Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo
The
Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo (EAM) (
Greek Εθνικό Απελευθερωτικό Μέτωπο (ΕΑΜ), "National Liberation Front") was the main resistance movement in
Greece during
World War II. It was founded in
27 September 1941 by representatives of four left-wing parties :
Lefteris Apostolou for the
Communist Party of Greece (KKE),
Christos Chomenidis, for the
Socialist Party of Greece (ΣΚΕ),
Ilias Tsirimokos, for the
Greek Popular Republic (ΕΛ") and
Apostolos Voyiatzis for the
Agricultural Party of Greece (ΑΚΕ) against the Nazi occupation. The acting leader was
Giorgios Siantos (KKE's proper leader,
Nikolaos Zachariadis, was interned a German prison). Its purely military wing, formed in
1942, was the
Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS); it also had a "navy" (ELAN) "National People's Liberational Navy"
Ethniko Laiko Apeleftherotiko Naftiko but engaged primarily in land-based resistance to the German occupying forces.
It fought against the German, the Italian and the Bulgarian occupation forces and at the eve of the liberation of Greece engaged in a war against guerilla forces of right-wing organizations, namely
Ethnikos Dimokratikos Ellinikos Syndesmos (EDES) and
Ethniki Kai Koinoniki Apeleftherosis (EKKA). EAM-ELAS was very active and successful, and around the end of the war its political power grew considerably to the point of establishing an outlaw government the
Political Committee of National Liberation (
Politiki Epitropi Ethikis Apeleftherosιs (
Greek Πολιτική Επιτροπή Εθνικής Απελευθέρωσης)) (PEEA) for the large parts of mainland mountainous Greece it had rid of the occupational forces rule. The conflict with right-wing, nationalist or western-oriented republican forces escalated, leading to the outbreak of the
Greek Civil War that lasted until
1949.
The EAM organized a pacific demonstration in Athens on
December 3,
1944 against British interference, six weeks after the liberation of the country. Members of the
LOK as well as "British troops and police with machine guns... posited on the rooftops" suddenly shot on the crowd, making 25 protesters dead (including a six-years-old boy) and 148 wounded
[ Daniele Ganser, 2005. NATO's Secret Armies. Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe (London, Franck Cass), pp.213-214 (his quote) ]. In London,
Churchill faced a angry House of Commons, while the role of the LOK in the
Syntagma massacre was never investigated
[ Peter Murtagh, op.cit., p.30, quoted by Ganser (2005), p.214 ].
*
Greek Resistance*
Greek Civil War
