Alexandros Korisis ( Greek Αλέξανδρος ορυζής , Poros , 1885 - Athens , April 18, 1941 ) was a Greek lawyer and economist who became the prime minister of Greece for 80 historical days of the Second World War for the country.
Alexandros Korisis | |||||||
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Greek Αλέξανδρος Κορυζής | |||||||
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Predecessor | Ioannis Metaxas | ||||||
Successor | Emmanuel Zuderos | ||||||
Birth | 1885 Poros , Greece | ||||||
Death | April 18, 1941 Athens , Greece | ||||||
Father | Georgios Korisis | ||||||
Spouse | Elisabeth Tsitsara | ||||||
Education | |||||||
Religion | Orthodox | ||||||
Awards | |||||||
Rank | |||||||
Biography
Origins and early years
Alexandros Korisis was born in the family of George Korizis, a member of parliament and mayor of Poros . On the paternal side, Alexander was the grandson of MP Stamathios Korisis (1815–1898), and the great-grandson of George Korisis, a member of the Greek Revolution of 1821. His mother, Catherine, from the family of Athanasius Misirlis, came from Pylos and was a niece of Alexandros Kumunduros . Korizis spent his first childhood years on the island of Poros . When he was seven years old, his mother died, which left an imprint on his character.
Education and early career
Korisis entered the University of Athens , where he studied law (1901-1905), and at a young age he was appointed in 1903 to the National Bank of Greece . His career in the bank was very fast. From 1915, he was involved in the agricultural department of the bank and took part in its separation from the National Bank and transformation into the Agricultural Bank ( 1929 ), in which he became the first chairman of the board of directors [1] . Korizis took part in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, initially as a junior lieutenant of artillery (reserve). In 1914 he was awarded the silver cross of the Order of the Savior . At the end of the First World War, he returned to the bank in 1919, where he became the inspector general. From this position, under the government of Venizelos , Corisis was the financial adviser of Aristidis Stergiadis, the governor of the Asia Minor region of Smirna , who became for a time Greek,. During this period (1919-1920) a branch of the National Bank of Greece in Smyrna was established. May 12, 1928 Korizis became deputy president of the National Bank.
Minister
After the suppression of the one-day Plastiras putsch, (March 6, 1933), in the short-term government of A. Otoeos, Korisis was appointed Minister of Finance (March 6-10, 1933), after which he returned to the bank.
With the establishment of the dictatorial regime of Metaxas (August 4, 1936)), on August 5, 1936, Korisis was appointed Minister of Health and remained in that post for 3 years (until July 12, 1939), when he resigned. On August 9 of the same year, he was appointed President of the National Bank of Greece. With the death of Metaxas , in January 1941, and while the Italo-Greek war continued, King George elected him and appointed without official procedures the Greek Prime Minister ( January 29, 1941 ).
Prime Minister
Korisis accepted the appointment of the Prime Minister and at the same time the post of chairman of the Ministerial Council, the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, the post of Minister of Education, the post of War Minister - that is, all the ministries that were headed by Metaxas before him, but did not make any changes to the ministerial council. His appeal to the Greek people confirmed the historical fact that Corisis was aware that he had accepted " Golgotha ", which would lead him to the victim. T. Gerozis, in his work "The Officers' Corps of 1821-1975", calls Korisis "a fan of the Metaxas regime, loyal to the monarchy." “Korisis was meant to become a lightning conductor that would accept an electrical discharge of a thunderstorm that was approaching Greece” [2] .
Second NO
Korizis' predecessor, Metaxas, rejected the Italian ultimatum on October 28, 1940. The Greek army stopped the invasion of the Italian army from Albania and transferred military actions to Albanian territory. Already during the reign of Korisis, the Italian spring offensive in March 1941 was the last and unsuccessful attempt of the Italian army to change the course of the war. Germany was helping the Italians. The Germans began to deploy their troops in the Allied Reich of Bulgaria from February 6, 1941. After a request from the Korizis government for assistance to Britain, a small British corps was sent, not taking part in the Greek-Italian war and occupying the second line of defense along the Aliakmon- Olympus river. Until the end of March, the British forces in Greece reached 40 thousand people [3] . The modern Greek historian I. Kolyopoulos writes that Korisis set the British the following conditions for the continuation of the war by Greece, this time against Germany:
- Termination of the International Economic Control imposed on Greece in 1897 (after the Greek-Turkish war).
- The promise that the Cyprus issue will be resolved according to Greek hopes.
- The use of the "Dodecanese Legion" to liberate the Dodecanese archipelago from the Italians.
Anthony Eden was ready to discuss only the third question [4] .
On April 6, 1941, Korisis rejected Germany ’s demand to remove the British corps with the phrase “it’s better to die” [5] .
Death of Korizis
The few Greek units on the Greek-Bulgarian border initially successfully repelled the German invasion (see Metaxas Line ), after which the German armored divisions went from Bulgaria to the south of Yugoslavia, and from there, through the practically unprotected Greco-Yugoslav border, reached the Macedonian capital, the city Thessaloniki . The group of divisions in Eastern Macedonia (4 divisions) was cut off from the main forces of the Greek army, leading military operations against the Italians in Albania, where there were 16 of the total 22 Greek divisions [6] . The road to Athens was open to the German divisions. There were practically no Greek units on their way. The British Corps was retreating step by step. Athens declared martial law . In the atmosphere of defeatism and Germanophilism manifestations of some generals, on April 18 a meeting of the ministerial council chaired by Korisis was held. The government and King George decided to leave mainland Greece and move to Crete , and then to the British-controlled island of Cyprus . Most members of the government believed that it would be unworthy for the Greek army to end the battle, while the British units invited by them to Greece got involved in battles [7] . After the council, Korizis had a conversation with King George . Korizis left this meeting devastated and went to his house
Here Korizis committed suicide , two shots to the heart area [8] . In the collective edition of “100 + 1 Greece, from the 20th to the 21st century”, Korisis’s suicide is explained by his unwillingness to live with the prime minister’s defeat spot. It also notes here that even opponents of the Metaxas regime treated its victim with respect. Initially, and in order to avoid panic, Korisis declared “sudden death” from a heart attack [9] . Gerozisis believes that Korisis kept his word for the German ambassador: “it is better to die” [10] .
Personal Life
Korizis was married to Elisavet Tsitsara, with whom he had four children: Catherine, Helen (approximate to Queen Frederica ), Irina (spouse of shipowner Stratis Andreadis) and George (died in 1999 ). His children donated his father’s house on the island of Poros to create an archaeological museum.
Works
- “Agricultural Credit and the National Bank of Greece” (Greek: Η Αγροτική πίστις και η ΕΤΕ).
- "The Tobacco Question of Greece and its Resolution" (Greek: α καπνικό ζήτημα της Ελλάδος και η λύση του).
Notes
- ↑ Παγκόσμιο Βιογραφικό Λεξικό, τομ. 5, κδοτική Αθηνών, 1986
- ↑ Τριαντάφυλος Α. Γεροζήσης, Το Σώμα των αξιωματικών και η θέση του στη σύγχρονη Ελληνικ κοινωνία 1821–1975, σε.5.542, ISBN 94
- ↑ Τριαντάφυλος Α. Γεροζήσης, Το Σώμα των αξιωματικών και η θέση του στη σύγηρονη Ελληνικ κοινωνία 1821–1975, σε.5.543, ISBN 94
- ↑ Ι.Κολιόπουλος, λαλινόρθωση, Δικτατορία, λεμος 1935—1941, σελ. 245, εκδ. "Εστία" 1985
- 19 τχτερ Χ., 1936–1946, Δυο Επαναστάσεις και δυο Αντεπαναστ στην Ελλάδα, τομ. Ι σελ. 121, εκδ "ΕξΕντας", Αθήνα 1975
- ↑ Τριαντάφυλος Α. Γεροζήσης, Το Σώμα των αξιωματικών και η θέση του στη σύγχρονη Ελληνικ κοινωνία 1821–1975, σε.5.5, ISBN 94
- ↑ Τριαντάφυλος Α. Γεροζήσης, Το Σώμα των αξιωματικών και η θέση του στη σύγχρονη Ελληνικ κοινωνία 1821–1975, σε.550, ISBN 94
- ↑ Thermopylae Stand Expected by the Nazis , The Milwaukee Star-Journal (April 20, 1941), p. 1. Archived April 20, 1941. The appeal date is June 17, 2009.
- ↑ 100 + 1 χρόνια, Ελλάδα, Από τον 20 ό στον 21 ο αιώνα, Ά τόμος, σελ.261
- ↑ Τριαντάφυλος Α. Γεροζήσης, Το Σώμα των αξιωματικών και η θέση του στη σύγχρονη Ελληνικ κοινωνία 1821–1975, σε.551, IBRN 94