What is your view of Ioannes Metaxas?

[ParkCungHee]

Eamon? Since when did the Axis attack Ireland? There were a few collaborators in the IRA, certainly, but they would have been anti-De Valera anyway. I am unaware of any ROI deaths resulting from the Belfast Blitz, if that's what you're talking about, but even if they had it was British soil, no matter what De Valera might have thought.

There were several bombings conducted in the ROI.

Officially, it was do to pilot error, but this was suspect as the Republic wasn't subject to blackouts, making Dublin a wee bit hard to mistake for Belfast.

 

[sydhe]

My view of Metaxas is that he's by and large an unimportant person in world history whose significance is drastically enhanced by tunnel vision.

 

[Kyriakos]

Stating the obvious? Greece was only a peripheral power by then. At any rate only at 1920 it looked like there was some possibility it could resume some more important role, and it did not.

That said, to claim that the Greek victory in the Greek-Italian war was insignificant in WW2 is rather false. It played an important role at the time, given it was the first defeat of an Axis power in the war. Surely, whatever would happen, the Axis would be better off if Greece had allowed them free stationing of their troops, they could attack Egypt more easily then.

 

[Lord Baal]

There were several bombings conducted in the ROI.

Officially, it was do to pilot error, but this was suspect as the Republic wasn't subject to blackouts, making Dublin a wee bit hard to mistake for Belfast.

In that case, the Swiss should have joined both the Axis and Allies in the war. Sweden should have joined the Axis as well.

It's pretty doubtful that the Axis would have intentionally bombed the ROI. Hitler even refrained from launching a renewed assault on Belfast because he feared Irish influence on US politics would drag the latter into the war against him. By the time that was no longer an issue, the Germans had lost the ability to launch a major strike against either the ROI or NI.

My view of Metaxas is that he's by and large an unimportant person in world history whose significance is drastically enhanced by tunnel vision.

All European heads-of-state during WWII had their importance somewhat enhanced by the events surrounding them. I'm unsure what the point of this post was, unless it's to troll Kyriakos. One could easily say the same about Horthy or Boris III, but they certainly influenced the events surrounding them.

 

[IkM]

Wasn't he a dictator?

 

[christos200]

Yes, but he beat the Italians.

 

[Lord Baal]

Wasn't he a dictator?

He was the constitutional leader of the government, then launched a self-coup to assume dictatorial powers. Kind of like Hitler, actually.

 

[Lord Baal]

Yes, but he beat the Italians.

I don't think "beating the Italians" excuses one for being a dictator.

 

[IkM]

I don't think "beating the Italians" excuses one for being a dictator.

^This

hitler or mussolini or metaxas, they're all same for me.

 

[christos200]

For most Greeks he is a national hero and he was voted as one of the 100 Greatest Greeks of all time in a Greek TV program.

 

[Traitorfish]

So most Greeks are stupid?

 

[Kyriakos]

Please don't turn this thread into a troll-fest, ok? :/

 

[IkM]

For most Greeks he is a national hero and he was voted as one of the 100 Greatest Greeks of all time in a Greek TV program.

if germans voted hitler one of the 100 greatest germans, even you would say "booooo" "facist germans" etc.

sorry, but this shows, greeks are supporting dictatorship. I know, greeks are extremely nationalist people but I didn't expect this.

 

[Traitorfish]

Please don't turn this thread into a troll-fest, ok? :/

Eh, the British are stupid too; we voted Churchill top of our "100 Greatest Britons" poll. Nostalgia for mass-murdering brutes seems pretty common.

 

[Kyriakos]

Its ok, i just dislike the slavish attitude of some other people who have nothing to contribute and just post idiocies.

Like i said, i am not really familiar with Metaxas. Given that he governed for only 5 years, and that he does not appear to have caused any mass murders, i tend to think he was less unsavory than the dictators one mostly remembers as brutal in that era.

I think that if random base comments continue, i will just ask for the thread to be closed, since anyway it seems there is not much more to discuss by now on the issue...

 

[christos200]

The problem with most Greeks is that most of them, except for a few who like to read history like me, only know Metaxas as the one who said No to the Italians and defeated them. They do not know that he was a dictator. They only know him as the guy who beat Italy.

 

[Lord Baal]

For most Greeks he is a national hero and he was voted as one of the 100 Greatest Greeks of all time in a Greek TV program.

The Russians voted Stalin the 3rd Greatest Russian of all time recently, despite the fact that he is unarguably one of the worst dictators in history and not even Russian. Voting on something doesn't make it true, nor does it make the people doing the voting intelligent or informed.

 

[Kyriakos]

Christos is alluding to a stupid tv program from a stupid channel which had a vote on the "100 greatest Greeks".

The program was largely a ploy to get the channel going, and also was suspicious both in its results, and the options it allowed for. For example there was not even one candidate from the Byzantine Empire...

Some of the choices were utterly braindead. The top 10 can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Greeks

Although Alexander was the one with the most votes, the rest of the choices were by and large poor. Papanikolaou was an important 20th century scientist, but surely Karatheodori (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Carathéodory) was far more important as a groundbreaking mathematician of the same era. The person with the fourth most votes is just a ludicrous choice...

At least Plato, Socrates and Aristotle are in the top 10. But, like i said, it was a horrible poll.

 

[christos200]

Yes. It is horrible.

 

[Lord Baal]

Christos is alluding to a stupid tv program from a stupid channel which had a vote on the "100 greatest Greeks".

The program was largely a ploy to get the channel going, and also was suspicious both in its results, and the options it allowed for. For example there was not even one candidate from the Byzantine Empire...

Some of the choices were utterly braindead. The top 10 can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Greeks

Although Alexander was the one with the most votes, the rest of the choices were by and large poor. Papanikolaou was an important 20th century scientist, but surely Karatheodori (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Carathéodory) was far more important as a groundbreaking mathematician of the same era. The person with the fourth most votes is just a ludicrous choice...

At least Plato, Socrates and Aristotle are in the top 10. But, like i said, it was a horrible poll.

I like Capodistrias. Alexander wasn't even Greek - I guess Russians don't have the monopoly on that - Pericles was an incompetent and Venizelos was a megalomaniac who split his country in two, with horrendous results which are felt to this day. I have nothing bad to say about the other choices for the top ten. The top hundred I'm not going to go through.