"Stopping Mercouris"

--- CONTENT ---
Stamatis Mercouris (1895 – 7 July 1967) was a Greek officer of the Land Army and politician, who served as MP and minister. He was Melina Mercouri's father.

Biographical data
He was born in 1895 in Athens and was the son of Spyridon Mercouris, for several years mayor of Athens, and brother of George Mercouris, MP and minister with far-right political views, with whom Stamatis would come into conflict. He was also the great-grandson of the chieftain of the revolution and later MP Hermionidas Stamatis Mitsa, whose name he bore. Through the Mitsa family he was of anxiety related to the historic Zakynthian family of the Motsenigs.

He graduated from the Military Elpida School as lieutenant (Lieutenant of the Cavalry) and fought in World War I and in the Asia Minor campaign.

He then became involved in politics and took part in the formation of the People's Party, but in 1929 he joined the National Democratic Party of George Kondylis and in 1929 – 1934 served as general director of the Municipality of Athens, on his father's last mayorship. In 1935 he was deputy minister despite the prime minister in the Condyli government. In the period from 1936 to 1939 he was displaced from Metaxas' dictatorship in Kythera but with the declaration of World War II was recalled to active service and took over the direction of the 2nd Staff Office (Information) of the First Army Corps.

On 11 March 1941 he met with the German military attaché in Athens, Clem von Hoeberg, and asked him to know whether it was possible to avoid the German attack on Greece and how Greek-German understandings could be launched for this purpose. On 15 March the two men met again and declared to his German interlocutors that this meeting was known to Prime Minister Koryzis and King George II, Mercouris proposed to him that the war should cease in Albania by safeguarding the honour of Greece and the departure of the English, asking in exchange for Greece to keep the territories of Northern Epirus and not carry out a German attack in support of the Italians. On 18 March German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in response to the military attaché expressed his strong mistrust and called for this initiative and other similar to be treated with extreme reservation.

In January 1942 Stamatis Mercouris founded the resistance group "Rizospastic Organization" issuing a newspaper of the same name, which after liberation was renamed the "Rizospastic Echo". Part of his group belonged to the resistance organization "Alice" that escaped English and Greeks in the Middle East and supported by a radio network. After the liberation he served as Minister of Public Order (1945 – 1946) and Minister of Public Works (1946).

In 1946 he founded the Democratic Progressive Party along with Emmanuel Chutheros and helped approach