Greek Military Junta (1967–1974): The Regime of the Colonels

The Greek military junta, often called the Regime of the Colonels, ruled Greece from a coup on 21 April 1967 until its collapse in July 1974. A group of army officers led by Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos suspended democracy, imprisoned thousands of opponents and censored public life. The regime fell after it sponsored a coup in Cyprus that triggered a Turkish invasion of the island, and its end opened the way to the democracy Greece has had since.

Background: a fragile democracy

Greece emerged from the Second World War and the Greek Civil War (1946–1949) deeply divided between the victorious right and the defeated left. The army, the monarchy and the security services saw themselves as guardians against communism, and many on the left were excluded from public life.

In the early 1960s the centrist Georgios Papandreou and his Centre Union party challenged this order and won elections in 1963 and 1964. A clash between Papandreou and the young King Constantine II over control of the armed forces led to Papandreou’s dismissal in July 1965. A period of unstable governments, known as the Iouliana (the July events), followed. New elections were called for 28 May 1967, and the Centre Union was widely expected to win.

The coup of 21 April 1967

In the early hours of 21 April 1967 tanks and troops took control of Athens. The plotters, Colonels Georgios Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos and Brigadier Stylianos Pattakos, activated a NATO contingency plan code-named Prometheus, designed for use in case of a communist uprising. Leading politicians, including Georgios and Andreas Papandreou, were arrested within hours.

King Constantine II, taken by surprise, swore in a government headed by the civilian prosecutor Konstantinos Kollias, but real power lay with the officers. The constitution was suspended and martial law declared. On 13 December 1967 the king attempted a counter-coup; it failed, and he fled to Rome. Papadopoulos became prime minister, and a regent was appointed in place of the king.

Life under the colonels

The junta presented itself as saving a “Greece of Christian Greeks” from communism and moral decline. Political parties were banned, the press was censored and thousands of people were arrested. Many were sent into internal exile on islands such as Gyaros and Leros. Some early decrees even regulated dress and hair length, though these were soon relaxed.

Torture of political prisoners by the military police and security services was documented by Amnesty International and by the European Commission of Human Rights in the “Greek case”. Facing likely expulsion, Greece withdrew from the Council of Europe in December 1969. Prominent Greeks abroad, such as the actress Melina Mercouri, campaigned against the regime, and Mercouri was stripped of her citizenship.

Resistance continued inside the country. On 13 August 1968 Alexandros Panagoulis tried to assassinate Papadopoulos with a bomb; he was captured, tortured and sentenced to death, though the sentence was not carried out. In May 1973 officers of the navy attempted a mutiny, and the destroyer Velos sought refuge in Italy.

The economy grew in the early years, helped by tourism and foreign investment, and the United States maintained relations with the regime because of Greece’s role in NATO. This support was later a source of lasting resentment among many Greeks.

Key people

Georgios Papadopoulos (1919–1999), an army colonel with a background in military intelligence, was the junta’s leading figure. He served as prime minister from December 1967 and combined several ministries, and in 1973 made himself president of a republic declared by the regime.

Stylianos Pattakos (1912–2016) and Nikolaos Makarezos (1919–2009) were his partners in the coup. Pattakos, who commanded the armoured units that took Athens, became interior minister and deputy prime minister; Makarezos ran economic policy.

Dimitrios Ioannidis (1923–2010), commander of the feared military police (ESA), stayed largely in the background until he seized power in November 1973. He is generally regarded as the main author of the Cyprus coup.

King Constantine II (1940–2023) reigned from 1964. His uneasy cooperation with the colonels and failed counter-coup left the monarchy discredited, and he never reigned again.

Konstantinos Karamanlis (1907–1998), prime minister from 1955 to 1963, returned from exile to lead the transition to democracy and later served as president of the republic.

The Polytechnic uprising

In 1973 Papadopoulos tried to give the regime a civilian face. He abolished the monarchy on 1 June, had himself confirmed as president in a referendum held under the regime’s control in July, and appointed the veteran politician Spyros Markezinis to prepare elections.

Students saw an opening. On 14 November 1973 they occupied the National Technical University of Athens, known as the Polytechnic, and set up a radio station calling for the fall of the junta. Thousands of people gathered outside. In the early hours of 17 November an army tank crashed through the main gate and troops cleared the buildings. Investigations after 1974 identified at least 24 civilians killed in Athens during the suppression, with hundreds injured; some accounts give higher figures.

Ioannidis and the Cyprus disaster

On 25 November 1973 Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis, head of the military police, overthrew Papadopoulos and installed General Phaedon Gizikis as president. The new regime was even harsher. In 1974 Ioannidis turned against Archbishop Makarios, president of Cyprus, whom he accused of blocking union with Greece.

On 15 July 1974 the Cypriot National Guard, commanded by Greek officers, overthrew Makarios. Turkey responded on 20 July with a military invasion of Cyprus. Greece’s armed forces were unready for war, the chiefs of staff refused to follow Ioannidis, and on 23 July the military handed power back to civilian politicians.

Return to democracy

Konstantinos Karamanlis, a former prime minister who had lived in exile in Paris since 1963, returned to Athens and was sworn in as prime minister on 24 July 1974. Elections on 17 November 1974, the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising, gave his New Democracy party a large majority. A referendum on 8 December 1974 abolished the monarchy, with about 69 per cent voting for a republic.

In 1975 the leaders of the coup were tried for high treason and insurrection. Papadopoulos, Pattakos and Makarezos were sentenced to death, but the sentences were commuted to life imprisonment; Ioannidis also received life terms. A new constitution was adopted in 1975, and Greece joined the European Communities in 1981.

Timeline

• 1965, 15 July: King Constantine II’s clash with Georgios Papandreou leads to the prime minister’s resignation.
• 1967, 21 April: Army officers seize power in Athens.
• 1967, 13 December: The king’s counter-coup fails and he leaves for Rome.
• 1968, 13 August: Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate Papadopoulos.
• 1969, 12 December: Greece withdraws from the Council of Europe.
• 1973, 1 June: The junta declares the monarchy abolished.
• 1973, 14–17 November: The Athens Polytechnic uprising is crushed.
• 1973, 25 November: Ioannidis overthrows Papadopoulos.
• 1974, 15 July: The junta-backed coup in Cyprus overthrows Makarios.
• 1974, 24 July: Karamanlis is sworn in as prime minister.

Why it matters

The junta was the last dictatorship in Greek history and one of three southern European authoritarian regimes, with Portugal and Spain, that fell in the mid-1970s. Its repression and its disastrous Cyprus policy discredited military rule in Greece, and the Polytechnic uprising remains a central symbol of democratic resistance.