Ioannis Kalogeras

Ioannis Kalogeras (Ιωάννης Καλογεράς) was a Greek army officer and politician.

He was born in Spartias, a small village of the mountainous area of Trichonis in Aetolia-Acarnania in Greece. He entered the Hellenic Military Academy in Athens and then went to France for supplementary studies at the École supérieure de guerre. Upon the outbreak of the First Balkan War in 1912, he was recalled from his studies in Paris, and placed in the staff of the 4th Infantry Division under Major General Konstantinos Moschopoulos. From this position, he participated in the battle of Sarantaporo and the drive to Thessaloniki. In December 1912, he suggested to Lt General Konstantinos Sapountzakis, and then to the Crown Prince Constantine the idea of capturing the strategic hill of Tsouka, west of the fortress of Bizani that was blocking the Greek advance towards Ioannina. In the battle of Bizani, the hill was captured, leading to the liberation on February 21, 1913 of Ioannina. During the Second Balkan War, Kalogeras fought in the battle of Kilkis-Lahanas. During World War I, he served as chief of staff of the 2nd Infantry Division, and later as vice-chief of staff to the General Headquarters in Smyrna in February 1920. In March 1920 he was transferred to the Army of Thrace under Lt General Emmanouil Zymvrakakis.

He resigned from the Army in August 1923 and settled in Athens, where he witnessed the royalist Leonardopoulos-Gargalidis coup attempt. Kalogeras formed a force of 3000 volunteers in Athens, and participated in the suppression of the coup in Macedonia and Epirus. Thus, he contributed to the fall of monarchy and the declaration of the Second Hellenic Republic.

He then entered the political arena, and was elected a Member of Parliament for Athens, a post to which he was continually re-elected December 1930. In 1930 he became Minister General Director of Thrace, contributing to the organisation of Western Thrace.