Ioannis Metaxas in the context of "Metaxas Line"

The Greco-Italian War, also called the Italo-Greek War, took place between Italy and Greece from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. This conflict began the Balkans campaign of World War II between the Axis powers and the Allies, and eventually turned into the Battle of Greece with British and German involvement. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war on France and the United Kingdom. By September 1940, the Italians had invaded France, British Somaliland and Egypt. This was followed by a hostile press campaign in Italy against Greece, accused of being a British ally. A number of provocations culminated in the sinking of the Greek light cruiser Elli by the Italians on 15 August. On 28 October, Mussolini issued an ultimatum to Greece demanding the cession of Greek territory, which the Prime Minister of Greece, Ioannis Metaxas, rejected.

Italy's invasion of Greece, launched with the divisions of the Royal Army based in Italian-controlled Albania, badly armed and poorly commanded, resulted in a setback: the Italian forces encountered unexpectedly tenacious resistance by the Hellenic Army and penetrated only a few kilometers into Greek territory and had to contend with the mountainous and muddy terrain on the Albanian–Greek border. With British air and material support, the Greeks stopped the Italian invasion just inside Greek territory by mid-November and subsequently counter-attacked with the bulk of their mobilized army to push the Italians back into Albania – an advance which culminated in the Capture of Klisura Pass in January 1941, a few dozen kilometers inside the Albanian border. The defeat of the Italian invasion and the Greek counter-offensive of 1940 have been called the "first Axis setback of the entire war" by Mark Mazower.

Cham Albanians or Chams (also spelled Çam Albanians or Çams; Albanian: Çamët; Greek: Τσάμηδες, romanized: Tsámides), are a subgroup of Albanians who originally resided in a region along the coast of the Ionian Sea in southwestern Albania and northwestern Greece, an area known among Albanians as Chameria. The Chams have their own particular cultural identity within Albanian subgroups. A number of Chams contributed to the Albanian national identity and played an important role in starting the renaissance of the Albanian culture in the 19th century. The Chams speak their own dialect of the Albanian language, the Cham Albanian dialect, which is a Southern Tosk Albanian dialect and one of the two most conservative ones; the other being Arvanitika.

During the late 1930s Chams suffered from intimidation and persecution under the dictatorship of General Metaxas. Following the Italian occupation of Albania in 1939, the Chams became a prominent propaganda tool for the Italians and irredentist elements among them became more vocal. As a result, on the eve of the Greco-Italian War, Greek authorities deported the adult male Cham population to internment camps. After the occupation of Greece, parts of the Muslim Cham population collaborated with Italian and German forces. This fueled resentment among the local Greek population and in the aftermath of World War II, the entire Muslim Cham population were forcefully expelled to Albania.

The 4th of August Regime (Greek: Καθεστώς της 4ης Αυγούστου, romanized: Kathestós tis tetártis Avgoústou), commonly also known as the Metaxas regime (Καθεστώς Μεταξά, Kathestós Metaxá), was a dictatorial regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941.

On 4 August 1936, Metaxas, with the support of King George II, suspended the Greek parliament and went on to preside over a conservative, staunchly anti-communist and ultranationalist government under the ideology of Metaxism, which has been described either as an authoritarian conservative system or as a Greek variation of Fascism; a middle position is that it was a regime with a strong Fascist component or a para-fascist regime. Metaxas himself and some contemporary historians have described the government as totalitarian. In its symbolism and rhetoric, the regime took inspiration from Fascist Italy, but it retained close links to Britain and the French Third Republic, rather than the Axis powers.

Patision Street (also Patission; Greek: Οδός Πατησίων) is one of the major streets in central Athens, Greece. Though it is known as Patision, its name for its stretch between Panepistimiou Street and Amerikis Square, was changed to 28 October Street, commemorating the day in 1940 that the Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas refused the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's ultimatum that Greece submit to Italian control, thus starting the Greco-Italian War.

Patision Street connects the area known as Patisia with Omonoia Square in the center of Athens. It is crowded by bus and trolley bus lines, which connect the city center with Kypseli (trolley lines 2, 4, 9), Lamprini [el] (trolley lines 5, 13, 14), Patisia (trolley line 11), Nea Filadelfeia (trolley line 3), Perissos [el] (bus lines 605, 054), Marousi (bus line A8) and Galatsi (bus line 608). It is a southbound one-way route with a northbound bus lane until it meets Marnis street, and it has three lanes per direction until Amerikis Square.

Metaxism (Greek: Μεταξισμός) is a Greek authoritarian, ultra-nationalist, and monarchist ideology associated with Ioannis Metaxas. It called for the regeneration of the Greek nation and the establishment of a modern, culturally homogenous Greece. Metaxism disparaged liberalism, and held individual interests to be subordinate to those of the nation, seeking to mobilize the Greek people as a disciplined mass in service to the creation of a "new Greece."

Metaxas declared that his 4th of August Regime (1936–1941) represented a "Third Greek Civilization" which was committed to the creation of a culturally purified Greek nation based upon the militarist societies of ancient Macedonia and Sparta, which he held to constitute the "First Greek Civilization"; and the Orthodox Christian ethic of the Byzantine Empire, which he considered to represent the "Second Greek Civilization." The Metaxas regime asserted that true Greeks were ethnically Greek and Orthodox Christian, intending to deliberately exclude Albanians, Slavs, and Turks residing in Greece from Greek citizenship.

George II (Greek: Γεώργιος Β', romanized: Geórgios II; 19 July [O.S. 7 July] 1890 – 1 April 1947) was King of Greece from 27 September 1922 until 25 March 1924, and again from 25 November 1935 until his death on 1 April 1947.

The eldest son of King Constantine I of Greece and Princess Sophia of Prussia, George followed his father into exile in 1917 following the National Schism, while his younger brother Alexander was installed as king. Constantine was restored to the throne in 1920 after Alexander's death, but was forced to abdicate two years later in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War. George acceded to the Greek throne, but after a failed royalist coup in October 1923 he was exiled to Romania. Greece was proclaimed a republic in March 1924 and George was formally deposed and stripped of Greek nationality. He remained in exile until the Greek monarchy was restored in 1935, following a rigged referendum, upon which he resumed his royal duties. The king supported Ioannis Metaxas' 1936 self-coup, which established an authoritarian, nationalist and anti-communist dictatorship known as 4th of August Regime.

Patision Street (also Patission; Greek: Οδός Πατησίων) is one of the major streets in central Athens, Greece. Though it is known as Patision, its name for its stretch between Panepistimiou Street and Amerikis Square, was changed to 28 October Street, commemorating the day in 1940 that the Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas refused the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's ultimatum that Greece submit to Italian control, thus starting the Greco-Italian War.

Patision Street connects the area known as Patisia with Omonoia Square in the center of Athens. It is crowded by bus and trolley bus lines, which connect the city center with Kypseli (trolley lines 2, 4, 9), Lamprini (el) (trolley lines 5, 13, 14), Patisia (trolley line 11), Nea Filadelfeia (trolley line 3), Perissos (el) (bus lines 605, 054), Marousi (bus line A8) and Galatsi (bus line 608). It is a southbound one-way route with a northbound bus lane until it meets Marnis street, and it has three lanes per direction until Amerikis Square.