Dean Kalimniou writes about the one time Greek
foreign minister, businessman and president of the Autonomous Republic
of Northern Epirus, Georgios Christakis-Zografos
Georgios Christakis-Zografos
29 Mar 2015
His portrait, as it appears in the Gallery of the National Bank of Greece, is of a middle-aged, bearded man, sitting with his hands clasped together. Yet his is not the self-satisfied countenance of a smug, venal Greek politician of his times. His eyes are searching, his posture uneasy, as if he is gravely worried and longing to spring out of the canvas and into action. One of the most luminous of expatriate Greeks, he made lasting contributions to his country of origin but also, in many aspects of his life, mirrored the outlook, triumphs and failures of one of his great heroes, the first prime minister of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias.
Born in Paris, Zografos was born into privilege as the son of the entrepreneur, benefactor, founder of Greek schools and charitable institutions both in Greece and Constantinople, Christakis Zografos, who hailed from the village of Kestorati, in Northern Epirus. Owing to his background, Zografos was able to study law and political science in leading tertiary institutions of Paris and Munich and immerse himself in the latest intellectual currents regarding governance.
When he returned to Greece, he applied himself to advocating much needed land reform within Greece, starting with his father's own expansive agricultural holdings on the fertile plain of Thessaly. During this period he was, in contrast with others of his class, an outspoken proponent of the concept that the large feudal estates known as tsiflikia, which included most of the arable land in Thessaly and which were in the hands of a few wealthy notables who exercised an unhealthy influence in the manner in which the region was governed, should be expropriated and redistributed to those who owned no land. Putting his ideology into practice, he sold his family's holdings to landless peasants for extremely low prices. Unsurprisingly, this earned him the enmity of the traditional landholding classes of Thessaly.
Conversely, his advocacy of the rights of the dispossessed earned him unprecedented popularity among the broader population of Thessaly and owing to this groundswell of support, he ran for office and was elected to Parliament in 1905, representing the prefecture of Karditsa. In 1909, he served as foreign minister under the Dimitrios Rallis administration. It is here that similarities with Kapodistrias begin. As foreign minister of Russia, Kapodistrias dreamed and schemed for the liberation of his homeland, Greece. Similarly, as foreign minister of Greece, Zografos maintained a foreign policy whose purpose was to reclaim all those lands in which Greeks were living and which at the time belonged to the Ottoman Empire and to unite those with Greece.
He especially emphasised the need for the liberation of his particular homeland, Epirus. It is probably for this reason that after the First Balkan War, he was appointed governor-general of the part of Epirus that had been newly liberated by the Greek army and which corresponds to the geographical region of Epirus as it is defined within the Greek state today. Zografos served as governor-general of Epirus from March 1913 until December of the same year.
At the same time, Greeks and Albanians were advocating the inclusion of the northern parts of Epirus within Greece or the newly constituted state of Albania. Demographically, the adherents to both ethnic identities were almost equal in number. When the Great Powers finally decided to award Northern Epirus to Albania, and asked the Greek army to evacuate the area, the Greek Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos agreed, hoping that the Great Powers would by exchange recognise Greek sovereignty over the islands of the North Eastern Aegean.
The Northern Epirotes were incensed at this turn of events. No provision had been made for the recognition of their distinct ethnic identity under an Albanian administration. Zografos resigned his office in disgust and travelled to Northern Epirus where, on 28 February 1914, he declared the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus in Argyrokastron and the formation of a provisional government, with Zografos as president, formed to support the state's objectives. In his speech on 2 March, Zografos stated that the aspirations of the Northern Epirotes had been totally ignored, not only by the Great Powers, but also Greece:
"Because of this inalienable right of each people, the Great Powers' desire to create for Albania a valid and respected title of dominion over our land and to subjugate us is void before the fundamentals of divine and human justice. Neither does Greece have the right to continue in occupation of our territory merely to betray it against our will to a foreign tyrant. Free of all ties, unable to live united under these conditions with Albania, Northern Epirus proclaims its independence and calls upon its citizens to undergo every sacrifice to defend the integrity of the territory and its liberties from any attack whatsoever. "
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