The KKE honoured the First Captain of the People’s Army with mass events in Arta, Lamia and Trikala (20.6.2015), on the 70^th anniversary of his death.

Aris Velouchiotis, who came from Lamia, was a cadre of the KKE and at the decision of the party he undertook the formation of the People’s Army (ELAS) during the fascist occupation, the armed wing of the National Liberation Front (EAM).

Aris opposed the Varkiza Agreement, which disarmed ELAS, and returned to the mountains. In June 1945  his small armed group was surrounded in Mesounda (Arta) and killed by the bourgeois army, which desecrated their corpses, cutting off the heads of Aris and his comrades, which were hung in the central square in the town of Trikala.

The then leadership of the party disowned him. However, after 1957, the KKE in essence gradually rehabilitated him, something that was confirmed by the decision to politically rehabilitate him during the discussion on the 2^nd Volume of the History of the Party, 1949-1968, at the Nationwide Conference in 2011.

As Dimitris Koutsoumpas, GS of the CC of the KKE, noted in his speech:

“Aris was a communist. Marxism-Leninism was his worldview.  This was the root of his sharpened class instincts, his unshakeable faith in the just cause of the people and the political insight that characterized him, even if he himself was not free from the difficulties of forming a full correct strategy, liberated from illusions and mistakes, that the international and also the Greek communist movement had.

Aris was a man of the people, with an ability to work amongst the masses, well-intentioned, versatile, but also persistent in his views. He was a good organizer and propagandist. He was very dynamic and had great faith in the just cause of the people.

Aris was a product of his times. His characteristics reflected the harsh struggle between the two worlds.

Aris Velouchiotis, the First Captain of ELAS, did not die. He is alive inside us. Those who attempted and continue to attempt to hijack his contribution and tragic end must not forget that: Aris was a communist, he remained faithful to the party. Faithful to the ideology and ideals of the KKE up to his last breath.”

The KKE, in honour of Aris installed a monument in Mesounda, where the GS of the CC of the party laid a wreath.

22.06.2015