[2] Subsequently, he was appointed commanding officer of the Kydoniai Division and participated in the occupation of the Smyrna district in the early stages of the Asia Minor Campaign.

After the electoral defeat of Venizelos in 1920, he was dismissed from the army and fled to Allied-occupied Constantinople, where he joined several other Venizelist officers.

Othonaios was appointed chief judge of the military tribunal that tried and convicted several prominent leaders of the anti-Venizelist camp to death (the infamous "Trial of the Six").

Subsequently, the monarchy was restored, and eventually a conservative dictatorship was established in Greece by General Ioannis Metaxas.

After Liberation in October 1944, he was placed as nominal commander-in-chief because of his democratic credentials, but the virulent political atmosphere, which soon led to the Greek Civil War, forced him to permanently resign in 1945.