Resistance in Greece and anti-dictatorship action abroad

Human rights and civil liberties

Violations of fundamental human rights and civil liberties constituted a common practice of the regime of April 21st. Spying on citizens, arrests and tortures, trials before extraordinary court-martials and crippling prison sentences, as well as deportations in camps of political prisoners were used as restraints of counteractions.

Propaganda was a key priority of the dictatorship, aiming at highlighting the “achievements” of the regime and slandering every type of anti-dictatorship action.

A systematic effort to impose on the Greek society the regime’s ideology, rooted in notions of nationalism and anti-communism, was attempted through events, lectures and fore mostly the power of the media.

The basic elements of Modernism, as had already been expressed by the 19th century, promoted the recognition of individual liberties and the organization of society within the framework of a representative democracy. Faith in the possibility of the continuous progress of society was shattered throughout the world by the horrors of two world wars and the ascendance of totalitarianism in the first half of the 20th century.

Greek governments were forced to wage a difficult diplomatic struggle in order to ensure the permanent and official incorporation of the Dodecanese islands to the Greek State. The fate of the islands was formally linked to the broader scope of the peace negotiations between the victorious and defeated nations of World War II. However, politically, it depended upon the fragile balance of forces and the interests of the main protagonists of the Cold War era, which was just coming to the fore.

One day after the official surrender of Germany, the military commander of the Dodecanese signed the Delivery Protocol of the islands to the allies, in Symi, on 8 May 1945. The German occupation had ended. Everywhere on the Islands, the British forces and the men of the Sacred Band were welcomed with enthusiasm.

World War II served as the catalyst that would change the status quo in the Dodecanese, dragging plans, hopes and diplomatic interests in its maelstrom. When Italy declared war on Greece on October 28, 1940, many volunteers from the Dodecanese joined the “Dodecanese Regiment” or were already serving in other units of the Greek Army. Yet, even after the Greek capitulation, resistance against the Italians and the Germans would continue on the Dodecanese with raids, sabotage acts and espionage.

Italy occupied the Dodecanese Islands in May 1912, during the Italo-Turkish War. The fact that the islands were relieved from Ottoman Rule, combined with Italy’s declarations on the provisional nature of this occupation, fostered hope among the population of the Dodecanese that the much-desired union with Greece would finally come to fruition. Those hopes were expressed on 17 June 1912 in Patmos with the proclamation of the “Autonomous State of the Aegean”.