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The Officer Corps in Greece (1912-1936)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

T. Veremis
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Extract

The formation of the modern Greek army coincides with the efforts of the newly established Greek nation of the nineteenth century to import and emulate western institutions. The persistence of most governments in creating an officer corps inspired by the professional standards of western armies may be viewed as part of a general effort to modernize the Greek state. This attempt has invariably been thwarted by traditional practices which prevented modernizing forces from taking firm root in Greek reality. The degree to which professionalism was attained in the army depended both on the quality of military education and on the degree of professional security enjoyed by officers. Lack of security made some officers willing clients of ambitious cliques and agents of disruption of both military and political order.

Type
Research Article
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 2 , 1976 , pp. 113 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1976

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References

1. Pipinelis, P., 1833-1843 (Athens, 1932), pp. 31–5 Google Scholar.

2. VI (Athens, 1930), p. 218.

3. Stasinopoulos, E., (Athens, 1935), pp. 47–83 Google Scholar. Headquarters, General Army, (Athens, 1957), pp. 84–8 Google Scholar.

4. ‘H (Military Academy: Athens, 1933), p. 25.

5. III, p. 353; Cassavetti, D. J., Hellas and the Balkan Wars (London, 1914), p. 59 Google Scholar.

6. The peacetime strength of the Serbian army in 1907 was 36,605, while that of the Bulgarian army in 1908 was 58,500. The Statesman’s Yearbook (London, 1908), pp. 1487, 1587.

7. Dakin, D., The Unification of Greece 1770-1923 (London, 1972), p. 316 Google Scholar.

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9. (Army List: Athens, 1930).

10. Haralambis, A. and Nider, K., (Ministry of War, Athens, 1907), pp. 8–20 Google Scholar. Interviews with Generals Athanasios Tountas, Gerasimos Stratiotis and Colonel Epaminondas Stasinopoulos.

11. A non-violent military demonstration directed mainly against royal influence in the armed forces. Threats of intervention compelled the political authorities to give in to army demands.

12. In a conversation with Col. C. Arnold in 1937, King George II of the Hellenes expressed his regret that there were no gentlemen in the Greek army as there had been before the war. FO 371/21147/R2346/349/19. Enclosure in the despatch of 29 March 1937 to the Foreign Office.

13. Questionnaire distributed to 100 surviving officers of the interwar period. Army Lists of 1922, 1925, 1930.

14. Eleftherios Venizelos (1864-1936), a Cretan bourgeois of nationalist background, entered Cretan politics in 1889 and became a leading figure in the revolutionary movement for unification with Greece. From the moment he arrived in Athens in 1910 at the invitation of the officers of the ‘Military League’ until his death in exile in 1936 he dominated Greek politics. Founder and leader of the Liberal Party, which became the springboard for many distinguished politicians, and sometimes patron of such politicos in the army as Pangalos, Plastiras, Kondylis, Othonaios, Manetas and others. Although not opposed to the monarchy in principle, he was widely associated with the republican cause due to his feud with King Constantine during the First World War.

15. Georgios Kondylis, retired General, in 1933 left the Venizelist camp and joined the anti-Venizelists. As Minister of Army Affairs in a Populist government he became the scourge of republican officers.

16. Official Parliamentary Minutes. Assemblies 1-28 27 March-11 September 1933 (Athens, 1934), pp. 311-12, 314, 335, 337. Pangalos’ view of officers who had been granted regular commissions is such that he wrongly accuses them in his Memoirs of boycotting participation in the revolt of 1916. Pangalos, T., II (Athens, 1959), p. 150 Google Scholar. Markos Kladakis makes frequent references to the ‘different’ ethos of such officers in his private papers.

17. Interviews with A. Tountas, M. Kladakis, G. Stratiotis, A. Tsingounis, S. Giorgoulis, L. Spais, C. Tsigantes, S. Papaspyros.

18. Military Academy Class of 1916 had 280 graduates of whom 53 were active Venizelists. The Class of 1922 had 69 graduates of whom 20 were active Venizelists. Political position of graduates identified by the officers mentioned in n. 17.

19. Army Lists of 1932, 1925, 1930 (Athens, 1922, 1925, 1930). I have gone through the Army Lists of combatant officers of that period and have noted the affiliations of officers listed. Interview widi General T. Pentzopoulos, Athens, October 19 71. Theotokis, N., (Adiens, 1911), p. 102 Google Scholar.

20. Stasinopoulos, , p. 15. The political affiliations of the officers have been identified by the officers mentioned in n. 17.

21. Only in one instance does the author appear to be consistent with actual attitudes. He states that if the régime fails to protect the army from the meddling of politicians, higher ranking officers should rescue its prestige. Phessopoulos, G., (Athens, 1924), pp. 116–17 Google Scholar.

22. The contention of K. Legg that ‘one of the major requirements for national consciousness, the existence of mutually compatible values, has not been met’ is not supported by the evidence. The consensus on mutually compatible values is complete; opinions of officers interviewed on what is beneficial for society and what harmful differ only in detail. Differences of opinion lie in identifying the people and parties that best represent these values. Legg, K. L., Politics in Modem Greece (Stanford, 1969), pp. 81–2 Google Scholar.

23. Vagts, A., A History of Militarism (New York, 1959), p. 318 Google Scholar.

24. Official Parliamentary Minutes, Period D, Sessions 1-28, 27 March-11 September 1933, Vol. A (Athens, 1934), pp. 311-12, 314, 335.

25. Mazarakis’ testimony concerning relationships among Academy cadets is confirmed by General Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, an anti-Venizelist: ‘I don’t know whether it is a spirit of competition or simply a selfish concern for personal promotion that is responsible for the loosening of the bonds of friendship forged among fellow-students at the Military Academy’. Mazarakis-Ainian, A., (Athens, 1948), p. 7 Google Scholar; Tsakalotos, T., 40 I (Athens, 1960), p. 36 Google Scholar.

26. Mazarakis, p. 7.

27. In 1903 three-quarters of the 1,876 officers on active service were stationed in Athens. Miller, W., Greek Life in Toum and Country (London, 1905), p. 245 Google Scholar.

28. A. Mazarakis completed his Memoirs in 1943.

29. The Plastiras Papers, housed in the Benaki Museum, Athens. No material from these papers has been published, and this is the first occasion when their use has been permitted. Nikolaos Plastiras (1883-1953) was a brave officer of peasant origin who had risen from the ranks. He served in the Balkan Wars and joined the Venizelist revolution of 1916. As Colonel and regimental commander during the Asia Minor campaign he created an entourage of ardent admirers. After the military collapse of 1922 he led the revolt in September against the royalist government of Athens. Although retired in 1923, he remained active in military politics until World War II.

30. Unpublished memoirs of N. Deas.

31. Plastiras Papers.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid. Cf. Campbell, J. K., Honour, Family and Patronage (Oxford, 1970), p. 197 Google Scholar: ‘Strength and not justice appears to be the basis of honour in a traditional society of the mountains’.

34. Plastiras Papers.

35. Pangalos, op. cit., II, pp. 9, 14.

36. National schism over the issue of joining the Triple Entente during the First World War.

37. Metaxas, I., I (Athens, 1951), p. 94 Google Scholar.

38. Ibid., p. 507.

39. Ibid., p. 461.

40. Ibid., pp. 382-3.

41. Seferis, G., 1941 (Athens, 1972), p. 44 Google Scholar.

42. Peponis, I., 1909-1945 (Athens, 1948), pp. 23–6 Google Scholar.

43. Mazarakis, p. 101.

44. Tsakalotos, I, pp. 52, 66-8. Despite the usual pattern of inflexible relations caused by the dichasmos, such is the nature of patronage that it must always leave margin for manœuvre.

45. Spais, L., (Athens, 1970), p. 59 Google Scholar.

46. Ibid., p. 59.

47. Plastiras Papers.

48. Dousmanis, V., (Athens, 1946), p. 28 Google Scholar.