White Terror (Greece)

In Greece, the White Terror (Greek: Λευκή Τρομοκρατία) was the period of persecution of members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and other former members of the leftist World War II-era resistance organization National Liberation Front (EAM) in 1945–1946, prior to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War. The term is used in Greece in an analogy to similar cases elsewhere.

Background

During the Axis occupation of Greece, the communist-dominated EAM-ELAS had become the major organization within the Greek Resistance movement. By the summer of 1944, with an estimated membership of between half and two million, and disposing of some 150,000 fighters, it dwarfed its nearest non-communist rivals, EDES and EKKA. Mounting tensions between itself and the other rival groups, sparked by ideology as well as EAM-ELAS' ambition to be the sole instrument of "national liberation", led to repeated clashes in 1943–44, in what was later termed the "first phase" of the Civil War.

At the time of Greece's liberation in October 1944, EAM-ELAS dominated the country except for the major cities, especially Athens, where British forces supported the returned Greek government in exile. A new government of national unity headed by Georgios Papandreou was established in Greece, with the participation of EAM and KKE, according to the Caserta Agreement. The internal disagreements of the government resulted in the withdrawal of the EAM ministers. The dormant rivalry between the Papandreou's government, backed by the British, and EAM-ELAS, resulted in the Dekemvriana clashes in Athens (December 1944 – January 1945), where EAM-ELAS was defeated, and the disarmament of the organization in the Treaty of Varkiza (February 1945).

The Varkiza Agreement was never fully implemented as its terms contained many intentional omissions and ambiguities. The government side failed to fulfill its obligations, while rogue members of KKE such as Aris Velouchiotis hid large caches of weaponry in anticipation of future reprisals by the rightists.