Ilias Iliou

Ilias Iliou (

Iliou was born in 1904 in Kastro (now renamed Myrina), the main town of Lemnos. The island was part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912. His grandfather Ilias was a shoemaker originally from Macedonia, his father Philippos (d. 1927) a rich merchant who lost his fortune in 1929, and his mother Efthalia (d. 1916) a schoolteacher, rare for a woman at the time. He was the eldest of three brothers and one sister. The others were Yannis (b. 1906, died soon after), another Yannis (b. 1908), Konstantinos (b. 1910) and Eleni (b. 1912).

A brilliant pupil, he finished the

Before the Second World War

He started a legal practice in Mytilene with George Zoanos which continued in Athens after 1935. In addition to his legal work he also wrote poetry, was a translator from classical Greek and French of literary and legal books, contributing many articles to specialist law journals. He also wrote articles for literary magazines such as Noumas (Νουμάς), Philiki Etairia (Φιλική Εταιρεία), Ellinika Grammata (Ελληνικά Γράμματα) and Neoellinika Grammata (Νεοελληνικά Γράμματα), which broke new ground as they were written in the Demotic Greek (spoken, popular form of Greek) which was only officially recognized in 1975 instead of the usual more classical katharevousa.

During the

Iliou was always a supporter of liberal progressive causes. In 1935, during the dictatorship of General Metaxas, he was contacted by Joe Nordmann (b. 1910, a prominent lawyer who was a member of the French Communist Party and later of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers) and asked to send information about the persecution of anti-fascists in Greece.

Resistance and civil war

The EDA party (United Democratic Left) was created in 1951 to represent a broad front covering the parties on the Left, including the proscribed Communist Party. Iliou was one of the founders. In the elections of 1952 Iliou was one of the deported candidates who were elected. The government was forced to release them, but it immediately annulled their election. Iliou became an MP for EDA and was re-elected in all the general elections from 1956 to 1967. He was its parliamentary leader and later President.

In 1965 Colonel

“ ... How come there is a presumption that someone called Papadopoulos is telling the truth while dozens of free citizens are presumed to be guilty without evidence, that an order by Mr. Papadopoulos is enough for the arrest of ten citizens at home in the middle of the night and their imprisonment in total isolation, subject to the usual beatings and maltreatment, and that eventually it should be established that it was all a lot of hot air? And if tomorrow another order targets not 10 but 500, 1,000, 10,000 citizens, might it be possible that this country once more becomes home to a regime of fear, based on another arbitrary and malicious act by some Mr Papadopoulos?”

A cartoon by

After the fall of the Junta in 1974, he was reelected to Parliament in 1974 with EDA and in 1977 with the Coalition of Left and Progressive Forces (Συμμαχία Αριστερών και Προοδευτικών Δυνάμεων) which included inter alia EDA and the two Communist parties that had come out of the Party schism of 1968. By this time he was one of the senior, longest-serving MPs and a popular public figure. In 1978 the coalition dissolved into its constituents and in 1981 he retired from politics.

Poet, lawyer and politician, recognized as a

In 1930 he married Eleftheria Kaldis, daughter of Georgios Emmanouil Kaldis (1875–1953), MP for Lesbos and Lemnos, and they had 2 children: Philippos Iliou (historian, 1931–2004) and Mary Iliou Ciompi (b. 1934). His wife died in 2003.

Writings

(All the publications below, which are a selection only, are in Greek and by I. Iliou. The titles have been translated from the original Greek)

1939: “Speeches by Aeschines” (translation and commentary I. Iliou), publisher Zacharopoulos.

1940: Ρητορική “Rhetoric” by Aristotle (introduction, translation, notes by I. Iliou), publisher Zacharopoulos (2 volumes). Republished by Kedros 1984 & 2002.

• Obituary in Avghi 26 and 29 January 1985.
• N. K. Alivizatos: “Ilias Iliou, the sage of the democratic left”, in “Personalities of the 20th Century. Greeks who have affected the 20th century”, editor V. Panagiotopoulos, publisher Ta Nea - New Frontiers, A. A. Livanis Athens 2000 pp 153–158.
• Takis Benas: “A congress that never occurred. Forerunning trends of the Left before the dictatorship”, publisher Delfini 1995,
  ISBN 960-309-177-4
  .
• Grigoris Giannaros: “Ilias Iliou: harbinger of Eurocommunism in Greece”, in Avghi 3-2-1985.
• Tassos Trikkas: “EDA 1951-1967. The new face of the Left”, Vols A&B, publisher Themelio 2009,
  ISBN 978-960-310-341-7
  .
• Phaidon Vegleris: “Ilias Iliou, lawyer”, in Avghi 10-2-1985.
• “Members of Parliament and of the European Parliament - writers. 1974-2008”, published by the Greek Parliament, 2008.