Dimitrios Gounaris

Greek politician (1867–1922)
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Greek. (March 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
  • View a machine-translated version of the Greek article.
  • Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
  • Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 355 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
  • Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
  • You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Greek Wikipedia article at [[:el:Δημήτριος Γούναρης]]; see its history for attribution.
  • You may also add the template {{Translated|el|Δημήτριος Γούναρης}} to the talk page.
  • For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Δημήτριος Γούναρης
Gounaris c. 1915
Prime Minister of GreeceIn office
26 March 1921 – 3 May 1922MonarchConstantine IPreceded byNikolaos KalogeropoulosSucceeded byNikolaos StratosIn office
25 February 1915 – 10 August 1915MonarchConstantine IPreceded byEleftherios VenizelosSucceeded byEleftherios Venizelos Personal detailsBorn(1867-01-05)5 January 1867
Patras, Kingdom of GreeceDied28 November 1922(1922-11-28) (aged 55)
Goudi, Athens, Kingdom of GreeceCause of deathExecution by firing squadPolitical partyPeople's Party

Dimitrios Gounaris (Greek: Δημήτριος Γούναρης; 5 January 1867 – 28 November 1922) was a Greek politician who served as the prime minister of Greece from 25 February to 10 August 1915 and 26 March 1921 to 3 May 1922. The leader of the People's Party, he was the main right-wing opponent of his contemporary Eleftherios Venizelos.[1][2]

Early life

He studied law at Athens University and continued his studies in Germany, France and England,[3] before returning to his native Patras. He was elected deputy for Achaea in 1902 and distinguished himself as an orator and a member of the so-called "Japanese Group"[3] that opposed the Georgios Theotokis government in 1906–1908. Gounaris himself, however, joined the government in 1908 as Finance Minister, hoping to implement a reformist program,[3] thereby causing the dissolution of the group, although he was soon forced to resign.[4] Despite his progressive views (he was an admirer of the Bismarckian German social laws), his conservative political thinking turned him into a leading opponent of Eleftherios Venizelos.[5]

First premiership

He was appointed Prime Minister after Venizelos' first resignation in 1915 by King Constantine I.[4] For his anti-Venizelist, pro-neutrality role he was exiled with other prominent anti-Venizelists to Corsica in 1917 after Venizelos' return to power in Athens.[4] He managed to escape to Sardinia, Italy, in 1918, but was able to return to Greece only in 1920, as to partake in the crucial November elections as the de facto leader of the "United Opposition",[6] amidst the ongoing 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War.

Second premiership and war against Turkey

Gounaris with officers in Asia Minor, 1921

After Venizelos' defeat, Gounaris controlled most deputies in the parliament, and was the main driving force of the following royalist governments,[6] but himself only assumed the office of Prime Minister in March 1921. Although he was willing to compromise with the Turks, as he showed in the London talks in early 1921, in order to step up pressure on the Kemalist Turks, he agreed to the launch of the Greek offensive of March 1921. The Greek Army was not prepared, and the attack was repulsed in the Second Battle of İnönü, resulting in the first Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War. After the successful Greek advance towards Eskişehir and Afyon in July, he urged the continuation of the advance towards Ankara,[6] which was however stopped in the Battle of Sakarya. After the Greeks retreated to form a new front, he appealed to the Allies, and especially to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for assistance and mediation.

Although Gounaris threatened the British with unilateral withdrawal, his government maintained the Greek Army's positions, not being able to shoulder the political cost of abandoning Asia Minor and the many Greeks living there to Turkish reprisals. The deepening political crisis caused the fall of Gounaris' government in May 1922, after marginally surviving a vote of confidence, but the predominance of his followers in the National Assembly meant that he only exchanged the post of Prime Minister with that of Justice Minister in the government of Petros Protopapadakis.[7]

Trial, execution and legacy

After the disaster of August 1922 and the rout of the Greeks by Mustafa Kemal's forces, the remnants of the Greek Army revolted in September, and the government was deposed. The predominantly Venizelist rebels, under the leadership of Colonel Nikolaos Plastiras, formed a military tribunal to try those that were considered as responsible for the catastrophe. The so-called "Trial of the Six", convened in November 1922, found the defendants, Gounaris among them, guilty of treason. He was executed along with the others at Goudi on the same day of the verdict, on 28 November.[1] Although Gounaris undoubtedly bears a measure of responsibility for the military and diplomatic actions that led to the Greek defeat in 1922, his trial and execution are widely perceived[8] to be more an act of scapegoating in order to vent the anger of the people, as well as being mostly motivated by the hatred of the Venizelist faction towards him.[9]

Gounaris together with some conservative politicians were the first to propose amendment to the Greek Constitution to allow women's suffrage rights. The amendment ultimately failed to pass.[2] Gounaris was the uncle of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Arvanitopoulos, Constantine; Botsiou, Konstantina E. (19 May 2010). The Constantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy Yearbook 2010. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 124. ISBN 978-3-642-12374-0.
  2. ^ a b Ruiz, Blanca Rodriguez; Rubio-Marín, Ruth (7 June 2012). The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens. BRILL. p. 443. ISBN 978-90-04-22425-4.
  3. ^ a b c Keridis, Dimitris (2009). Historical Dictionary of Modern Greece. Scarecrow Press. pp. 79–80. ISBN 9780810863125. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Dalby, Andrew (2011). Eleftherios Venizelos: Greece. Haus Publishing. ISBN 9781907822339. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  5. ^ Mazower, Mark (1992). "The Messiah and the Bourgeoisie: Venizelos and Politics in Greece, 1909- 1912". The Historical Journal. 35 (4): 893–895. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00026200. ISSN 0018-246X. JSTOR 2639443. S2CID 154495315.
  6. ^ a b c Dragostinova, Theodora K. (2011). Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900–1949. Cornell University Press. pp. 134, 141. ISBN 9780801461163. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  7. ^ Laughland, John (2008). A history of political trials: from Charles I to Saddam Hussein. Peter Lang. p. 59. ISBN 9781906165055. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  8. ^ Δάφνης, Γρηγόριος (1997). Η Ελλάς μεταξύ δύο πολέμων. Αθήνα: Κάκτος. p. 21.
  9. ^ Clogg, Richard (2002). "4: Catastrophe and occupation and their consequences". A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press. pp. 98–100. ISBN 9780521004794. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  10. ^ Alikaniotis, Dion P. (2009). Η πολιτική και κοινωνική Ιδεολογία του Δημητρίου Γούναρη. Athens. p. 301.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of Greece
25 February 1915 – 10 August 1915
Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Greece
26 March 1921 – 3 May 1922
Succeeded by
  • v
  • t
  • e
First Hellenic Republic
(1822–1832)
Kingdom of Greece (Wittelsbach)
(1833–1862)
Kingdom of Greece (Interregnum)
(1862–1863)
Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg)
(1863–1924)
Second Hellenic Republic
(1924–1935)
Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg)
(1935–1973)
Military Junta
(1967–1974)
Third Hellenic Republic
(since 1974)
1Head of military/dictatorial government. 2Head of rival government not controlling Athens. 3Head of emergency or caretaker government. 4Head of collaborationist government during the Axis occupation (1941–44).
  • v
  • t
  • e
First Hellenic Republic
(1822–1832)
Kingdom of Greece (Wittelsbach)
(1833–1862)
Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg)
(1863–1924)
Second Hellenic Republic
(1924–1935)
Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg)
(1935–1973)
Military Junta
(1967–1974)
Third Hellenic Republic
(since 1974)
§ variously as Chief Secretary/General Secretary of State
officially considered the first foreign minister of independent Greece
  • v
  • t
  • e
First Hellenic Republic
(1822–1832)
Kingdom of Greece (Wittelsbach)
(1833–1862)
Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg)
(1863–1924)
Second Hellenic Republic
(1924–1935)
Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg)
(1935–1973/4)
Military Junta
(1967–1974)
Third Hellenic Republic
(since 1974)
In italics are denoted the Interior Ministers of parallel or non-recognized governments
  • v
  • t
  • e
Background
Events
National
Schism
National
Defence
Royal
governments
Events
Aftermath
Remembrance
  • v
  • t
  • e
Ideology
Organizations
Political Parties
People
Historical events
Policies
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
International
  • FAST
  • ISNI
  • VIAF
National
  • France
  • BnF data
  • Germany
  • United States
  • Greece
People
  • Deutsche Biographie