Greek politician (1867?1922)
Dimitrios Gounaris
(
Greek
:
Δημ?τριο? Γο?ναρη?
; 5 January 1867 – 28 November 1922) was a Greek politician who served as the
prime minister of Greece
from 25 February to 10 August 1915 and 26 March 1921 to 3 May 1922. The leader of the
People's Party
, he was the main right-wing opponent of his contemporary
Eleftherios Venizelos
.
[1]
[2]
Early life
[
edit
]
He studied law at
Athens University
and continued his studies in Germany, France and England,
[3]
before returning to his native
Patras
. He was elected deputy for
Achaea
in 1902 and distinguished himself as an orator and a member of the so-called "
Japanese Group
"
[3]
that opposed the
Georgios 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 the
Bismarckian
German social laws), his conservative political thinking turned him into a leading opponent of
Eleftherios Venizelos
.
[5]
First premiership
[
edit
]
He was appointed
Prime Minister
after Venizelos' first resignation in 1915 by
King Constantine I
.
[4]
For his anti-Venizelist, pro-neutrality role he was exiled with other prominent anti-Venizelists to
Corsica
in 1917 after Venizelos' return to power in
Athens
.
[4]
He managed to escape to
Sardinia
, Italy, in 1918, but was able to return to Greece only in 1920, as to partake in the crucial November elections as the
de facto
leader of the "United Opposition",
[6]
amidst the ongoing
1919?1922 Greco-Turkish War
.
Second premiership and war against Turkey
[
edit
]
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 the
Kemalist
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 the
Second Battle of ?nonu
, resulting in the first Greek defeat in the
Greco-Turkish War
. After the successful Greek advance towards
Eski?ehir
and
Afyon
in July, he urged the continuation of the advance towards
Ankara
,
[6]
which was however stopped in the
Battle of Sakarya
. After the Greeks retreated to form a new front, he appealed to the Allies, and especially to the
United 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 of
Petros Protopapadakis
.
[7]
Trial, execution and legacy
[
edit
]
After the disaster of August 1922 and the rout of the Greeks by
Mustafa Kemal
's forces, the remnants of the Greek Army revolted in September, and the government was deposed. The predominantly
Venizelist
rebels, under the leadership of Colonel
Nikolaos 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 at
Goudi
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 of
scapegoating
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]
Gounaris together with some conservative politicians were the first to propose amendment to the
Greek Constitution
to allow
women's suffrage
rights. The amendment ultimately failed to pass.
[2]
Gounaris was the uncle of
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos
.
[10]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Arvanitopoulos, Constantine; Botsiou, Konstantina E. (19 May 2010).
The Constantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy Yearbook 2010
. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 124.
ISBN
978-3-642-12374-0
.
- ^
a
b
Ruiz, Blanca Rodriguez; Rubio-Marin, Ruth (7 June 2012).
The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens
. BRILL. p. 443.
ISBN
978-90-04-22425-4
.
- ^
a
b
c
Keridis, Dimitris (2009).
Historical Dictionary of Modern Greece
. Scarecrow Press. pp. 79?80.
ISBN
9780810863125
. Retrieved
30 September
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
Dalby, Andrew (2011).
Eleftherios Venizelos: Greece
. Haus Publishing.
ISBN
9781907822339
. Retrieved
1 October
2019
.
- ^
Mazower, Mark (1992). "The Messiah and the Bourgeoisie: Venizelos and Politics in Greece, 1909- 1912".
The Historical Journal
.
35
(4): 893?895.
doi
:
10.1017/S0018246X00026200
.
ISSN
0018-246X
.
JSTOR
2639443
.
S2CID
154495315
.
- ^
a
b
c
Dragostinova, Theodora K. (2011).
Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900?1949
. Cornell University Press. pp. 134, 141.
ISBN
9780801461163
. Retrieved
1 October
2019
.
- ^
Laughland, John (2008).
A history of political trials: from Charles I to Saddam Hussein
. Peter Lang. p. 59.
ISBN
9781906165055
. Retrieved
1 October
2019
.
- ^
Δ?φνη?, Γρηγ?ριο? (1997).
Η Ελλ?? μεταξ? δ?ο πολ?μων
. Αθ?να: Κ?κτο?. p. 21.
- ^
Clogg, Richard (2002).
"4: Catastrophe and occupation and their consequences"
.
A Concise History of Greece
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 98?100.
ISBN
9780521004794
. Retrieved
30 September
2019
.
- ^
Alikaniotis, Dion P. (2009).
Η πολιτικ? και κοινωνικ? Ιδεολογ?α του Δημητρ?ου Γο?ναρη
. Athens. p. 301.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
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