Eleftherios Venizelos remains in Thessaloniki, head of the "National Defence" government, while the capital is dominated by the royalists with King Constantine leading the "State of Athens". Both proceed to persecute their opponents. Greece is cut in two.
The intervention of the French forces in November 1916 and the bombing of areas of Athens around the Stadium and near the Palace infuriated the anti-Venizelists, who accused their opponents of being traitors. "He who kills a Venizelist does not kill a man," they proclaimed. A wave of terror against the Venizelists broke out in Athens. The committee that later undertook to investigate the complaints of the victims of the violence confirmed 35 murders, 922 illegal imprisonments, 503 cases of looting and 31 suspensions of newspapers.
The Church of Greece did not escape from the National Schism. The metropolitans of the so-called "Old Greece" under the Archbishop of Athens Theocletos (the areas that had been liberated before 1912) sided with Constantine, while the metropolitans of the "New Lands" sided with Venizelos.
In this climate, a massive anti-Venizelist march was organised on 12 December 1916. Led by the Holy Synod, the demonstrators headed to the Areos Field to anathematize the "Satan" of the country's political life, Eleftherios Venizelos. The stones of the Anathema arrived in Athens and were thrown on the Field of Areos.
There, where the statue of Athena stands today, each protester throws a stone and repeats the curse of the Archbishop of Athens, Theocletus: "Against Eleftherios Venizelos, who imprisoned high priests and usurped the kingdom and the fatherland, damnation be damned." A purely symbolic act, but indicative of the intensity of the passions that prevailed at that time in our country.
For a year Greece lived in a state of civil strife, which did not leave the allies indifferent, who forced Constantine to resign. Venizelos returns victorious to Athens and forms a government on 13 June 1917.
He immediately mobilises the entire country to fight on the side of the Entente, and proceeds to purge the church, the administration and the army in order to settle accounts with the royals and the "State of Athens".
By law he abolished the equality of judges and the tenure of civil servants, with the result that the Archbishop of Athens Theokletos and the metropolitans who had spearheaded the "Anathema" were deposed, 570 judges of all ranks and 6.500 civil servants, while 40% of all permanent army officers were demobilized.
Source: www.sansimera.gr
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