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 | |
| Part of the Politics series |
| Republicanism |
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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.