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A BIOGRAPHY
Early life
Georgios Grivas (aka Digenis) was born on July 5, 1898 in Trikomo, Famagusta District, the fourth child of Theodoros Grivas and Kalomira Hadjimichael. He grew up in his family home at Trikomo. After attending his village school he studied at the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia (19091915) where he stayed with his grandmother.
He directed the first EOKA operations from his hideout in Nicosia but soon after he moved to the Troodos mountains to lead his guerrilla teams. He recruited Grigoris Afxentiou as one of the team leaders, initially of the Famagusta district.[4] Grivas escaped capture twice after he was surrounded by British forces at Spilia in December 1955, leading to the Battle of Spilia, and at Kykkos in May 1956. A month later, chased by the British forces, he was secretly transferred from the mountains by the car of a passionate EOKA fighter, Kostis Efstathiou, widely known as Pachykostis, and found refuge in a hideout at Limassol from where he directed not only the military activities but also the political campaign, since Archbishop Makarios in March 1956 was exiled by the authorities. During the struggle, the British colonial administration had offered a reward of 10,000 British pounds plus passage to anywhere in the world for information leading to the arrest of Colonel Grivas.[6]
Return to Greece
With the signing of the Zurich-London agreements in early 1959 and the declaration of Cyprus as an independent state Grivas reluctantly ordered cease-fire, since the struggle's main objective of Enosis was not achieved. His views were at odds with those of Makarios who had accepted the above agreements on behalf of the Greek Cypriot population. In March 1959, Digenis came out of his hideout and departed (in exile, requested by the UK as part of the cease fire agreement) for Athens where he received a hero's welcome as the liberator of the Greek Cypriots and was subsequently decorated with the highest honours by the Greek Parliament and the Athens Academy and promoted to the rank of General. Not long after his return general Grivas was persuaded to head a coalition party but soon abandoned this route after the disappointing percentage his party obtained in the general election of 1963.
He returned to Cyprus in 1964 after the outbreak of intercommunal violence between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots to take over the Supreme Command of the Greek Cypriot forces organised under Makarios's National Guard as well as the Greek military division sent to Cyprus by the government of George Papandreou to assist in the island's defence against a possible Turkish attack. He directed the construction of defense forts and complexes aiming at withstanding a Turkish invasion. On 15 November 1967, Greek Cypriot National Guard under his direct command overran two small villages on the critical Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia intersection, resulting in the deaths of 27 people, mostly unarmed Turkish Cypriot civilians as well as Turkish Cypriot resistance fighters at Kofinou and Agios Theodoros. The immediate result of this event was Turkey's ultimatum, which prompted the Greek military government to recall both the Greek Division and General Grivas to Athens.
regime by expelling from the Cypriot National Guard 550 Greek officers. This meant the loss of military control of Cyprus for Greece as well as the humiliation of Ioannides (Secret Minutes of conversation between Makarios and British Prime Minister-London 17 July 1974). The military coup of July 15, 1974 which overthrew Makarios were executed by forces of the Cypriot National Guard under direct instructions from Greece. The National Guard was led by Greek officers and consisted of Greek-Cypriot conscripts. The EOKA B members and other pro-enosis forces joined the National Guard in the afternoon of Monday July 15, 1974 in the fight against Makarios' forces. The coup was swiftly followed by the Turkish military invasion of Cyprus on Saturday 20 July taking by surprise Ioannides who failed to prepare Cyprus for a Turkish invasion and in addition failed to coerce the Greek generals that he had appointed to apply "Plan K" and provide military assistance to Cyprus. The loss of the "War of Cyprus" marked the downfall of Ioannides.[12]
References
1.
^ a b Watson, Roland; Elliott, Francis; Coates, Sam (January 29, 1974). "Gen George Grivas (Obituaries)". The Times Digital Archive (London). pp. 14; Issue 59000; col E. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 2. ^ Kofas, Jon (May 31, 1985). Intervention and Underdevelopment: Greece During the Cold War. Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-27102647-3. 3. ^ Ganser, Daniele (July 12, 2005). Nato's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe. Routledge. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-7146-5607-6. 4. ^ a b Grivas, George; Charles Foley (1964). The Memoirs of General Grivas. London: Longmans. 5. ^ Grivas, George (1964). Guerrilla Warfare and Eoka's Struggle. London: Longman. 6. ^ Kraemer, Joseph S. (Winter, 1971). "Revolutionary Guerrilla Warfare & the Decolonization Movement". Polity (Polity, Vol. 4, No. 2) 4 (2): 137158. doi:10.2307/3234160. JSTOR 3234160. 7. ^ Letter of General Karousos to the Greek Newspaper "To Vima" Published on February 7, 1999 http://tovima.dolnet.gr/print_article.php? e=B&f=12519&m=A30&aa=1 8. ^ Speeches by General Nikolaos Lytras and Lawyer Panikos Sotiriou at the Symposium "The life and work of Georgios Grivas Digenis", Nicosia Conference Center, Sunday 4th Iouniou 1995 ISBN 9963-8210-1-4 9. ^ Andreas Athanasiou, O Agnostos Polemos Athinon Lefkosias, p.179 10. ^ Makarios Drousiotis, EOKA B & CIA, To ellinotourkiko parakratos stin Kipro, Alfadi, Nicosia 2003 pp 80-81 11. ^ "The Survivor". Time Magazine. February 28, 1972. Retrieved 2008-04-24. 12. ^ a b H Tragiki Anametrisi kai i Prodosia tis Kyprou-Marios Adamides-2011, p. ? 13. ^ Leonidas Leonidou F., Georgios Grivas Digenis, Viografia, Volume D 14. ^ Stern, Laurence (Summer, 1975). "Bitter Lessons: How We Failed in Cyprus". Foreign Policy 19 (19): 3478. JSTOR 1147991.
Sources
Grivas Georgios-Digenis, Crhonikon Agonos E.O.K.A. 1955059, Nicosia 1972 Grivas George, General Grivas on Guerrilla Warfare. Translated by A. A. Palis, New York, N.Y., U.S.A., Praeger, 1965 Grivas George, Guerrilla warfare and EOKA's struggle: a politico-military study. (Translated by A. A. Pallis). London, G.B.: Longmans, Green, 1964 Grivas George, The Memoirs of General Grivas. Edited by Charles Foley, New York, Frederick A. Praeger, 1965 Leonidas Leonidou F., Georgios Grivas Digenis, Viografia, Volume A, (1897 1950), [Cyprus 1995] Leonidas Leonidou F., Georgios Grivas Digenis, Viografia, Volume B, (1950 1959), Nicosia 1997 Papageorgiou Spyros, O Grivas kai i "X", To Chameno Archeio, Athens 2004 Woodhouse, Christopher Montague (1948). Apple of Discord: A Survey of Recent Greek Politics in their International Setting. London H Tragiki Anametrisi kai i Prodosia tis Kyprou-Marios Adamides-Nicosia-2011E-Book).