Τετάρτη 26 Οκτωβρίου 2016

Ioannis Metaxas





John  Metaxas                                                             ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣ ΜΕΤΑΞΑΣ
 
Born 12 April, 1871 in Ithaca                            Died 29 January, 1941

 

Section 5, Number 545

In 1936, Ioannis Metaxas - 65 years old, short, pot-bellied, and scholarly looking, realized a vision. In the mold of Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco, he presided, as dictator, over the short-lived Third Hellenic Civilization, a brave new world that purported to embrace the values and ideals of the ancient Greeks (Spartans, not Athenians), the Christian-Byzantine Empire and, we might add, many of the ideals of Germany’s Third Reich. His 4th of August Regime lasted from August 4th 1936 until his death on the 29th of January, 1941 – long enough to have affected Greek politics right up until the present day.

And yet, Metaxas is a hero to many because during his tenure he refused to allow Mussolini entrée into Greece His famous OXI (NO) on October 29 1940 (1) galvanized the nation into beating back the Italian onslaught (something even Hitler admired), and because he openly embraced certain ideals that are, even today, very much a part of the Greek national psyche.



 a telling portrait

His Life
Ioannis Metaxas grew up in Cephalonia, an island where a branch of his family had an illustrious history.(2)  An excellent student, he graduated from the Greek Military Academy in 1889, then  became a field officer in the ill fated war with Turkey in 1897  where he impressed the then Prince Constantine who knew talent when he saw it. He went on to the German Kriegsakademie in Berlin where he studied military strategy for three years until 1902 and graduated at the top of his class in every subject.

 A royalist and an admirer of the German Military order, by 1916, he had risen in the ranks to become a Lieutenant General in the Greek army, a position of real power and one in which he advised the prime ministers of the era (including Eleftherios Venizelos) and the king.

Metaxas opposed entering the First World War on the side of the Entente against Germany.  His reasoning was both strategic (his area of expertise) and emotional.  In a letter to his wife in 1914, he had written: German culture is the culture of the future and the hope of humanity.  It was a sentiment shared by many at the time. 

He went into exile when a new government under Eleftherios Venizelos took power and declared war on Germany on June 29th 1917 but would return after Venizelos’ 1920 election defeat. 

Things went from bad to worse in 1922 as the Greek army went into Asia Minor, an adventure and dream the King supported, but Metaxas, the military strategist, had realized was a terrible mistake. The Asia Minor debacle (3) effectively ended the monarchy for the next 13 years. Greece would become a republic until 1935. Metaxas again went into exile, but not for long.

He returned, and this time entered the political arena (an arena  all too close to the military one throughout modern Greece’s history).  His small party had some success in the politically turbulent 1920s, less so in the early 30s. Then Fate, in the person of the newly reinstalled Greek king, intervened.

 George ll, well aware of Metaxas’ royalist sympathies, appointed him Prime Minister on April 13, 1936 although Metaxas’ Free Thinkers Party had only won 3.9% of the popular vote in the 1936 election.  Kings could do that.  (4) 
  
 Less than four months later, on August 4, 1936, and with the king’s blessing, Metaxas dissolved parliament and established his dictatorship. 

 He abolished all political parties, even his own, and chose to see himself from that moment on as an independent, henceforth to be referred to as the Archigos,  the Leader, someone above politics altogether.  This paternalistic image came easily to him where the Greek people were concerned.  As early as August 21, 1914, he had written in his diary that he considered Greeks “spiritually immature”.  He saw himself as a mature and rational ideologue, one who could educate and guide the nation! Many Greeks agreed.

Metaxism

His vision for Greece was not new. It involved a blend of ethnic nationalism (to preserve cultural purity of the nation), monarchism (shades of Byzantium) as one of the pillars of national unity,  anti-parliamentarianism (not surprising when he had only  7 members in parliament in 1935) and anti-communism. The rise of the communist party was seen by him and his patron King George ll as a scourge to be eradicated.(5)

 His tenure was highlighted by harsh repression of Communists (aided by his ruthless interior secretary, Constantinos  Maniadakis), and his effort  to ‘educate the young by including them all in a Nazi style youth organization called EON, The National Youth Organization, an entity  that would have been, and probably still would be, the envy of an absolute dictator anywhere! 


The EON Badge

It involved all children from the age of 6 to7 joining the "National Youth Organization" (EON) and dressing in dark blue uniforms, with the EON  emblem on their hats.
The younger the better,



 
and what we today can only identify as the Nazi salute…



Physical fitness has always seemed more of an ideological concept than a reality for dictators…

The communist party was outlawed and their leaders imprisoned. Even non-communists like Georgios Papandreou were imprisoned. Constantinos  Maniadakis became notorious for torturing communists and left wingers, a repression that would have far reaching repercussions during the German occupation during World War Two and after. (6)

Although Metaxas wanted to remain neutral during the build up to World War Two, Italy's ill- planned invasion led to the famous ochi (no!)  of October 29 194O,  and his  successful repulsion the Italian army, the aspect of his tenure for which he is best remembered today and one that ever since has seemed to serve as a kind of  retrospective redemption for a man who was, in reality, a ruthless dictator. (7)

His Death

Ioannis Metaxas died suddenly on January 29, 1941 of complications from a throat infection. There are many conspiracy theories about his death, the most popular being that the British assassinated him (through their army doctors) because he was unwilling to go against the Germans who were, at the time, massing troops on the Bulgarian border. Others pooh pooh this idea, pointing out that he had in fact been ill for some time, although that was not for public consumption,  and that there had even  been time for the famous  icon of Mary to have been brought from Tinos, - to no avail.

His death stunned the nation. EON troops of all ages  were mustered to line the streets all the way from Kifissia where he died until the Metropolitan Church where he lay in state and his funeral was held.(8) 

His successor was Alexandros Koryzis, a banker. The king installed him as  prime minister just hours after Metaxas’ death. Greece had no parliamentary government, Koryzis was not at all a leader in the mold of Metaxas, and the Germans were on Greece’s doorstep.

Hitler invaded a unprepared Greece in April, just a few weeks after Metaxas’ death.
His Grave


Section 5, Number 545
It has a very small guardian angel, but a very large cross…



His grave is large but simple,-austere even. It is a family grave although his name along with that of his wife, Lela, are the most prominent.  It is just a few rows away from another famous dictator, Georgos Papadopoulos. 

  His grave has been desecrated in the past by vandals. See https://en-contrainfo.espiv.net/2011/11/02/athens-first-cemetery-metaxas-tomb-desecrated/ . The motive, while comprehensible, seems futile, but that is still a matter of opinion for some. Ioannis Metaxas has always had vehement detractors and avid admirers. Many of them are now buried in the democracy of death in Athens’ First Cemetery.
 
                                                                    The Map 



Footnotes

(1)  His actual words were: Alors, c' est la guerre!
(2)   See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Metaxa for the family history.
 (3) The defeat of the Greek Army in Asia Minor and the destruction of Smyrna in 1922 effectively ended “the Great Idea” of Greek territorial expansion.
(4) Between 1924 and 1935 there were 23 changes of government in Greece, a dictatorship and 13 coups. A short lived Greek experiment with republicanism had ended with the return of King George ll in a rigged plebiscite that could not have made the King feel at all secure. The king, to his credit, wanted to declare an amnesty between republicans and monarchists but could not agree with the then prime minister, so  new elections were held in January 1936 that were not to the king’s liking either – the communists appeared to hold the balance of power. Enter Metaxas whom George then appointed Prime minister and shortly afterward, allowed him to dissolve parliament.  Kings in Greece have had a rather sorry history but, then again, so have parliamentarians.
(5) It is impossible in a thumbnail history to convey the impact of Metaxism on the era. One interesting source is Popular Autocracy in Greece 1936-41: a Political Biography of General Ioannis Metaxas by P.J. Vatakiotis. There are many others. 

(6) Constantinos Maniadakis landed on his feet after the war – as did many members of Metaxas’ security forces. He is also buried in the First Cemetery.
(7)  Like most dictators, Metaxas was convinced his ability to ‘cure’ the country. He did create a national insurance scheme (IKA) and built the Kiffisia- Athens railway, but at what cost?  Oxi Day (October 28th) is still a Greek National Holiday.
(8)  For clips of his Funeral:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ucdU5zZv0


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