This book is a revised edition of the author's doctoral dissertation and addresses the broader issues surrounding the history of the Greek Resistance and the subsequent Civil War. In this sense, it aims to contribute to the extensive discussion about the characteristics of the armed struggle during the Occupation period, which has become one of the central fields of contention in the historiography of the period in recent years.

As the title of the book suggests, its goal is to investigate the processes of forming the armed forces of EDES in the region of Epirus during the period 1942-1944. From this perspective, it aims to highlight the complex relationship between tradition and modernity concerning the processes of formation and development of the Greek resistance movement during the Occupation. Essentially, it narrates the complex and bilateral relationship between EDES, a bourgeois resistance organization originating from the Venizelist camp of the interwar period, and the traditional, locally defined, rural environment in which it was forced to develop its armed units. The processes through which armed groups were formed in four mountainous areas of Epirus (Xirovouni, Lakka-Souli, Radovizi, Tzoumerka) that supported the EDES guerrilla movement are thus investigated. Under the leadership of chieftains, many of these groups brought their own culture to the field of multiple political and military confrontations - that of the armed rural mountainous space.

Using a multitude of written and oral testimonies, as well as archival material, the work aims to highlight the complex mechanisms of political mobilization of local communities, which are based on the appropriation of traditional structures and practices by the resistance organizations and the influence of local cultural and social particularities on the way local and supra-local conflicts are perceived and managed. On the other hand, the role of modern identities in the reinforcement of previous conflicts among local armed groups and the political consequences of the chieftains' integration into the organization of Napoleon Zervas are highlighted.