The Epta-etea or junta or the Colonels Page 3

The regime of the junta ended with a fiasco bizarrely reminiscent of the ‘Katastrofi’ of 1922, in that it was motivated in part by the old ‘Megali Idea’ (the Grand Idea) of annexing territory with large Greek populations that still lay outside of Greek borders after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.

The plan was to force union of Cyprus with Greece by assassinating the president installed by the British, Makarios. Unfortunately for them, Makarios found out what was up and got way. The colonels responded by sticking a former EOKA leader in his place and the Turks invaded the island, occupying the upper northern third, and driving some 200,000 Greek Cypriots out of their homes and fleeing for the south. Some 1700 Greek Cypriot men disappeared and were never found again, assumed to have been executed by the Turks.

The Greek army mutinied, and Karamanlis invited back from his exile in Paris to take office again, and he and his Nea Dimokratia Party (ND) won easily in the elections. Though he negotiated a ceasefire in Cyprus, there was little more he could do in that situation; he withdrew Greece from NATO temporarily (though it was soon back in) and stated that U.S. bases would have to be shut down except where they were of specific benefit to Greece (but they remained). He lifted the ban on communist parties, legitimizing the KKE for the first time, and Andreas Papandreou formed PASOK party (the Panhellenic Socialist Union).

Karamanlis returned the country to democracy and stability, and held a referendum on the monarchy, in which the Greek majority turned thumbs down on the return of Constantine II. Karamanlis proceeded to set up a French style presidency, occupying that post from 1980 to 1985, and from 1990 to 1995. Karamanlis is credited with the entry of Greece into the European Community (now the EU) in 1981, though many Greeks these days do not seem at all happy with EU membership, and especially with the rise in the cost of living that has come with the Euro. Karamanlis did little to stop inflation, which was around 25% in 1981, or to stop massive tax evasion, which removed about one third of the funds needed for the annual budget.

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