Greece
Country in southeast Europe, comprising the southern part of the Balkan
peninsula, bounded to the north by the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia and Bulgaria, to the northwest by Albania, to the
northeast by Turkey, to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south
by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the west by the Ionian Sea.
Government
The 1975 constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government,
with a president who is head of state, a prime minister who is
head of government, and a single-chamber parliament. The president,
elected by parliament for a five-year term, appoints the prime
minister on the basis of assembly support and the cabinet. Parliament
has 300 members, all elected by universal suffrage for a four-year
term, and the prime minister and cabinet are collectively responsible
to it. Bills passed by parliament must be ratified by the president,
whose veto can be overridden by an absolute majority of the total
number of members. In 1986 the constitution was amended, limiting
the powers of the president in relation to those of the prime
minister.
History
War with Turkey
Following the defeat of Turkey in World War I, the Treaty of Sèvres
(10 August 1920) awarded to Greece practically all of Thrace outside
Constantinople (Istanbul) and, in the western part of Asian Turkey,
a mandate over Smyrna (Izmir) and the territory around it. In
October 1920 Alexander died, and in the subsequent elections Venizelos
was defeated and left Greece. A referendum held shortly afterwards
favoured the return of Constantine.
In 1921 Greece invaded Anatolia (Asian Turkey), and in the war
that followed, Greece was deserted by the other European powers,
France favouring the Turks. Greece was forbidden to attack Constantinople,
and on 22 September 1922 the Turks captured Smyrna. This was followed
by the second abdication of Constantine, who retired to Palermo
in Sicily and died in the following year. He was succeeded by
his son George II. By the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) Greece lost
eastern Thrace, the boundary between Greece and Turkey being fixed
at the River Maritsa.
Shortly afterwards, on 27 August 1923, Greece was embroiled
with Italy over the murder of Gen Tellini, the Italian delegate,
with the other members of the commission investigating the Albanian
boundary, while on Greek soil. Following an Italian ultimatum
Corfu was bombarded, and although the Italians were forced by
the League of Nations to evacuate Corfu on 27 September, Greece
paid a large indemnity.
The dictatorship of Metaxas
An unsuccessful counter-revolution against the `revolutionary government
´ brought the monarchy into discredit, and in 1924 Greece was
proclaimed a republic. The republic endured with varying fortunes
until 1935, when, following a rigged referendum organized by Gen
Kondylis, the monarchy was restored by an overwhelming majority
and George II was recalled. Venizélos, Kondylis, and Tsaldaris
all died in 1936, and Gen Joannis Metaxas became premier.
Metaxas established a dictatorship; parliament was dissolved
and political parties suppressed, and in 1938 he was made premier
for life. A treaty was signed with Turkey to last for ten years,
under which each country undertook to remain neutral if one of
them were attacked, while each would prevent the transport of
troops or munitions through its territory to any state attacking
either of them. At the same time Greek and Turkish troops entered
the Thracian frontier territory, which for 15 years had been demilitarized
under the Treaty of Lausanne.
The Italian invasion in World War II
When World War II broke out in 1939, Greece remained neutral. But on
28 October 1940 the Italian Fascist dictator Mussolini suddenly
and without declaring war launched an attack on Greece from Italian-held
Albania. Mussolini had expected either surrender or a merely nominal
resistance, but he found the country united and the small Greek
army full of patriotic fervour. A small contingent of the British
air force had been sent to cooperate with the Greek defence and,
on 11 November, while the Italians were still being pressed steadily
back through the Albanian mountains, British planes delivered
a crippling blow at the main Italian fleet lying in Taranto harbour,
thereby reversing the balance of naval power in the eastern Mediterranean.
Under commander in chief Alexandros Papagos the Greek army displayed
brilliant tactical skill in mountain warfare, turning one position
after another by seizing points of vantage that dominated it.
By the end of the year they had pushed the Italians back out of
Greece, conquered nearly one-third of Albania, and were approaching
Tepelenë. Heavy reinforcements, however, were now reaching the
Italian armies and for two months the position remained essentially
unchanged.
The German intervention
In April 1941 the German armies crossed the Bulgarian frontier into
Macedonia, and - despite spirited resistance by the Greek forces,
aided by a British expeditionary force of some 60,000 men - the
odds were so overwhelming that in a few weeks the whole of Greece
was in German hands and the British forces had been evacuated.
The practical value of sending a British army to Greece was later
disputed by Papagos (see World War II, Balkan Campaign 1941).
After Metaxas's death in 1941 political uncertainty in Greece
increased. King George and his ministers withdrew to Egypt and
finally reached Britain in September. German forces entered Athens
on 27 April and set up a puppet government. There followed a period
of appalling privation for the capital and for the whole country.
Italian troops entered Athens on 25 June and formally took over
the occupation of the country from the German garrison; but the
Germans continued to control all communications, the coastline,
and the airfields, besides being in control of Crete. At the end
of the first 15 months of the Axis occupation of Greece some 100,000
of a population of 1 million in Athens and Piraeus had died of
starvation.
Greek resistance
Guerrilla warfare by Greek resistance fighters got under way in 1942.
Attacks against Axis troops, and sabotage of railways and supply
stores, were frequent, despite reprisals. An agreement between
Britain and the exiled Greek government was signed on 1 March
respecting the organization and employment of Greek armed forces,
and the two governments agreed that among the objects of the war
were the `complete liberation of Greece and the reestablishment
of her freedom and independence´. Lend- Lease agreements were
also made between Britain and Greece, and between the USA and
Greece.
As time went by, differences of political opinion began to undermine
the unity of purpose of the various guerrilla bands. Now that
the king had once more left Greece - though under force of circumstances
- the old republican animosities were revived against him for
having kept Metaxas in office. The king tried to smooth over differences
by issuing declarations promising, when he should return, to consult
the will of the people on the political and constitutional status
of the country.
The British, concerned that political disagreements could have
a negative effect on the resistance effort of the ` Antartes´
(irregular guerrilla bands), sent liaison officers into Greece,
and on 2 July 1943 it was announced that the Greek guerrilla bands
had come under the Supreme Allied Command in the Middle East.
There none the less remained no fewer than five separate resistance
organizations, the chief being ELAS (National Popular Liberation
Army), an offshoot of EAM (National Liberation Front) - both with
a strong communist element - and EDES (National Democratic Greek
Army).
With the collapse of Italy the Germans revoked the division
of Greece into German and Italian zones of occupation and resumed
control of all communications. Early in 1944 British liaison officers
succeeded in getting the representatives of the various rival
guerrilla forces to agree to end hostilities among themselves
and to cooperate in the fight against the Germans. Yet unrest
in the Greek forces remained, and there were mutinies in both
the army and navy based in Egypt.
George Papandreou, then leader of the Democratic Socialist Party,
escaped at this time from Greece and went to Cairo to urge the
cause of national unity. In June 1944 the king entrusted Papandreou
with the formation of a government, but the various parties drifted
farther apart. By October the southern areas of Greece were nearly
free of Germans, although in the north fighting was still going
on. On 14 October Athens and Piraeus were occupied by British
troops.
Liberation and political uncertainty
Now that Greece was liberated from the Germans EAM emerged as the largest
political party. The fact that EAM wanted to create a socialist
state and was openly against the king's return was responsible
for a wave of monarchist feeling among the nationalists or right-wing
elements, and EAM, favouring a republican form of government,
was reluctant to demobilize the forces of ELAS while in control
of much of the country.
The Papandreou government, with the support of Lt Gen Sir Robert
Scobie, the British commander in chief of the Greek army, then
announced its determination to disband these forces by 10 December
1944 and to re-form the Greek army to supersede the resistance
groups as the regular armed force of the nation. At the end of
December, following a visit to Athens by British prime minister
Winston Churchill and his foreign secretary Anthony Eden on Christmas
Day, the king appointed Archbishop Damaskinos regent of Greece.
Additional British troops were now sent to Athens, and street
by street the capital was cleared of irregular troops. A peace
agreement was signed on 12 February 1945. One of its clauses was
that a referendum should be held to decide finally on the constitutional
question, under the supervision of the Allies.
But this agreement did not bring political harmony. No fewer
than six cabinets held office during 1945. In 1946 in some areas,
especially in the north, armed bands resumed their activities
despite the truce. Meanwhile, the royalist Greeks won the elections
of March 1946, the first for ten years, and eventually a referendum
again resulted in a majority in favour of the return of the king,
who soon afterwards left Britain for Athens. He died in April
1947 and was succeeded by his brother, Paul.
The civil war resumes
In 1947 the civil war flared up again. That Greece did not fall under
communist influence was undoubtedly partially due to the massive
aid the government received from the USA, under the provisions
of the Truman Doctrine. US aid in the end more than outweighed
the help that the communist insurgents were receiving from the
USSR and its satellites. Untold hardship was caused to the people
in northern Greece by the continual warfare, and large numbers
of Greeks were deported to communist countries.
By 1949 the internal situation was again critical for the government
in Athens. The rebels appeared to be gaining ground, were in control
of northern Greece, and were slowly paralysing the country's economy.
Papagos was recalled from retirement and appointed commander in
chief of the armed forces, with very wide powers. Eight months
later, in August 1949, the Greek communists admitted total defeat,
Papagos's successes against them having been fortuitously helped
by the quarrel between Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia and the USSR.
Greece in the 1950s
From 1951 until his death in 1955 Papagos dominated Greek politics,
his Greek Rally Party gaining an overwhelming majority in the
elections of 1952. Though his rule was authoritarian, the mass
of Greeks welcomed it as providing stability after all the years
of enemy occupation, civil war, and vacillating coalitions. In
addition, Papagos had the personal appeal of a national hero.
The economy of the country revived, and in 1953 a treaty of friendship
was signed between Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia, by which the
Greeks who had been taken into Yugoslavia during the civil war
were repatriated. In 1951 Greece became a member of NATO.
From 1953 onwards Greek politics became increasingly dominated
by the Cyprus question, the court and government soon identifying
themselves with the popular desire for enosis, the union of Cyprus
with Greece. Greece's open sympathy and tacit support for EOKA
(the Cypriot movement pressing for this union) soon strained its
relations with Turkey and Britain, and consequently NATO strength
in the eastern Mediterranean was threatened. However, in 1959
the Zürich and London agreements, in which Greece participated,
established an independent Cyprus, with Archbishop Makarios as
first president. This ended the crisis for the time being, even
though the settlement rejected enosis, which Greece and the Greek
Cypriots had always insisted on in the past.
Political crises of the 1960s
Under Konstantinos Karamanlis, premier from 1955 until 1963, Greece
made steady economic progress. New roads and industries were established
and tourism greatly expanded, but there was no comparable advance
in agriculture. The drift to the towns and a high emigration rate,
both to the USA and to Western Europe, continued, and the gap
between rich and poor remained wide.
In April 1963 an incident in London, involving Queen Frederika
of Greece - whose pronounced anticommunist views and alleged authoritarianism
had made her a controversial figure both in and outside Greece
- temporarily jeopardized the proposed state visit to London of
the Greek king and queen later that year. Karamanlis resigned
when King Paul insisted on making the visit, which then took place
as planned, though there were hostile demonstrations by various
left-wing elements in Britain.
In December 1963 the Cyprus crisis broke out again, when Makarios
advocated the unilateral repeal of the Zürich and London agreements.
Greece once more was closely involved, and its relations with
Turkey and Britain again suffered. In November 1963 the veteran
politician George Papandreou had become premier as head of the
Centre Union Party. In March 1964 King Paul died, being succeeded
by his son, Constantine II, who later in the year married Princess
Anne- Marie of Denmark. The popularity of the young king and the
political stability of the whole country were threatened in July
1965 by a bitter conflict between Constantine and Papandreou.
This was touched off by the alleged discovery within the army
of a conspiracy involving Papandreou's son, the socialist Andreas
Papandreou. Following a dispute over tenure of the ministry of
defence, Constantine dismissed Papandreou.
In the agitation that followed there were signs that democratic
government in Greece might soon be gravely endangered. The political
crisis was temporarily settled by the formation in September 1965
of a coalition government, which included some of Papandreou's
former supporters. Prospects for settlement of the crisis appeared
good when, in late 1966, the leaders of the two main parties,
George Papandreou (Centre Union) and Panayiotis Kanellopoulos
(National Radical Union), agreed to proceed to elections.
The Colonels seize power
These elections were scheduled for 28 May 1967, but before they could
take place there was a military coup, and a junta headed by Col
George Papadopoulos, Col Nicholas Makarezos, and Brig Stylianos
Pattakos seized power in the early morning of 21 April 1967. The
official pretext for the coup was the need to forestall an armed
communist uprising. Mass arrests, mainly of left- wingers, followed.
All political parties were abolished, while large-scale purges
were instituted in the armed forces.
Although power in the new regime clearly lay with the military,
the nominal prime minister was a civilian, Konstantine Kollias.
King Constantine's attitude towards the new regime was reserved,
and in December 1967 he launched a counter-coup against `the Colonels´,
as the regime had come to be known. The counter-coup was unsuccessful,
and Constantine fled into exile in Italy. This was the signal
for direct military rule. Gen Zoitakis became regent, while Col
Papadopoulos, who had emerged as the strong man of the regime,
assumed the premiership. Further purges of royalist officers who
had supported the king's coup ensued. In September 1968 a new
and authoritarian constitution was approved by a large majority
in a referendum; but, as martial law was still in force, this
could not be regarded as a true test of opinion. Even after the
enactment of the new constitution many of its provisions remained
in abeyance.
Although there was an initial degree of acquiescence in some
sectors of society the Colonels' regime never enjoyed any degree
of popularity. Opposition was ruthlessly suppressed and, following
the findings of the European Commission of Human Rights, Greece
was obliged to withdraw from the Council of Europe. Power was
increasingly concentrated in the hands of Papadopoulos, who became
regent as well as prime minister.
Growing opposition to the Colonels
Despite the regime's growing unpopularity there were few signs of large-scale
resistance. In early 1973, however, there were increasing signs
of restlessness among Greek students. This was followed in late
May by a naval mutiny, which led to the precipitate abolition
of the monarchy. Papadopoulos proclaimed the creation of a `presidential
republic ´. This was ratified by a 78% vote in a referendum held
on 29 July, although martial law still remained in force in Athens
and Piraeus. Papadopoulos, the only candidate, was elected president.
He declared an amnesty and promised the holding of elections within
18 months. To oversee these elections he appointed a former politician,
Spyros Markezinis, as prime minister.
The strategy of a move towards a ` guided´ democracy met with
opposition from university students. An occupation of the Athens
Polytechnic in November 1973 was suppressed with severe brutality.
At least 34 students were killed and many hundreds more were wounded.
The Polytechnic massacre was followed by Papadopoulos's overthrow
in a bloodless coup by Brig Gen Demetrios Ioannidis, the commander
of the military police (ESA), which had assumed the leading role
in the hounding of opponents of the regime. Although Ioannidis
ruled through a civilian cabinet there was no doubt it was he
who held effective power. He soon showed that he had no solution
to his country's pressing political and economic problems (inflation
was running at the rate of 30% per annum in 1973).
The regime's foreign policy was characterized by increasing
belligerence towards Turkey and towards President Makarios in
Cyprus. This culminated in the pro- enosis coup, inspired from
Athens, mounted against Makarios on 15 July 1974. This was followed
by a Turkish invasion of the island on 20 July. Both Greece and
Turkey mobilized, and in the ensuing turmoil the Ioannidis regime
collapsed after threats from the commander of the Third Army Corps
stationed in Salonika.
Return to democracy
The exiled Karamanlis was then summoned back from Paris to defuse the
tension that existed with Turkey and to liquidate the legacy of
seven years of military dictatorship. Under Karamanlis's Government
of National Salvation the Greek armed forces were demobilized
and Karamanlis embarked on the precarious task of returning Greece
to democratic rule. Karamanlis legalized the Greek Communist Party,
which had been banned since 1947, and other political parties,
and ended martial law and press censorship. In elections in November
1974 Karamanlis's New Democracy Party (ND) won 54% of the vote
and 220 out of 300 seats in parliament. Following a referendum
in December 1974 that decisively rejected a restoration of the
monarchy, a new constitution for a democratic ` Hellenic Republic´
was adopted, with Constantine Tsatsos as president.
During the course of 1975 a number of trials were held of ringleaders
of the dictatorship and their accomplices. In August the three
prime movers of the April 1967 coup were sentenced to death, later
commuted to life imprisonment. Disappointment with US policy towards
the dictatorship (which it had helped to keep in power) and over
Cyprus led Greece to apply for accelerated membership of the European
Community (EC; the precursor of the European Union), an application
welcomed by the existing member countries.
The ND won the 1977 general election with a reduced majority,
and in 1980 Karamanlis resigned as prime minister and was elected
president. In 1981 Greece became a full member of the European
Community, having been an associate since 1962.
Greek socialism
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) won an absolute majority
in parliament in the 1981 general election. Its leader, Andreas
Papandreou, became Greece's first socialist prime minister. PASOK
had been elected on a radical socialist platform, which included
withdrawal from the EC, the removal of US military bases, and
a programme of domestic reform. Important social changes, such
as lowering the voting age to 18, the legalization of civil marriage
and divorce, and an overhaul of the universities and the army,
were carried out; but instead of withdrawing from Europe, Papandreou
was content to obtain a modification of the terms of entry, and,
rather than close US bases, he signed a five-year agreement on
military and economic cooperation. In 1983 he also signed a ten-year
economic-cooperation agreement with the USSR.
Despite introducing austerity measures to deal with rising inflation,
PASOK won a comfortable majority in the 1985 elections. Criticism
of Papandreou grew during 1989 when close aides were implicated
in a banking scandal. He lost the general elections in 1989 and
Tzanis Tzannetakis, an ND backbencher, formed Greece's first all-party
government for 15 years. However, this soon broke up, and after
months of negotiation Xenophon Zolotas (PASOK) put together a
government of unity, comprising communists, socialists, conservatives,
and nonpolitical figures.
Constantine Mitsotakis of the ND was sworn in as premier in
April 1990 and formed a new all-party government after his party
failed to win an outright majority in the elections. In June Karamanlis
was again elected president. Papandreou was cleared of all corruption
charges in January 1992. In September 1993 Mitsotakis dissolved
parliament after the ND lost its overall majority (three of its
members had defected to the newly formed left-of-centre Political
Spring party). PASOK won an outright majority in the October 1993
elections and Papandreou was returned as prime minister. In March
1995 Costis Stephanopoulos, PASOK's candidate, was elected president.
Papandreou, his health rapidly deteriorating, resigned in January
1996, and Costas Simitis became prime minister. Simitis appointed
the pro-Europe Theodoros Pangalos as foreign minister. Papandreou
was declared well and released from hospital in March, but died
in June. In September 1996 PASOK was returned to power with 41.4%
of the vote, signifying a slightly reduced majority.
Foreign relations in the 1990s
An agreement on the siting of US bases in Greece was signed in 1990.
In 1992 Greece refused to recognize the independence of the breakaway
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, saying it implied territorial
claims on the Greek province of the same name. The republic was
granted United Nations membership under the provisional name of
the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 1993. The Greek decision
to impose a trade embargo against Macedonia in February 1994 brought
widespread condemnation, and in April 1994 the European Commission
took the unprecedented step of prosecuting Greece in the European
Court of Justice. A compromise agreement was reached, and in September
1995 Greece recognized Macedonia and lifted its embargo.
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An excellent way to begin a vacation in Greece.
english/Helenic.
