On October 28th, Greece celebrates Ochi day – the word means “No”. On that day, in 1940, it is said that Benito Mussolini telephoned Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas, asking if Italian troops could occupy Greece. The reply was “No”.
Greece, which had been neutral in the second World War up to that point, was then invaded and overrun by German and Italian armies.
British novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell, who at that time was based in Kalamata, in southern Peloponnese, later recalled: “A word had been uttered, a single small word for which the whole of Europe had waited and waited in vain. It was the word ‘No’ and Greece had uttered it on behalf of all of us.
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