Metaxas Says No, and Greece Enters World War II
A dictator who suspended parliament becomes a national hero for one word: ochi
Quick facts
- Metaxas regime began
- 4 August 1936
- Italian ultimatum and invasion
- 28 October 1940
- Greek counterattack
- Pushed Italians back into Albania within a week
- National holiday commemorating the refusal
- Ochi Day, 28 October
What happened
Greece had been ruled since August 1936 by the authoritarian regime of General Ioannis Metaxas, who suspended parliament with the king's backing and governed under emergency powers. On 28 October 1940, Italy's ambassador in Athens delivered an ultimatum from Mussolini demanding free passage for Italian troops to occupy Greek territory. Metaxas rejected it, and popular memory condensed his response into a single word, ochi, no; Italian forces invaded from Albania within hours. Greek troops halted the Italian advance and then counterattacked, pushing the invaders back across the Albanian border within about a week and occupying part of Albania by December, the first significant defeat inflicted on an Axis power in the war. The Greek success against Italy forced Hitler to divert German forces into the Balkans the following spring.
Why it matters
Greece's rejection of Mussolini's ultimatum and its subsequent battlefield success against Italy made Ochi Day, 28 October, a permanent national holiday and handed the Allies their first clear victory over an Axis power, though it also guaranteed a German invasion that would prove far more devastating than the Italian one.
How we know
The ultimatum, Metaxas's rejection, and the Italian invasion's failure are documented in contemporaneous diplomatic records and are widely covered in institutional World War II historical archives.
Sources
- History.com (A&E Television Networks). Italy invades Greece · Reputable sourcehistory.com · The domain "history.com" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- The National WWII Museum. Death of the Duce, Benito Mussolini · Reputable sourcenationalww2museum.org · The domain "nationalww2museum.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- World War II → · See the World War II timeline for the German invasion that followed in April 1941 and the wider war Greece's resistance helped delay.