Stylianos Gonatas

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Stylianos Gonatas, 1922

Stylianos Epaminondou Gonatas ( Greek Στυλιανός Γονατάς , born August 15, 1876 in Patras ; † 1966 ) was a Greek general , politician and prime minister .

Military career

After attending school, Gonatas embarked on a military career. Between 1892 and 1897 he was a graduate of the Evelpidon Military Academy (Στρατιωτική Σχολή Ευελπίδων).

During the fighting for Macedonia from 1904 to 1908 he was ranked lieutenant . During the Goudi uprising , the revolt of the military league in 1909 in the barracks of the Goudi district of Athens , he was aide-de-camp ( adjutant ) of the leader of the military league, Colonel Nikolaos Zorbas . In the Balkan Wars from 1912 to 1913 he was also active as an officer.

In the course of the Greco-Turkish War from 1919 to 1922 he was promoted to Colonel and Chief of Staff of the Army .

Political career

Revolution of 1922

After the defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, which was a catastrophe in Asia Minor for Greece , there was a domestic political crisis and increasing unrest. After a series of short-lived transitional governments, military revolts broke out in the garrisons of Thessaloniki , Chios and Mytilini in September 1922 . Under his leadership, a revolutionary committee was formed in the barracks of Mytilene, which called for the resignation of the government, the dissolution of the National Assembly (Voulí ton Ellínon) , the holding of new elections and the abdication of King Constantine I in favor of Crown Prince George .

On September 28, the leaders of the military revolt, Colonels Gonatas and Nikolaos Plastiras, were greeted with euphoria in Athens.

After gunboats finally besieged the port of Piraeus , the government of Prime Minister Nikolaos Triantafyllakos resigned on September 29, 1922. On the same day, the king abdicated for the second time after 1917. The Revolutionary Committee appointed Sotirios Krokidas as Prime Minister of a transitional government on September 30 , since the revolutionaries' preferred candidate for office, Alexandros Zaimis , had already left Greece.

Promotion to Prime Minister

During the transitional government of Krokidas, the Revolutionary Committee around Gonatas and Plastiras was the country's real power. King George II only played a representative role during this period.

After the Revolutionary Committee accused and executed the former Prime Ministers Dimitrios Gounaris , Nikolaos Stratos , Petros Protopapadakis and three other high-ranking officers and politicians for high treason due to the defeat in the Greco-Turkish War and had them executed on November 27, 1922, Krokidas became Prime Minister back.

On the same day, Colonel Gonatas was appointed Prime Minister. His government consisted exclusively of members and supporters of the Revolutionary Committee. He himself also took over the management of the Foreign Ministry for a time in 1923. On January 24, 1924, he resigned from the office of Prime Minister in favor of the former Prime Minister and Chairman of the Liberal Party (Κόμμα Φιλελευθέρων), Eleftherios Venizelos , who had returned from exile in Paris . Gonatas was then promoted to lieutenant general for his services to Greek politics .

Senate President and World War II

He then said goodbye to active military service and retired from public life for a few years. After the republic, proclaimed in 1925 , added a senate to parliament, he successfully ran for election as senator in 1929 . From 1929 to 1935 he was a representative of Attica and Boeotia . When he was re-elected in 1932, he was also elected President of the Senate. He held this office until the Senate was dissolved after the re-establishment of the monarchy on October 10, 1935. He was imprisoned during the occupation of Greece by the German Wehrmacht from April 1941 to October 1944.

Post-war period and withdrawal from politics

After the war he was released from prison and continued his political career. After differences of opinion with the new chairman of the Liberal Party, Themistoklis Sofoulis , he founded his own party with the National Liberal Party ( Komma Ethnikon Fileleftheron Κόμμα Εθνικών Φιλελευθέρων). In the elections to the National Assembly on March 31, 1946, this party won 34 seats. In the interim government of Panagiotis Poulitsas that followed, he was Minister for Public Works and Housing from April 4 to 18, 1946. He then formed a coalition government with the conservative People's Party (Λαϊκό κόμμα) of Konstantinos Tsaldaris from April 18, 1946 to January 25, 1947, in which in turn was Minister for Public Works. During this government, in a referendum on September 1, 1946, George II was reinstated as king . From November 1946 to January 1947 he was also Deputy Prime Minister.

Before the parliamentary elections on March 5, 1950, he initially intended an electoral alliance with the National Party of Greece under the former General Napoleon Zervas . After Gonatas was accused of collaborating with the National Socialists because of Zervas' ties to the German occupying power, he refrained from this intention and instead formed an electoral alliance with the Liberal Party. Gonatas, however, suffered an election defeat and then largely withdrew from political life.

Until his death he was only a member of the Privy Council, which consisted of the former prime ministers and was an advisory body to the king.

Publications

Biographical sources and background information

predecessor Office successor
Sotirios Krokidas Prime Minister of Greece
1922–1924 		Eleftherios Venizelos
personal data
SURNAME Gonatas, Stylianos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gonatas, Stylianos Epaminondou (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek general, politician and prime minister
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Patras
DATE OF DEATH 1966