SUMMARY

[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]

Greece became independent from Ottoman-Turkish rule in 1827. By the beginning of the 20th century it had developed from a powerful monarchy to a system wherein the king and the parliament shared power. From 1936 to his death in 1941, General Ioannis Metaxa ruled the country as a dictator supported by the Greek King George II. Nazi Germany occupied Greece with the help of Italy and Bulgaria from 1941 to 1944.

The German occupiers set up a puppet regime in Greece while King George II formed an exile-government. As neither was regarded as legitimate by many Greeks, a communist resistance group, the EAM (Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo, National Liberation Front) and its military wing the ELAS (Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos, National Peoples Liberation Army) gained popular support. They battled with the occupying forces, rightist resistance groups and – after the return of the exile-government upon the end of the occupation – with government troops. After the conclusion of a peace agreement in 1945 that demanded the rebel forces disband, EAM/ELAS resumed fighting in 1946 under a new name, the DSE (Dimokratikos Stratos Elladas, the Democratic Army of Greece). The proclaimed goals of the DSE were free elections and the retreat of the foreign troops from Greek territory.

In the war between the DSE and the Greek government, which lasted from 1946 to 1949, the governments of Yugoslavia and Albania provided military support to DSE. In turn, the Greek government was backed by Great Britain until 1947. The same year, the USA adopted the Truman-Doctrine manifesting the aim to contain Soviet expansion and began to support the government against the communist rebels. The conflict ended with the defeat of the insurgents in 1949.

The government of Greece provided secondary warring support to South Korea against North Korea from 1950 to 1953 and to Kuwait against Iraq in 1991. Greece also contributed to the NATO forces that supported the UCK against the government of Yugoslavia (Serbia) in Kosovo in 1999. Moreover, it sent troops to Afghanistan to support the USA against Al Qaida and to back the government of Afghanistan against the Taleban in the 2000s.

Since 1946 Greece has experienced the intrastate category of UCDP organised violence.