Aristotelous Plaza 👴 met standbeeld van Eleftherios Venizelos

On the North side of the popular Aristotelous Plaza stands the statue of Eleftherios Venizelos, one of the most influential personalities of modern Greek history.
A prominent leader of the Greek national liberation movement, he is noted for his contribution in the expansion of Greece and promotion of liberal-democratic policies. A founder of the Liberal Party, he was elected eight times as Prime Minister of Greece, serving from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1933. He is credited with being "the maker of modern Greece" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleftherios_Venizelos .
While serving as a Prime Minister Venizelos succeeded in restoring diplomatic relations with Greece’s neighbors, expanded constitutional reforms, promoted to modernize the economy, organize the army and establish the country’s diplomatic and geostrategic influence.
After a number of victorious battles in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) during the First World War (1914–1918) he made serious efforts to bring Greece on the side of the Allies, further expanding the Greek borders into Minor Asia. However, his pro-Allied foreign policy brought him in direct conflict with the monarchy, thus causing the National Schism. The Schism poisoned the national unity and created hatred and vengefulness among the population dividing them into the supporters of King Constantine I and “Venizelists”. The continuous struggle between these two groups seriously affected Greece at a political and social level for decades.
In 1935 Venizelos resurfaced out of retirement to support a military movement against the Greek Government. Its failure severely weakened him and his supporters and Democracy itself. He went into exile in Paris, where he had already lived during a first exile after 1920, from 1935 until his death in 1936. To honor this capable, politically brilliant architect of Modern Greek History, his monument stands in one of the most popular plazas of Greece, Aristotelous plaza in the center of the city in a prominent position.