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SYNOPSIS OF HIS LIFE
Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos 23 August 1864– 18 March 1936 was a Cretan Greek statesman and prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement. He is noted for his contribution to the expansion of Greece and promotion of liberal-democratic policies. As leader of the Liberal Party, he held office as prime minister of Greece for over 12 years, spanning eight terms between 1910 and 1933. -
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FAMILY
Eleftherios was born in Mournies, near Chania in then-Ottoman Crete to Kyriakos Venizelos, a Cretan merchant and revolutionary, and Styliani Ploumidaki. When the Cretan revolution of 1866 broke out, Venizelos' family fled to the island of Syros, due to the participation of his father in the revolution. -
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EDUCATION
He spent his final year of secondary education at a school in Ermoupolis in Syros, from which he received his certificate in 1880. In 1881, he enrolled at the University of Athens Law School and got his degree in Law with excellent grades. He returned to Crete in 1886 and worked as a lawyer in Chania. Throughout his life, he maintained a passion for reading and was constantly improving his skills in English, Italian, German, and French. -
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PROFESSION
Politician
Revolutionary
Legislator
Lawyer
Jurist
Journalist
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ENTRY INTO POLITICS
The situation in Crete during Venizelos' early years was fluid. The Ottoman Empire was undermining the reforms, which were made under international pressure, while the Cretans desired to see the Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, abandon "the ungrateful infidels".Under these unstable conditions Venizelos entered into politics in the elections of 2 April 1889 as a member of the island's liberal party. As a deputy, he was distinguished for his eloquence and his radical opinions. -
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PERSONAL LIFE
In December 1891, Venizelos married Maria Katelouzou,they enjoyed the happy moments of their marriage and also had the birth of their two children, Kyriakos in 1892 and Sofoklis in 1894. Their married life was short and marked by misfortune. Maria died in November 1894 after the birth of their second child. Her death deeply affected Venizelos and as a sign of mourning, he grew his characteristic beard and mustache, which he retained for the rest of his life. -
Its main ideas, adapted from its creator, were:
Opposition to the monarchy; the defense of the Megali Idea; formation of alliances with Western democratic countries, in particular, the United Kingdom and France against Germany during the First and Second World Wars, and later with the United States against the Soviet Union during the Cold War; and finally a protectionist economic policy. -
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THE MAKER OF MODERN GRECCE
His first entry into the international scene was with his significant role in the autonomy of the Cretan State. In 1909, he became the country's Prime Minister. He initiated constitutional and economic reform in preparation for future conflicts. Before the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Venizelos helped gain Greece's entrance to the Balkan League. Through his diplomatic acumen with the Great Powers and with the other Balkan countries, Greece doubled its area and population -
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1910-1920
In World War I (1914–1918), he brought Greece on the side of the Allies, further expanding the Greek borders. However, his pro-Allied foreign policy brought him into conflict with the nonaligned faction of Constantine I of Greece, causing the National Schism of the 1910s. The Schism became an unofficial civil war, with the struggle for power between the two groups polarizing the population between the royalists and Venizelists for decades. -
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VENISELISM
One of the main contributions of Venizelos to Greek political life was the creation, in 1910, of the Liberal Party, based on the ideas of Venizelos . The opposing party was reflected around the personality of the king. Venizelism, from its inception, is essentially a liberal Republican movement which opposes anti-Venizelist monarchist and conservative ideologies. These two competed for power throughout the inter-war period. -
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1920-1930
Venizelos secured new territorial concessions in Western Anatolia and Thrace in an attempt to accomplish the Megali IdEA. He was, however, defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22). Venizelos, in self-imposed exile, represented Greece in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne and the agreement of a mutual population exchange between Greece and Turkey. -
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VENIZELOS DEATH
In January 1933 he became prime minister for the last time and in March 1935, after a coup attempt, he fled to Paris where he died. He was buried on a hill at the head of the Akrotiri peninsula beside the eastern outskirts of Chania city in Crete, close to the place where he was born. The Venizelos family graves are today one of the attractions of Chania. -
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Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos
The airport is named after Elefthérios Venizélos, the prominent Cretan political figure and Prime Minister of Greece, who made a significant contribution to the development of Greek aviation and the Hellenic Air Force in the 1930s.