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Evangelos Averoff
Ευάγγελος Αβέρωφ
Evangelos Averoff in 1959
Minister of National Defence
In office 24 July 1974 – 21 October 1981
President	Phaedon Gizikis Michail Stasinopoulos Konstantinos Tsatsos Konstantinos Karamanlis
Prime Minister	Konstantinos Karamanlis Georgios Rallis
Succeeded by	Andreas Papandreou
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office 28 May 1956 – 20 September 1961
Monarch	Paul
Prime Minister	Konstantinos Karamanlis
In office 4 November 1961 – 19 June 1963
Leader of the Opposition and Leader of New Democracy
In office 9 December 1981 – 1 September 1984
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Mitsotakis
Personal details
Born	(1910-04-17)17 April 1910 Trikala
Died	2 January 1990(1990-01-02) (aged 79) Athens
Political party	Liberal Party Greek Rally National Radical Union New Democracy
Children	2

Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza (Greek: Ευάγγελος Αβέρωφ Τοσίτσας) (Trikala, 17 April 1910 – Athens, 2 January 1990) was a Greek politician, leader of the New Democracy party (1981–1984), member of parliament, and author.

Life and work

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Evangelos Averoff was an Aromanian. Averoff got involved in public matters from very early on in his life and played a major role in Greek politics for almost 50 years. In 1940 he was appointed Prefect (regional governor) of Kerkyra (Corfu). During the Axis occupation of Greece, Averoff was taken hostage and imprisoned in Italy. This was because of his efforts to deter prominent Aromanian families from collaborating with the Italian occupation forces in the region of the Pindus during the times of the collaborationist Principality of the Pindus. Averoff escaped a year later and created the "Freedom or Death" resistance group, which aimed to liberate Greek and Allied war hostages. In 1946, he was elected to the Greek Parliament as a representative of Ioannina and then went on to serve as deputy minister and minister of Supply, Economy and Agriculture. From 1956 to 1963 he served as Foreign Minister.

During the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, Averoff participated in one of the foremost acts of resistance against the government, the Velos mutiny, for which he was arrested as an "instigator". After the restoration of democracy in 1974 during metapolitefsi, Averoff participated in the New Democracy centre-right party under Konstantinos Karamanlis and served as Minister of National Defense in subsequent governments. Following the defeat in the 1981 Greek legislative election and Georgios Rallis' resignation as party President, Averoff was elected President of the New Democracy party, which was then the Major Opposition in Parliament. Following the 1984 European Parliament election, he resigned citing health reasons and was subsequently declared a Honorary President. Parallel to his political career he became a prominent author of novels, short stories, theatrical plays, essays and historical analyses.

Evangelos Averoff was a prominent author of political and historical works, such as "Customs Union in the Balkans" (1933), which the Carnegie Institute awarded, "Fire and Axe, 1944–1949" (1974) dealing with the Greek Civil War, and "A History of missed opportunities: The Cypriot Problem 1956–1963" (1981). He died on 2 January 1990 at the age of 79.

Historical tradition

For the Aromanians of Metsovo, Evangelos Averof is the last representative of a long tradition of local benefactors. He played a leading role in the founding of the Foundation of Baron Michael Tositsas, which he ran for 40 years, thus contributing greatly to the contemporary development of the town of Metsovo. Fulfilling the wish of Baron Michael Tossizza that the President of the Foundation bear his family name, he then added the surname Tossizza to his surname.

Evangelos Averof Foundation

He also founded the Evangelos Averof-Tositsas Foundation, to which he donated his significant personal collection of paintings by Greek artists of the 19th and early 20th century and built a gallery to house it. At the same time he invested in local vineyards cultivating the abandoned lands of Metsovo and creating a contemporary winery. After his death (1990) the people of Metsovo honored him by placing his statue in the town's central square.

Critics

In her best-selling book, A Man, Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci accused Averoff of threatening to kill Greek MP Alexandros Panagoulis a few days before Panagoulis' death in a car accident in Athens. According to Oriana Fallaci, Averoff represented the link between the Greek Junta and the political system during the transition period following Metapolitefsi. In particular, Fallaci claims that Panagoulis was in possession of secret documents showing Averoff's direct involvement in brokering the transition from the Joannides Junta to a national unity government led by Konstantinos Karamanlis, keeping himself in charge of managing the relations between the democratic system and the Armed Forces. Averoff's instrumental role in bringing about the appointment of Konstantinos Karamanlis has been confirmed by multiple sources, and Averoff became the Minister of Defense in the 1974 transition government. According to Fallaci, other secret documents showed that Averoff had not taken part in the Greek Resistance during World War II, but instead had been a collaborator of the Italian occupation troops as well as one of the conspirators behind the Velos Mutiny in 1973, after which he apparently collaborated with the Junta and, as a result of his cooperation, was acquitted without charges.

Sources

• Evaggelos Averof-Tositsas 1908–1990, Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza Foundation, Metsovo 2000.
• E. Chatzivasileiou, Evaggelos Averof Tositsas 1908–1990 – Political biography, Publ. I. Sideri, Athens
• E. Averof – Tositsa, Me logismo kai m’oneiro, publ. Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza Foundation, 1991
• G. Plataris, To Simeiomatari enos Metsoviti , 1871–1943, Athens 1972, pp. 288–290

Notes

1. Kahl, Thede (2003). "Aromanians in Greece: Minority or Vlach-speaking Greeks?". Jahrbücher für Geschichte und Kultur Südosteuropas. 5: 213. Indeed, the list of examples of Aromanians in Greek history is quite impressive: Evangelos Averof Tositsas (1910–1990, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1958–1963, Minister of National Defence 1974–1981).
2. Gica, Alexandru (2009–2011). "The recent history of the Aromanians in Southeast Europe" (PDF). The Newsletter of the Society Farsharotu. 24–25 (1–2): 13. In addition, Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas (1910–1990), an Aromanian from a wealthy family in Metsovo and a well-known Greek politician,
3. Koliopoulos, Giannēs (1999). Plundered Loyalties: Axis Occupation and Civil Strife in Greek West Macedonia, 1941-1949. Hurst. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-85065-381-3.
4. Howe, Marvine (3 January 1990). "Evangelos Averoff, Ex-Official of Greece And a Politician, 79". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
5. "Evangelos Averoff – Tossizza Foundation – Construction – Stavros Niarchos Foundation".
6. Oriana Fallaci, Un Uomo. Rizzoli: 1979, p. 436
7. Oriana Fallaci, Un Uomo. Rizzoli: 1979, pp. 397–401
8. "A long, happy summer night 30 years ago". Archived from the original on 5 June 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) Athens News, 23 July 2004, page: A06. Retrieved 12 July 2013
9. Oriana Fallaci, Un Uomo. Rizzoli: 1979, p. 394

v t e Leaders of New Democracy
Konstantinos Karamanlis (1974–1980) Georgios Rallis (1980–1981) Evangelos Averoff (1981–1984) Konstantinos Mitsotakis (1984–1993) Miltiadis Evert (1993–1997) Kostas Karamanlis (1997–2009) Antonis Samaras (2009–2015) Vangelis Meimarakis (2015) Giannis Plakiotakis (2015–2016) Kyriakos Mitsotakis (2016–present)
interim leader

• 1910 births
• 1990 deaths
• People from Trikala
• Greek people of Aromanian descent
• Aromanian politicians
• National Political Union (1946) politicians
• Liberal Party (Greece) politicians
• National Radical Union politicians
• Leaders of New Democracy (Greece)
• Foreign ministers of Greece
• Ministers of national defence of Greece
• Agriculture ministers of Greece
• Greek MPs 1946–1950
• Greek MPs 1950–1951
• Greek MPs 1951–1952
• Greek MPs 1952–1956
• Greek MPs 1956–1958
• Greek MPs 1958–1961
• Greek MPs 1961–1963
• Greek MPs 1963–1964
• Greek MPs 1964–1967
• Greek MPs 1974–1977
• Greek MPs 1981–1985
• Greek MPs 1985–1989
• Greek MPs 1989 (June–November)
• Greek Resistance members
• Greek political writers
• 20th-century Greek historians
• Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany