The Noemvriana (Greek: Νοεμβριανά, "November Events") was an armed confrontation in Athens in December [O.S. November] 1916 between the Kingdom of Greece and the Allied Powers, arising from a dispute over Greece's neutrality in World War I, and followed by reprisals and riots against Greek supporters of the Allies.
The immediate crisis began in May 1916, when the Greek fortress of Roupel, on the northern border, was surrendered to the Central Powers, mainly Bulgarian forces. This raised concerns among the Allies of a secret alliance between the Greek government and the Central Powers. The Allies feared that the Central Powers, with Greek support, might launch an attack against the Franco-British army that had been invited to Thessaloniki by former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos to assist Serbia and bivouacked there since late 1915. Diplomatic negotiations between King Constantine I and the Allies took place in mid-1916, with the King advocating for Greek neutrality, which would favor the Central Powers. The Allies demanded the demobilization of the Greek army to ensure Greece's neutrality after the surrender of Fort Roupel. However, the failure of negotiations, combined with the Bulgarian Army's advance in Macedonia, led to a military coup by pro-Allied Greek officers supporting Venizelos in Thessaloniki. Supported by the Allies, in October 1916, Venizelos established a provisional government in northern Greece to form an army to reclaim territories lost to Bulgaria, thus splitting Greece into two factions.
The involvement of the Hellenic Army alongside the Allies and the country's division sparked anti-Allied protests in Athens. In late October, King Constantine and the Allies reached a secret agreement on the war material compensation, but pressure from his military advisers forced the King to abandon it. On 1 December [O.S. 18 November] 1916, the Allies landed a small contingent in Athens to enforce their demands – surrender of war material equivalent to the ones lost at Roupel – but met with organized resistance. An armed confrontation ensued until a temporary compromise was reached. The next day, after the Allied forces evacuated, royalist mobs rioted in Athens, targeting Venizelos's supporters. The violence lasted two or three days after 1 December and became known as the Noemvriana, named after the November date in the Old Style calendar. This event drove deep social cleavage between the two sides and marked the height of the National Schism.
After Noemvriana, the Allies intensified efforts to remove King Constantine I. A naval blockade was imposed, isolating royalist areas, leading the population of Athens to starve. Following Constantine's abdication in June 1917, his son, King Alexander, ascended the throne, and Greece was united under Venizelos's leadership. Greece then joined the Allies in World War I, providing numerical superiority on the Macedonian front. In 1918, the Greek army had helped secure an Allied victory in the Balkans, contributing to the liberation of Serbia and the defeat of the Central Powers.
Background
Greece emerged victorious after the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars, almost doubling its territory and population. However, the unstable international political climate of the early 20th century placed Greece in a difficult position. The ownership of the Greek-occupied eastern Aegean islands was contested by the Ottoman Empire, which claimed them as its own. In the north, Bulgaria, defeated in the Second Balkan War, was engineering revanchist strategies against Greece and Serbia. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia in 1914. This caused Germany and Austria-Hungary to declare war against countries allied with Serbia, which triggered the involvement of the Triple Entente and started World War I.
Greece, like Bulgaria, initially maintained neutrality during the conflict. The Greek leadership was divided between Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who supported Great Britain and the Allies, and King Constantine, who had been educated in Germany, was married to Sophia of Prussia, the sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and harbored strong sympathies for the Central Powers. Admiring Prussian militarism and anticipating a quick German victory, the King wanted Greece to remain neutral in the conflict, a strategy favorable to the Central Powers. Both men aspired to the prevailing Greek irredentist ideal, known since the mid-19th century as the Megali Idea, the revival of the Byzantine Empire with the capture of Constantinople and Asia Minor. Venizelos adopted an aggressive stance, recognizing the unique opportunities for territorial expansion created by the ongoing war in Europe, while the King favored a conservative approach encapsulated in the royalist slogan: "a small but honorable Greece".
In early 1915, Britain offered Greece "territorial concessions in Asia Minor" if it would participate in the upcoming Gallipoli Campaign. Venizelos supported this idea, while the King and his military advisers opposed it. Dismayed by the King's opposition, the prime minister resigned on 21 February 1915. A few months later, Venizelos's Liberal Party won the May elections and formed a new government. By that time, the Gallipoli campaign was faltering, and Serbia was in a precarious military situation.
When Bulgaria mobilized against Serbia on 23 September 1915, Venizelos persuaded the King to sign a decree for a Greek counter-mobilization as stipulated by the Greek–Serbian Alliance of 1913 and asked the Allies to defend Thessaloniki and aid Serbia without the King's explicit approval. The Greek parliament gave Venizelos a vote of confidence to help Serbia; however, the King refused to abandon the neutral position of Greece, which forced Venizelos to resign and led to the dissolution of parliament. The Liberals considered the King's actions unconstitutional, and they boycotted the December elections, escalating the animosity between Constantine and Venizelos as well as their loyal followers. The Allies, led by General Maurice Sarrail, landed at Thessaloniki on 5 October 1915 (hours before Venizelos's resignation) and entrenched around the city as it was vulnerable to a German–Bulgarian advance; the Allied army was reinforced at the end of the year with troops withdrawn from the Gallipoli campaign.
Causes
Benevolent neutrality and the surrender of Fort Roupel
After the resignation of Venizelos, the caretaker government under Alexandros Zaimis adopted a policy of "sincere benevolent neutrality" toward the Allies. Following the December elections, the government of Stefanos Skouloudis pledged to maintain this stance. In practice, however, his administration's decisions sought to appease the King and, by extension, aligned with German interests. The first indication of this came in April 1916, when Skouloudis refused an Allied request for Serbian troops stationed in Corfu to use the Greek railways from Corinth to Thessaloniki for their transfer to the Macedonian front. The Allies intended to tie-up Bulgarian troops, preventing their redeployment against Romania.
A month later, the German Supreme Command, concerned about the Allied general Sarrail's movements, leading German general Erich von Falkenhayn to occupy strategic positions inside Greek territory, specifically Fort Roupel. On 9 May 1916, Falkenhayn informed Athens of the imminent advance of German-Bulgarian forces. In reply, Athens minimized the significance of Sarrail's movements and requested that Falkenhayn change his strategy. On 23 May, Falkenhayn guaranteed that Greece's territorial integrity and its citizens' rights would be respected.
On 26 May, the Greek government was formally informed of the German-Bulgarian invasion of Greece, involving 25,000 Bulgarian soldiers led by German cavalry, which began later that day. Assurances were given to the Greek government that German-Bulgarian forces would not enter the towns of Serres, Drama, and Kavala, provided that Fort Roupel was occupied by the invading forces. The sudden approach of German-Bulgarian forces led to a delay to the German-Bulgarian advance, as the fort's Greek forces were prepared to defend it because they were not informed in advance by the government in Athens. In the afternoon, the fort's commander received orders from Athens to unconditionally surrender. Despite an official protest by the Greek government and the assurances of Falkenhayn, Bulgarian soldiers immediately began to forcibly round up the Greek population and move them into Serres, Drama, and Kavala. The Bulgarian plan was to later seize these cities and deport the Greeks, with a view to annexing the territory. German attempts to restrain Bulgarian territorial ambitions failed, leading to the occupation of Kavala by the Bulgarian Army on 4 September.
Reactions of Venizelos and the Allies
The surrender of Fort Roupel caused the Allies to believe that the German-Bulgarian advance was a result of a secret agreement between Athens and the Central Powers, as they had been assured by the Greek government that no Bulgarian force would invade Greek territory. The Allies saw this as a violation of Greek neutrality and a disturbance in the balance of power in the Balkans. The Allied press, especially in France, demanded swift military action against Greece to protect the Allied forces in Macedonia. On 3 June, Sarrail declared martial law in Thessaloniki, effectively stripping the Greek government of control over the city. Additionally, Italian concerns about relying on Greek forces to protect its flanks caused the withdrawal of Greek troops from Northern Epirus, resulting in Greece's loss of another region.
For Venizelos and his supporters, the surrender of Fort Roupel signaled the loss of Greek Macedonia. On 29 May, Venizelos proposed to Sir Francis Elliot (senior British diplomat in Athens) and Jean Guillemin (senior French diplomat in Athens) that he and General Panagiotis Danglis should establish a provisional government in Thessaloniki to mobilize a new Greek army to repel the Bulgarians. Venizelos pledged that the army would not move against the King and the royal family. According to Elliot's report, Venizelos hoped that the "success of his action and pressure of the public opinion might at the last moment convert His Majesty". The proposal had French support, but it met with strong opposition from Britain, forcing Venizelos to abandon the plan.
On 9 June, the Allies held a conference in London to examine the reasons for the rapid surrender of Fort Roupel and favored the complete demobilization of the Greek army and navy. King Constantine anticipated the results of the conference and ordered a partial demobilization on 8 June. The tension between the royal government and the Allies continued since anti-Allied activities in Athens were ignored by the Greek government. On 12–13 June, a mob destroyed the offices of Venizelist (supporting Venizelos) newspapers, Nea Ellas, Patris, Ethnos, and Estia. The mob proceeded to the British Legation as police stood idly by. This incident gave France the political ammunition to persuade Britain that more extreme measures were needed. On 17 June, the London conference decided "that it was absolutely necessary to do something to bring the King of Greece and his Government to their senses".
On 21 June, the Allies demanded that the Greek government and parliament be dissolved, new elections be held, and the Greek army be demobilized. The government complied by beginning the army's demobilization, initially scheduling elections for August before postponing them to October. The demands were intended to re-establish Venizelos as head of government. On 25 August, the King, attempting to appease the Allies, dismissed the chief of the General Staff, Viktor Dousmanis. However, polarization intensified, where both factions organized demobilized soldiers into reservist groups: the royalist National Reservists League, organized by Captain Ioannis Metaxas, and the Venizelist National League of Greek Reservists, organized by General Danglis.
Military coup of Thessaloniki
On 27 August 1916, Venizelos explained his disagreements with the King's policies during a demonstration in Athens. Venizelos said that the King had become a victim of his advisers, whose aims were to destroy the achievements of the Goudi revolution. Additionally, he appealed to the King to pursue a policy of benevolence and true neutrality. He ended his speech by stating that "if this proposal does not lead to success, then there are other means to protect the country from complete catastrophe". The King refused to accept any compromise, declining to even meet with a committee sent by Venizelos.
Two days later, army officers loyal to Venizelos organized a military uprising in Thessaloniki to force Venizelos's hand in establishing a provisional government in Thessaloniki. Venizelos criticized this course of action, noting that without the support of the Allied army, the movement would fail immediately. This further polarized the population between the Venizelists and royalists (also known as anti-Venizelists). The newly founded separate "provisional state" included the "New Lands", which were won during the Balkan Wars, whose population broadly supported Venizelos, while the pre-1912 "Old Greece" (mainly Athens and the Peloponnese) was mostly pro-royalist. Venizelos, Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis, and General Danglis formed a triumvirate provisional government and, on 9 October, moved to Thessaloniki to assume command of the National Defence and the formal establishment of the provisional government. They directed Greek participation in the Allied war effort in conflict with the royal wishes in Athens. Venizelos's initiatives changed the attitude of the Allied authorities in Greece with respect to the negotiations with the royalist government in Athens. According to a correspondence from British diplomats Albert Charles Wratislaw (located in Thessaloniki) to Francis Elliot (located in Athens):
Not only has Mr. Venizelos' action put fresh spirit into its promoters here [Thessaloniki], but it has encouraged recruits to come forward from Macedonia where, as I have reported, very little enthusiasm had hitherto been manifested... The Committee of National Defence must now have at its disposal nearly twenty thousand men.
From the outset, Venizelos continued his appeals to the King to join forces to liberate Macedonia jointly. He wrote: