National Defence coup d'état

The National Defence coup d'état (Greek: Κίνημα της Εθνικής Αμύνης) was a military uprising in Thessaloniki on 17 August 1916, by Greek Army officers opposed to the neutrality followed by the royal government in Athens during World War I, and sympathetic to former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and the Entente Powers. With the support of Entente forces present in the area as part of the Salonica front, the coup established control of Thessaloniki and much of the wider region. Soon afterwards, Venizelos and his leading followers arrived in the city to establish a Provisional Government of National Defence, which entered World War I on the side of the Entente. These events marked the culmination and entrenchment of the "National Schism" in Greek politics.