Dictatorship of the colonels

The dictatorship of the colonels is the name given to the political power in place in Greece of 1967 with 1974, which caused moreover the exile of the king Constantin II assembled on the throne in 1964. This dictatorship is resulting from the seizure of power by a junta of officers then dominated by Yeóryos Papadópoulos.

An unstable political life

With the beginning of the year 1960, the Greek political life was made very unstable. In spite of a broad victory (53% of the voices) with the elections of 1964, the Union of the Centers of Georges Papandreou had not been able to control more than eighteen months. The young king Constantin II intervened against the Prime Minister legally elected while returning it in July 1965. This reaction belonged to a series of royal attempts to take again in hands the reins of the country.

That was made possible because a member of the party of Georges Papandreou, Constantinos Mitsotakis made secession with a considerable number of the new elected officials. In Greece, one spoke about Apostasy. This same Mitsotakis became Prime Minister in 1989.

In addition, Georges Papandreou, also perceived in Greece like a democrat of long time, aspired to hold the post of minister of war; thing which liked the Palate little.

This inversion of the Union of the Centers had been made possible by members of this same party who sought to exert the power for their own account. One then attended a whole series of more or less transitory governments between July 1965 and April 1967.

Papandreou and Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, the leaders of the Union of the Centers and the ERA (Radical National union, left until there majority) tried to find an agreement to leave the crisis which threatened to be prolonged. The idea was to form a government which would dispatch the go concern and would organize new elections. This solution could not be installation because of the coup d'etat of the colonels.

The coup d'etat of the colonels

Monarchy is then supported by the USA, in spite of its incapacity to modernize the country. Disorders develop in front of the refusal of the king to entrust the capacity to the forces progressists.

Among the many disorders is located the death of the deputy Grigoris Lambrakis that of the student Sotiris Petroulas. The Lambrakis business was the subject then of a book then of a film: Z.

These political disturbances ended in the coup d'etat of the colonels on April 21st, 1967.

This April 21st, of the officers taken along by colonel Yeóryos Papadópoulos seize the power by the force and abolish the constitution. Their task was facilitated by the disorganization of the political world, the discredit of the institutions and the inertia of the royal palace.

In December 1967, the king tried to take again the hand by a consequence of State with the support of generals. Its failure obliged the king Constantin II to be exiled with its family with Rome.

Dictatorship

To preserve and consolidate their capacity, the colonels sought to eliminate any form from opposition and dispute. As of the coup d'etat, political personalities, mainly of left, but also of the liberals and simple defenders of the human rights, were persecuted. Number of soldiers and civils servant were revoked in order to make it possible to the colonels to have instruments of government of the countries ideologically in conformity with the principles of the mode . The political opponents were put under house arrest, imprisoned, off-set on deserted islands of Égée but also sometimes tortured.

Governments more or less fantoches followed one another in order to let believe that a political life continued to exist and that the capacity was not held by the only colonels and mainly by Y. Papadópoulos. In spite of the censure, many demonstrations against the mode took place.

Thus, 1968 were one year difficult for the dictatorship. Alexandre Panagoulis tried to assassinate the colonel Papadópoulos. He was condemned to death. A very strong mobilization of the international public opinion made it possible to avoid its execution. Funerals of Georges Papandreou, deceased under house arrest, were the occasion great demonstrations against the mode.

Abroad also, the Greeks in political exile organized demonstrations against the dictatorship. Thus, in 1969, Greece was excluded from the Council of Europe. Since 1967, the agreement of association which bound Greece to the European Community had been put in sleep.

End of the dictatorship

The Cypriot crisis was fatal with the mode of the colonels, already weakened by a strong protest, students mainly (occupation of the Polytechnic school (Politechnion), evacuated by the tanks the November 17th 1973).

The events of Politechnion were not only one student's revolt but a popular revolt, in the street were people of all the conditions. November 17th the dictators made walk the tanks on the university.

Greece had an agreement of defense with Cyprus. Turkey tackled and occupied part of the island but although Greece sent troops, they never entered in action. It is what one calls in Greece the Cypriot envelope " kypriako fakelo".

Culture

The film Z of Costa-Gavras treats period of instability which preceded the dictatorship.

See too

Gladio

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