Georgios Emmanouil Kaldis (, 1875–1953) was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
lawyer, journalist,
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
, and member of the
Greek Parliament
The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the He ...
from 1915 to 1928 in the Liberal Party (''
Komma Fileleftheron'') founded by
Eleftherios Venizelos.
Early years
George Emmanuel Kaldis (the name Kaldis is interchangeable with Kaldellis, and anglised as Caldis) came from a poor family originating in Akrasi, or Akrasion a small village situated in the hills and small plateau 8 km northwest from Plomari, near the central southern coast of the island of
Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Asia Minor by the nar ...
, where he was born in 1875. His father was Emmanouil Georgios Kaldellis, who married Amersouda
-1940 Amersouda was known as “the orphan" in the village: she was found alive on a beach on the island of Chios as a young child with her younger brother, tragically next to their dead parents who were not Greek but of European descent and were thought to have been slain by pirates. The two blue-eyed blond children at the time could not speak Greek and were raised by a Greek Orthodox priest and his wife along with their own children.
George was the eldest of 7 sons and 2 daughters from this marriage.
Lesbos was then a province of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. Kaldis's talents were recognised by the village priest, who arranged for him to receive a good education, first at the gymnasium of Plomari, then in
Chios
Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of masti ...
, before finally going to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
(
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
) where he studied literature at the ''Ecole Superieure d’Instituteurs'' of the
Patriarchate
Patriarchate ( grc, πατριαρχεῖον, ''patriarcheîon'') is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, designating the office and jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical patriarch.
According to Christian tradition three patriarchates were est ...
. His knowledge of
Turkish was excellent and enabled him to follow developments in an Ottoman Empire which was beginning to change. When he graduated, the Patriarchate placed the new teacher in a school in
Moudros
Moudros ( el, Μούδρος) is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lemnos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lemnos, of which it is a municipal unit. It covers the entire eas ...
, on the island of
Lemnos
Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμνος) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The p ...
.
Political career
In Ottoman-ruled Lemnos
While Lemnos was under Ottoman rule, George Kaldis was one of the secret agents of the Church and would often travel to Constantinople to report on his work. He gave up teaching, registered in the Law School of the
University of Athens
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...
and was one of the first graduates from Lesbos.
He stood as a candidate to represent Lemnos in the
Ottoman Parliament
The General Assembly ( tr, Meclis-i Umumî (French romanization: "Medjliss Oumoumi" ) or ''Genel Parlamento''; french: Assemblée Générale) was the first attempt at representative democracy by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire. Als ...
and concentrated on local issues. The contest in these elections developed into a fierce dispute which divided the Lemniots into two camps, one supporting Kaldis and the other supporting the local bishop. Traditionally, under the ''
millet'' system, Orthodox Church leaders had played a great role. However, with the political reforms under way after the
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Consti ...
, and in keeping with European practice, Kaldis opposed the bishops' continued interference in matters other than strictly ecclesiastical. In the end the outcome hinged on a single vote. The bishop, as the official representative of the non-Muslim minorities, had a casting vote in the election; unsurprisingly, he cast it for his own candidacy.
Politics in Greece
In November 1912, during the
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
, a
Greek Navy
The Hellenic Navy (HN; el, Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, Polemikó Naftikó, War Navy, abbreviated ΠΝ) is the naval force of Greece, part of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy historically hails from the naval forces of vari ...
task force took the island of Lemnos, which became the Greek fleet's major forward anchorage during the war. After Lemnos was joined with Greece, Kaldis stood once more for election as the first Member of the Greek Parliament for Lesbos and Lemnos. It was not easy for a poor teacher to succeed when such positions were sought by the leading families of the island. He failed narrowly again, but succeeded in the
next election, as a representative of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
led by
Eleftherios Venizelos. He would remain an MP and then
Senator until 1928.
The enthusiasm the villagers felt for the naval victories of 1912 and liberation did not stop them from complaining when the 'liberating heroes' sought to benefit more directly from the victory: the peasants in Lemnos suffered from a plague of army officers who would commandeer their sheep and crops and never pay for them. Kaldis defended the farmers with an article in a Greek newspaper of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
, as there was no local press yet. This created a scandal at a time when patriotism was ''de rigueur''. To defend its honour, the army prosecuted him. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison because all those who had complained and should have testified in his favour had been intimidated by the army and prudently vanished out of reach of the court. In the event, he was released on the orders of Admiral
Pavlos Kountouriotis
Pavlos Kountouriotis ( el, Παύλος Κουντουριώτης; 9 April 1855 – 22 August 1935) was a Greek rear admiral during the Balkan Wars, regent, and the first President of the Second Hellenic Republic. In total he served four times ...
, who was notified of the affair by Kaldis' wife, Marianthi.
During the 1915 Gallipoli campaign Kaldis was the official representative of the Greek Government on the island of Lemnos whose port was the launching point of the British and ANZAC invasion. He received the Admiral of the British fleet and his commanders and discussed the issues of the day.
Kaldis and his family moved to Plomari and then to
Mytilini
Mytilene (; el, Μυτιλήνη, Mytilíni ; tr, Midilli) is the capital of the Greek island of Lesbos, and its port. It is also the capital and administrative center of the North Aegean Region, and hosts the headquarters of the University o ...
in 1917 where he resumed his journalism. During most of this period and beyond into the 1930s, he was editor of the newspaper ''Eleftheros Logos'' (Free Speech) and wrote for several other papers. He also opened the first lawyer’s office in Mytilini in February 1917, in conjunction with Petros M. Kairis. In late 1922, Kaldis took a prominent role in catering for the masses of
Greek refugees
Greek refugees is a collective term used to refer to the more than one million Greek Orthodox natives of Asia Minor, Thrace and the Black Sea areas who fled during the Greek genocide (1914-1923) and Greece's later defeat in the Greco-Turkish War ...
arriving in the island following the
Asia Minor Catastrophe
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
.
In 1928 the support he had been promised by
George Papandreou
George Andreas Papandreou ( el, Γεώργιος Ανδρέας Παπανδρέου, , shortened to ''Giorgos'' () to distinguish him from his grandfather; born 16 June 1952) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from ...
(who had taken over from Venizelos as leader of the Liberal Party) for his reelection as an MP did not materialise. Consequently, he became a Senator and decided to retire from all political and professional life. He closed his lawyer’s office and lived quietly with his family, earning his living thereafter chiefly as a journalist.
Personal life
In 1904 he married Marianthi Matzikas (1885–1970), recently returned to Lemnos after finishing school in Alexandria. They had five children: Kalliopi (lawyer and ambassador, 1906–1990, better known as Dr Calliope G. Caldis), Eleftheria (married
Ilias Iliou, 1908–2003), Manolis Caldis (civil engineer, 1910–1998), Christoforos Caldis (director of Hellenic Shipyards, 1912–2006) and Dimitris Kaldis (lawyer, publisher and editor of Δελτίο Φορολογικής Νομοθεσίας
ulletin of Tax Legislation 1914–2010).
In 1946, after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, they settled in Athens. George Kaldis died in 1953, a man of rare integrity among Greek politicians of whom it was said that he had finished as poor as he had started: "Not one house, not one ''
stremma
The stremma ( stremmata; el, στρέμμα, ''strémma'') is a Greek unit of land area equal to 1,000 square metres. Historically, stremmata were not standardized, and may have been anywhere from .
History
The ancient Greek equivalent was the s ...
'' (of land)" ("Ούτε ένα σπίτι, ούτε ένα στρέμμα")
References
*Kondellis, Yiannis G. ''George Emmanuel Kaldis (GEK) 1875-1953'', Mitilini 1994
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaldis, George Emmanuel
1875 births
People from Lesbos
1953 deaths
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni
Greek journalists
20th-century Greek lawyers
Greek MPs 1915, 1917–1920
Greek MPs 1920–1922
Greek MPs 1924–1925
Greek MPs 1926–1928
MPs of Lesbos
Members of the Greek Senate 1929–1932