Can Timeghost give information on the role of Georgios Grivas (who would later create EOKA) in the resistance against the Nazi’s?
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What is full form and function of the EOKA?
EOKA was the terrorist organisation that from 1955 until 1960 fought against British rule over Cyprus and wanted enosis (unification) of Cyprus with Greece.
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Georgios Grivas was one of the founders and later the leader of the Organization X. The organization had fascist tendencies and its position was that the communist EAM/ELAS was far more dangerous for the country than the Germans. While by typical terminology, it was not a collaborationist organization (i.e. it was not funded, armed and commanded by the Germans), it ensured favorable tolerance by the Germans, and the British assessment (through Monty Woodhouse) was that the organization’s worth as a Resistance factor was zero, and its main purpose was to prepare to face the communists after the German withdrawal. X cooperated with the collaborationist security agents and signed, on November 4, 1943, a pact along with other 9 Nationalist Resistance organizations in which they volunteered to place themselves under the command of the Middle East Command. The British, hesitated, though, as most of those nine organizations were cooperating with the occupation authorities.
After the Italian capitulation, the Germans finally accepted to sell weapons to X, but the organization remained always independent.
In August 1944, when the liberation was imminent, scores of collaborationist agents and militiamen of the Security Battalions joined X, to avoid persecutions as collaborators. After the liberation, during the Battle of Athens, in December 1944 - January 1945, X clashed with EAM/ELAS at Thiseio, the HQ of X. The communists prevailed and took most of X’s weaponry, but Grivas and many of his men were rescued by the British.
After the end of the battle and the Treaty of Varkiza, X was disbanded and Grivas created a political party, the “X Party of National Resistance”. Its men joined the “National Guard Battalions”, paramilitary units under the government and took part in the White Terror, the government-sponsored persecution of communists in post-war Greece, which sparked the final phase of the Greek Civil War.
Post war, Grivas’ party disbanded after poor electoral results, but X was recognized as a Resistance organization in 1950 (while the largest EAM/ELAS in 1982), its battle against the communists in December 1944 was promoted as an anti-communist epic and today the legacy of X is utilized by the Far Right, the ultranationalists and neo-Nazis.
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