Ioannis Metaxas

Ioannis Metaxas (12 April 1871 – 29 January 1941) was a Greek military officer, politician and dictator. He was Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 to 1941.

Ioannis Metaxás

Greece since the 4th of August became an anticommunist State, an antiparliamentary State, a totalitarian State.

Quotes

• -"The Italian Government has repeatedly noted that, during the course of the present war, the Greek Government has adopted and maintained a position which goes not only against the smooth and peaceful..."
  -Alors, c'est la guerre.
  -Pas nécessaire, mon excellence.
  -Non, c'est nécessaire.
  • As quoted in: "Angelos Terzakis (1990) The Greek Epic: 1940 - 1941, p.36", such as in Grazzi's Memoirs
  • His response to the Italian ultimatum given by Ambassador Emanuele Grazzi on 28 October 1940. Greece entered the WWII.

• Greece since the 4th of August became an anticommunist State, an antiparliamentary State, a totalitarian State. A State based on its peasants and workers, and so antiplutocratic. There is not, of course, a particular party to govern. This party is all the People, except of the incorrigible communists and the reactionary politicians of the old parties.
  • Metaxas about his dictatorial regime, in his personal diary.

• "...Greece, which has the highest estimation of the renowned leader, heroic soldier, and enlightened creator of Turkey. We will never forget that President Atatürk was the true founder of the Greco-Turkish alliance based on a framework of common ideals and peaceful cooperation. He developed ties of friendship between the two nations which it would be unthinkable to dissolve. Greece will guard its fervent memories of this great man, who determined an unalterable future path for the noble Turkish nation."
  • [1] His comment about the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.