Establishment of EDES leaders. In September 1941, a few months after the start of the
Axis Occupation of Greece, Zervas, along with other Venizelist army officers and political figures, founded the
National Republican Greek League (EDES). The goals of EDES were the fight against the conquerors of Greece, the abolition of the
Greek monarchy and the establishment of a republic on
social-democratic principles. The two most guiding principles for Zervas was hatred of the House of Glücksburg together with an equally intense hatred of communism. The party platform of EDES talked of a "republic in a socialist form", but the British historian
Mark Mazower described Zervas's socialism as "only skin deep". Notably, the platform of EDES did not mention armed resistance, and only after Zervas was bribed with 24,000 gold sovereigns from an agent of the British
Special Operations Executive (SOE) did he agree to take to the mountains to wage guerrilla war. The EDES-EOEA forces were proclaimed as combatant forces of the Allied Armies by the British General Headquarters of
Middle East. Zervas incorporated not only Republicans but increasingly also royalists into his movement, who saw EDES as the only acceptable alternative to EAM, the Communist-dominated rival resistance movement that had established itself over most of the country. EOEA's activities were largely confined to Epirus, but Zervas had some control of
Aetolia-Acarnania, in the
Valtos area.
Gorgopotamos and Epirus In November 1942, the forces of EDES and those of ELAS (under the command of
Aris Velouchiotis), in collaboration with a small group of British and New Zealand expert saboteurs,
blew up the Gorgopotamos Bridge. Afterward the success of Operation Harling, a team of SOE agents led by
"Monty" Woodhouse arrived to train his forces and arrange for arms shipments. By threatening to cut off the supply of arms, the SOE was able to impose the National Bands Agreement in May 1943, under which EAM and EDES agreed to stop fighting each other, and both put themselves under the command of Field Marshal
Henry "Jumbo" Wilson, the supreme Allied commander in the Mediterranean. On 18 June 1944, EDES forces under Zervas with Allied support launched an attack on
Paramythia, in
Thesprotia. After a short-term conflict against the combined Cham-German forces, the town was finally liberated. The successful advance of the EDES forces continued during summer 1944. A number of violent reprisals that took part against the town's Muslim community during these developments were done without the permission of the EDES leadership. These reprisals caused most of the Cham community to flee across the border to Albania. In the final stages of the Occupation, EDES was contained strictly in the area of Epirus, having lost Aitoloakarnania, after a mini-civil war with ELAS in 1943. During the
December 1944 clashes, EDES was attacked once more by Aris Velouchiotis, and in 24 hours was obliged to leave Epirus and fled to the island of
Corfu. On 15 February 1945, after the defeat of ELAS in Athens by the governmental and British forces, Zervas dissolved the remnants of his guerrilla force in Corfu. ==Post-war years==