History of Greece
Pre-Hellenic Greece
	Prehistory of Greece
-3200	Cycladic civilization
-2700	Minoan civilization
-1550	Mycenaean civilization
Ancient Greece
-1200	Dark Ages
-800	Archaic
-510	Classical period
-323	Hellenistic
-146	Roman Greece
Medieval Greece (C)
330	Byzantine Empire
1202	Fourth Crusade
1453	Ottoman Greece
Modern Greece
1799	Republic of the Seven Islands
1822	Revolutionary War
1832	Kingdom of Greece
1936	Plan of August 4
1941	Occupation
1946	Civil War
1967	Dictatorship of the colonels
1974	Hellenic Republic

The dictatorship of the Colonels is the name given to political power in place in Greece from 1967 to 1974 , which also caused the exile of King Constantine II ascended the throne in 1964. This dictatorship is based on the assumption of power by a junta of officers then dominated by Yeryos Papadopoulos.

Origins

In 1963, for the first time in forty years, free elections are held in Greece. They were won by the Union des Centres Georges Papandreou , veteran of the Greek political scene (he was Minister of Education of the government of Eleftherios Venizelos , former opponent Metaxas then head of government in exile of King George II , in Alexandria in 1944).

With his landslide victory (53% of the vote), he decides to purge the army, very marked at the extreme right. The staff , obsessed with the communist threat, anxious to please the United States and worried about itself, increases the destabilization maneuvers.

An unstable political

In July 1965, under pressure from the army, the young King Constantine II deposed George Papandreou after his attempt to place himself at the head of the Department of Defense.

This was possible because a member of the party of George Papandreou, Constantinos Mitsotakis seceded with a considerable number of newly elected officials. In Greece, there was talk of Apostasy. The same Mitsotakis became Prime Minister in 1989.

This reversal of the Union Centre was made possible by members of the same party who sought to exercise power for their own account. We then attended a series of more or less ephemeral governments between July 1965 and April 1967.

Papandreou and Panagiotis Kanellopoulos , the leader of the Union Centre and the ERE (National Radical Union, previously the majority party) tried to reach an agreement to end the crisis which threatened to extend it. The idea was to form a government caretaker and organize new elections. This solution could not be established because of the coup of the colonels.

The coup d'etat of the colonels

The monarchy was then supported by the United States, despite its inability to modernize the country. Disorders develop before the king's refusal to entrust power to the left.

Among the many disorders are the death of MP Gregoris Lambrakis and that of the student Sotiris Petroulas. The case Lambrakis was then the subject of a book and a movie: Z.

These political unrest led to the coup of the colonels on 21 April 1967.

This April 21, officers led by Colonel Papadopoulos Yeryos take power by force and abolished the constitution. Their task was facilitated by the disruption of the political world, discrediting the institutions and the inertia of the royal palace.

In December 1967 the king attempted to regain control by a coup-cons with the support of generals. His failure forced King Constantine II into exile with his family in Rome. The Kingdom of Greece until 1973, however, remained the official state form, the successive leaders of the junta himself the title of regents.

The junta

Members of the junta:

• Georgios Papadopoulos , Colonel in the "Office of Military Studies;
• Stylianos Pattakos , Brigadier General;
• Nikolaos Makarezos , Colonel, former military attach at the Greek embassy in Rome;
• Dimitrios Ioannidis , general

Dictatorship

To maintain and consolidate their power, colonels sought to eliminate all forms of opposition and protest. Since the coup, politicians, mostly leftists, but also liberals and ordinary defenders of human rights, were persecuted. Number of soldiers and officers were removed to allow colonels have instruments of government ideologically consistent with "principles of the regime." Political opponents were put under house arrest, imprisoned, deported on deserted islands of the Aegean, but also sometimes tortured ^{The End of Dictatorship}

The crisis in Cyprus was fatal to the colonels' regime, already weakened by a strong protest, students primarily (occupation of the Ecole Polytechnique (Politechnion), evacuated by tanks on 17 November 1973 despite the opposition of its President Constantine Conophagos ).

Politechnion events were not just a student protest, but a popular revolt in the street were people from all conditions. November 17, dictators did walk the tanks on the university.

Greece had a defense agreement with Cyprus. Turkey attacked and occupied part of the island but that Greece had sent troops, they never did not enter into action. That is what is known in Greece on Cyprus issue kypriako fakelo.

Culture

The film Z by Costa-Gavras deals with the period of instability which preceded the dictatorship.

References

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