Konstantinos Mazarakis-Ainian

Who was Konstantinos Mazarakis-Ainian?

Konstantinos Mazarakis-Ainian was a Greek Army officer who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General.

Konstantinos Mazarakis-Ainian was born in the island of Kythnos in 1869. He entered the Hellenic Army Academy and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Artillery in 1890. He fought in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, and led a guerrilla band during the Macedonian Struggle under the nom de guerre of Kapetan Akritas. In the Balkan Wars, he led volunteer scout detachments; his units operated in advance and in the flanks of the main army, and played a crucial role in the capture of vital bridges and railways.

By 1916, he was placed in Thessaloniki as the commander of a mountain artillery regiment. He played a major role in the September 1916 coup d'état by the Venizelist "Movement of National Defence", and served as head of the Artillery Directorate in the subsequent National Defence government. In 1918 he was posted to Bern as Greek military attaché to Switzerland. He returned to Greece in 1919 to assume command of the Xanthi Division during the occupation of Western Thrace. In 1920, he led his division to a landing on Bandirma during the Greek offensive against the Kemalists, and shortly after in the occupation of Eastern Thrace, against the local Turkish forces of Cafer Tayyar.