1.
Axis occupation of Greece
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The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded Greece to assist its ally, Fascist Italy, which had been at war with Greece since October 1940. Following the conquest of Crete, all of Greece was occupied by June 1941, the occupation in the mainland lasted until Germany and its ally Bulgaria were forced to withdraw under Allied pressure in early October 1944. However, German garrisons remained in control of Crete and some other Aegean islands until after the end of World War II in Europe, surrendering these islands in May, Nazi Germany was forced to an intervention on its allys behalf in southern Europe. As result, the Greek government went into exile, and an Axis collaborationist puppet government was established in the country, other regions of the country were given to Germanys partners, Italy and Bulgaria. The occupation ruined the Greek economy and brought about terrible hardships for the Greek civilian population, much of Greece was subjected to enormous destruction of its industry, infrastructure, ports, roads, railways and bridges, forests and other natural resources and loss of civilian life. Over 40,000 civilians died in Athens alone from starvation, tens of thousands more died because of reprisals by Nazis, at the same time the Greek Resistance, one of the most effective resistance movements in Occupied Europe, was formed. These resistance groups launched attacks against the occupying powers, fought against the collaborationist Security Battalions. By late 1943 the resistance began to fight amongst themselves. When liberation of the came in October 1944, Greece was in a state of extreme political polarization. In the early morning hours of 28 October 1940, Italian Ambassador Emmanuel Grazzi awoke Greek Premier Ioannis Metaxas, Metaxas rejected the ultimatum and Italian forces invaded Greek territory from Italian-occupied Albania less than three hours later. The Hellenic Army proved to be an opponent, and successfully exploited the mountainous terrain of Epirus. The Hellenic forces counterattacked and forced the Italians to retreat, by mid-December, the Greeks had occupied nearly one-quarter of Albania, before Italian reinforcements and the harsh winter stemmed the Greek advance. In March 1941, a major Italian counterattack failed, fifteen of the 21 Greek divisions were deployed against the Italians, so only six divisions were facing the attack from German troops in the Metaxas Line during the first days of April. Greece received help from British Commonwealth troops, moved from Libya on the orders of Winston Churchill, on 6 April 1941, Germany came to the aid of Italy and invaded Greece through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Greek and British Commonwealth troops fought back but were overwhelmed, the Bulgarians occupied territory between the Strymon River and a line of demarcation running through Alexandroupoli and Svilengrad west of the Evros River. The Greek capital Athens fell on 27 April, and by 1 June, after the capture of Crete, after the invasion King George II fled, first to Crete and then to Cairo. A nominally right-wing Greek government ruled from Athens, but it was a puppet of the occupiers, the occupation of Greece was divided among Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. German forces occupied the most strategically important areas, namely Athens, Thessaloniki with Central Macedonia and several Aegean Islands, initially, the German zone was ruled by the ambassador Günther Altenburg of the German Foreign Office and Field Marshal Wilhelm List
2.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
3.
4th of August Regime
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The 4th of August Regime, commonly also known as the Metaxas Regime, was an authoritarian regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941. It took its name from a self-coup carried out by Metaxas, with the support of King George II, lacking a popular base, after Metaxas death in January 1941 the regime hinged entirely on the King. Metaxas imposed his regime primarily to fight the turbulent social situation prevalent in Greece in the 1930s, the king re-established the monarchy in the country, but the parliament, split into incompatible factions, was unable to shape a clear political majority so that the government could govern. In one of his first speeches, Metaxas announced, I have decided to all the power I need for saving Greece from the catastrophes which threaten her. Thus the Metaxas dictatorship was born, and the period of time which would follow was named after the day Metaxas rose to absolute power, the new regime was backed by small extreme political parties, and by conservatives expecting a crackdown on the communists. The roots of Metaxas New State were sought in Greeces classical history, Metaxas thought Hellenic nationalism would galvanize the heathen values of ancient Greece, specifically those of Sparta, along with the Christian values of the Medieval empire of Byzantium. Ancient Macedonia was also glorified as the first political unifier of the Hellenes, as its main symbol, the youth organization of the regime chose the labrys/pelekys, the symbol of ancient Minoan Crete. The traditional Greek values of Country, Loyalty, Family and Religion, Metaxas considered António Salazars Estado Novo of Portugal his main inspiration and surrounded himself with elements from this and other dictatorial regimes of the time. Thus his main slogan was also New State and the 4th of August regime used its own military-like uniforms, greetings, songs and rituals. The Metaxas regime sought to comprehensively change Greece, and therefore instituted controls on Greek society, politics, language, in each of these, the Metaxas government resembled more closely the policies that Spain would adopt later on than those of their contemporaries Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. Metaxas policies such as the censorship of the media, the banning of political parties, as its far-right contemporaries Italy and Germany, the Greek State also had its political police force, the Asfaleia, based upon the Gestapo. The objective of Asfaleia was to secure public order, the regime also repressed the rebetiko music due to the uncompromising lyrics and favoured the traditional Greek folk music. Hashish dens, baglamas and bouzouki were banned, or at least playing in the eastern-style manner, soon after its inception the regime severely repressed the communists and leftists. About 15,000 people were arrested and jailed, or exiled for political reasons, Metaxas regime forced the Communist party underground, and also attempted to dismantle the old system of loyalties of the Royalist and Venizelist parties. Those major forces however remained, as they had for the preceding decades, while Metaxas regime did play up a supposed communist threat in order to justify its repression, the regime is not known to have committed political murders and did not instate the death penalty. Dissidents were, rather, usually banished to tiny islands in the Aegean sea, for example, the liberal leader George Papandreou was exiled to Andros. The Greek Communist Party, meanwhile, which had already been outlawed, remained intact, legal restrictions against it were ended in 1974 during metapolitefsi. Metaxas, educated in German Empire and admirer of the German culture, in order to keep and maintain the values of the regime in future years, Metaxas gave birth to the Ethniki Organosi Neolaias
4.
New Party (Greece)
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The New Party or the Modernist Party was a reformist Greek political party. During the first years of the reign of King George I, moreover, the new Constitution of 1864 was directed toward the modernization of the political system. However, the political interventions were undiminished, and court governments succeeded one another. The dissolution of the old political parties led to the creation of parties based on explicit. Until the 1870s, loose parties continued to prevail without principles or a political program and this situation changed with the dynamic intervention of Charilaos Trikoupis, when he converted his Fifth Party into a new philosophically-based party. A supporter the British two-party parliamentary system, in 1873, he created the New Party according to the model of western democracies and these were among the cleanest elections in Greek history, but the New Party was defeated by the Nationalist Party of Alexandros Koumoundouros. The New Party was organized around the principles of modernization of the political, social, specifically, the priority of the New Party was the development of the private economic sphere and the consequent restriction of state intervention in the economy. Thus, the program of the New Party introduced systematically into the Greek state the new ideas, however, the program is not adequate enough to characterize it as a modern party. The Nationalist Party remained in power most of the time until March 15,1882, during this time, he was able to push through an aggressive program of reforms. Trikoupis was a believer in the need to create an infrastructure to support the economy. A progressive program of road and railroad construction significantly improved internal communications, the most important of the works he campaigned for was the digging of the Corinth Canal. In the 1885 general election, voters elected only 56 New Party deputies against 184 deputies for the Nationalist Party led by Theodoros Deligiannis, despite the mandate, however, the Deligiannis government fell a year later and Trikoupis was again Prime Minister until 1890. Trikoupis led New Party governments again from June 22,1892 to May 15,1893 in which Trikoupis stood before parliament and made the most famous statement of his career, Regretfully, we are broke. This was due to massive overspending as Greece sought to modernize its forces on land and sea. The servicing of foreign loans was suspended, and all spending was cut. The New Party was again in power from November 11,1893 to January 24,1895 and it was during that time that the planning for the 1896 Summer Olympics was begun. Trikoupis was skeptical about the games and feared that the country could not burden the cost and he was convinced, eventually, to host them and made the needed arrangements. This would be his last term in office, Trikoupis tried to make terms with the creditors of his nation, but he failed there too
5.
Giorgos Kaminis
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Georgios Kaminis is an American born Greek professor of constitutional law, and mayor of Athens since 1 January 2011. He was the Greek Ombudsman from April 2003 until September 2010, giorgos Kaminis was born in New York City, where his father, Vasilis Kaminis was working at the time. He holds both American citizenship along with his Greek citizenship, at the age of five he left New York and moved to Athens. He studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens and he conducted postgraduate studies in public law at Panthéon-Assas University, gaining a MAS in 1982, followed by the Pantheon-Sorbonne University, where he obtained a doctorat dÉtat en droit in 1989. In November 1982, he was hired as a research and teaching fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens and he was elected a lecturer in 1991 and an assistant professor in 1998. From September 1989, he has been a fellow at the Department of Parliamentary Studies. Αfter serving as a Deputy Ombudsman for Human Rights, from 1998 to 2003, he served as the Greek Ombudsman from April 2003 until his resignation in September 2010, Kaminis was elected Mayor of Athens after the second round of the Greek local elections of 2010. He was re-elected in the 2014 elections defeating SYRIZA-supported Gabriel Sakellaridis in the second round, Kaminis is married to Adamantia Anagnostou, a lecturer at the University of Macedonia. They have two daughters, Angeliki and Katerina-Markella, la transition constitutionnelle en Grèce et en Espagne. Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, illegally Obtained Evidence and Constitutional Guarantees of Human Rights, The Exclusion of Evidence in Criminal and Civil Proceedings. Official website In contest for the heart and soul Interview of Giorgios Kaminis in Athens Plus
6.
Ioannis Koniaris
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Ioannis Koniaris was a Greek politician of the 19th century, who was twice elected as Mayor of Athens, serving from 29 August 1854 until 22 November 1853 and again until 23 November 1854. Ioannis Arsenis, Mihail Rafailovic, ed. Poikili Stoa, Ethniki eikonografimeni epetiris, ioannis Koniaris a synoptic biographical information from the Modern Greek Information Institute City of Athens - Historic Mayors
7.
Timoleon Filimon
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Timoleon Filimon was a Greek journalist, politician, intellectual and tutor of King George I. He was one of the members of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece. He was born in 1833 in Nafplion, son of the publisher, writer and member of the Philiki Etaireia Ioannis Filimon and he studied law at the University of Athens. In the following year he was imprisoned for three months after a condemnation for insulting King Otto I, afterwards, he was the secretary of the three member committee which handed the crown to the new king George in Denmark. He consequently acted as secretary and tutor of king George till 1867, in that same year he presented himself as parliamentary candidate for Attica, without succeeding to get elected. Success came for the first time in the election of 1868, in the 1869 elections he failed to get elected, while in 1874, although he attracted large numbers of votes, his election was finally canceled. He was reelected in the elections of 1875 and 1879, while in the next ballots he did not manage to renew his presence in Parliament, furthermore, from 1878 till 1887 he served as president of the City Council. He was elected mayor of Athens in 1887 but he resigned in 1891, Filimon also published a book titled The Mayor while his translation of the book The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges was published posthumously. According to the web page of the Greek Great Masonic Lodge. Filimon died of heart failure in Athens on 7 March 1898 and his funeral was attended by the prime minister Alexandros Zaimis, by members of the Ministerial Council, by numerous politicians, by members of the royal family and by thousands of citizens. Biography at the National Library Centre Konstantinos Skokos Imerologion Skokou En Athinais, Το Εθνικό Ιστορικό Μουσείο της Ιστορικής και Εθνολογικής Εταιρείας της Ελλάδος, ίδρυση, συλλεκτική πολιτική και άλλες δράσεις. Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
8.
Michail Melas
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Mihail Melas was a Greek politician and merchant, who served as Mayor of Athens in 1891–1894. He was born in Syros, the son of Georgios Melas, a member of the Filiki Eteria and he studied law in Paris and became involved with commerce at an early age, importing Russian wheat to London and Marseilles. From these activities he amassed a large fortune, in 1874, Melas settled permanently in Athens, where he soon achieved a distinguished place among Athenian high society. He played a role in the foundation of the Athens Club in 1875, the Greek capitals oldest and most exclusive gentlemens club. In 1890, he was elected to the Greek Parliament for Attica and he became mayor of Athens in 1891, holding the office until 1894, after an unsuccessful first attempt in 1883, when he lost to Dimitrios Soutsos. Melas is also notable as one of the first Athenians to build a house in Kifissia and he was also an avid art collector, and during his stay in Marseilles, he chaired the local French Cultural Club for several years. In 1886–88 he served as president of the Filekpaideftiki Etaireia
9.
Spyridon Mercouris
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Spyridon Mercouris was a Greek politician and long-time Mayor of Athens in the early 20th century. He was born in Ermioni, Argolida, in 1856 to a prominent family that had part in the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s. Elected as Mayor of Athens in 1899, he held the post continuously until 1914, as a committed conservative royalist, in 1917, during the National Schism, he was exiled to Corsica by the Venizelists. He was also accused of complicity in the riots of the Noemvriana of 1916, released from prison in 1920, he was elected as a Member of Parliament representing Atticoboeotia in 1928 and re-elected as Mayor of Athens in 1929. He served as Mayor until 1932, and died in 1939
10.
Collaborationism
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Collaborationism is cooperation with the enemy against ones country in wartime. Stanley Hoffmann subdivided collaboration onto involuntary and voluntary, in contrast, Bertram Gordon used the terms collaborator and collaborationist for non-ideological and ideological collaborations, respectively. The meaning of traitorous cooperation with the dates from 1940, originally in reference to the Vichy Government of Frenchmen who cooperated with the Germans. During World War II, collaborators existed in several German-occupied zones, in France, a distinction emerged between the collaborateur and the collaborationniste. The latter expression is used to describe individuals enrolled in pseudo-Nazi parties, often based in Paris. Arch-collaborators like Pierre Laval or René Bousquet are thus distinct from collaborationists, recent research by the British historian Simon Kitson has shown that French authorities did not wait until the Liberation to begin pursuing collaborationists. The Vichy government, itself engaged in collaboration, arrested around 2000 individuals on charges of passing information to the Germans. It was among the many compromises that the government engaged along the way, in Belgium, collaborators were organized into the VNV party and the DeVlag movement in Flanders, and into the Rexist movement in Wallonia. There was an active movement in the Netherlands. Vidkun Quisling, a officer in the Norwegian Army and former minister of defence. He gave his name to the high-profile government collaborator, now known as a Quisling, after the German invasion of Greece, a Nazi-held government was put in place. All three quisling prime ministers, cooperated with the Axis authorities, main collaborationist regime in Yugoslavia was the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet-state semi-independent of Nazi Germany. The main collaborationist in East Yugoslavia was the axis-puppet Serbian government of Nedić, German citizen Franz Oppenhoff accepted appointment as Mayor of the German city of Aachen in 1944, under authority of the Allied military command. He was assassinated on orders from Heinrich Himmler in 1945, high-profile German collaborators included Dutch actor Johannes Heesters or English-language radio-personality William Joyce. In Palestinian society, collaboration with Israel is viewed as a serious offence, in addition, during the period of 2007–2009, around 30 Palestinians have been sentenced to death in court on collaboration-related charges, although the sentences have not been carried out. In June 2009, Raed Sualha, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, was tortured and hanged by his family because they suspected him of collaborating with Israel. Authorities of the Palestinian territories launched an investigation into the case, police said it was unlikely that such a young boy would have been recruited as an informer. Kitson, Simon, The Hunt for Nazi Spies, Fighting espionage in Vichy France, Chicago, littlejohn, David, The Patriotic Traitors, A History of Collaboration in German-Occupied Europe, 1940-45, London, William Heinemann Ltd
11.
Term of office
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A term of office is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject to re-election. Some jurisdictions exercise term limits, setting a number of terms an individual may hold in a particular office. Being the origin of the Westminster system, aspects of the United Kingdoms system of government are replicated in other countries. The monarch serves as head of state until his or her death or abdication, in the United Kingdom Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are elected for the duration of the parliament. Following dissolution of the Parliament, an election is held which consists of simultaneous elections for all seats. For most MPs this means that their terms of office are identical to the duration of the Parliament, an MP elected in a by-election mid-way through a Parliament, regardless of how long they have occupied the seat, is not exempt from facing re-election at the next general election. The Septennial Act 1715 provided that a Parliament expired seven years after it had been summoned, prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 parliaments had no minimum duration. Parliaments could be dissolved early by the monarch at the Prime Ministers request, the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 mandated that Parliaments should last their full five years. Early dissolution is possible, but under much more limited circumstances. Hereditary peers and life peers retain membership of the House of Lords for life, Lords Spiritual hold membership of the House of Lords until the end of their time as bishops, though a senior bishop may be made a life peer upon the end of their bishopric. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are variations on the system of government used at Westminster, the office of the leader of the devolved administrations has no numeric term limit imposed upon it. However, in the case of the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly Government there are fixed terms for which the legislatures can sit and this is imposed at four years. Elections may be held before this time but only if no administration can be formed, offices of local government other regional elected officials follow similar rules to the national offices discussed above, with persons elected to fixed terms of a few years. Federal judges have different terms in office, however, the majority of the federal judiciary, Article III judges, such as those of the Supreme Court, courts of appeal, and federal district courts, serve for life. The terms of office for officials in state governments according to the provisions of state constitutions. The term for state governors is four years in all states but Vermont and New Hampshire, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported in January 2007 that among state legislatures,44 states had terms of office for the lower house of the state legislature at two years. Five had terms of office at four years,37 states had terms of office for the upper house of the state legislature at four years