Concept
Nikolaos G. Michaloliakos (Νικόλαος Γ. Μιχαλολιάκος, niˈkolaos mixaloˈʎakos; born 11 December 1957) is a Greek politician and convicted criminal. He is the founder and leader of the far-right party Golden Dawn. In October 2020, he and 67 other Golden Dawn leaders were found guilty of leading a criminal organisation by the Athens Appeals Court. Michaloliakos was born in Athens in 1957. According to his party, he completed his studies at the Faculty of Mathematics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. At the age of 16, he joined the nationalist 4th of August Party of Konstantinos Plevris. He also participated in the Athens local organisation of EOKA-B. He was arrested for the first time in July 1974, during a protest outside the British embassy in Athens, against the stance of the United Kingdom toward the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. He was arrested again for assaulting journalists covering the December 1976 funeral of Evangelos Mallios, a policeman who tortured people during the Regime of the Colonels, assassinated by the terrorist group 17N, but was released. While he was in prison, Michaloliakos met the leaders of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. After that he joined the Hellenic Army and became a commander of the Fast Attack Craft Command. He was arrested again in July 1978 and sentenced to one year imprisonment in January 1979 for illegally carrying guns and explosives. He was also dismissed from his position in the army. After he was released, he launched the Golden Dawn magazine. The politics of the magazine were, initially, closely aligned with Nazi beliefs. The publication of the magazine ceased in April 1984, when Michaloliakos joined the National Political Union, and took over the leadership of its youth section, after a personal order of Georgios Papadopoulos. In January 1985, he broke away from the National Political Union and founded the "Popular National Movement - Golden Dawn". Michaloliakos remained the leader of Golden Dawn until he announced its disbandment in November 2005.
