The Treaty of Varkiza (Greek: Συμφωνία της Βάρκιζας, also known as the Varkiza Pact or the Varkiza Peace Agreement) was signed in Varkiza (near Athens) on February 12, 1945 between the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) for EAM-ELAS, following the latter's defeat during the Dekemvriana clashes. One of the aspects of the accord (Article IX) called for a plebiscite to be held within the year in order to resolve any problems with the Greek Constitution. This plebiscite would help establish elections and thus create a constituent assembly that would draft a new organic law. In another aspect of the treaty, both signatories agreed that the Allies send overseers in order to verify the validity of the elections.[1] The accord also promised that members of the EAM-ELAS would be permitted to participate in political activities if they surrendered their weapons. Moreover, all civil and political liberties would be guaranteed along with the undertaking by the Greek government towards establishing a nonpolitical national army.
Disarmament
Arms surrendered
The treaty specified the disarmament of EAM-ELAS, which, according to records, surrendered within the next few days or weeks 100 artillery of various types, 81 heavy mortars, 138 light mortars, 419 machine guns, 1412 submachine guns, 713 automatic rifles, 48,973 rifles and pistols, 57 antitank rifles and 17 radios.[2]
However, the real numbers are higher, as receipts for weapons were sometimes refused. Panagiotis Koumoukelis relates in 'All That Grief' that he refused a receipt for his gun and that since he could not produce his receipt, he was tortured by members of the Security Battalions.[3]
Aftermath
Ultimately, the promises enshrined in the Treaty of Varkiza were not upheld. The main problem was that the treaty gave amnesty only for political reasons, but many of the actions by communists during the Dekemvriana were viewed as nonpolitical. After the signing of the treaty, there was widespread persecution of communists and former EAM members and supporters.[4] This period, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War, was known as the White Terror (Greece) (1945-46).
^Xydis, pp. 7-8. "After a truce on January 11, 1945, between the commander of the British forces and the Communist leader of ELAS (the military arm of EAM, the National Liberation Front), a "peace treaty" was finally concluded at Varkiza, near Athens, on February 12, 1945. It was signed on the one hand by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of a new, British-bolstered Greek government headed by a former general with an indubitably anti-dynastic and republican background, and the Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) for EAM-ELAS, on the other. Article IX of this agreement provided for a plebiscite within the year to decide upon the constitutional problem, with elections to follow for a constituent assembly that would draft a new organic law. Both parties, moreover, agreed to ask the Allied powers to send observers to these elections to verify the genuineness of the expression of the popular will."
^Stefanos Sarafis, ELAS: Greek Resistance Army (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1981), p. 525.
^Panagiotis Koumoukelis, 'Our Last Song', in Allan and Wendy Scarfe (eds.), All that Grief: Migrant Recollections of Greek Resistance to Fascism, 1941-1949 (Sydney: Hale & Irmonger, 1994), p. 165.
^Stavrianos and Panagopoulos, p. 156. The December hostilities were terminated with the signing of the Varkiza peace agreement on February 12, 1945. In return for surrendering its arms, the E.A.M. was promised freedom to engage in political activities, and the government guaranteed civil and political liberties and undertook to organize a nonpolitical national army. These commitments were not fulfilled, and the Varkiza pact was followed by a rightist reaction and widespread persecution of leftist elements.
Sources
Xydis, Stephen G. "Greece and the Yalta Declaration." American Slavic and East European Review. Vol. 20, No. 1, (February 1961), pp. 6–24.
Stavrianos, L. S. and Panagopoulos, E. P. "Present-Day Greece." The Journal of Modern History. Vol. 20, No. 2, (June 1948), pp. 149–158.
C.M. Woodhouse "The Apple of Discord: A Survey of Recent Greek Politics in their International Setting (London 1948)308-310 [1]
Richter, Heinz "British Intervention in Greece, From Varkiza to Civil War February 1945 to August 1946" (London 1986)
