Greek junta
Greece, 1967–1974. Draft, not yet reviewed
The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels overthrew a caretaker government a month before scheduled elections which Georgios Papandreou's Centre Union was favoured to win. The dictatorship was characterised by policies such as anti-communism, restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment, torture, and exile of political opponents. Ioannidis ruled until it fell on 24 July 1974 under the pressure of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, leading to the Metapolitefsi to democracy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic.
Seat of power: Athens
Rulers
Phaedon Gizikis
President of Greece, 1973–1974
He was a Greek army general who was the last President of Greece under the junta from 1973 to 1974. He was given the title of President of the Republic on 25 November 1973, after Papadopoulos was ousted by Dimitrios Ioannidis as head of the regime in an internal power struggle. As president he gave the task of forming a new government, following the collapse of the Junta, to Constantine Karamanlis.
Portrait of Phaedon Gizikis: Associated Press, Public domain, file
Georgios Papadopoulos
President of Greece, 1973–1973
He led the military junta that overthrew Prime Minister Panagiotis Kanellopoulos in 1967 and established his dictatorship. He was elected President of Greece under the junta in June 1973, following a referendum. In 1973, he was overthrown and arrested by his co-conspirator Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannidis.
Portrait of Georgios Papadopoulos: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, file
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Culture
- The uprising began on 14 November 1973, escalated to an open anti-junta revolt, and ended in bloodshed in the early morning of 17 November after a series of events starting with a tank crashing through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic. According to a detailed 2004 research published by the National Hellenic Research Foundation, at least 24 people died due to direct or indirect actions by the Greek army and police.
- The uprising had a lasting impact on Greek politics; it marked a break between the Greek youth and traditional leftist parties (KKE), and it also saw the beginning of the revival of anarchism in Greece.
Picture
The Athens Polytechnic uprising was a massive student demonstration in November 1973 that rejected the Greek military junta.
Image: Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.