Greek military junta of 1967-1974
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The Phoenix and the silhouette of the soldier bearing a bayonet rifle was the emblem of the Junta. On the header the word Greece and on the footer the words 21 April can be seen in Greek. |
The
Greek military junta of 1967-1974 or alternatively called
"The Regime of the Colonels" (το καθεστώς των Συνταγματαρχών) or in Greece
"The Junta" (η Χούντα) is a collective term to refer to a series of
right-wing military governments that ruled
Greece from 1967-1974.
The rule by the military started in the morning of
April 21,
1967 with a coup d'etat led by a group of colonels of the
military of Greece, and ended in August,
1974.
Background
The
1967 coup and the following seven years of military rule were the epitome of 30 years of national division between the forces of the
Left and the
Right that can be traced to the time of the
resistance against Axis occupation of Greece during WWII. After the liberation in
1945 Greece was plunged into a
civil war between the forces of the
Communist-led Greek resistance and the now returned government-in-exile.
Operation Gladio in Greece
To prevent the communist-led Greek resistance from taking power, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill ordered the creation of a secret army from as early as 1944, known as the Greek Mountain Brigade, the Hellenic Raiding Force, (or ΛΟΚ: Λόχος Ορεινών Καταδρομών transliterated as:
Lόchos Oreinόn Katadromόn: LOK). LOK commander Field Marshal
Alexander Papagos excluded "almost all men with views ranging from moderately conservative to left wing". The LOK was actively involved in the 1967 coup (see below).
The civil war ended with the military defeat of the Left in
1949 and the
Communist Party of Greece (
KKE) was outlawed and many Communists had to either flee the country or face persecution. Greece joined NATO in
1952 and LOK was integrated into the
Gladio European stay-behind network. The
CIA and the Greek military reconfirmed their mutual cooperation. In addition to preparing for a Soviet invasion, they agreed to guard against a leftist coup.
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The junta principals. Left to right: Pattakos, Papadopoulos and Makarezos |
During the
Cold War, Greece was a vital link in the
NATO defense arc which extended from the eastern border of
Iran to the northmost point in
Norway. In
1947, the United States formulated the
Truman Doctrine, and began to actively support a series of
authoritarian governments in
Greece,
Turkey and
Iran in order to ensure that these states did not fall under Soviet influence. Greece in particular was seen as being in risk, having experienced a
Communist insurgency.
The Apostasia and Political Instability
By the early
1960s, the government was still at the hands of conservatives, but there were signs of liberalization. In
1963, the assassination of
EDA MP
Gregoris Lambrakis, the resignation of
Constantine Karamanlis, and the election of centrist
George Papandreou, Sr. as
Prime Minister were signs of rapid change. In a bid to gain more control over the country's government than what his limited constitutional powers allowed, the young and inexperienced King
Constantine II clashed with liberal reformers, dismissing Papandreou in
1965, causing a constitutional crisis.
The term
Apostasia of 1965 (Αποστασία του 1965) or
Iouliana (Ιουλιανά) refers to the group of
George Papandreou's dissidents, led by the politician
Konstantinos Mitsotakis, then also member of the
Center Union, who crossed the floor to bring about the fall of his legally elected government in favour of the formerly King. Constantine II made several attempts to form governments - ghosts, but none of them lasted for long. He appointed President of the Parliament
Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas as Prime Minister. Athanasiadis-Novas was followed by many
Center Union's dissidents and conservative
ERE MPs) but not enough to gain a
vote of confidence in parliament. He was replaced on
August 20 of the same year by
Ilias Tsirimokos with similar effects. Failing to gain a vote of confidence, Tririmokos was dismissed on
September 17.
Constantine II next induced some of Papandreou's dissidents, led by
Stephanos Stephanopoulos, to form a government of "King's men," which lasted until
December 22,
1966, amid mounting strikes and protests by Papandreou's supporters, the Greek democrats and the left-wing. When Stephanopoulos resigned in frustration, Constantine appointed an interim government under
Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, which called elections for May
1967. This government did not even last until the scheduled elections. Replaced on
April 3,
1967, by another interim government under
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, Kanellopoulos being the active leader of the National Radical Union and still supposed to organize a fair election in May.
New elections were scheduled (for
28 May 1967), and there were many indications that Papandreou's
Center Union Party (EK) would not be able to form a working government by itself. There was a strong possibility that the EK party (or even the conservative
ERE party) would be forced into an alliance with socialist
EDA (E"Α) party, which was suspected by conservatives to be a proxy for the banned
Communist Party of Greece (and not totally without cause; while EDA was by no means Communist, the Communist Party had decided to support EDA in the election in hopes for further reforms).
Some politicians adhering to the
ERE party feared the prospect of a constitutional deviation to be instigated by leftist members of the
Center Union such as
Andreas Papandreou and
Spyros Katsotas. One such politician,
George Rallis, has recounted he had proposed that, in case of such an "anomaly", the King waged
martial law, as the monarchist constitution afforded him. According to Rallis, Constantine was receptive to the idea.
[Alexis Papachelas, 'Everything George Rallis recounted to me", TO BHMA, March 19, 2006].
Greek historiography and the press[
1] also hypothesize about a "Generals' Coup", i.e. a coup that would have been deployed at the behest of the palace[
2] under the pretext of communist subversion.
[C.L. Sulzberger, "An Age of Mediocrity", 1973, p. 575.] As it turned out, the constitutional deviation originated neither amongst the political parties, nor from the Palace, but from middle-rank army putschists. When tanks rolled into Athens, in April 21st, the legitimate ERE government, of which Rallis was a member, asked king Constantine to immediately mobilise the state against the coup; he declined to do so, and swore in the Dictators as legitimate government of Greece, while asserting that he was "certain they had acted in order to save the country". Eight months later, Constantine took part in a failed counter-coup, and fled the country to Italy. He never attempted to set-up a political government-in-exile of any sort while residing in Rome, thus leaving the Dictatorship as the sole rulers of Greece.
In 1966
Constantine II of Greece sent his envoy
Demetrios Bitsios to
Paris on mission to convince
Constantine Karamanlis to return to Greece and resume a role in Greek politics. According to uncorroborated claims made by the former monarch only in 2006, after both men had died, Karamanlis replied to Bitsios that he would return under the condition that the King were to wage
martial law, as was his constitutional prerogative.
[Alexis Papachelas, "Constantine Speaks", TO BHMA, January 29 2006.] U.S. journalist
Cyrus L. Sulzberger has separately claimed that Karamanlis flew to New York to lobby U.S. support from
Lauris Norstad for a
coup d'état in Greece that would establish a strong conservative regime under himself; Sulzberger alleges that Norstad declined to involve himself in such affairs.
[C.L. Sulzberger, "Postscript with a Chinese Accent," Publisher MACMILLAN PUBLISHING CO, 1974, p. 277.] Sulzberger's account, which unlike that of the former King was delivered during the lifetime of those implicated (Karamanlis and Norstad), rested solely on the authority of his and Norstad's word. When in 1997 the former King reiterated Sulzberger's allegations, Karamanlis stated that he "will not deal with the former king's statements because both their content and attitude are unworthy of commentation." [
3] The deposed King's adoption of Sulzberger's claims against Karamanlis was castigated by left-leaning media, typically critical of Karamanlis, as "shameless" and "brazen" [
4]. It bears noting that, at the time, the former King referred exclusively to Sulzberger's account, to support the theory of a planned coup by Karamanlis, and made no mention of the alleged 1966 meeting with Bitsios, which he would refer to only after both participants had died and could not respond.
The coup d'etat of April 21
On
April 21,
1967, (just weeks before the scheduled elections), a group of right-wing army officers led by Brigadier
Stylianos Pattakos (Στυλιανός Παττακός) and Colonels
George Papadopoulos ("εώργιος Παπαδόπουλος) and
Nikolaos Makarezos (Νικόλαος Μακαρέζος) seized power in a
coup d'etat (πραξικόπημα). The colonels were able to quickly seize power by using surprise and confusion. Pattakos was commander of the Armour Training Centre (Κέντρο Εκπαίδευσης Τεθωρακισμένων - ΚΕΤΘ/ Kentro Ekpaideusis Tethorakismenon -KETTH), based in Athens. The confederates placed tanks in strategic positions of
Athens, effectively gaining complete control of the city. At the same time, a large number of small mobile units were dispatched to arrest leading politicians and authority figures, as well as many ordinary citizens suspected of left-wing sympathies. One of the first to be arrested was Lieutenant General
George Spantidakis, Commander in Chief of the Greek Army.
The conspirators were known to Spantidakis. Indeed, he was instrumental in bringing some of them to Athens, to use in a coup he and other leading Army generals had been planning, in an attempt to prevent
George Papandreou's victory in the upcoming election and the Communist takeover that would, supposedly, follow it. The colonels succeeded in persuading Spantidakis to join them and he issued orders activating an action plan (the "Prometheus" plan) that had been previously drafted as a response for a hypothetical Communist uprising (see
Operation Gladio). Under the command of paratrooper Lieutenant Colonel Costas Aslanides, the LOK (see above) took control of the Greek Defence Ministry while
Brigadier General Stylianos Pattakos gained control over communication centers, the parliament, the royal palace, and according to detailed lists, arrested over 10,000 people. Since orders came from a legal source, commanders and units not involved in the conspiracy automatically obeyed them. Many of the arrested were held during the first days in "Ippodromos" (a stadium for horse racing by the sea) and some of them (Panayotis Elis one of them) were executed in cold blood by young army officers.
By the early morning hours the whole of Greece was in the hands of the colonels. All leading politicians, including acting Prime Minister
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, had been arrested and were held incommunicado by the conspirators.
Phillips Talbot, the US ambassador in Athens, disapproved of the military coup, complaining that it represented "A rape of democracy" - to which Jack Maury, the CIA chief of station in Athens, answered, "How can you rape a whore?" The Papadopoulos junta attempted to
re-engineer the Greek political landscape by coup. Ironically, in biographical notes of Papadopoulos published as a booklet by supporters in 1980 it is mentioned that he attended Polytechneion, the prime Engineering School in the country, but did not graduate.
The role of the King
The three plot leaders visited King Constantine II in his residence in
Tatoi, also surrounded by tanks effectively preventing any form of resistance. The King wrangled with the colonels and initially dismissed them, ordering them to return with Spantidakis. Later in the day he took it upon himself to go the Ministry of National Defence, North of Athens city centre, where all plotters were gathered. The King had a discussion with Kanellopoulos, held there, and with leading generals. None could be of much help, since Kanellopoulos was a prisoner whilst the generals had no real power, as was evident from the shouting of lower and middle-ranking officers, refusing to obey orders and clamouring for a new government under Spantidakis. The King finally relented and decided to co-operate, claiming to this day that he was isolated and did not know what else to do.
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King Konstantinos II surrounded by the junta Government at the swearing-in Ceremony of the Dictators. |
His excuse has been that he was trying to gain time to organise a counter-coup and oust the junta. He did organise such a counter-coup; however, the fact that the new government had a legal origin, in that it had been appointed by the legitimate head of state, played an important role in the coup's success. The King was later to regret bitterly his decision. For many Greeks, it served to identify him indelibly with the coup and certainly played an important role in the final decision to abolish the monarchy, sanctioned by the 1974 referendum.
The only concession the King could achieve was to appoint a civilian as Premier rather than Spantidakis.
Constantine Kollias a former Attorney General of the
Areios Pagos, the highest court in Greece, was chosen. He was a well-known royalist and had even been disciplined under the Papandreou government for meddling in the investigation on the murder of
Gregoris Lambrakis. Kollias was little more than a figurehead and real power rested with the army, and especially Papadopoulos, who was emerging as the coup's strong man and became Minister of the Government's Presidency, a key position. Up until then constitutional legitimacy had been prevented, since under the then-Greek Constitution the King could appoint whomever he wanted as Premier, as long as Parliament granted a vote of confidence or a general election was called.
It was this government, sworn-in in the early evening hours of April 21st, that formalised the coup, by adopting a "Constituent Act", an amendment tantamount to a revolution, cancelling the elections and effectively abolishing the constitution, to be replaced by one to be drawn up later. In the meantime, the government was to rule by decree. Since traditionally such Constituent Acts did not need to be signed by the Crown, the King never signed it, permitting him to claim, years later, that he had never signed any document instituting the junta. Critics claim that Constantine II did nothing to prevent the government (and especially his chosen Premier Kollias) from legally instituting the authoritarian government to come.
This same government formally published and enforced a decree instituting military law already proclaimed by radio during the coup's development. Constantine claimed he never signed that decree either.
The King's Counter-Coup
From the outset, the relationship between King Constantine II and the Colonels was an uneasy one. The colonels were not willing to share power with anyone, whereas the young King, like his father before him, was used to playing an active role in politics and would never consent to being a mere figurehead, especially in a military administration. Although the colonels' strong anti-communist, pro-NATO and pro-Western views appealed to the United States, fearful of domestic and international public opinion,
President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson told Constantine, in a visit to
Washington, D.C. in early autumn of 1967, that it would be best to replace that government with another one. Constantine took that as an encouragement to organise a counter-coup and it was probably meant as one, although no direct help or involvement of the US was forthcoming.
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The former King Constantine of Greece shaking the hand of George Papadopoulos. On the left a smiling Pattakos. |
The King finally decided to launch his counter-coup on December 13, 1967. Since Athens was effectively in the hands of the junta militarily, Constantine decided to fly to the small northern city of
Kavala, East of
Thessaloniki. There he hoped to be among troops loyal only to him. The vague plan he and his advisors had conceived was to form a unit that would advance to Thessaloniki (Greece's second biggest city and unofficial capital of northern Greece) and take it. Constantine planned to install an alternative administration there. International recognition, which he believed to be forthcoming, as well as internal pressure from the fact that Greece would have been split in two governments would, the King hoped, force the junta to resign, leaving the field clear for him to return triumphant to Athens.
In the early morning hours of 13 December the King boarded the royal plane together with
Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, their two baby children
Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark and
Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, his mother
Frederika of Hanover and his sister,
Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark. Constantine also took with him Premier Kollias. At first things seemed to be going according to plan. Constantine was well received in Kavala which, militarily, was under the command of a general loyal to him. The air force and navy, both strongly royalist and not involved in the 1967 coup, immediately declared for him and mobilised. Another of Constantine's generals effectively cut all communication between Athens and the North.
However, the King's plans were overly bureaucratic, naïvely supposing that orders from a commanding General would automatically be followed. Further, the King was obsessive about avoiding "bloodshed" even where the junta would be the attacker. Instead of attempting to drum up the widest popular support, hoping for spontaneous pro-democracy risings in most towns, the King preferred to let his Generals put together the necessary force for advancing on Thessaloniki in strict compliance with military bureaucracy . The King made no attempt to contact politicians, even local ones, and even took care to include in his proclamation a paragraph condemning communism, lest anyone should get the wrong idea.
In the circumstances, rather than the King managing to put together a force and advancing on Thessaloniki, middle-ranking pro-junta officers neutralised and arrested his royalist generals and took command of their units, which subsequently put together a force advancing on Kavala to arrest the King. The junta, not at all shaken by the loss of their figurehead premier, ridiculed the King by announcing the he was hiding "from village to village". Realising that the counter coup had failed, Constantine fled Greece on board the royal plane, taking his family and hapless Premier with him. They landed in
Rome early in the morning of 14th December. Constantine remained in exile all through the rest of military rule (although nominally he continued as King until 1st June 1973) and was never to return to Greece as King.
The Regency
When the King flew out of Athens to begin his counter-coup, on December 13 1967, he took Prime Minister Kollias with him. Thus, legally, there was no government and no Head of State in Athens. This did not concern the military junta. Instead the Revolutionary Council of
Pattakos,
Papadopoulos and
Makarezos made a brief appearance to cause a Resolution to be published in the Government Gazette, appointing another member to the military administration, Major General
Georgios Zoitakis, as Regent.
Zoitakis then appointed
Papadopoulos Prime Minister. This became the only government of Greece after the failure of the King's attempted coup, as the King was unwilling to set up an alternative administration in exile. The Regent's position was later confirmed under the 1968 Constitution, although the exiled King never officially recognised, nor acknowledge, the Regency.
In a legally controversial move, even under the junta's own Constitution, the Cabinet voted in 1972 to oust
Zoitakis and replace him with
Papadopoulos who thus combined the offices of Regent and Prime Minister. It was thought
Zoitakis was problematic and interfered too much with the military. The King's portrait remained on coins, in public buildings etc. but slowly, the military was chipping away at the institution of the monarchy: The royal family's tax immunity was abolished, the complex network of royally managed charities was brought under direct state control, the royal arms were removed from coins, the Navy and Air Force were no longer "Royal" and the newspapers were usually banned from publishing the King's photo or any interviews.
During this period, resistance against the colonels' rule became better organized among exiles in Europe and the United States. In addition to the expected opposition from the left, the colonels found themselves under attack by constituencies that had traditionally supported past right-wing regimes: pro-monarchists supporting Constantine; businessmen concerned over international isolation; the middle class facing an economic downturn after 1971 . There was also considerable political infighting within the junta. Still, up until 1973 the junta appeared in firm control of Greece, and not likely to be ousted by violent means.
The Republic
To resolve the constitutional issue and cement his hold on power over his opponents (both inside and outside the regime), Papadopoulos introduced a new constitution which abolished the monarchy and made Greece a republic. The referendum for the new government was held in early
1973, and was approved by an "almost unanimous" vote, thanks to widespread election fraud . After the election, Papadopoulos became
President of Greece on
June 1,
1973.
The Ioannidis Regime
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Military tank standing in front of the Athens Polytechnic. Eventually, this vehicle would crush the gates of the Polytechnic in November 17 1973, putting a violent end to the student uprising. |
On
November 25,
1973, following the bloody suppresion of the
Athens Polytechnic uprising on the 17th of November, General
Dimitrios Ioannides ousted Papadopoulos and tried to continue to rule despite the popular unrest the uprising had triggered. Ioannides' attempt in July
1974 to overthrow Archbishop
Makarios III, the
President of
Cyprus, brought Greece to the brink of war with
Turkey, which
invaded Cyprus and occupied part of the island.
Restoration of Democracy
The
EOKA-B organisation, took power on the island by a military coup on
July 15,
1974. Turkey replied to this coup after 5 days and invaded Cyprus. There was well founded fear that an all out war with Turkey was imminent. Senior Greek military officers withdrew their support of
Junta strongman Brigadier
Dimitrios Ioannides.
Junta-appointed
President Phaedon Gizikis called a meeting of old politicians, including
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos,
Spiros Markezinis,
Stephanos Stephanopoulos,
Evangelos Averoff and others. The agenda was to appoint a national unity government that would lead to country to elections. Although former Prime Minister
Panagiotis Kanellopoulos was originally backed, Gizikis finally invited former
Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis, who resided in Paris since
1963, to assume that role. Karamanlis returned to
Athens on a French Presidency
Lear Jet made available to him by President
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a close personal friend, and was sworn-in as
Prime Minister under
President Phaedon Gizikis. Karamanlis' newly organized party,
New Democracy (ND), won elections held in November
1974, and he became prime minister. The collapse of the
junta was triggered by the
Cyprus debacle; some argue that the
1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising in
1973 (Greek: Η εξέγερση του Πολυτεχνείου) was the event that most discredited the military government and acted as a key catalyst for its eventual collapse.
Ideology
The colonels preferred to call the coup d'etat of
April 21 a "
revolution to Save the Nation" ("Ethnosotirios Epanastasis"). Their official justification for the coup was that a "communist conspiracy" had infiltrated the
bureaucracy, the
academia, the
press, and even the military, to such an extent that drastic action was needed to protect the country from a takeover. Thus, the defining characteristic of the Junta was its staunch anti-Communism.
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A tank in the streets of Athens on 17 November 1973. |
The term "αναρχοκομμουνιστές" transliterated as "anarchokommounistes" (
anarcho-communists) was frequently used to describe all leftists. In a similar vein the junta attempted to steer Greek public opinion not only by propaganda but also by inventing new words and slogans such as:
palaiokommatismos (translated as
old-partyism),
Ellas Ellinon Christianon translated as:
Greece for Christian Greeks, '' etc.
Fabrication of evidence and fictional enemies of the state was a common practice .
Atheism and
pop culture (such as
rock music and the
hippies) were also seen as parts of this conspiracy.
Nationalism and
Christianity were widely promoted.
Sources of Support
To gain support for his rule, Papadopoulos was able to project an image that appealed to some segments of Greek society. The son of a poor family from a rural area, he had no education other than that of the military academy. He publicly stated contempt for the urban, western-educated "elite" in Athens. Modern western music was banned from the airwaves, and folk music and arts were promoted. The poor, conservative, religious farmers widely supported him, seeing in his rough mannerisms, simplistic speeches, even in his name ("Georgios Papadopoulos" is one of the most common names in Greece) a "friend of the common man". Further, the regime promoted a policy of economic development in rural areas, which were mostly neglected by the previous governments, that had focused largely in urban industrial development.
Papadopoulos mannerisms were less likely to appeal to the middle class, but the political crisis of
1965-
1967 let many ordinary citizens to believe that any stable government, even a military one, was better than the preceding chaos. Overall, the regime had little trouble establishing its control over the land.
The military government was given at least tacit support by the United States as a
Cold War ally, due to its proximity to the
Eastern European Soviet bloc, and the fact that the previous
Truman administration had given the country millions of dollars in economic aid to discourage
Communism. U.S. support for the junta is claimed to be the cause of rising
anti-Americanism in Greece during and following the junta's harsh rule.
Economic Policies
The 1967 - 1973 period was marked by high rates of economic growth coupled with low inflation and low unemployment.
GDP growth was driven by investment in the
tourism industry, public spending, and pro-business incentives that fostered both domestic and foreign capital spending. Several international companies invested in Greece at the time, including the
Coca-Cola Corporation. Economic growth started losing steam by 1972.
[ http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/pdf/TheMetapolitefsiThatNeverWas.pdf The Metapolitefsi that never was: Ioannis Tzortzis, University of Birmingham]] Some attibute Papadopoulos' ill-fated attempt at liberalization in
1973 to the looming threat of stagnation.
The
1973 oil crisis finally dealt a real financial shock to the Greek economy, as it did to all non-oil producing countries, and marked the end of inflation-free growth in Greece for more than two decades.
Financial scandals
Cases of non-transparent public deals and corruption allegedly occurred at the time, given the lack of democratic checks and balances and the absence of a free press. One such event is associated with the regime's tourism minister,
Ioannis Ladas (Ιωάννης Λαδάς). During his administration, several low-interest loans, amortized over a twenty year period, were issued for tourist development. This fostered the erection of a multitude of hotels, sometimes in non-tourist areas, and with no underlying business rationale. Several such hotels were abandoned unfinished as soon as the loans were secured, and their remains still dot the Greek countryside. These questionable loans are referred to as
Thalassodaneia (θαλασσοδάνεια), i.e., "
Loans of the
sea," to indicate the loose terms under which they were granted.
Another contested policy of the regime was the writing-off of agricultural loans to farmers up to 100,000 drachmas, a large sum for that era. This has been attributed to an attempt by Papadopoulos to gain public support for his regime.
Civil Rights
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A tank in the streets of Athens on 21 April 1967. |
Civil liberties were suppressed, special military courts were established, and political parties were dissolved. Several thousand suspected communists and political opponents were imprisoned or exiled to remote Greek islands.
Amnesty International sent observers to Greece at the time and reported that under Papadopoulos' regime torture was a deliberate practice carried out by both Security Police and the Military Police.
James Becket, an American attorney sent to Greece by Amnesty International, wrote In December 1969 that "a conservative estimate would place at not less than two thousand" the number of people tortured.
The democratic elements of the Greek society organized their activity early on. As early as
1968 many militant groups promoting democratic rule were formed, both in exile and in Greece. These included, among others,
PAK,
Democratic Defense, the
Socialist Democratic Union, as well as groups from the entire left wing of the Greek political spectrum, large parts of which (such as the
KKE) had been outlawed even before the junta. The first hands-on action against the junta was the failed assassination attempt against
Papadopoulos by
Alexandros Panagoulis, on
13 August 1968.
Assassination Attempt By Panagoulis
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Alexandros Panagoulis on trial by the junta Justice System. |
The events took place in the morning of
August 13, when Papadopoulos went from his summer residence in
Lagonisi to
Athens, escorted by his personal security motorcycles and cars.
Alexandros Panagoulis (Αλέξανδρος Παναγούλης) ignited a bomb at a point of the coastal road where the limousine carrying Papadopoulos would have to slow down but the bomb failed to harm Papadopoulos. Panagoulis was captured a few hours later in a nearby sea cave as the boat that would let him escape the scene of the attack had not shown up.
Panagoulis was arrested, and transferred to the military police (EAT-ESA) offices were he was questioned, beaten and tortured (see the proceedings of Theofiloyiannakos's trial) . On
November 17 1968 he was sentenced to death, and remained for five years in prison. After the restoration of Democracy, Panagoulis was elected a member of Parliament. Panagoulis was regarded as an emblematic figure for the struggle to restore Democracy. He has often been paralleled to
Harmodius and Aristogeiton (Αρμόδιος και Αριστογείτων), two ancient Athenians, known for the
tyrannicide of the Athenian tyrant
Hipparchus (Ιππαρχος).
Broadening Of The Movement
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Poster of the legendary movie Z by Kostas Gavras, about the political assassination of Gregoris Lambrakis. "He is alive!" can be seen in the poster caption under the large Z, written in French, referring to the popular Greek protest slogan "Ζει" meaning "he (Lambrakis) is alive". |
The funeral of
George Papandreou, Sr. on
1 November 1968 was spontaneously turned into a massive demonstration against the junta. Thousands of Athenians disobeyed the military's orders and followed the casket to the cemetery. The government reacted by arresting 41 people.
On
28 March 1969, after two years marked by widespread censorship, political detentions and torture,
Giorgos Seferis (who had been awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in
1963) took a stand against the junta. He made a statement on the BBC World Service , with copies simultaneously distributed to every newspaper in Athens. In a speech againt the colonels he passionatly stated that "This anomaly must end". Seferis did not live to see the end of the junta. His funeral, though, in
20 September 1972, was turned into a massive demonstration against the military government.
Also in
1969,
Costa-Gavras released the film
Z, based on a book by celebrated left-wing writer
Vassilis Vassilikos. The banned film presented a (barely) fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of
EDA politician
Gregoris Lambrakis in
1963. The film was made to capture a sense of outrage about the junta. The soundtrack of the film was made by the junta-imprisoned
Mikis Theodorakis and was smuggled into the country to be added to the other inspirational, underground Theodorakis tracks.
International protest
The junta exiled thousands, on the grounds that they were communists and/or "enemies of the country". Most of them were subjected to internal exile on Greek deserted islands like
Makronisos,
Gyaros,
Gioura or inhabited islands like
Leros,
Agios Eustratios or
Trikeri.
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Kostas Georgakis is the only known resistance hero to have sacrificed his life as a protest against the junta |
The most famous were in external exile, most of whom had substantial involvement in resistance, organising protests in European capital cities, or helping and hiding refugees from Greece.
Melina Merkouri, actor, singer, and, after
1981 minister of culture;
Mikis Theodorakis, composer of resistance songs;
Costas Simitis,
prime minister from
1996 to
2004; and
Andreas Papandreou, prime minister from
1981 to
1989 and again from
1993 to
1996, were among these Greeks in external exile. Some chose exile, unable to stand life under the junta. For example
Melina Merkouri was allowed to enter Greece, but stayed away on her own accord. Also in the early hours of the 19th of September 1970 in Matteoti square in
Genoa,
Italy Geology student
Kostas Georgakis set himself ablaze in protest against the dictatorship Government of George Papadopoulos. The junta delayed the arrival of his remains to
Corfu for four months fearing public reaction and protests. At the time his death caused a sensation in Greece and abroad as it was the first tangible manifestation of the depth of resistance against the junta. He is the only known resistance hero to the junta to have protested by ending his life and he is considered the precursor of later student protest such as the Polytechnic uprising. The Municipality of
Corfu has dedicated a memorial in his honour near his home in Corfu city.
The Velos Mutiny
On
23 May 1973,
HNS Velos, under the command of Commander Nicholaos Pappas, while participating in a
NATO exercise and in order to protest against the junta, anchored at
Fiumicino,
Italy, refusing to return to Greece.When in patrol with other NATO vessels between
Italy and
Sardinia the captain and the officers heard from a radio station that naval officers had been arrested in Greece. Cdr Pappas was involved in a group of democratic officers, loyal to their oath to obey the Constitution, and planning to act against the
junta.
|
VELOS D16 (Greek 'ΕΛΟΣ, "ARROW") as museum in the Gulf of Faliron in Athens, 21 January 2006. |
Pappas believed that since his fellow anti-junta officers had been arrested, there was no more hope for a movement inside Greece. He decided to act alone in order to motivate global public opinion. He mustered all the crew to the stern and announced his decision, which was received with enthusiasm by the crew. Pappas signaled the commander of the squadron and NATO Headquarters of his intentions, quoting the preamble of the
North Atlantic Treaty (founding treaty for NATO) which declares that
"all governments ...are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law", and, leaving formation, sailed for Rome. There when anchored about 3.5 nautical miles away from the coast of Fiumicino three ensigns went ashore with a whaleboat and went to the
Fiumicino Airport and telephoned to international press agencies notifying them of the situation in Greece, the presence of the destroyer, and that the captain would hold a press conference the next day.
This action caused international interest in the situation in Greece. The captain, six officers, and twenty five
petty officers requested and remained abroad as political refugees. Indeed, the whole crew wished to follow their captain but was advised by its officers to remain onboard and return to Greece to inform families and friends about what happened.
Velos returned to Greece after a month with a replacement crew. After the fall of junta all officers and petty officers returned to the Navy.
Evangelos Averoff also participated in the Velos mutiny, for which he was arrested as an "instigator".
The uprising at the Polytechnic
|
Students demonstrating during the uprising. |
On
November 14, 1973 students at the
National Technical University of Athens (also known as "Athens Polytechnic" or
Polytechnion) went on
strike and started protesting against the junta. There was no response by the military government, so the students barricaded themselves in and built a radio station (using materials from the laboratories) that broadcast across Athens. Soon thousands of workers and youngsters joined them protesting inside and outside of the "Athens Polytechnic".
On first hours of
November 17 1973
Papadopoulos sent the army to crush the demonstration. An
AMX 30 Tank crashed through the rail gate of the Athens Polytechnic after 03:00 am and under almost complete darkness caused by the forced shutdown of the city lights (by that time only the lights in the National Technical University yard were turned on, powered by the electricity generators of the laboratories of the electrical engineers). Evidence of the events taken place have been captured by a hidden Dutch journalist in a film footage. The film is quite dark but clear enough to show that the tank crashed down the main steel entrance of the "Athens Polytechnic" along with students still climbed on it.
According to a contested official investigation undertaken after the fall of the junta, no students of the
Athens Polytechnic were killed during the incident.
|
Junta members on trial. Front row (from left): Papadopoulos, Makarezos, Pattakos. Ioannides can be seen on the second row, just behind Pattakos |
However a few of them have been left severely injured by the tank for the rest of their lives. Total recorded casualties amount to 24 civilians killed outside Athens Polytechnic campus. These include 19-year old
Michael Mirogiannis, reportedly shot in cold blood by officer
G. Dertilis, high-school student
Diomedes Komnenos, and a five-year old boy caught in the crossfire in the suburb of Zografou. The records of the trials held following followed the collapse of the junta document the circumstances of the deaths of many civilians during the uprising, and it is possible that the official numbers are too modest. The matter however is highly politicized, so there is no real agreement on it to this date.
#
ETH Zurich chronology#
full text by newspaper TA NEA (in Greek)*
*
Timeline of Greek history *
Greek Resistance *
History of Modern Greece*
Apostasia of 1965*
Metapolitefsi*
Fairly well-balanced and illustrated account of the junta years up to Athens Polytechnic uprising.*
Article in the same site about the Polytechnich uprising, the Cyprus troubles, and the fall of the junta.
