Stylianos Gonatas

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Stylianos Gonatas
Στυλιανός Γονατάς
Stylianos Gonatas c. 1922
Prime Minister of Greece
In office 14 November 1922 – 11 January 1924
Monarch	George II
Preceded by	Sotirios Krokidas
Succeeded by	Eleftherios Venizelos
Minister for Public Works
In office 18 April 1946 – 24 January 1947
Monarch	George II
Prime Minister	Konstantinos Tsaldaris
Personal details
Born	18 August 1876 Lieutenant General
Battles/wars	Macedonian Struggle Balkan Wars First Balkan War Second Balkan War World War I Macedonian front Russian Civil War Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War Southern Front Southern Russia Intervention Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)

Stylianos Gonatas (

Early life and military career

Gonatas was born in Patras.

The September 1922 Revolt

In August 1922, the Greek Army was defeated in its Asia Minor campaign, which forced it to evacuate Anatolia in great haste. In Greece, this disaster led to a political crisis, and military revolts broke out in September amongst the evacuated troops in Thessaloniki, Chios and Lesbos, headed primarily by Venizelist officers.

The army contingents in Lesbos formed a Revolutionary Committee headed by Colonel Gonatas, which dispatched by airplane the following demands to

The first cabinet formed under the regime of the Revolutionary Committee (which had established itself as the real master of Greece with King George II merely as a figurehead) underwent several slight changes, the chief of which was caused by the refusal of Zaimis to retain the premiership (which remained vacant, with Sotirios Krokidas as acting premier), and after having been in power for less than two months resigned on 24 November, chiefly owing to internal differences arising from the Trial of the Six (ex-ministers, statesmen, and military leaders tried by a revolutionary tribunal on the charges of high treason). The British government, through its minister in Athens, Lindley, urged that the accused should be treated leniently. While certain members of the cabinet were prepared to accept the British suggestion, the more irreconcilable elements refused to submit to what they considered as foreign intervention in Greek internal affairs, and the cabinet accordingly resigned. On 27 November 1922 a new cabinet, composed exclusively of members of the Revolutionary Committee and of the republican group which formed the committee's most active supporters, was appointed. Colonel Gonatas was appointed premier, and Konstantinos Rentis, one of the leaders of the republican group, as acting minister for foreign affairs (see 1922 Government Crisis).

The Gonatas government served until 11 January 1924, when it resigned in favor of fellow-liberal Eleftherios Venizelos, who had returned from exile in Paris. For his service, Gonatas was given the Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer. On 31 May 1924, the National Assembly promoted him and Plastiras to the rank of lieutenant general.

Later political career

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2019)

After his service as Prime Minister, Gonatas resigned his commission in the army. In the same year, a Republic was proclaimed and the legislature expanded to include a second house: the Senate. Gonatas ran for and was elected to the Senate as a Liberal in the 1929 election representing Attica and Boeotia. He was re-elected and later served as President of the Senate from 1932 to its dissolution in 1935.

During the

In the

• Corfu incident

References