1. Athanasios Klaras, better known by the nom de guerre Aris Velouchiotis, was a Greek journalist, politician, member of the Communist Party of Greece, the most prominent leader and chief instigator of the Greek People's Liberation Army and the military branch of the National Liberation Front, which was the major resistance organization in occupied Greece from 1942 to 1945.
Aris Velouchiotis's father was Dimitrios Klaras, a well-known lawyer in the area and his mother was Aglaia Zerva.
Aris Velouchiotis left for Athens, where he did various jobs, participated in the leftist and antimilitary movement and later became a member of the Communist Party of Greece.
Aris Velouchiotis became an editor in the communist Rizospastis and wrote several articles supporting socialist revolution.
Aris Velouchiotis was arrested for his communist ideas at the end of 1936 and jailed in Aegina, where he was tortured under the police interrogation techniques refined by Konstantinos Maniadakis, the Minister of Security.
Aris Velouchiotis managed to escape during transport from Aegina to Athens for trial in 1937, but was arrested soon thereafter and sent back to Aegina for an additional four years.
Aris Velouchiotis remained imprisoned there until signing a "statement of renouncement of KKE and of the communist ideology," a very humiliating act for a communist at the time.
Aris Velouchiotis's proposals were adopted by the party, and in January 1942, Klaras moved to the mountains to start setting up guerrilla groups.
Aris Velouchiotis passed from Central Greece to Peloponnese to clear the region from the Security Battalions, and fought several battles against them.
Aris Velouchiotis returned to Central Greece and made a speech in his native town, Lamia.
Aris Velouchiotis moved again to the mountains of Central Greece in order to start an insurgency against the new government and the British allies who supported them.
Aris Velouchiotis was reported to have denounced the sell-out to the British in the Varkiza Agreement to lay down the National Resistance arms; particularly moving was the sight of his elite massed Mavroskoufides openly mourning.
Aris Velouchiotis was outmaneuvered by the KKE leadership and resolved to leave Greece; he repeatedly requested permission from the party to be allowed to depart, but was refused.
Aris Velouchiotis's intention was to create a new ELAS and a National Independence Front.
Aris Velouchiotis was denounced by the KKE Central Committee and increasingly isolated, until he was ambushed with his unit in the mountain of Agrafa by paramilitary groups controlled by the Athens government.
Recently the KKE moved discreetly for Aris Velouchiotis' rehabilitation, following in turn the expulsion of the KKE's wartime leader, Nikos Zachariadis.
Aris Velouchiotis is one of the most controversial figures of modern Greek history.
Aris Velouchiotis was especially strict to Greeks who sought collaboration with the occupying forces, with his companions who broke the organized discipline, and people who approved the involvement of the British in Greek politics, since he considered the British a threat to the patriotic cause of the Resistance.