Microsoft Word 1 Arif thesis cover final doc

CHAPTER 2 – HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 
39 
king, then crown prince and commander in chief and Ioannis Metaxas, the army 
acting chief of staff, who both supported neutrality
34
. The ensuing clash between 
‘Venizelists’ and ‘royalists’ literally split Greece into two in the following years and 
led to open violence. What became known as the national schism continued to cast 
its shadow over Greek politics for more than half a century thereafter and can 
animate historical writing even today
35
. 
Venizelos’s opponents had some good arguments and also views which they were 
entitled to take. Metaxas, for example, pointed out the strategic obstacles to a Greek 
hold over western Asia Minor, an opinion which was vindicated by the result. The 
pursuit of speculative gains in exchange for which security or territory in the Balkans 
would need to be surrendered was unattractive. Greece was not obliged by treaty to 
come to the assistance of Serbia unless the latter were attacked by Bulgaria, which 
had not so far happened. The king was entitled to believe, whether or not he was 
married to the Kaiser’s sister and possessed a German Field Marshal’s baton, that the 
Entente would not prevail. But it was less clear that he was constitutionally entitled 
to press the consequences of that view against the decision of the elected 
government
36
.
By March 1915 Venizelos was forced to resign, even though he had a parliamentary 
majority, because the King refused to sanction participation in the Gallipoli 
34
Llewellyn-Smith, 35-42 
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Mavrogordatos in 2015 and Papadakis in 2017 write with the zeal respectively of a partisan and a 
hagiographer. 
36
Llewellyn Smith, 45-53; three memoranda of Venizelos and one of Metaxas are printed in Ventiris, Vol 1, 371-
388. Metaxas subsequently expounded his views in newspaper articles, quoted 
in extenso
by Stratigos, 23-29 and 
31-34. 

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