Alexandros Koryzis

   Alexandros Koryzis                                            ΑΛΕΧΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΖΗΣ

   Born 1885                                                            Died April 18, 1941

Plaza, Number 43

One of the great pleasures of this blog project for Filia and I has been coming across a disconcerting  (at least to us) story about persons buried in the First Cemetery and, by investigating, coming to understand how their story  fits into the rich mosaic that is modern Greece.

Alexandros Koryzis, a banker turned politician, was Greece’s Prime Minister for only 80 days before the dramatic events of April 1941 proved too much for him to handle.

 Just 12 days after Germany invaded Greece but before they actually reached Athens, Koryzis entered his study and shot himself twice- in the heart. 

His life:

Alexandros Koryzis came from the area of Poros -Troizan with the usual credentials: a political father and a forefather who had fought in the War of Independence.  After studying law, he joined the National Bank of Greece, and rose in the ranks. For a time he acted as a financial advisor to the governor of Smyrna when it briefly came under Greek influence before the 1922 Smyrna debacle. (1)

He was prominent, intelligent, debonair, and respected.

Like many Greek people in 1936, Koyzis welcomed the stability offered by the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas and was tagged by him to be his Minister of Health and Welfare, a post he held for three years, until 1939. Metaxas’ plan for pensions and health care were extremely popular and Koryzis could take credit for some of that. Nonetheless, in 1939 he resigned and returned to banking, becoming the Governor of the National Bank.

Then, Metaxas died unexpectedly on January 29, 1941 at a critical and dangerous point in Greece’s history.  It took only hours for King George II to appoint Koryzis to fill the vacuum left by Metaxas’ death. (2)

 To call this moment in Greek history chaotic would be an understatement.  Any vestige   of parliamentary democracy had been in the deep freeze since 1936 and the Germans were gathering on the Greek-Bulgarian border to aid their Italian allies who had recently been so soundly defeated by the Greek army. The English were trying to decide how much help they should or could offer (10,000 allied army personnel were already in Greece) and Koryzis had to decide whether or not to accept any proffered help, whether to pull troops from the Albanian front to meet the German threat – or even whether the German threat was real! Unlike us, he did not know what was about to happen. (3)

It was a nightmare. Saying ‘no’ to the German juggernaut was quite a different proposition from saying no to the Italians in 1940 - although Koryzis finally did say ‘no’. but to no avail.  The Germans invaded.

Was it Suicide?

Perhaps suicide was a logical choice for an inexperienced leader under the pressure he was experiencing, but the circumstances surrounding this suicide have since raised questions. Foremost among them was how he had managed to shoot himself twice in the area of the heart. 

Secondly, there was no autopsy. 

Then there was a mysterious meeting between Koryzis and the king  earlier in the day that had not gone well at all. Apparently Koryzis left this meeting upset enough for the concerned king to send his son to his home to see how he was faring. The crown prince arrived just in time to hear the shots. 

What had happened during that meeting? Some historians believe that Koryzis had been told that day by the king of his decision to abandon Athens and move his government to either Cyprus or Crete. That would have been depressing enough. 

Another scenario has the king accusing Koryzis of fraternizing with a woman who was, at the time, having an affair with a spy from the German embassy. If true, it could have been construed as a traitorous act.  This theory has him being murdered as a liability. Farfetched, - but not entirely ridiculous because of those two shots. (4) 

His death was presented to the public as a heart attack –a diagnosis that must have appealed to the dark sense of humour of those in the know. 

The public announcement of his death

It would hardly have done to announce to the Greek people at this critical juncture that the leader who had vowed upon his inauguration to remain steadfast for his people had opted out days before German jackboots echoed on the pavements of Athens.

The aftermath of Koryzis’ suicide was horrible: the German occupation, the flight of erstwhile parliamentarians who after 5 years of dictatorship no longer had a core leadership or institution around which they could rally, and the flight of the king and his family just days later. All this, of course, left the people of Greece sailing into treacherous waters in a rudderless ship.

The Grave

Austere and serious, his name is etched on a marble plaque set before the façade of a classical Greek temple in an area reserved for Greek worthies.  Its serenity is the antithesis of both his death and the era he lived in.

The Map

Plaza, Number 43

Footnotes

(1) According to the provisions of the Treaty of Sevres (August 1920), Smyrna was to be administered by a local parliament and given the chance of a future plebiscite to say whether they wished to join Greece or remain in the Ottoman Empire. The treaty accepted Greek administration of the Smyrna enclave, although the area remained under Turkish sovereignty.

(2)  King George II deserves his own text but will not get it. He is buried at the Tatoi Palace with the rest of the Greek royal family. He and Metaxas were governing the country together during this critical period. Parliamentary democracy was deemed unnecessary.

(3)  A fascinating book by Robin Higham entitled Diary of a Disaster: British Aid to Greece 1940-41 highlights the uncertainty of leaders about what to do. If you Google it, you will find enough on line to understand just what Koryzis was facing when he took power. There is another intriguing aspect. These events occurred in 1941. The Enigma code had already been broken and it is possible that the British themselves knew exactly what the Germans were planning– but they could not come out and say so because the Germans would have realized that their code was broken. So many ironies.

(4) Greece is a country where conspiracy theories are given very free rein. For this one, see  www.anoixtoparathyro.gr/το-δεύτερο-όχι-ποιος-σκότωσε-τον-κορυζ/  Some have dismissed the suicide scenario pointing out that Koryzis was buried with Orthodox rites but this does not hold water. Orthodoxy is famous for its use of ‘economy’ – a stretching of the rules for the greater good and, calling Koryzis’ death a heart attack, was probably the greater good at that moment. In any case, the Church, to its credit, has had an admirable track record of translating suicide into temporary insanity and allowing an Orthodox ceremony.

A footnote to the footnotes:  A delightful square on Poros Island is today dedicated to Koryzis and his bust is its centerpiece.  Both can be found beside his island home which was donated by the family to house the town’s archaeological museum.  It's presence  reminds me of a passage in Pausanias  where he pointed out a shrine to Podares,  a Mantinean leader who had been defeated in a battle with Thebes. Greek history has had so many twists and turns, it seems that even defeated leaders can still be honored.

 

The square in Poros