1949-1967 1974-1989







Greece 1967 to 1974


Administration . In a 1967 military coup, a military junta headed by Georgios Papadopoulos took power. A royal counter-coup in 1967 failed. The office of PM was held by Konstantinos Kollias (1967), Georgios Papadopoulos (1967-1973), Spyros Markezinis (1973) and Adamantios Androutzopoulos (1973-1974). The strongman behind the Markezinis and Androutzopoulos cabinets was Dimitrios Ioannides. No general elections were held. From 1967 to 1973, King Constantine II. technically was head of state, but since the failed counter-coup of 1967 lived in exile; the generals formed a regency, which was terminated by the 1973 referendum, which abolished the monarchy.

Foreign Policy . The U.S. has been implicated in the military coup of 1967; the same may be said about the royal counter-coup of 1967. The main U.S. concern was to keep Greece within the western hemisphere, on an anti-Communist course.
The governments of Communists Eastern Central Europe, the USSR, and of democratic Europe condemned the military coup; Greece temporarily was ousted from the European Parliament. Many European governments granted asylum to Greeks fleeing the military dictatorship.
The Junta, toward the end of her reign, supported radical Cypriots in their 1974 coup d'etat, which provoked Turkey in launching an invasion of Cyprus (1974).
Greece and the PR China established diplomatic relations in 1972.

Political History . The military coup was intended to end years of political instability. It turned out that the leading figures in the junta lacked political experience.
The Junta declared to be opposed to Communism, atheism and Hippie culture, instead propagated Christian values and pariotism. Neolaia Alkimon, a uniform-wearing youth organization emphasizing patriotic christian values was established, which critics liked to compare with earlier Fascist organizations.
Political parties, civil liberties suppressed; the junta assumed they could run the country as they were accustomed to run the army.
The junta achieved in forcing Greece's political parties, now in exile / the underground, to cooperate, and this cooperation included the Communists which long had been banned. Prominent Greeks such as literature nobel prize laureate Giorgos Seferis, actress Melina Mercouri and composer Mikis Theodorakis spoke out against the junta.
Open resistance against the military dictatiorship manifested itself in the mutiny on the Greek vessel Velos in 1973 and the Athens Polytechnic prising of the same year.

The Economy . The Greek administration of 1967-1974 is accused of incompetence in economic matters, of cronyism, of failing to make use of checks. The country's vital tourism industry suffered from the reputation of Greece, as a military dictatorship, being a political outcast in Europe.

Ethnic, Religious Minorities . The official policy of emphasizing Greek nationalism and Christian religion alienated the country's ethnic (Turks, Slavs, Aromunians, Roma) and religious minorities (Muslims, Jews). The Arvanites came under pressure to give up their Arvanite (Albanian) language for Katharevousa.

Social History . A 1971 census counted 8.76 million inhabitants of Greece.

Cultural History . The political situation in Greece attracted additional attention to Greek artists, such as writer Giorgios Seferis, actress Melina Mercouri and composer Mikis Theodorakis, who openly took a stand against the junta. German writer Günter Wallraff traveled to Greece to investigate, and suffered arrest.
Greek athletes participated in the Summer Olympics of Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Articles Greek Military Junta of 1967-1974, Athens Polytechnic Uprising, Georgios Papadopoulos, Dimitrios Ioannides, Metapolitefsi, Constantine II. of Greece, Greek Plebiscite 1973, List of Prime Ministers of Greece, Greece at the 1968 Summer Olympics, Greece at the 1972 Summer Olympics, Arvanites, from Wikipedia
Overview over the Constitutional History of Modern Greece, from Greek Parliament
Greece 1964-1974. F.. your parliament and your constitution, said the President of the United States, from William Blum, Killing Hope, posted by Third World Traveller
Elliniki Radiofonia Tileorasi, from Wikipedia
DOCUMENTS List of Greek Prime Ministers etc., from World Statesmen by Ben Cahoon
Historical Population Statistics : Greece, from Population Statistics, Univ. Utrecht
REFERENCE Richard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece, Cambridge : UP 1992, KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.5 C643a
Article Greece, in : Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, 15th edition, vol.20 pp.178-205, KMLA Lib.Sign. R 032 B862n v.20
Article Greece, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1968 pp. 383-384, 1969 pp. 377-379, 1970 pp. 385-386, 1971 pp. 367-368, 1972 pp. 337-338, 1973 pp. 334-336 [G]
Article : Greece, in : Americana Annual 1968 pp.314-316, 1969 pp.328-329, 1970 pp.331-332, 1971 pp.326-327, 1972 pp.319-320, 1973 pp.328-329, 1974 pp.275-276 [G]
Article : Greece, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1970-1971 pp.991-999 (data of 1969-1970) [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on June 27th 2007

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