Provisional Government of National Defence

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Provisional Government of National Defence
Προσωρινή Κυβέρνηση Εθνικής Αμύνης
Κράτος της Θεσσαλονίκης
1916–1917
Flag of State of Thessaloniki
Flag
Location of State of Thessaloniki
StatusVenizelist-dominated government (recognized by the Triple Entente in December 1916 as the lawful Greek government)
CapitalThessaloniki
Common languagesGreek language
Religion
Greek Orthodox
GovernmentProvisional government, Venizelist state
Prime Minister 
• 1916-17
Eleftherios Venizelos
Triumvirate of National Defence 
• 1916-17
Eleftherios Venizelos
Pavlos Kountouriotis
Panagiotis Danglis
Historical eraWorld War I
National Schism
17 August 1916
• Abdication of Constantine I
29 May 1917
CurrencyGreek drachma (₯)
French franc
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Kingdom of Greece
Kingdom of Greece

The Provisional Government of National Defence (Greek: Προσωρινή Κυβέρνηση Εθνικής Αμύνης, romanized: 'Prosoriní Kyvérnisi Ethnikís Amýnis), also known as the State of Thessaloniki (Κράτος της Θεσσαλονίκης), was a parallel administration, set up in the city of Thessaloniki by former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and his supporters during World War I, in opposition and rivalry to the official royal government in Athens.

The establishment of this second Greek state had its origins in the debate over Greece's

Asia Minor Catastrophe
.

Background: Greece 1914–1916

Further information: National Schism

Greece had emerged victorious from the 1912-1913

First World War
.

Mytilini
, June 1916
Proclamation of the Venizelist government in Thessaloniki, September 1916
Demonstration
The National Defence government: the Triumvirate with collaborators on 29 September 1916 (O.S.)

Greece, like Bulgaria, initially maintained neutrality, but as the war continued, both warring camps began wooing the two countries. At this point the first rifts appeared among the Greek leadership: Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, at the helm since 1910 of a modernising government looking towards the British and French models, supported entry in the war on the side of the Entente, while King Constantine I, who had been educated in Germany, married to Kaiser Wilhelm II's sister and a deep admirer of Prussian militarism, anticipated a German victory. Aware that Greece was vulnerable to the British Fleet, he advocated a course of neutrality.

In early 1915 the British offered Greece "territorial concessions in

Emmanouil Zymvrakakis and others. The group acknowledged Venizelos as its leader, and began approaching officers of the Army and the Cretan Gendarmerie
.

During the following year, Greece's official governments were hard-pressed to maintain the country's neutrality. The final straw came when, on 25 May [

Rupel Fortress to the Germans and their Bulgarian Allies. In response, on 3 June [O.S. 21 May] 1916, the pro-Entente Venizelists imposed martial law, effectively abolishing royal sovereignty in all of northern Greece. On 18 August [O.S. 3 August], the Bulgarian invasion of eastern Macedonia commenced, facing little resistance, since the Athens government refused to condone any firm action. As a result, more than 6000 men of IV Corps surrendered to the Germans on 26 August [O.S. 13 August] and were deported to Görlitz in Germany. This surrender of hard-won territories with only token resistance, outraged most Greeks. At the same time, the establishment of the exiled Serbian King
and his government in Thessaloniki in April, the presence of 120,000 Serbian troops in the Macedonian Front, accompanied by threats from the Entente that he would install a Serbian prefect in the city, raised fears that the city would be handed over to the Serbians.

Uprising in Thessaloniki

Main article: National Defence coup d'état

Incensed by the successive humiliations and the Bulgarian advance in Macedonia, several Greek officers had flocked to Thessaloniki and volunteered to raise troops and join the Allies. The local Allied commander-in-chief,

Mikro Karabournou that forced Mazarakis to abandon his attempt and withdraw from the barracks.[2]

Restaurant "Verdun" in Thessaloniki, decorated in support of Venizelos and the National Defence regime, 1916.

This incident sparked the flame of a wider uprising on the next day, 30 August [O.S. 17 August], by the city's pro-Venizelist officers. Under the command of Lt. Colonel Epameinondas Zymvrakakis, about 600 men of the Cretan Gendarmerie with three volunteer companies under Major Neokosmos Grigoriadis and thirty other officers blockaded the headquarters of III Corps. When a company under Colonel Vagias tried to break through the blockade, shots were fired that killed two gendarmes and wounded three others. In response, the Cretans fired back, killing or wounding three or four soldiers. The firefight was stopped by the intervention of French officers. Sarrail arrived on the scene soon after, and commanded all Greek officers who would not join the newly formed "National Defence Committee" uprising to be shipped to southern Greece. The loyalist troops were disarmed and interned in the hopes that they would join the uprising, but in the event most of them refused and had to be sent to southern Greece as well.[2]

Individual officers from across northern Greece began to flock to Thessaloniki, and on 15 September [

Strymon river.[3]

Establishment of the State of National Defence

Officers Zymvrakakis and Christodoulou inspect troops
Army of National Defence
marches before the White Tower on its way to the front.
A Greek torpado boat at the port
Macedonian front
, accompanied by Admiral Kountouriotis and General Sarrail.

Venizelos himself with his closest aides left Athens on 12/25 September, initially for his home island of Crete, and from there via

Pavlos Koundouriotis (the "Triumvirate of National Defence", Τριανδρία της Εθνικής Αμύνης).[3]

On 29 September/12 October, Maj Gen

Emmanouil Zymvrakakis was appointed Army Minister (replaced on December 6 by Maj Gen Konstantinos Miliotis-Komninos) and on October 3 Nikolaos Politis
was appointed Foreign Minister. On 6 October other ministries, euphemistically called "General Directorates" were established:

The first tasks of the new government were the establishment of an "

which calendar?
], and set out to recruit divisions for the Macedonian Front, something which was achieved with speed and often ruthlessness. Despite calls by some officers to abolish the monarchy and declare a Republic, Venizelos chose a more moderate path. He had declared: "we are not against the King, but against the Bulgarians".

The State of National Defence established control in Greek Macedonia, Crete and the northern Aegean islands; lands that were just recently liberated during the Balkan Wars. The reluctant and uneasy coexistence of the two Greek states was not destined to last, as the Noemvriana riots against Venizelists in Athens clearly illustrated that a rapprochement was now impossible. Early in 1917, the Venizelist state took also control of Thessaly, after clashes against the royal army of Constantine.

The division of the country lasted for 9 months. On 15 June 1917[

Asia Minor Campaign. As such, the immediate aims of the "National Defence" were met. But the revolution was also an expression of the wide rift between the quasi-Republican, progressive Venizelists and the conservative Royalists/Anti-Venizelists, and its outbreak marks also the beginning of the Greek National Schism
which would leave a troublesome legacy to the country, as it continued in various forms up to the 1970s.

In popular culture

A popular song of the era celebrating the movement was performed by the musical Estudiantina of Smyrna named Tis aminis ta pedià (the lads of the Defence) or the Macedon.

The song was performed also in the film

Rebetiko of Costas Ferris in orchestration of Stavros Xarchakos
.

Notes

  1. ^ The entrenched camp of Salonica became the location of present-day Zeitenlik Allied military cemetery and memorial park.

References

  1. Gregorian Calendar on 16 February 1923 (which became 1 March). All dates prior to that, unless specifically denoted, are Old Style
    .
  2. ^ a b c d Μεγάλη Στρατιωτική και Ναυτική Εγκυκλοπαιδεία. Τόμος Γ′: Δαβατηνός – Ιωσήφ [Great Military and Naval Encyclopedia. Volume III] (in Greek). Athens. 1929. p. 496.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ a b Μεγάλη Στρατιωτική και Ναυτική Εγκυκλοπαιδεία. Τόμος Γ′: Δαβατηνός – Ιωσήφ [Great Military and Naval Encyclopedia. Volume III] (in Greek). Athens. 1929. pp. 496–497.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

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