Greek Civil War

Byzantine Army fires QF 25-pounder gun in Western Thrace

The Greek Civil War (Greek: ο Eμφύλιος, "the Civil War") took place from 1950 to 1953. The conflict erupted shortly after the end of the Second World War and consisted of a nationalist uprising in the European part of the Byzantine Empire against the central government in Constantinople in hopes to overthrow the government and establish a Greek republic based on the Greek National Revival Movement. The Byzantine government was supported by much of the former Allies of WWII, while various forces, groups, and individuals from mostly former Axis nations aided the Greek Nationalists.

Ultimately, the Greek Civil War ended in a ceasefire on the 16th of October, 1953, dividing the Greek nation east and west on the border of the regions of Macedonia and Thrace.

### Background: 1940-1947

In October of 1940, the Byzantine Empire was invaded by the Kingdom of Sicily-Albania over the territory of Epirus. Though the front stabilized at around January of the following year, the Kingdom of Bulgaria then invaded the region of Thrace in April of 1941, spreading out Byzantine forces. Aiding German forces later that year resulted in the occupation of much of European Greece.

The German, Italian, and Bulgarian occupation of European Greece essentially divided the country east and west, with the occupied west facing harsh conditions and atrocities. This further polarized politics in Greece, bolstering the Greek nationalist sentiment within partisan groups and the military in the west while much of the east remained loyal to the government in Constantinople.

By 1946, much of Greece was liberated by partisans, the military, and units of Allied forces. While Constantinople quickly scrambled to reinstate order in the west, the Army of Macedonia had already set up a provisional government in Thessaloniki after pushing out the invading Axis forces. Many locals from western Thrace to Macedonia to the Peloponnese felt disillusioned by the failure of the Constantinople government to prevent the Axis occupation and concurrently felt more trust towards the nationalist partisan groups and Army of Macedonia that had liberated their country.

### Political Turmoil: 1947-1950

Throughout the postwar period, politics in Byzantium remained tumultuous and disjointed. Byzantine administration had returned to some major cities such as Athens and Larissa, but the Greek armies still maintained an informal presence throughout European Greece, bringing some sense of order and security in the region. The return of official Byzantine rule throughout Greece was seen not as a restoration of normalcy and stability, but a direct conflict with the rejuvenation of Hellenic nationalism and demand for political reform in formerly-occupied parts of the country.

The Byzantine government was seen as stagnant and weak by the growing republican movement in European Greece, most of whom identified with the former Byzantine Prime Minister and political thinker, Eleftherios Venizelos, a prominent proponent of Greek modernization, liberalization, and nationalism who fell out of favour with the Byzantine royalty. Much of the military in European Greece, who often complained about the low funding and low levels of modernization that plagued the institution, sympathized with the republican movement, believing that Constantinople was out of touch and illegitimate in properly defending the Greek nation.

Greek politics were also plagued by the issue of the KKE (Communist Party of Greece) and its paramilitary wing, ELAS (Greek People's Liberation Army), which helped fight for Greek liberation during the Second World War. While some areas of the country became sympathetic to their cause due to their work of liberation and rebuilding of communities during the war, most Greek republicans believed them to be an infiltrating threat by the Soviet Union, and a danger to be eradicated. The Army of Macedonia committed various pogroms and political reprisals against remaining active ELAS strongholds in the Greek countryside, with little resistance from the central government or foreign communist nations such as the Soviet Union.

### Civil War: 1950-1953

The Constantinople government was deeply concerned with the political situation in European Greece, as they had only nominal power and control over the region. In an effort to bring the country back into their full fold and to rebuild, the government declared the Army of Macedonia and all other major army formations to be disbanded, in an effort, according to them, to "allocate government funding to other, greater economic concerns." Many regions in Greece, including the major city of Thessaloniki, protested this decision, proclaiming that the military had supported them and was already helping them economically recover. Major clashes between locals and Byzantine police forces commenced, further heightening the political tension.

In response to the government order, Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos, a man considered a hero of Byzantium after his service during WWII, as well as a number of other officers in the Army of Macedonia, declared from Thessaloniki that Constantinople lost their legitimacy as the rightful leaders of Greece, and declared a state of emergency to "restore a popular government." The Army of Macedonia and various republican militia groups took up arms to expel government forces from European Greece and to take Constantinople, gathering a force the size of about 200,000 men. Meanwhile, the Byzantine government amassed regiments in Anatolia and worked in cooperation with loyalist forces in European Greece to a force of about 150,000 to defeat the republicans. The Greek Civil War had officially begun on the 30th of March, 1950.

#### Battle of Larissa

In the initial stages of the war, Papadopoulos led forces to take the city of Larissa to make headway for Athens. Unprepared Byzantine forces in the city surrendered quickly to the barrage of artillery fire that besieged them for two weeks. With a shock to the Republican Forces' expeditiousness, the Byzantine government quickly called upon the Allies for reinforcement and aid. However, with the Allies' attention being at the outbreak of the Russian and Chinese civil wars, only Britain, Poland, the United States, France, South Italy, and Korea were able to quickly rally a small number of expeditionary forces.

#### International Attention and Intervention

Allied expeditionary and volunteer divisions arrived at Smyrna on May of 1950. French and South Italian forces relegated themselves as a mere defence force, situating themselves in Western Thrace to defend Constantinople against any incoming Republican attacks. British, Polish, American, and Korean troops (later joined by Canadian, ANZAC, Thai, Ethiopian, Colombian, Dutch, and Luxembourgish troops) crossed the Aegean to Athens to defend the Peloponnese and make an offensive against the Republicans.

   In response, Papadopoulos asked for international aid and volunteer forces from all around the world sympathizing with the Republican cause. By June of 1950, troops from Nowa Polska, as well as WWII veterans from Spain and Germany with Falangist and Freikorps affiliations arrived at Corfu (Latvian Thunder Cross paramilitaries would later join the Republican cause). Organizations sympathizing with the Republican cause would later also smuggle aid, weapons, vehicles, and equipment from the Bulgarian and Albanian borders into European Greece.

#### Siege of Athens and the Battle for the Aegean

After the fall of Larissa, the Republican forces, now branded as the Hellenic Army, marched towards Athens to link up with their enclave in Patras in the Peloponnese. Hellenic forces and volunteers quickly made their way to Euboea to cut off major communications from Athens to Constantinople. Meanwhile, the Hellenic Navy (formerly the Byzantine Navy) defected to the Republicans and blockaded European Greece from Anatolia. Byzantine and Allied troops were essentially trapped in Athens. Republican forces in Patras captured most of the Peloponnese and started the make their way to Athens while the Byzantines dug in the city to defend against a siege.

Athens would continue to be brutally sieged by Hellenic artillery for the next year and a half, while Byzantine and Allied troops lay rationing their food and ammunition in the devastated city. A significant amount of Byzantine forces defected to the Republicans, weakening the Allied position even further.
The Hellenic Navy and Greek marines, in the meantime, were preparing a landing for the major islands and Anatolia. Marines in Kalamata launched an invasion of Crete simultaneously with the invasion of Marmaron in western Anatolia in early 1951. A combined Byzantine-British task force in Heraklion successfully defended Crete from the landing, resulting in a disastrous defeat and subsequent capture of over five thousand Hellenic marines. However, the landing at a minimally-defended Marmaron proved to be more successful, and forced the Byzantine Army to divert troops away from supplying Athens and Thrace to dealing with the threat in southwestern Anatolia.

The British and French governments finally sanctioned sending in their navies to deal with the threat, and sent their Mediterranean Fleet to the Aegean Sea. The Hellenic Navy faced a crippling defeat around the Dodecanese Islands, cutting off supply to the Anatolian invasion. Rhodes would be in Byzantine hands by mid-1951. The British Mediterranean Fleet also managed to send a small amount of supplies to Athens via the port of Pireas, allowing the city to survive under siege and ferry thousands of Greek refugees to Smyrna.

#### Gallipoli Campaign and the Cyprus Occupation

In 1952, The Hellenic Army attempted to flank and encircle the Byzantine capital of Constantinople to secure a rapid victory by crossing the Gallipoli peninsula and landing on Anatolia. The Hellenic Army managed to capture the strategic port city of Dardanellia and then proceeded to move eastwards to Constantinople. Byzantine and ANZAC forces managed to stop the advance in the major city of Prusa. Allied forces pushed back the Republicans to the Dardanelles Strait and attempted to make a landing on Gallipoli to encircle the Hellenic troops in Thrace instead. However, well-entrenched Hellenic forces repelled the attacks and resulted in a disastrous amount of casualties for the Allies.

The British occupied the island of Cyprus at the outbreak of the Greek Civil War in order to protect their military bases. In response, the Byzantine government protested this decision and demanded the return of control of the island. However, due to the need of a reliable naval and air base and a safe haven for British troops, Britain refused this request and continued its occupation. This resulted in two camps of Cypriots demanding *enosis* or "union" with Greece. The first group were those led by Archbishop of Cyprus Makarios III who demanded that Cyprus be reunited with the Byzantine government. But, the second group were EOKA (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters), who demanded that Cyprus be united with the republican Hellenic government.

Tensions between these two groups led to violence and riots in the streets of Nicosia that had to be broken up by British garrisons. EOKA proceeded to attack and set fire to British military bases in Episkopi, leading to a greater British crackdown on the organization. The British government agreed to hand over Cyprus to the Byzantine government as Constantinople permitted the occupation of Akrotiri and Dhekelia as Sovereign Base Areas at the end of the conflict. This decision deeply angered EOKA, starting a guerrilla terror campaign against both the British garrison and Byzantine loyalists.

#### Fall of Athens and the Greek Armistice

By 1953, the situation in Athens was dire: supplies were running out to feed both the citizens and the troops, and it was getting increasingly risky to deliver aid to the city because of mines and coastal artillery installed in the Saronic Gulf. In August of 1953, the Allies made the decision to leave the city. Approximately 150,000 Allied troops and a remarkable 90,000 Greek refugees escaped to the tiny port town of Lavario to be evacuated to Smyrna. Athens fell a day after the evacuation to the Hellenic Army.

With much of European Greece fallen to the Hellenic Army, a ceasefire was proposed by both sides in late September of 1953. In the Greek Armistice Agreement, the physical border would be placed at the former regional borders of Western Thrace and Eastern Thrace, whilst dividing the city of Adrianoupolis in two. The Aegean Islands would be divided into east and west, and Crete and Cyprus would be given over to Byzantium. The Greek Civil War was never officially concluded, with both sides claiming legal dominion over all of European Greece and western Anatolia, but most major fighting ended on the 16th of October, 1953.

### Aftermath and Consequences

#### Cyprus Question

After British troops left most of Cyprus barring the Sovereign Base Areas, the Byzantine government took official sovereignty of the island as per the Anglo-Byzantine Agreement as well as the Greek Armistice Agreement. Despite the return to Byzantine governance, Cyprus faces sectarian violence due to the difference in opinion of Cypriots regarding to which Greek nation Cyprus should have been under. EOKA remains a prominent force involved in both political action and violence in Cyprus and has been deemed a terrorist organization by Byzantium.

#### Division of Adrianoupolis

The Greek Armistice Agreement divided the city of Adrianoupolis on the border of Eastern and Western Thrace, resulting in two cities in both the Hellenic Republic and Byzantium, colloquially called West Adrianoupolis and East Adrianoupolis. The movement of people across the borders of the two nations is illegal, meaning that families and communities divided in Adrianoupolis are unable to make contact. While there have been some suggestions and talks of loosening border regulations for the city, no official policy of reunification of families has ever taken place.

#### Refugee Crisis

Over 1.5 million people were displaced in the Greek Civil War, resulting in a massive refugee crisis and demographic shift. Many urban areas in European Greece faced a brain drain and depopulation as hundreds of thousands of Greeks emigrated to western Anatolia to escape the conflict and Hellenic Army rule. Similarly, a significant number of political dissidents in western Anatolia and Byzantine-occupied territories moved to European Greece to evade persecution. In the Hellenic Republic, Thessaloniki faced massive immigration as the country's de facto capital during the war and its most stable and prosperous city. In Byzantium, Smyrna, as a major port, took in hundreds of thousands of refugees escaping from European Greece.

#### War Crimes

Both sides committed atrocities and war crimes against each other during the conflict, resulting in grave international condemnation of the conflict. The Byzantine Air Force notably firebombed the port city of Alexandroupolis, resulting in devastating civilian casualties with little strategic effect. Some scholars deem the Siege of Athens as a war crime, as the city faced a year and a half of artillery shelling, air raids, and the limitation of crucial resources such as food, water, and aid. Indeed, thousands of Athenians perished from sickness, starvation, and military causes during the siege. The Nicosia Massacre involved British garrison forces opening fire against a mob of EOKA supporters in Cyprus, resulting in 128 dead and hundreds more wounded. There were also various accounts that POWs captured by Hellenic Army forces faced brutal imprisonment conditions and were regularly tortured, starved, and indiscriminately killed.

There were also reports of friendly fire by some pro-republican foreign volunteer forces, such as the Chania Incident, when Nowa Polski troops shot and tortured a squad of German Freikorps marines due to a severe grudge between the two divisions' nationalities.