Greek: Ευάγγελος Αβέρωφ-Τοσίτσας, του Αναστασίου Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas, son of Anastasios Averoff, was a distinguished right-wing Greek politician of Aromanian origin and author of several books on political and historical topics. He assumed the additional surname Tositsas in 1947 in honour of Michael Tositsas (1885-1950), with whom he founded the BARON MICHAEL TOSSIZZA FOUNDATION. Evangelos Averoff got involved in public matters from very early on in his life and played a major role in Greek politics for almost 50 years. In 1940 he was appointed Prefect (regional governor) of Kerkyra (Corfu). During the tripartite Axis occupation of Greece, Averoff was taken hostage and imprisoned in Italy. He escaped a year later and created the "Freedom or Death" resistance group, which aimed to liberate Greek and Allied war hostages. In 1946, he was elected to the Greek Parliament as a representative of Ioannina and then went on to serve as deputy minister and minister of Supply, Economy and Agriculture. From 1956 to 1963 he served as Foreign Minister. During the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, Averoff participated in one of the foremost acts of resistance against the government, the Velos mutiny, for which he was arrested as an "instigator". After the restoration of democracy in 1974, Averoff participated in the New Democracy centre-right party under Konstantinos Karamanlis and served as Minister of National Defence in subsequent governments. In 1981 he was elected President of the New Democracy party, which was then the Major Opposition in Parliament, but had to leave his post due to health problems in 1984. In 1984 he was declared the party's Honorary President. Parallel to his political career he became a prominent author of novels, short stories, theatrical plays, essays and historical analyses. Evangelos Averoff has been a prominent author of political and historical works, such as "Customs Union in the Balkans" (1933), which the Carnegie Institute awarded, "Fire and Axe, 1944-1949" (1974) dealing with the Greek Civil War, and "A History of missed opportunities: The Cypriot Problem 1956-1963" (1981).
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