75 Facts About Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftherios Venizelos initiated constitutional and economic reforms that set the basis for the modernization of Greek society and reorganized both the Greek Army and the Greek Navy in preparation for future conflicts.

Eleftherios Venizelos was defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War.

Eleftherios Venizelos, in self-imposed exile, represented Greece in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne and the agreement of a mutual population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

Chester and Kerofilas, contemporary historians and Eleftherios Venizelos' biographers, stated that the 18th century ancestors of Eleftherios Venizelos, under the surname of Cravvatas, lived in Mystras, in southern Peloponnese.

Eleftherios Venizelos's sons abandoned the patronymic name and called themselves Venizelos instead.

Eleftherios Venizelos spent his final year of secondary education at a school in Ermoupolis, the principal town of Syros, from which he received his certificate in 1880.

Eleftherios Venizelos returned to Crete in 1886 and worked as a lawyer in Chania.

The Crosfields were well connected and Eleftherios Venizelos met Arthur Balfour, David Lloyd George and the arms dealer Basil Zaharoff in subsequent visits to the house.

Eleftherios Venizelos lived there until 1927, when he returned to Chania.

Under these unstable conditions, Eleftherios Venizelos entered politics in the elections of 2 April 1889 as a member of the island's liberal party.

Eleftherios Venizelos proposed an attack, along with other rebels, on the Turkish forces at Akrotiri to displace them from the plains.

Eleftherios Venizelos spent the night in Akrotiri and a Greek flag was raised.

Eleftherios Venizelos wrote that the rebels would keep their positions until everyone was killed by the shells of European warships in order not to let the Turks remain in Crete.

Eleftherios Venizelos played an important role in this solution, not only as the leader of the Cretan rebels but as a skilled diplomat with his frequent communication with the admirals of the Great Powers.

The four Great Powers assumed the administration of Crete; and Prince George of Greece, the second son of King George I of Greece, became High Commissioner, with Eleftherios Venizelos serving as his minister of Justice from 1899 to 1901.

Eleftherios Venizelos became minister of Justice, and with the rest of the Committee, they began to organize the State and create a "Cretan constitution".

Eleftherios Venizelos insisted on not making reference to religion so all the residents of Crete would feel represented.

Eleftherios Venizelos said to the Prince that it would not be proper to give hope to the population for something that was not feasible at the given moment.

The disagreements continued on other topics; the Prince wanted to build a palace, but Eleftherios Venizelos strongly opposed it as that would mean the perpetuation of the current arrangement of Governorship; Cretans accepted it only as temporary until a final solution was found.

Relations between the two men became increasingly soured, and Eleftherios Venizelos repeatedly submitted his resignation.

Eleftherios Venizelos suggested that once the Prince's service expired, then the Great Powers should be invited to the Committee, which, according to article 39 of the constitution would elect a new sovereign, thereby removing the need for the presence of the Great Powers.

Eleftherios Venizelos replied to the accusations by submitting his resignation , with the reasoning that it would be impossible henceforth to collaborate with the Committee's members; he assured the Commissioner that he did not intend to join the opposition.

Henceforth, Eleftherios Venizelos assumed the leadership of the opposition to the Prince.

On that day, thousands of citizens in Chania and the surrounding regions formed a rally in which Eleftherios Venizelos declared the union of Crete with Greece.

Chairman of the committee was Antonios Michelidakis, and Eleftherios Venizelos became Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs.

Eleftherios Venizelos went to Athens, and after consulting with the Military League and with representatives of the political world, he proposed a new government and Parliament's reformation.

Eleftherios Venizelos's proposals were considered by the King and the Greek politicians dangerous for the political establishment.

Eleftherios Venizelos was immediately recognized as the leader of the independents, and thus, he founded the political party, Komma Fileleftheron.

The old parties boycotted the new election in protest and on 11 December 1910, Eleftherios Venizelos' party won 307 seats out of 362, with most of the elected citizens being new in the political scene.

Eleftherios Venizelos formed a government and started to reorganize the economic, political, and national affairs of the country.

Eleftherios Venizelos tried to advance his reform program in the realms of political and social ideologies, education, and literature by adopting practically viable compromises between often conflicting tendencies.

Eleftherios Venizelos took measures for the improvement of management, justice, and security and for the settlement of the landless peasants of Thessaly.

Eleftherios Venizelos did not want to initiate any immediate major movements in the Balkans, until the Greek army and navy were reorganized and the Greek economy was revitalized.

In light of this, Eleftherios Venizelos proposed to Ottoman Empire to recognize the Cretans the right to send deputies to the Greek Parliament, as a solution for closing the Cretan Question.

Eleftherios Venizelos, seeing no improvements after his approach with the Turks on the Cretan Question and at the same time not wanting to see Greece remain inactive as in the Russo-Turkish War in 1877, he decided that the only way to settle the disputes with Ottoman Empire, was to join the other Balkan countries, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro, in an alliance known as the Balkan League.

Negotiations with Serbia, which Eleftherios Venizelos had initiated to achieve a similar agreement, were concluded in early 1913, before that there were only oral agreements.

Eleftherios Venizelos was more realistic and insisted on the political aims of the war: to liberate as many geographical areas and cities as fast as possible, particularly Macedonia and Thessaloniki; thus heading east.

Eleftherios Venizelos intervened and insisted that Thessaloniki, as a major city and strategic port in the surrounding area, should be taken at all costs and thus a turn to the east was necessary.

Eleftherios Venizelos, having accurate information from the Greek embassy in Sofia about the movement of the Bulgarian army towards the city, sent a telegram to Constantine in a strict tone, holding him responsible for the possible loss of Thessaloniki.

Eleftherios Venizelos went to Hadji-Beylik, where the Greek headquarters were, to confer with Constantine on the Greek territorial claims in the peace conference.

Eleftherios Venizelos, having received assurances over Asia Minor if the Greeks participated in the alliance, agreed to cede the area to Bulgaria.

Eleftherios Venizelos supported an alliance with the Entente, not only believing that Britain and France would win but that it was the only choice for Greece because the combination of the strong Anglo-French naval control over the Mediterranean and the geographical distribution of the Greek population to the coast, could have ill effects in the case of a naval blockade, as he characteristically remarked:.

Eleftherios Venizelos was influenced both by his belief in the military superiority of Germany and by his German wife, Queen Sophia, and his pro-German court.

Eleftherios Venizelos therefore strove to secure a neutrality, which would be favorable to Germany and Austria.

Eleftherios Venizelos saw this as an opportunity to bring the country on the side of the Entente in the conflict.

However, the King and the Hellenic Army General Staff disagreed and Eleftherios Venizelos submitted his resignation on 21 February 1915.

Eleftherios Venizelos' party won the elections and formed a new government.

The dispute continued between the two men, and in December 1915, King Constantine forced Eleftherios Venizelos to resign for a second time and dissolved the Liberal-dominated parliament, calling for new elections.

Eleftherios Venizelos did not take part in the elections, as he considered the dissolution of Parliament unconstitutional.

On 16 August 1916, during a rally in Athens, and with the support of the allied army that had landed in Thessaloniki under the command of General Maurice Sarrail, Eleftherios Venizelos publicly announced his total disagreement with the Crown's policies.

Primarily, these areas comprised the "New Lands" won during the Balkan Wars, in which Eleftherios Venizelos enjoyed broad support, while "Old Greece" was mostly pro-royalist.

However, Eleftherios Venizelos declared, "we are not against the King, but against the Bulgarians".

Eleftherios Venizelos didn't want to abolish the monarchy and continued his efforts to persuade the King to join the Allies, blaming his "bad advisors" for his stance.

Eleftherios Venizelos advised the king that according to his orders, he would land an Allied contingent with the aim to occupy certain positions in Athens until his demands were satisfied.

In reply, a royal warrant for the arrest of Eleftherios Venizelos was issued and the Archbishop of Athens, under pressure by the royal house, anathematised him.

Eleftherios Venizelos's departure was followed by the deportation of many prominent royalists, especially army officers such as Ioannis Metaxas, to exile in France and Italy.

In July 1919, Eleftherios Venizelos reached an agreement with the Italians on the cession of the Dodecanese, and secured an extension of the Greek area in the periphery of Smyrna.

On his journey home on 12 August 1920, Eleftherios Venizelos survived an assassination attack by two royalist soldiers at the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris.

The defeat came as a surprise to most people, and Eleftherios Venizelos failed even to get elected as an MP.

Eleftherios Venizelos himself attributed this to the war-weariness of the Greek people that had been under arms with almost no intermission since 1912.

Eleftherios Venizelos assumed the leadership of the Greek delegation that negotiated peace terms with the Turks.

Eleftherios Venizelos signed the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey on 24 July 1923.

Eleftherios Venizelos returned to Greece and served as prime minister until 1924, when quarrels with anti-monarchists forced him back into exile.

Eleftherios Venizelos's efforts proved to be successful in the cases of the newly founded Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Italy.

Eleftherios Venizelos was cautious towards Albania, and although bilateral relations remained at a good level, no initiative was taken by either side aiming at the final settlement of the unresolved issues.

Finally, the two sides reached an agreement on 30 April 1930; on 25 October, Eleftherios Venizelos visited Turkey and signed a treaty of friendship.

Eleftherios Venizelos even forwarded Ataturk's name for the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize, highlighting the mutual respect between the two leaders.

Nevertheless, Eleftherios Venizelos' initiative was criticized domestically not only by the opposition but by members of his own party that represented the Greek refugees from Turkey.

Eleftherios Venizelos was accused of making too many concessions on the issues of naval armaments and of the properties of the Greeks who were expelled from Turkey according to the Treaty of Lausanne.

The political climate became more tense, and in 1933 Eleftherios Venizelos was the target of a second assassination attempt.

Eleftherios Venizelos left for Paris and on 12 March 1936 wrote his last letter to Alexandros Zannas.

Eleftherios Venizelos suffered a stroke on the morning of the 13th and died five days later in his flat at 22 rue Beaujon.

Eleftherios Venizelos's body was then taken by the destroyer Pavlos Kountouriotis to Chania, avoiding Athens in order not to cause unrest.

Eleftherios Venizelos was buried on a hill at the head of the Akrotiri peninsula beside the eastern outskirts of Chania city in Crete, close to the place where he was born.

Eleftherios Venizelos was one Greek politician who achieved worldwide fame during his lifetime, and in the six years between 1915 and 1921, five biographies of him were published in English together with numerous profiles in the newspapers.