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Dimitrios Gounaris | |
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Δημήτριος Γούναρης | |
 Gounarisc. 1915 | |
| Prime Minister of Greece | |
| In office 26 March 1921 – 3 May 1922 | |
| Monarch | Constantine I |
| Preceded by | Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos |
| Succeeded by | Nikolaos Stratos |
| In office 25 February 1915 – 10 August 1915 | |
| Monarch | Constantine I |
| Preceded by | Eleftherios Venizelos |
| Succeeded by | Eleftherios Venizelos |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1867-01-05)5 January 1867 Patras, Kingdom of Greece |
| Died | 28 November 1922(1922-11-28) (aged 55) Goudi, Athens,Kingdom of Greece |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Political party | People's Party |
Dimitrios Gounaris (Greek:Δημήτριος Γούναρης; 5 January 1867 – 28 November 1922) was a Greek politician who served as theprime minister of Greece from 25 February to 10 August 1915 and 26 March 1921 to 3 May 1922. The leader of thePeople's Party, he was the main right-wing opponent of his contemporaryEleftherios Venizelos.[1][2]
He studied law atAthens University and continued his studies in Germany, France and England,[3] before returning to his nativePatras. He was elected deputy forAchaea in 1902 and distinguished himself as an orator and a member of the so-called "Japanese Group"[3] that opposed theGeorgios Theotokis government in 1906–1908. Gounaris himself, however, joined the government in 1908 as Finance Minister, hoping to implement a reformist program,[3] thereby causing the dissolution of the group, although he was soon forced to resign.[4] Despite his progressive views (he was an admirer of theBismarckian German social laws), his conservative political thinking turned him into a leading opponent ofEleftherios Venizelos.[5]
He was appointedPrime Minister after Venizelos' first resignation in 1915 byKing Constantine I.[4] For his anti-Venizelist, pro-neutrality role he was exiled with other prominent anti-Venizelists toCorsica in 1917 after Venizelos' return to power inAthens.[4] He managed to escape toSardinia, Italy, in 1918, but was able to return to Greece only in 1920, as to partake in the crucial November elections as thede facto leader of the "United Opposition",[6] amidst the ongoing1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War.
After Venizelos' defeat, Gounaris controlled most deputies in the parliament, and was the main driving force of the following royalist governments,[6] but himself only assumed the office of Prime Minister in March 1921. Although he was willing to compromise with the Turks, as he showed in the London talks in early 1921, in order to step up pressure on theKemalist Turks, he agreed to the launch of the Greek offensive of March 1921. The Greek Army was not prepared, and the attack was repulsed in theSecond Battle of İnönü, resulting in the first Greek defeat in theGreco-Turkish War. After the successful Greek advance towardsEskişehir andAfyon in July, he urged the continuation of the advance towardsAnkara,[6] which was however stopped in theBattle of Sakarya. After the Greeks retreated to form a new front, he appealed to the Allies, and especially to theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for assistance and mediation.
Although Gounaris threatened the British with unilateral withdrawal, his government maintained the Greek Army's positions, not being able to shoulder the political cost of abandoning Asia Minor and the many Greeks living there to Turkish reprisals. The deepening political crisis caused the fall of Gounaris' government in May 1922, after marginally surviving a vote of confidence, but the predominance of his followers in the National Assembly meant that he only exchanged the post of Prime Minister with that of Justice Minister in the government ofPetros Protopapadakis.[7]
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After the disaster of August 1922 and the rout of the Greeks byMustafa Kemal's forces, the remnants of the Greek Army revolted in September, and the government was deposed. The predominantlyVenizelist rebels, under the leadership of ColonelNikolaos Plastiras, formed a military tribunal to try those that were considered as responsible for the catastrophe. The so-called "Trial of the Six", convened in November 1922, found the defendants, Gounaris among them, guilty of treason. He was executed along with the others atGoudi on the same day of the verdict, on 28 November.[1] Although Gounaris undoubtedly bears a measure of responsibility for the military and diplomatic actions that led to the Greek defeat in 1922, his trial and execution are widely perceived[8] to be more an act ofscapegoating in order to vent the anger of the people, as well as being mostly motivated by the hatred of the Venizelist faction towards him.[9] In 2010, the Supreme Court of Greece overturned convictions of Gounaris and other defendants.[10]
Gounaris together with some conservative politicians were the first to propose amendment to theGreek Constitution to allowwomen's suffrage rights. The amendment ultimately failed to pass.[2] Gounaris was the uncle ofPanagiotis Kanellopoulos.[11]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Greece 25 February 1915 – 10 August 1915 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Greece 26 March 1921 – 3 May 1922 | Succeeded by |
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