[1] Many Cretans, especially politicians from the Venizelist camp, were involved in the 1938 coup d'état which aimed to overthrow the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas.
[4] On 28 July 1938, the radio station of Chania emitted a proclamation asking King George II of Greece to end Metaxas’ dictatorship in order for the Greeks to be free.
It seems however that, with the “tolerance” of Ioannis Metaxas, A. Mitsotakis, M. Voloudakis, I. Mountakis, and others from the Venizelist camp fled to Cyprus,[3] while others who participated in the coup, such as Konstantinos Rentis, Emmanouil Tsouderos et al. were arrested, convicted and deported.
General Emmanouil Mantakas was arrested after the failure of the coup and later freed by a group of armed fellow villagers, but was sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to records of the Gendarmerie, shortly before the outbreak of the coup, Markos Vafiadis had arrived in Crete for the organization of the local Communist Party.