were concluded in early 1913, before that there were only oral agreements. Montenegro opened hostilities by declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on 8 October 1912. On 17 October 1912, Greece along with her Balkan allies, declared war on the Ottoman Empire, thus joining the
First Balkan War. On 1 October, in a regular session of the Parliament Venizelos announced the declaration of war to the Ottomans and accepting the Cretan deputies, thus closing the
Cretan Question, with the declaration of the union of Crete with Greece. The Greek population received these developments very enthusiastically.
First Balkan War – The first conflict with Prince Constantine The outbreak of the First Balkan War caused Venizelos a great deal of trouble in his relations with Crown Prince Constantine. Part of the problems can be attributed to the complexity of the official relations between the two men. Although Constantine was a Prince and the future King, he also held the title of army commander, thus remaining under the direct order of the Ministry of Military Affairs, and subsequently under Venizelos. But his father, King George, in accordance with the constitutional conditions of the time, had been the undisputed leader of the country. Thus in practical terms, Venizelos' authority over his commander of the army was diminished due to the obvious relation between the Crown Prince and the King. In these conditions, the army started a victorious march to Macedonia under the command of Constantine. Soon, the first disagreement between Venizelos and Constantine emerged, and it concerned the aims of the army's operations. The Crown Prince insisted on the clear military aims of the war: to defeat the opposed Ottoman army as a necessary condition for any occupation, wherever the opponent army was or was going, and the main part of the Ottoman army soon started retreating to the north towards
Monastir. Venizelos was more realistic and insisted on the political aims of the war: to liberate as many geographical areas and cities as fast as possible, particularly Macedonia and Thessaloniki; thus heading east. The debate became evident after the victory of the Greek army at
Sarantaporo, when the future direction of the armies' march was to be decided. Venizelos intervened and insisted that
Thessaloniki, as a major city and
strategic port in the surrounding area, should be taken at all costs and thus a turn to the east was necessary. In accordance to his views, Venizelos sent the following telegraph to the General Staff: and tried to keep frequent communication with the key figure, the King, in order to prevent the Crown Prince from marching north. Subsequently, although the Greek army won the
Battle of Giannitsa situated 40 km west of Salonika, Constantine's hesitation in capturing the city after a week had passed, led into an open confrontation with Venizelos. Venizelos, having accurate information from the Greek embassy in Sofia about the movement of the Bulgarian army towards the city, sent a telegram to Constantine in a strict tone, holding him responsible for the possible loss of Thessaloniki. The tone in Venizelos' telegram and that in the answer from Constantine that followed to announce the final agreement with the Turks, is widely considered as the start of the conflict between the two men that would lead Greece into the National Schism during World War I. Finally, on 26 October 1912, the Greek army entered Thessaloniki, shortly ahead of the
Bulgarians. But soon a new reason of friction emerged due to Venizelos' concern about Constantine's acceptance of the Bulgarian request to enter the city. A small Bulgarian unit, which soon became a full division, moved into the city and immediately started an attempt to establish a condominium in spite of initial assurances to the contrary, showing no intentions to leave. After Venizelos' protest, Constantine asked him to take responsibility (as a prime minister) by ordering him to force them out, but that was hardly an option since that would certainly lead to confrontation with the Bulgarians. To Venizelos' view, since Constantine allowed the Bulgarians to enter the city, he now passed the responsibility of a possible conflict with them to him, in an attempt to deny his initial fault. To Constantine, it was an attempt by Venizelos to get involved in clearly military issues. Most historians agree that Constantine failed to see the political dimensions of his decisions. As a consequence, both incidents increased mutual misunderstanding shortly before Constantine's accession to the throne. Once the campaign in Macedonia was completed, a large part of the Greek army under the Crown Prince was redeployed to
Epirus, and in the
Battle of Bizani, the Ottoman positions were overcome and
Ioannina taken on 22 February 1913. Meanwhile, the Greek navy rapidly occupied the Aegean islands, which were still under Ottoman rule. After two victories, the Greek fleet established naval supremacy over the
Aegean, preventing the Turks from bringing reinforcements to the Balkans. On 20 November, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria signed a truce treaty with Turkey. It followed a conference in London, in which Greece took part, although the Greek army still continued its operations in the Epirus front. The conference led to the
Treaty of London between the Balkan countries and Turkey. These two conferences gave the first indications of Venizelos' diplomatic efficiency and realism. During the negotiations and facing the dangers of Bulgarian maximalism, Venizelos succeeded in establishing close relations with the Serbs. A Serbian-Greek military protocol was signed on 1 June 1913, ensuring mutual protection in case of a Bulgarian attack.
Second Balkan War Despite all this, the Bulgarians still wanted to become a hegemonic power in the Balkans and made excessive claims to this end, while Serbia asked for more territory than what was initially agreed with the Bulgarians. Serbia was asking for a revision of the original treaty since it had already lost north Albania due to the Great Powers' decision to establish the state of Albania in an area that had been recognized as a Serbian territory of expansion under the prewar Serbo-Bulgarian treaty. Bulgarians also laid claims on Thessaloniki and most of Macedonia. In the conference of London, Venizelos rebuffed these claims, citing the fact that it had been occupied by the Greek army, and that Bulgaria had denied any definite settlement of territorial claims during the pre-war discussions, as it had done with Serbia. The rupture between the allies, due to the Bulgarian claims, was inevitable, and Bulgaria found herself standing against Greece and Serbia. On 19 May 1913,
a pact of alliance was signed in Thessaloniki between Greece and Serbia. On 19 June, the Second Balkan War began with a surprise Bulgarian assault against Serbian and Greek positions. Constantine, now King after
his father's assassination in March, neutralized the Bulgarian forces in Thessaloniki and pushed the Bulgarian army further back with a series of hard-fought victories. Bulgaria was overwhelmed by the Greek and Serbian armies, while in the north
Romania interfered against Bulgaria and the
Romanian army was marching towards Sofia; Ottomans also took advantage of the situation and retook most of the territory taken by Bulgaria. The Bulgarians asked for a truce. Venizelos went to
Hadji-Beylik, where the Greek headquarters were, to confer with Constantine on the Greek territorial claims in the peace conference. Then he went to
Bucharest, where a peace conference was assembled. On 28 June 1913 a
peace treaty was signed with Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania on one side and Bulgaria on the other. Thus, after two successful wars, Greece had doubled its territory by gaining most of
Macedonia,
Epirus, Crete and the rest of the
Aegean Islands, although the status of the latter remained as yet undetermined and a cause of tension with the Ottomans.
World War I and Greece Dispute over Greece's role in World War I With the outbreak of World War I and the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia, a major issue started regarding the participation of Greece and Bulgaria in the war. Greece had an active treaty with Serbia, which was the treaty activated in the 1913 Bulgarian attack that caused the Second Balkan War. That treaty was envisaged in a purely Balkan context and was thus invalid against
Austria-Hungary, as was supported by Constantine and his advisors. The situation changed when the Allies, in an attempt to help Serbia, offered Bulgaria the
Monastir–
Ochrid area of Serbia and the Greek Eastern Macedonia (the
Kavala and
Drama areas) if she joined the Entente. Venizelos, having received assurances over Asia Minor if the Greeks participated in the alliance, agreed to cede the area to Bulgaria. But Constantine's anti-Bulgarism made such a transaction impossible. Constantine refused to go to war under such conditions, and the men parted. As a consequence, Bulgaria joined the
Central Powers and invaded Serbia, an event that led to Serbia's final collapse. Greece remained neutral. Venizelos supported an alliance with the
Entente, not only believing that Britain and France would win but also that it was the only choice for Greece because the combination of the strong Anglo-French naval control over the Mediterranean and the geographical distribution of the Greek population to the coast, could have ill effects in the case of a naval blockade, as he characteristically remarked: On the other hand, Constantine favored the
Central Powers and wanted Greece to remain neutral. He was influenced both by his belief in the military superiority of
Germany and also by his German wife,
Queen Sophia, and his pro-German court. He therefore strove to secure a neutrality, which would be favorable to Germany and
Austria. In 1915,
Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) suggested that Greece take action in
Dardanelles on behalf of the allies. Venizelos saw this as an opportunity to bring the country on the side of the Entente in the conflict. However, the King and the
Hellenic Army General Staff disagreed and Venizelos submitted his resignation on 21 February 1915. Venizelos' party won the elections and formed a new government.
National Schism , Venizelos, and General
Panagiotis Danglis. Even though Venizelos promised to remain neutral, after the elections of 1915, he said that Bulgaria's attack on Serbia, with which Greece had a treaty of alliance, obliged him to abandon that policy. A small-scale mobilization of the Greek army took place. The dispute between Venizelos and the King reached its height shortly after that, and the King invoked a
Greek constitutional provision that gave the monarch the right to dismiss a government unilaterally. Meanwhile, using the excuse of saving Serbia, in October 1915, the Entente disembarked an army in Thessaloniki, after invitation by Venizelos. Prime Minister Venizelos's action enraged Constantine. The dispute continued between the two men, and in December 1915, King Constantine forced Venizelos to resign for a second time and dissolved the Liberal-dominated parliament, calling for
new elections. Venizelos left Athens and moved back to Crete. Venizelos did not take part in the elections, as he considered the dissolution of Parliament unconstitutional. On 26 May 1916 the
Fort Rupel (a significant military fort in Macedonia) was unconditionally surrendered by the royalist government to Germano-Bulgarian forces. This produced a deplorable impression. The Allies feared a possible secret alliance between the royalist government and the Central Powers, placing their armies in grave danger in Macedonia. On the other hand, the surrender of Fort Rupel for Venizelos and his supporters meant the beginning of the destruction of Greek Macedonia. Despite German assurances that the integrity of the Kingdom of Greece would be respected, they were unable to restrain the Bulgarian forces, which had started dislocating the Greek population, and by 4 September
Kavala was occupied. On 16 August 1916, during a rally in Athens, and with the support of the allied army that had landed in Thessaloniki under the command of General
Maurice Sarrail, Venizelos publicly announced his total disagreement with the Crown's policies. The effect of this was to further polarize the population between the
royalists (also known as
anti-Venezelists), who supported the crown, and
Venizelists, who supported Venizelos. On 30 August 1916, Venizelist army officers organized a military coup in Thessaloniki, and proclaimed the "
Provisional Government of National Defence". Venizelos, along with Admiral
Pavlos Kountouriotis and General
Panagiotis Danglis agreed to form a provisional government, and on 9 October, they moved to Thessaloniki and assumed command of the National Defence to oversee the Greek participation in the allied war effort. The triumvirate, as the three men became known, had formed this government in direct conflict with the Athens political establishment. There they founded a separate "provisional state" including Northern Greece, Crete, and the Aegean Islands, with the support of the Entente. Primarily, these areas comprised the "New Lands" won during the Balkan Wars, in which Venizelos enjoyed broad support, while "
Old Greece" was mostly pro-royalist. However, Venizelos declared, "we are not against the King, but against the Bulgarians". He didn't want to abolish the monarchy and continued his efforts to persuade the King to join the Allies, blaming his "bad advisors" for his stance. The National Defence government started assembling an army for the Macedonian front and soon participated in operations against the
Central Powers forces.
"Noemvriana" – Greece enters World War I In the months following the creation of the provisional government in Thessaloniki in late August, negotiations between the Allies and the king intensified. The Allies wanted further demobilization of the Greek army as a counterbalance to the royalist government's unconditional surrender of Fort Rupel and the military evacuation of Thessaly to ensure the safety of their troops in Macedonia. On the other hand, the king wanted assurances that the Allies would not officially recognize Venizelos' provisional government or further support it, guarantees that Greece's integrity and neutrality would be respected, and a promise that any war material surrendered to the Allies would be returned after the war. The Franco-British use of Greece's territory in co-operation with the Venizelos government throughout 1916 was opposed in royalist circles and therefore increased Constantine's popularity, and caused much excitement and several anti-Allied demonstrations took place in Athens. Moreover, a growing movement had been developed in the army among lower officers, led by military officers
Ioannis Metaxas and
Sofoklis Dousmanis, determined to oppose disarmament and the surrender of any war materials to the Allies. during the First World War, 1918. He is accompanied by Admiral
Pavlos Koundouriotis (left) and General
Maurice Sarrail (right). The Allies' pressure on the government of Athens continued. On the next day, 24 November, du Fournet presented a new ultimatum ending on 1 December to the government of Athens, demanding the immediate surrender of at least ten mountain batteries. The admiral made a last effort to persuade the king to accept France's demands. He advised the king that according to his orders, he would land an Allied contingent with the aim to occupy certain positions in Athens until his demands were satisfied. In reply, the King claimed that he was pressed by the army and the people not to submit to disarmament and refused to make any commitment. However, he promised that the Greek forces would receive orders not to fire against the Allied contingent. Despite the gravity of the situation, both the royalist government and the Allies let the events take their own course. The royalist government decided to reject the admirals' demands on 29 November, and armed resistance was organized. By 30 November, military units and royalist militia (the
epistratoi, "reservists") from surrounding areas had been recalled and gathered in and around Athens (in total over 20,000 men) and occupied strategic positions, with orders not to fire unless fired upon. On the other hand, the Allied authorities failed in their assessment of the prevailing temper. A diplomat characteristically insisted that the Greeks were bluffing, and in the face of force, they would
"bring the cannons on a plater"; a viewpoint that Du Fournet also shared. ,
Georges Clemenceau,
Ferdinand Foch and
Woodrow Wilson. The Allies landed a small contingent in Athens on . However, it met organized resistance, and an armed confrontation took place for a day till a compromise was reached. After the evacuation of the Allied contingent from Athens the following day, a royalist mob raged through the city for three days, targeting supporters of Venizelos. The incident became known as the Noemvriana in Greece, which was using the
Old Style calendar at the time, and drove a deep wedge between the Venizelists and their political opponents, deepening what would become known as the
National Schism. After the armed confrontation in Athens, on , Britain and France officially recognized the government under Venizelos as the lawful government, effectively splitting Greece into two separate entities. On , Venizelos' provisional government officially declared war on the Central Powers. In reply, a royal warrant for the arrest of Venizelos was issued and the
Archbishop of Athens, under pressure by the royal house,
anathematised him. The Allies, unwilling to risk a new fiasco but determined to solve the problem, established a naval blockade around southern Greece, which was still loyal to the king, and that caused extreme hardship to people in those areas. In June, France and Great Britain decided to invoke their obligation as
"protecting powers", who had promised to guarantee a constitutional form for Greece at the time the Kingdom was created, to demand the king's resignation. Constantine accepted and on 15 June 1917 went to exile, leaving his son Alexander on the throne as demanded (whom the Allies considered as pro-Entente), instead of his elder son and crown prince,
George. His departure was followed by the deportation of many prominent royalists, especially army officers such as
Ioannis Metaxas, to exile in France and Italy. The course of events paved the way for Venizelos to return to Athens on 29 May 1917, and Greece, now unified, officially entered the war on the side of the Allies. Subsequently, the entire Greek army was mobilized (though tensions remained inside the army between supporters of the
monarchy and supporters of Venizelos) and began to participate in military operations against the
Central Powers army on the Macedonian front.
Conclusion of World War I , Paris. July 1919. By the fall of 1918, the Greek army had 300,000 soldiers, and it was the largest single national component of the Allied army on the Macedonian front. The presence of the entire Greek army gave the critical mass that altered the balance between the opponents in the Macedonian front. Under the command of French General
Franchet d'Espèrey, a combined Greek, Serbian, French, and British force launched a major offensive against the Bulgarian and
German army, starting on 14 September 1918. After the first heavy fighting (see
Battle of Skra), the Bulgarians gave up their defensive positions and began retreating towards their country. On 24 September, the Bulgarian government asked for an
armistice, which was signed five days later. The Allied army then pushed north and defeated the remaining German and
Austrian forces that tried to halt the Allied offensive. By October 1918, the Allied armies had recaptured all of Serbia and prepared to invade Hungary. The offensive was halted because the Hungarian leadership offered to surrender in November 1918, marking the Austro-Hungarian empire's dissolution. The breaking of the Macedonian front was one of the important breakthroughs of the military stalemate and helped to bring an end to the War. Greece was granted a seat under Venizelos at the
Paris Peace Conference.
Treaty of Sèvres and assassination attempt created by the Plenary Session of the Preliminary Peace Conference, Paris, France 1919. Venizelos is on the right. Following the conclusion of World War I, Venizelos took part in the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as Greece's chief representative. During his absence from Greece for almost two years, he acquired a reputation as an international statesman of considerable stature. President
Woodrow Wilson was said to have placed Venizelos first in point of personal ability among all delegates gathered in Paris to settle the terms of Peace. , when the
Megali Idea seemed close to fulfillment, featuring Eleftherios Venizelos. In July 1919, Venizelos reached an agreement with the Italians on the cession of the
Dodecanese (except Rhodes), and secured an extension of the Greek area in the periphery of
Smyrna. The
Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria on 27 November 1919, and the
Treaty of Sèvres with the Ottoman Empire on 10 August 1920, were triumphs both for Venizelos and for Greece. As the result of these treaties, Greece acquired
Western Thrace,
Eastern Thrace, Smyrna, the Aegean islands
Imvros,
Tenedos and the Dodecanese except
Rhodes. . In spite of all this, fanaticism continued to create a deep rift between the opposing political parties and to impel them towards unacceptable actions. On his journey home on 12 August 1920, Venizelos survived an assassination attack by two royalist soldiers at the
Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris. This event provoked unrest in Greece, with Venizelist supporters engaging in acts of violence against known anti-Venizelists, and provided further fuel for the national division. The persecution of Venizelos' opponents reached a climax with the assassination of the idiosyncratic anti-Venizelist
Ion Dragoumis by
paramilitary Venizelists on 13 August. After his recovery, Venizelos returned to Greece, where he was welcomed as a hero because he had liberated areas with Greek populations and had created a state stretching over
"five seas and two continents".
1920 electoral defeat, self-exile, and the Great Disaster King Alexander of Greece died of blood poisoning caused by a monkey bite two months after the signing of the treaty on 25 October 1920. His death revived the constitutional question of whether Greece should be a
monarchy or a
republic and transformed the November elections into a contest between Venizelos and the return of the exiled
King Constantine I of Greece, Alexander's father. In the
elections anti-Venizelists, most of them supporters of Constantine, secured 246 out of 370 seats. The defeat came as a surprise to most people, and Venizelos failed even to get elected as an MP. Venizelos himself attributed this to the
war-weariness of the Greek people that had been under arms with almost no intermission since 1912. Venizelists believed that the promise of demobilization and withdrawal from Asia Minor was the most potent weapon of opposition. Abuse of power by Venizelists in the period of 1917–1920 and prosecution of their adversaries were also a further cause for people to vote in favor of the opposition. Thus, on 6 December 1920, King Constantine was recalled by a
plebiscite. This caused great dissatisfaction not only to the newly liberated populations in Asia Minor but also to the Great Powers who opposed the return of Constantine. As a result of his defeat, Venizelos left for Paris and withdrew from politics. , depicting Venizelos and his main political opponent
Dimitrios Gounaris. Once the anti-Venizelists came to power, it became apparent that they intended to continue the campaign in Asia Minor. However, the dismissal of the war experienced pro-Venizelist military officers for political reasons and underestimating the capabilities of the Turkish army, influenced the subsequent course of the war. Italy and France also found a useful pretext in the royal restoration for making peace with
Mustafa Kemal (leader of the Turks). By April 1921, all Great Powers had declared their neutrality; Greece was alone in continuing the war. Mustafa Kemal launched a massive attack on 26 August 1922, and the Greek forces were routed to Smyrna, which soon fell to the Turks on 8 September 1922 (see
Great Fire of Smyrna). Following the
defeat of the Greek army by the Turks in 1922 and the subsequent
armed insurrection led by Colonels
Nikolaos Plastiras and
Stylianos Gonatas, King Constantine was dethroned (and succeeded by his eldest son,
George), and
six royalist leaders were executed. Venizelos assumed the leadership of the Greek delegation that negotiated peace terms with the Turks. He signed the
Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey on 24 July 1923. The effect of this was that more than a million Greeks (Christians) were expelled from Turkey in exchange for the more than 500,000 Turks (Muslims) expelled from Greece, and Greece was forced to give up claims to eastern Thrace, Imbros, and Tenedos to Turkey. Following a failed pro-royalist insurrection led by General
Ioannis Metaxas,
King George II of Greece was forced into exile. Venizelos returned to Greece and served as prime minister until 1924, when quarrels with anti-monarchists forced him back into exile. During these absences from power, he translated
Thucydides into
modern Greek, although the translation and incomplete commentary were only published in 1940, after his death.
Return to power (1928–32): Greco-Turkish alliance, assassination attempt and subsequent exile , 1929
autochrome by Stéphane Passet. In the elections held on 5 July 1928, Venizelos' party regained power and forced the government to hold
new elections on 19 August of the same year; this time, his party won 228 out of 250 places in Parliament. During this period, Venizelos attempted to end Greece's diplomatic isolation by restoring normal relations with the country's neighbors. His efforts proved to be successful in the cases of the newly founded
Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Italy. Firstly, Venizelos signed an agreement on 23 September 1928 with
Benito Mussolini in Rome, and then he started negotiations with Yugoslavia, which resulted in a Treaty of Friendship signed on 27 March 1929. An additional protocol settled the status of the Yugoslav
free trade zone of Thessaloniki in a way favorable to Greek interests. Nevertheless, despite the co-ordinated British efforts under
Arthur Henderson in 1930–1931, full reconciliation with Bulgaria was never achieved during his premiership. Venizelos was also cautious towards
Albania, and although bilateral relations remained at a good level, no initiative was taken by either side aiming at the final settlement of the unresolved issues (mainly related with the status of the Greek minority of South Albania). Venizelos' greatest achievement in foreign policy during this period was the reconciliation with Turkey. Venizelos had expressed his will to improve the bilateral
Greek–Turkish relations even before his electoral victory in a speech in Thessaloniki (23 July 1928). Eleven days after the formation of his government, he sent letters to both the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs of Turkey (
İsmet İnönü and
Tevfik Rüştü Aras respectively), declaring that Greece had no territorial aspirations to the detriment of their country. İnönü's response was positive and Italy was eager to help the two countries reach an agreement. Negotiations, however, stalled because of the complicated issue of the properties of the
exchanged populations. Finally, the two sides reached an agreement on 30 April 1930; on 25 October, Venizelos visited Turkey and signed a treaty of friendship. Venizelos even forwarded Atatürk's name for the 1934
Nobel Peace Prize, highlighting the mutual respect between the two leaders. The German
Chancellor Hermann Müller described the Greek-Turkish rapprochement as the "greatest achievement seen in Europe since the end of the Great War". Nevertheless, Venizelos' initiative was criticized domestically not only by the opposition but also by members of his own party that represented the Greek refugees from Turkey. Venizelos was accused of making too many concessions on the issues of naval armaments and of the properties of the Greeks who were expelled from Turkey according to the
Treaty of Lausanne. In 1929, the Venizelos government, in an effort to avoid reactions from the lower classes whose conditions had worsened due to the wave of immigration, introduced the so-called
Idionymon (#4229), a law that restricted civil liberties and initiated the repression against
unionism, left-wing supporters and
communists. His domestic position was weakened, however, by the effects of the
Great Depression in the early 1930s; and in the
elections of 1932 he was defeated by the
People's Party under
Panagis Tsaldaris. The political climate became more tense, and in 1933 Venizelos was the target of a second assassination attempt. The pro-royalist tendencies of the new government led to two Venizelist coup attempts by General
Nikolaos Plastiras: one in 1933 and the other in 1935. The failure of the
latter proved decisive for the future of the
Second Hellenic Republic. After the coup's failure, Venizelos left Greece once more, while in Greece, trials and executions of prominent Venizelists were carried out, and he himself was sentenced to death
in absentia. The severely weakened Republic was abolished in another coup in October 1935 by General
Georgios Kondylis, and George II returned to the throne following a rigged
referendum in November. ==Death==