Georgios Grivas | |
|---|---|
 Grivasc. 1967 | |
| Native name | Γεώργιος Γρίβας |
| Nicknames | Digenis Διγενής |
| Born | 6 June 1897 |
| Died | 27 January 1974 (aged 76) |
| Buried | Limassol, Republic of Cyprus |
| Allegiance |  Kingdom of Greece Second Hellenic Republic Republic of Cyprus |
| Branch |  Hellenic Army Cypriot National Guard |
| Service years | 1916-1974 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant general |
| Unit | 10th Infantry Division |
| Conflicts | |
| Alma mater | Hellenic Military Academy École Militaire |
| Signature |  |
The original speech Georgios Grivas (Leader of EOKA) gave to publicly signal the beginning of the campaign against British rule. Recorded 1 April 1955 | |
Georgios Grivas (Greek:Γεώργιος Γρίβας; 6 June 1897 – 27 January 1974), also known by his nicknameDigenis (Greek:Διγενής), was aGreek Cypriot officer of theHellenic Army and founder and leader of the Greek and Greek Cypriot paramilitary organisationsOrganization X (1942–1949),EOKA (1955–1959) andEOKA B (1971–1974). He was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in Cyprus, then-known as the Supreme Military Defence Command of Cyprus (ASDAK), which in the event of war would lead theCyprus National Guard and theHellenic Force in Cyprus (ELDYK).[1]
A specialist ofguerrilla andasymmetric warfare, he was one of the main actors in theCypriot War of Independence, securing the independence ofCyprus against theBritish Empire.[2][3] He died only six months prior to the1974 Cypriot coup and subsequentTurkish invasion of Cyprus.[3]
Grivas was born inTrikomo on 23 May 1897Julian calendar,[4][5] and was thought to be the fourth child ofGreek Cypriot parents Kalomira Hatzimichael and Theodoros Grivas. (Nevertheless later when he enrolled at the Hellenic Military Academy at the age of 19 he stated that his birthday was 23 May 1898 for unknown reasons). He grew up inTrikomo as a child,[6] after attending his village school, he studied at thePancyprian Gymnasium inNicosia from 1909 to 1915, living with his grandmother during this time atChrysaliniotissa,Nicosia.[7]
In 1916, Grivas moved to Greece; according to his obituary inThe Times of London, he had left the family home after learning that his father intended him to become a physician. He took Greek citizenship and enrolled at theHellenic Military Academy.[8] He completed his military studies at theÉcole Militaire inParis.[9] He graduated in 1919, and joined theHellenic Army with the rank of Sub-Lieutenant and was immediately posted on the Asia Minor front of theGreco-Turkish War. He served in the Hellenic Army's 10th Division and participated in its advance fromSmyrna to Panormos (todayBandirma) andEskişehir, pastBursa and theBattle of Sakarya. With the subsequent retreat of the Hellenic Army from Asia Minor in 1922 (because of theTreaty of Lausanne), he was placed at Redestos inThrace.[10] He was decorated for his bravery and promoted to Lieutenant. He was later selected to study at the French Military Academy and upon his return to Greece he served in a number of posts, including that of a lecturer at theHellenic Military Academy.[11] He was promoted to captain in 1925 and to Major in 1935. In 1938, he married Vasiliki Deka, the daughter of an Athenian pharmacist.[12]
With the beginning ofWorld War II, Grivas was transferred to the operations department of the central headquarters of the Hellenic Army, working on the strategic defensive plans forNorthern Greece. When theGreco-Italian War broke out, Grivas was deployed to the Albanian front in December 1940, and served as Chief of Staff of the 2nd Division.[13][14]
Following the German-Italian-Bulgarian occupation of Greece during World War II, Grivas founded and led theOrganisationX, a guerrilla organisation made up of officers of the Greek Army, playing a role in theGreek Resistance to theAxis occupation of Greece.[15] Its activities included spying for the Allied powers and launching attacks and sabotage operations against the occupiers. During theevents of December 1944, members of Organisation X, using weapons recovered from the retreating Germans, fought at the Theseon alongside Greek and British monarchist forces to preventEAM/ELAS fighters to take control of Athens.[16][17][18]
In 1946, he retired from the Hellenic Army on his own request with subsequent attempts to enter politics being unsuccessful.[19]
One does not use a tank to catch field mice—a cat will do the job better.
Following his retirement, Grivas focused on the idea of ridding Cyprus of British colonial rule and eventually uniting it with Greece (Enosis).[21] As a member of the secret Committee for the Cyprus Struggle he took the oath of Enosis together with the newly electedArchbishopMakarios III, with whom he collaborated for preparing the armed struggle.[22] He arrived secretly in Cyprus in October 1954 and began immediately the formation of his guerrilla organisation EOKA.[23] On 1 April 1955 with a declaration that he signed as DIGENIS and a number of bombings against various targets in the four major cities and military installations, he announced the beginning of his campaign for Self Determination – Union with Greece.[24][25]
He directed the first EOKA operations from his hideout in Nicosia but soon after he moved to the Troodos mountains to lead his guerrilla teams.[26] At the time he wanted only British soldiers and their Greek collaborators to be targeted and prohibited attacks on theTurkish Cypriots.[27] He recruitedGrigoris Afxentiou as one of the team leaders, initially of the Famagusta district.[18] Grivas escaped capture twice after he was surrounded by British forces at Spilia in December 1955, leading to theBattle of Spilia, and at Kykkos in May 1956. A month later, chased by the British forces, he was secretly transferred from the mountains by the car of a passionate EOKA fighter, Kostis Efstathiou, also known as "Pachykostis", and found refuge in a hideout at Limassol from where he directed not only the military activities but also the political campaign, since Archbishop Makarios in March 1956 was exiled by the authorities.
During the struggle, the British colonial administration had offered a reward of£10,000 plus passage to anywhere in the world for information leading to the arrest of Colonel Grivas.[28]
With the signing of theZurich-London agreements in early 1959 and the declaration of Cyprus as an independent state Grivas reluctantly ordered cease-fire. His views were at odds with those of Makarios who had accepted the above agreements on behalf of the Greek Cypriot population. In March 1959, Grivas came out of his hideout and departed (in exile, requested by the UK as part of the cease fire agreement) for Athens where he received a hero's welcome as the liberator of the Greek Cypriots and was subsequently decorated with the highest honours by theGreek Parliament and the Athens Academy and promoted to the rank of General. Not long after his return, Grivas was persuaded to enter politics as head of a coalition party but soon abandoned this route after the disappointing percentage his party obtained in the general election of 1963.
Grivas returned to Cyprus in 1964 after the outbreak of intercommunal violence between Turkish Cypriots andGreek Cypriots to take over the Supreme Command of the Greek Cypriot forces organised under the National Guard as well as the Greek military division sent to Cyprus by the government ofGeorge Papandreou to assist in the island's defence against a possible Turkish attack.[29] He directed the construction of defence forts and complexes aiming at withstanding a Turkish invasion.[30] On 15 November 1967, Greek Cypriot National Guard under his direct command overran two small villages on the critical Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia intersection, resulting in the deaths of 27 people, mostly armed Turkish Cypriots as well as Turkish Cypriot paramilitaries atKofinou andAgios Theodoros.[31][32] The immediate result of this event was Turkey's ultimatum, which prompted the Greek military government to recall both the Greek Division and General Grivas to Athens.[33][34]
From 1968 to 1969, under strict surveillance, Grivas participated in a resistance movement aiming at deposing the ruling military junta and restoring democracy in Greece, along with a number of Greek Army officers including ColonelDimitrios Opropoulos and MajorsSpyros Moustaklis,Nikolaos Lytras andGeorge Karousos as well as Greek Cypriot students and professionals many of them former EOKA fighters. Grivas began the formation of armed resistance cells in a number of neighbourhoods in Athens which were armed with guns and explosives that were brought in secretly from Cyprus. The organisation, however, was discovered by the authorities and many of its members were arrested.[35][36][37][38]
After the discovery of Grivas' plans by the authorities, he secretly returned to Cyprus on 31 August 1971, where he formed the armed organisationEOKA B, which he used as leverage in his attempts to persuade or force Makarios to change his policy and adopt the line of "Self Determination – Union" with Greece.[39] EOKA B did not overthrow Makarios but the armed struggle led to a vicious circle of violence and anti-violence that amounted to civil war among the Greek-Cypriot Community from 1971 to 1974.[40]
While hiding at a house inLimassol on 27 January 1974, Grivas died of heart failure at the age of 76.[9] The post-Grivas EOKA B then signed a secret agreement with BrigadierDimitrios Ioannidis, the "invisible dictator" of Greece, and was controlled directly from Athens. Grivas' funeral and burial was held on 29 January 1974, in the garden of the house that had been Grivas' last hideout during the EOKA struggle (1955–1959) and was attended by tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots. Upon his death, the Cypriot Government declared a three-day official mourning and three days later, theParliament of Cyprus declared General Grivas "A worthy son of the motherland". The government of Makarios, the target of Grivas' campaign for enosis, formally boycotted the event.[41]
The Second Junta of Greece, under Ioannidis, overthrew Makarios just six months after Grivas' death.[42] Ioannidis had been planning to overthrow Makarios in spring 1974, but the final decision to act was made on 2 July 1974 after Makarios decided to directly oppose the Ioannidis regime by expelling from the Cypriot National Guard 550 Greek officers. That meant the loss of military control of Cyprus for Greece as well as the humiliation of Ioannidis.[43] Thecoup d'état of 15 July 1974 that overthrew Makarios was executed by forces of theCypriot National Guard under direct instructions from Greece. The National Guard was led by Greek officers and consisted of Greek-Cypriot conscripts. The EOKA B members and other pro-enosis forces joined the National Guard in the afternoon of Monday 15 July 1974 in the fight against Makarios' forces. The coup was swiftly followed by theTurkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July. This invasion took Ioannides by surprise, who failed to prepare Cyprus for a Turkish invasion and failed to coerce the Greek generals whom he had appointed to apply "Plan K" and provide military assistance to Cyprus. That marked the downfall of Ioannidis.[40]
The idea for an armed struggle originated roughly during the same period from the Ethnarch Makarios, the Greek army retired Cypriot colonel George Grivas and some other prominent personalities in Cyprus and Greece. Subsequently, a twelve-member Committee was formed in Athens in 1953, to promote the union of Cyprus with Greece through the use of force
...in October 1954 Grivas finally left his home in Athens, entering Cyprus illicitly and moving to a secret address in the outskirts of Nicosia.
Την ευθύνη για τις βόμβες ανέλαβε με προκηρύξεις της η ΕΟΚΑ («Εθνική Οργάνωσις Κυπρίων Αγωνιστών»), με την υπογραφή του «Αρχηγού Διγενή».[EOKA took the responsibility for the bombs with proclamations and the signature of 'Chief Digenis'.]
Grivas left Nicosia on 6 July to train guerrilla groups on Troodos.
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