Greek junta
The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels[a] was a right-wing military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections which Georgios Papandreou's Centre Union was favoured to win.
"Regime of the Colonels" redirects here. For the Polish regime of colonels, see Piłsudski's colonels.
Kingdom of Greece (1967–1973)
Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος
Vasíleion tís Elládos
Hellenic Republic (1973–1974)
Ἑλληνικὴ Δημοκρατία
Ellinikí Dimokratía
Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος
Vasíleion tís Elládos
Hellenic Republic (1973–1974)
Ἑλληνικὴ Δημοκρατία
Ellinikí Dimokratía
Unitary constitutional monarchy under a military dictatorship (1967–1973)
Unitary semi-presidential republic under a military dictatorship (1 June to 25 November 1973)
Unitary quasi-parliamentary republic under a military dictatorship (25 November 1973 to 24 July 1974)
Hellenic Parliament (nominal, suspended)
Rule by decree (actual)
21 April 1967
13 December 1967
15 November 1968
1 June 1973
29 July 1973
17 November 1973
24 July 1974
131,957 km2 (50,949 sq mi)
8.768.372
right
The dictatorship was characterised by policies such as anti-communism, restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment, torture, and exile of political opponents. It was ruled by Georgios Papadopoulos from 1967 to 1973, but an attempt to renew its support in a 1973 referendum on the monarchy and gradual democratisation was ended by another coup by the hardliner Dimitrios Ioannidis, who ruled it until it fell on 24 July 1974 under the pressure of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, leading to the Metapolitefsi ("regime change") (Greek: Μεταπολίτευση) to democracy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic.
Legacy and Greek public opinion[edit]
The historical repercussions of the junta were profound and are still felt to this day in Greece. Internally the absence of civil rights and the oppression that followed created a sense of fear and persecution among many in the population creating trauma and division that persisted long after the fall of the junta. The Cyprus debacle created a tragedy that is still unfolding.[129][130][131][132]
While the Cyprus fiasco was due to the actions of Ioannidis,[133] it was Papadopoulos who started the cycle of coups. Externally, the absence of human rights in a country belonging to the Western Bloc during the Cold War was a continuous source of embarrassment for the free world, and this and other reasons made Greece an international pariah abroad and interrupted its process of integration with the European Union with incalculable opportunity costs.[129]
The 21 April regime remains highly controversial to this day, with most Greeks holding very strong and polarised views in regards to it. According to a survey by Kapa Research published in the centre-left newspaper To Vima in 2002, the majority of the electoral body (54.7%) consider the regime to have been bad or harmful for Greece while 20.7% consider it to have been good for Greece and 19.8% believe that it was neither good nor harmful.[134] In April 2013, the Metron Analysis Poll, found that 30% of Greeks yearned for the "better" days of the Junta.[135]
The experiences in Greece were formative for several CIA officers, including Clair George and Gust Avrakotos. Avrakotos, for example, dealt with the aftermath when Revolutionary Organization 17 November murdered his superior, CIA station chief Richard Welch, in 1975. Many of his junta-connected associates were also assassinated in this time period. Avrakotos himself had his cover blown by the media and his life became endangered.[3] In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton apologised on the behalf of the U.S. government for supporting the military junta in the name of Cold War tactics.[136][137]
There has been speculation that lingering social effects of the junta played a role in the rise of Golden Dawn, an extreme right-wing party which gained eighteen seats in parliament in two successive elections in 2012, in the midst of Greece's ongoing debt crisis. Golden Dawn's leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, met the leaders of the junta while in prison and was inspired to lay the foundations for the party. Some have linked alleged support of Golden Dawn by Hellenic Police officers to the party's statements sympathising with the junta, which commentators note would appeal to policemen whose livelihoods are threatened by harsh austerity measures.[138]