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Provisional Government of National Defence Προσωρινή Κυβέρνηση Εθνικής Αμύνης Κράτος της Θεσσαλονίκης | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1916–1917 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Status | Venizelist-dominated government (recognized by theTriple Entente in December 1916 as the lawful Greek government) | ||||||||
| Capital | Thessaloniki | ||||||||
| Common languages | Greek language | ||||||||
| Religion | Greek Orthodox | ||||||||
| Government | ProvisionalVenizelist state | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1916-17 | Eleftherios Venizelos | ||||||||
| Triumvirate of National Defence | |||||||||
• 1916-17 | Eleftherios Venizelos Pavlos Kountouriotis Panagiotis Danglis | ||||||||
| Historical era | World War INational Schism | ||||||||
| 17 August 1916 | |||||||||
• Abdication ofConstantine I | 29 May 1917 | ||||||||
| Currency | Greek drachma (₯) French franc | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheProvisional Government of National Defence (Greek:Προσωρινή Κυβέρνηση Εθνικής Αμύνης,romanized: 'Prosoriní Kyvérnisi Ethnikís Amýnis), also known as theState of Thessaloniki (Κράτος της Θεσσαλονίκης), was a parallel administration, set up in the city ofThessaloniki by former Prime MinisterEleftherios Venizelos and his supporters duringWorld War I, in opposition and rivalry to the official royal government inAthens.
The establishment of this second Greek state had its origins in the debate over Greece'sentry into the war on behalf of theEntente, as advocated by Venizelos, or a Germanophile neutrality as preferred by KingConstantine I. This dissension soon began to divide Greek society around the two leaders, beginning the so-called "National Schism". In 17 August 1916,[1] as parts of easternMacedonia were not defended by the royal government against aBulgarian invasion,Venizelist officers of theHellenic Army launched an Entente-supportedcoup in Thessaloniki. After a brief hesitation, Venizelos and his principal supporters joined the uprising and began the establishment of a second Greek government in the north of the country, which entered the war on the side of the Entente. The National Defence government endured until 29 May 1917, when the Entente powers forced Constantine I to abdicate, and allowed Venizelos to return to Athens as Prime Minister of a unified country. Nevertheless, the establishment of the National Defence government deepened the rift of the National Schism, which would plague Greek political life for over a generation, and contribute to theAsia Minor Catastrophe.
Greece had emerged victorious from the 1912-1913Balkan Wars, with her territory almost doubled, but found itself in a difficult international situation. The status of the Greek-occupied eastern Aegean islands was left undetermined, and theOttoman Empire continued to claim them, leading to a naval arms race and mass expulsions of ethnic Greeks from Anatolia. In the north,Bulgaria, defeated in theSecond Balkan War, harbored revanchist plans against Greece andSerbia. The two countries were bound by a treaty of alliance which promised military assistance in case of a Bulgarian attack, but in August 1914, the danger would emerge from a different quarter altogether: theAssassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to the declaration of war byAustria-Hungary on Serbia and the outbreak of theFirst World War.
Greece, like Bulgaria, initially maintained neutrality, but as the war continued, both warring camps began wooing the two countries. At this point the first rifts appeared among the Greek leadership:Prime MinisterEleftherios Venizelos, at the helm since 1910 of a modernising government looking towards theBritish andFrench models, supported entry in the war on the side of theEntente, while KingConstantine I, who had been educated inGermany, married to KaiserWilhelm II's sister and a deep admirer ofPrussian militarism, anticipated a German victory. Aware that Greece was vulnerable to theBritish Fleet, he advocated a course of neutrality.
In early 1915 the British offered Greece "territorial concessions inAsia Minor" if it would participate in the upcomingGallipoli Campaign. Venizelos supported this idea, but run into the opposition from the King and his military advisors. As a result, Venizelos submitted his resignation on 6 March [O.S. 21 February] 1915, and was replaced by aroyalist-leaning government [el] led byDimitrios Gounaris. TheLiberal Party won the subsequentMay 1915 elections and Venizelos again formed agovernment [el] on 23 August [O.S. 10 August] 1915. When Bulgaria mobilized against Serbia in September 1915, Venizelos ordered a Greek counter-mobilization and called upon the Anglo-French to establish themselves inThessaloniki (then widely known asSalonica) as to aid Serbia. Indeed, the Allies began landing on 22 September 1915[which calendar?] and started entrenching themselves at theSalonica camp [fr].[a] The King unconstitutionally dismissed Venizelos and the parliament, making the breach between the two men and their followers irreparable. The Liberals boycotted theDecember 1915 elections. In the same month, the French, with the permission of Venizelos, occupiedCorfu, where the remains of the Serbian Army were gathered before being sent to Thessaloniki. In view of these events, a clandestine "Revolutionary Committee of National Defence" was formed in Thessaloniki by a group of prominent Liberals and representatives of all overMacedonia, includingKonstantinos Angelakis (mayor of Thessaloniki),Alexandros Zannas [el] andPeriklis A. Argyropoulos [fr] (representatives ofThessaloniki),Dimitrios Dingas [el] andDimitrios Pazis [bg] (representatives ofSerres),Nikolaos Manos (representative ofKozani),Panayiotis Grekos (representative ofFlorina),Georgios Zervos [el] (representative ofDrama), Major GeneralEmmanouil Zymvrakakis and others. The group acknowledged Venizelos as its leader, and began approaching officers of the Army and theCretan Gendarmerie.
During the following year, Greece's official governments were hard-pressed to maintain the country's neutrality. The final straw came when, on 25 May [O.S. 12 May] 1916, the Athens government, succumbing toGerman pressure, ordered the surrender of the vitalRupel Fortress to the Germans and their Bulgarian Allies. In response, on 3 June [O.S. 21 May] 1916, the pro-Entente Venizelists imposed martial law, effectively abolishing royal sovereignty in all of northern Greece. On 18 August [O.S. 3 August], theBulgarian invasion of easternMacedonia commenced, facing little resistance, since the Athens government refused to condone any firm action. As a result, more than 6000 men ofIV Corps surrendered to the Germans on 26 August [O.S. 13 August] and were deported toGörlitz in Germany. This surrender of hard-won territories with only token resistance, outraged most Greeks. At the same time, the establishment of the exiledSerbian King and his government in Thessaloniki in April, the presence of 120,000 Serbian troops in the Macedonian Front, accompanied by threats from the Entente that he would install a Serbian prefect in the city, raised fears that the city would be handed over to the Serbians.
Incensed by the successive humiliations and the Bulgarian advance in Macedonia, several Greek officers had flocked to Thessaloniki and volunteered to raise troops and join the Allies. The local Allied commander-in-chief,Maurice Sarrail, welcomed their initiatives, but little headway was made due to the opposition of the Greek government.[2] On 16/29 August, the Lt. ColonelKonstantinos Mazarakis-Ainian tried to seize control of the11th Infantry Division's mountain artillery battalion, and lead it to the front. This was opposed by ColonelNikolaos Trikoupis, the chief of staff and acting commander ofIII Army Corps, who sent two companies to the artillery barracks atMikro Karabournou that forced Mazarakis to abandon his attempt and withdraw from the barracks.[2]
This incident sparked the flame of a wider uprising on the next day, 30 August [O.S. 17 August], by the city's pro-Venizelist officers. Under the command of Lt. ColonelEpameinondas Zymvrakakis, about 600 men of theCretan Gendarmerie with three volunteer companies under MajorNeokosmos Grigoriadis and thirty other officers blockaded the headquarters of III Corps. When a company under Colonel Vagias tried to break through the blockade, shots were fired that killed two gendarmes and wounded three others. In response, the Cretans fired back, killing or wounding three or four soldiers. The firefight was stopped by the intervention of French officers. Sarrail arrived on the scene soon after, and commanded all Greek officers who would not join the newly formed "National Defence Committee" uprising to be shipped to southern Greece. The loyalist troops were disarmed and interned in the hopes that they would join the uprising, but in the event most of them refused and had to be sent to southern Greece as well.[2]
Individual officers from across northern Greece began to flock to Thessaloniki, and on 15 September [O.S. 2 September], the "National Defence" received its first substantial reinforcement, as ColonelNikolaos Christodoulou arrived in the city with the remnants of IV Corps that had refused to surrender and instead withdrawn viaKavala andSamothrace.[2] Already on 21 September [O.S. 8 September], the volunteers under Major Grigoriadis formed the 1st Battalion of the "Army of National Defence", and departed for the front lines along theStrymon river.[3]
Venizelos himself with his closest aides left Athens on 12/25 September, initially for his home island of Crete, and from there viaChios andLesbos to Thessaloniki, where he arrived on 24 September/7 October. Four days later, on 28 September/11 October, he formed a provisional government under the supreme leadership of atriumvirate comprising himself, GeneralPanagiotis Danglis and AdmiralPavlos Koundouriotis (the "Triumvirate of National Defence", Τριανδρία της Εθνικής Αμύνης).[3]
On 29 September/12 October, Maj GenEmmanouil Zymvrakakis was appointed Army Minister (replaced on December 6 by Maj GenKonstantinos Miliotis-Komninos) and on October 3Nikolaos Politis was appointed Foreign Minister. On 6 October other ministries, euphemistically called "General Directorates" were established:
The first tasks of the new government were the establishment of an "Army of National Defence" to fight alongside theAllies, and the consolidation of its rule in as much ofGreece as possible. The Provisional Government declared war on theCentral Powers on 24 November 1916[which calendar?], and set out to recruit divisions for the Macedonian Front, something which was achieved with speed and often ruthlessness. Despite calls by some officers to abolish the monarchy and declare a Republic, Venizelos chose a more moderate path. He had declared: "we are not against the King, but against the Bulgarians".
The State of National Defence established control in Greek Macedonia, Crete and the northern Aegean islands; lands that were just recently liberated during the Balkan Wars. The reluctant and uneasy coexistence of the two Greek states was not destined to last, as theNoemvriana riots against Venizelists inAthens clearly illustrated that a rapprochement was now impossible. Early in 1917, the Venizelist state took also control ofThessaly, after clashes against the royal army of Constantine.
The division of the country lasted for 9 months. On 15 June 1917[which calendar?] an Allied ultimatum forcedKing Constantine to abdicate in favour of his second-born son,Alexander, and, with the rest of his family, leave the country forSwitzerland. Venizelos returned toAthens, as head of a superficially reunified Greece, and led it to victory alongside theAllies inWorld War I, but also in its entanglement in the subsequentAsia Minor Campaign. As such, the immediate aims of the "National Defence" were met. But the revolution was also an expression of the wide rift between the quasi-Republican, progressiveVenizelists and the conservative Royalists/Anti-Venizelists, and its outbreak marks also the beginning of the GreekNational Schism which would leave a troublesome legacy to the country, as it continued in various forms up to the 1970s.
A popular song of the era celebrating the movement was performed by the musical Estudiantina ofSmyrna namedTis aminis ta pedià (the lads of the Defence) orthe Macedon.
The song was performed also in the filmRebetiko ofCostas Ferris in orchestration ofStavros Xarchakos.
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