Karoutes, since the era of foundation of guerilla warfare, civil war, the past civil war period, dictatorship and up until nowadays – the days succeeding the political changeover – has become, rather purposefully, the center of developments…
It all starts the night of October 1, 1942 when the Allied Military Mission led by Lt-colonel E.W. Myers “mistakenly” “lands” by parachutes on Karoutes Plain.
The operation, code-named “Harling”, was intended to blow up Asopos, Papadia and Gorgopotamos viaducts…
Incredibly courageous, local people of Karoutes are the first Greeks to help British come in contact with the newly-established guerilla warfare of Roumeli, despite the Italian occupation forces’ stranglehold.
On account of their contribution to the Greek national liberation struggle, people of Karoutes witness the holocaust of their village on November 1, 1942.
That day, the fate of the village changed…
Burned to ruins Karoutes became the “fortress” of Roumeli’s guerilla warfare…
The book makes, through the course of time, historical and martial references to major events that led to: the Greek National Liberation movement’s (EAM-ELLAS) sharp rise; to the atrocities committed by the Italian and German occupation forces; to Ioannis Rallis’ security battalions; and to one of Ellas greatest feats…
The historic “Battle of Karoutes” on August 5, 1944…
Bourgeois Parties’ political role and especially Georgios Papandreou’s part in attempting to stop the sharp rise of EAM/ELAS are also analyzed through his own writings from the day he was “hired” by the British – that is, few days after Dimitrios Psarros was assassinated – to the “Dekemviana”, events that led our country to the “Greek Tragedy of 1946-1949”; a tragedy planned in advance by the British and the bourgeois Parties.
A tragedy that left – aside from all the other maladies – 800,000 displaced Greeks who were uprooted from villages located on the mountains of our Homeland.
• By whom and why was this displacement contrived?
• What became of those who were displaced?
• Who took charge of “resolving” the issue?
• What ever became of the war reparations that first and foremost the displaced from the mountain villages, who bore the heaviest load of the national liberation struggle, were entitled to?
• Why the consequences of the “National Tragedy” that have led us to the “New National Tragedy” still linger to this day.
Part of the proceeds will be donated to Médecins du Monde of Greece.
URL: www.karoutes.gr
