The Father of Modern Greek Nationalism: Tribute to Ion Dragoumis

Ion Dragoumis was a Greek politician & Revolutionary, having written and produced the foundation that would define Greek Nationalism for the 20^th century and beyond.

Born in 1878, Dragoumis studied Law & went to begin his life in Greece’s political sphere, first starting with Greek Foreign Ministry as a diplomat. Dragoumis soon after joined the Greek military, having fought the Turks in 1897.

After the war, Dragoumis returned to his life in politics, having served as a diplomat throughout the Balkans and later the embassy in Constantinople.

As his family origins came from within deep of Greek-Macedonia, Dragoumis and his father where key driving elements in the organised struggle to liberate the Greek community in Macedonia.  It is during this time that Dragmoumis produced much of his political and literary works, which helped define Hellenic Nationalism in the modern world.

After a failed assassination attempt on the leading ‘Democrat’, Venizelos, the State security death squads executed Dragoumis on July 31^st of 1920. As the leading political opponent of Venizelos at the time, Dragoumis was killed in retaliation for the assignation attempt, in order to send a message that Democracy would unconstitutionally assert itself by force as required, rather than rely on petty electoralism to decide political disputes (sound familiar?).

Golden Dawn on this same day in 2016, pay tribute to the father of Greek Nationalism