More specifically, on Friday 13 June, political and cultural events, with the participation of the General Secretary of the Party, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, will be held in the city of Lamia, birthplace of Velouchiotis,
On Saturday and Sunday (14-15 June), events in honor of Aris will take place in Arta and Mesounta, the village close to which he died at the age of 39.
A member of the KKE and First Captain of the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) during World War Two, Velouchiotis (nom de guerre of Thanasis Klaras) is a leading personality of the Greek Resistance against the Axis occupation.
Aris opposed the 1945 Treaty of Varkiza which led to the disarmament of ELAS. He returned to the mountains to continue the guerrilla war, disobeying the then Party decision. On 16 June 1945, his small guerrilla group was surrounded by forces of the bourgeois army in the village of Mesounda, near Arta. Facing the possibility of arrest and execution by his enemies, Aris decided to end his life.
