Stylianos Gonatas

Stylianos Gonatas, General, Senator and Prime Minister of Greece

Stylianos Epaminondou Gonatas (Greek: ) (1876-1966) was a Greek military officer and Prime Minister of Greece in 1922-1923.

Early life

Gonatas was born on August 15, 1876 in Patra. He entered the Military Academy in 1892 and graduated in 1897.


Military career

Gonatas served in the Greek army as a Lieutenant in the Macedonian struggle (1907-1909), the Balkan Wars (1912-13), and in Asia Minor during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). He attained the position of Chief of Staff of the Army and the rank of Colonel during the war in Turkey.


Early political career

While an active duty officer, Gonatas was appointed as the Aide-de-camp to Colonel Nikolaos Zorbas immediately following the 1909 Goudi revolt. Zorbas was the head of the Military League which forced the resignation of the government and led to political reforms.


Revolt

The war with Turkey in 1922 ended in a severe military defeat for Greece. This led to political crises for the government. After a series of short-lived governments throughout 1922, military revolts broke out in September in Thessaloniki, Chios and Mytilene.

The army contingents in Mytilene formed a Revolutionary Committee headed by Colonel Gonatas, which despatched by aeroplane the following demands to Athens: the dismissal of the government, the dissolution of the Chamber, the holding of new elections, and the abdication of King Constantine in favour of the Diadoch, Prince George. The revolutionary movement swiftly spread to other centres of old and new Greece and to the Greek gunboats stationed at Mytilene and in and about the port of Piraeus. The cabinet immediately resigned, and on September 27 King Constantine abdicated for the second time in the course of his career, and the Diadoch succeeded to the throne of Greece as King George II.

On September 28 the revolutionary troops, headed by their leaders, Colonel Plastiras and Colonel Gonatas, entered Athens amidst wild scenes of enthusiasm. The revolutionary committee which took charge selected Alexandros Zaimis as Prime Minister, but as he was out of the country, Sotirios Krokidas was appointed as interim Prime Minister.


As prime minister

The first cabinet formed under the regime of the Revolutionary Committee (which had established itself as the real master of Greece with King George II merely as a figurehead) underwent several slight changes, the chief of which was caused by the refusal of Zaimis to retain the premiership (which remained vacant, with Sotirios Krokidas as acting premier), and after having been in power for less than two months resigned on November 24, chiefly owing to internal differences arising from the Trial of the Six (ex-ministers, statesmen, and military leaders tried by a revolutionary tribunal on the charges of high treason). The British government, through its minister in Athens, Lindley, urged that the accused should be treated leniently. While certain members of the cabinet were prepared to accept the British suggestion, the more irreconcilable elements refused to submit to what they considered as foreign intervention in Greek internal affairs, and the cabinet accordingly resigned. On November 27, 1922, a new cabinet, composed exclusively of members of the Revolutionary Committee and of the republican group which formed the committee's most active supporters, was appointed. Colonel Gonatas was appointed premier, and Konstantinos Rentis, one of the leaders of the republican group, as acting minister for foreign affairs.[1]

The Gonatas government served until January, 1924, when it resigned in favor of fellow-liberal Eleftherios Venizelos, who had returned from exile in Paris. For his service, Gonatas was accroded the rank of Lieutenant General.


Later political career

After his service as Prime Minister, Gonatas resigned his commission in the army. In the following years, a Republic was proclaimed and the legislature expanded to include a second house: the Senate. Gonatas ran for and was elected to the Senate as a Liberal in 1929 representing Attica and Beotia. He was reelected and later served as President of the Senate from 1932 to its dissolution in 1935.

During the Nazi Occupation of Greece, Gonatas was imprisoned in the Haidari prison for the duration of the war. After the war, Gonatas was freed and reentered political life. When he quarreled with Themistoklis Sophoulis the leader of the Liberal Party, he formed his own party, The Party of National Liberals (Κόμμα Εθνικών Φιλελευθέρων) which contested the March 31, 1946 general election in coalition with the conservative People's Party. Gonatas' party elected 30 members of Parliament. Having joined forces with the Monarchist party, Gonatas committed himself to support the restoration of the monarchy in the plebescite of September 1, 1946, which restored King George II to the throne.

In the Panagis Tsaldaris government from 1946-1947, he served as Minister of Public Works. In the general election of March 5, 1950, Gonatas party first allied with Napoleon Zervas' National Party of Greece but when he was discredited for his collaboration with the Nazis, Gonatas decided to run in coalition with the Liberal Party. In this election, for the first time in his political career, Gonatas was not elected. He never sought public office again; continuing only to serve as former Prime Ministers did on the Crown Council advising the King until his death in 1966.




Political offices

Preceded by Sotirios Krokidas
Prime Minister of Greece November 27, 1922—January 24, 1924
Succeeded by Eleftherios Venizelos

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