Eleutherios Venizelos

Eleutherios Venizelos or Venizelos, Eleftherios (1864-1936), Greek statesman and diplomat, born in Crete (Kríti), and educated at the University of Athens. He served in the Cretan assembly, participated in a revolt against Turkish rule, and intermittently headed the government of Crete between 1898 and 1909. In 1910 he became prime minister of Greece, and in 1912 he formed the Balkan League. Subsequently he guided his country through the Balkan Wars. During World War I differences with Constantine I, king of Greece, who was pro-German, kept Venizelos out of office. In 1916, however, he formed an opposition government that took control and in 1917 went into the war on the Allied side. In the elections of 1920, he was overwhelmingly defeated, and he did not actually return to leadership until 1928, when he began a 4-year term as prime minister. He served as a stabilizing force in Greece, which was in constant conflict between royalists and those who favored a continuation of parliamentary democracy. Having twice again served briefly as prime minister, Venizelos led an unsuccessful republican revolt in Crete in 1935, after which he was forced into exile.