Hellenic Military Academy
Dovas was born in Konitsa, in the Janina Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present-day northwestern Greece). In 1918, Dovas graduated from the Hellenic Military Academy. During the Greek Civil War between the government and the communist Democratic Army of Greece, he led the resistance of the Konitsa garrison during the Battle of Konitsa. Subsequently he rose from the rank of Lieutenant General (1954) to Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff.