It was 54 years ago today that a group of far-right Greek army colonels led a coup d’etat just weeks before elections that were predicted to give the victory to Georgios Papandreou’s Centre Union a party that leaned to the left.
The coup was the culmination of years of political upheaval between the right and left – a legacy of the Greek civil war of 1946 to 1949.
Papandreou had won the election of 1964. Matters came to a head when he tried to dismiss officers belonging to the secret right wing organisation IDEA (Ieros Desmos Ellinon Axiomatikon-Holy Bond of Greek Officers). The newly crowned King Constantine II blocked the move on IDEA and then used his powers to dismiss Papandreou’s government in 1965.
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The move resulted in the Apostasia of 1965, a constitutional crisis that led to a series of unstable governments until 1967. With new elections called for 28 May, 1967 all indications pointed to a victory for Papandreou.
A group of army officers led by Brigadier General Stylianos Pattakos, George Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos deployed tanks and seized control of Athens while small units arrested leading left-wing politicians, community and army leaders as well as ordinary citizens.
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For the next seven years the dictators sought to reshape Greece while the country became an international pariah.