Varkiza Agreement

On 12 February 1945, representatives of the Greek government and the left-wing resistance movement EAM signed an agreement at Varkiza, a coastal town near Athens, ending the fighting of the Dekemvriana. Under the agreement, ELAS, the military wing of EAM, agreed to disarm and hand over its weapons. The government promised an amnesty for political crimes committed during the conflict, though not for common crimes, a distinction that later allowed many leftists to be prosecuted. It also promised to lift martial law, restore civil liberties, purge collaborators from the state and security forces, and hold a referendum on the monarchy, followed by free elections. ELAS handed over large quantities of weapons, although some were hidden. Aris Velouchiotis, the most famous ELAS commander, rejected the agreement and returned to the mountains, and he was killed in June 1945. In practice, many of the government's promises were not kept. Right-wing groups launched a wave of persecution against leftists, known as the White Terror, and relations continued to deteriorate. The agreement's failure contributed to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War in 1946.