Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftheriοs Venizelos
Eleftheriοs Venizelos
Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος
	Venizelos in 1919
Prime Minister of Greece
	In office; 16 January 1933 – 6 March 1933
President	Alexandros Zaimis
Preceded by	Panagis Tsaldaris
Succeeded by	Alexandros Othonaios
	In office; 5 June 1932 – 4 November 1932
President	Alexandros Zaimis
Preceded by	Alexandros Papanastasiou
Succeeded by	Panagis Tsaldaris
	In office; 4 July 1928 – 26 May 1932
President	Pavlos Kountouriotis; Alexandros Zaimis
Preceded by	Alexandros Zaimis
Succeeded by	Alexandros Papanastasiou
	In office; 11 January 1924 – 6 February 1924
Monarch	George II
Preceded by	Stylianos Gonatas
Succeeded by	Georgios Kafantaris
	In office; 14 June 1917 – 4 November 1920
Monarch	Alexander
Preceded by	Alexandros Zaimis
Succeeded by	Dimitrios Rallis
	In office; 10 August 1915 – 24 September 1915
Monarch	Constantine I
Preceded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Succeeded by	Alexandros Zaimis
	In office; 6 October 1910 – 25 February 1915
Monarchs	George I; Constantine I
Preceded by	Stefanos Dragoumis
Succeeded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Prime Minister of the Cretan State
	In office; 2 May 1910 – 6 October 1910
Preceded by	Alexandros Zaimis (as High Commissioner)
Minister of Military Affairs
	In office; 27 June 1917 – 18 November 1920
Monarch	Alexander
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Anastasios Charalambis
Succeeded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Minister of Foreign Affairs
	In office; 23 August – 7 October 1915
Monarch	Constantine I
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Dimitrios Gounaris
Succeeded by	Alexandros Zaimis
Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Cretan State
	In office; 1908–1910
Minister of Justice of the Cretan State
	In office; 17 April 1899 – 18 March 1901 -->
Personal details
Born	23 August 1864; Mournies, Ottoman Empire; (now Greece)
Died	18 March 1936 (aged 71); Paris, France
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Maria Katelouzou (1891–1894); Helena Schilizzi (1921–1936)
Relations	Konstantinos Mitsotakis (nephew); Kyriakos Mitsotakis (great-nephew)
Children	Kyriakos Venizelos; Sophoklis Venizelos
Parent(s)	Kyriakos Venizelos; Styliani Ploumidaki
Alma mater	University of Athens
Profession	Politician; Revolutionary; Legislator; Lawyer; Jurist; Journalist; Translator
Awards	Order of the Redeemer; Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour; Order of the White Eagle
Signature
Website	National Foundation Research "Eleftherios K. Venizelos"
Military service
Battles/wars	Greco-Turkish War (1897) Cretan Revolt; ; Theriso revolt;

Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos (Greek: Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος, romanized: Eleuthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, pronounced [elefˈθeri.os cirˈʝaku veniˈzelos]; 23 August [O.S. 11 August] 1864^[1] – 18 March 1936) was a Cretan Greek statesman and prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement. He is noted for his contribution to the expansion of Greece and promotion of liberal-democratic policies.^[2]^[3] As leader of the Liberal Party, he held office as prime minister of Greece for over 12 years, spanning eight terms between 1910 and 1933. During his governance, Venizelos entered into diplomatic cooperation with the Great Powers and had a profound influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece. He has therefore been labelled as "The Maker of Modern Greece"^[4] and is still widely known as the "Ethnarch".^[5]

His first entry into the international scene was with his significant role in the autonomy of the Cretan State and later in the union of Crete with Greece. In 1909, he was invited to Athens to resolve the political deadlock and became the country's Prime Minister. He 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. Before the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Venizelos' catalytic role helped gain Greece's entrance to the Balkan League, an alliance of the Balkan states against the Ottoman Empire. Through his diplomatic acumen with the Great Powers and with the other Balkan countries, Greece doubled its area and population with the liberation of Macedonia, Epirus, and most of the Aegean islands.

In World War I (1914–1918), he brought Greece on the side of the Allies, further expanding the Greek borders. However, his pro-Allied foreign policy brought him into conflict with the nonaligned faction of Constantine I of Greece, causing the National Schism of the 1910s. The Schism became an unofficial civil war, with the struggle for power between the two groups polarizing the population between the royalists and Venizelists for decades.^[6] Following the Allied victory, Venizelos secured new territorial concessions in Western Anatolia and Thrace in an attempt to accomplish the Megali Idea, which would have united all Greek-speaking people along the Aegean Sea under the banner of Greece. He was, however, defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22). 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.

In January 1933 he became prime minister for the last time and in March 1935 after a coup attempt he fled to Paris, where he died. He was buried on a hill at the beginning of Akrotiri in Crete at the eastern outskirts of Chania city, near the place where he was born. The Venizelos family graves are today one of the attractions of Chania.

^ Note: Greece officially adopted the Gregorian calendar on 16 February 1923 (which became 1 March). All dates prior to that, unless specifically denoted, are Old Style.
^ Kitromilides, 2006, p. 178
^ "Liberty Still Rules", Time, 18 February 1924.
^ Duffield, J. W. (30 October 1921). "Venizelos, Maker of Modern Greece". The New York Times.
^ Yilmaz, 2012, p. 82.
^ "Intrigue in Greece". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 July 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 29 November 2012 – via National Library of Australia.

[1] Note: Greece officially adopted the Gregorian calendar on 16 February 1923 (which became 1 March). All dates prior to that, unless specifically denoted, are Old Style.

[BK1-2] Kitromilides, 2006, p. 178

[TA0-3] "Liberty Still Rules", Time, 18 February 1924.

[4] Duffield, J. W. (30 October 1921). "Venizelos, Maker of Modern Greece". The New York Times.

[5] Yilmaz, 2012, p. 82.

[6] "Intrigue in Greece". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 July 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 29 November 2012 – via National Library of Australia.

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