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August 1974 greece
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| Sana | 10.04.2017 | | Hajmi | 38 Kb. | | #3992 |
August 1974 - GREECE
End of Military Dictatorship. Formation of Civilian Government under Mr. Karamanlis. - Dispute with Turkey over Continental Shelf in Aegean Sea. - Reintroduction of 1952 Constitution.
In the wake of the events in Cyprus, the Heeds of the Greek armed forces decided on July 23 to call upon nine prominent persons--all former leading politicians--to form a new Government "in view of the national emergence".
The Cabinet led by Mr. Adamantios Androutsopoulos, who had repeatedly been severely criticized by his colleagues for having used the Government merely to endorse actions already taken by the military leaders, had earlier virtually dissolved itself at a meeting on the same day.
250 Greek officers of the Third Army Corps, in an appeal broadcast by the Deutsche Welle of Cologne and by the BBC on July 21, had called (a) on Turkey to cease its hostile action in Cyprus and not to use the pretext offered to them by "the irresponsible and criminal policy of the group ruling in Athens", and (b) on President Ghizikis and the leaders of the armed forces to convene a "Council for National Salvation" which should comprise (in addition to the Head of State) the armed forces' leaders, King Constantine, ex-Premier Karamanlis, and representatives of the country's two great parties and of the new political tendencies in the country, with Mr. Karamanlis becoming chairman of this Council with the full powers of a Head of State and Prime Minister. The officers also proposed that Mr. Karamanlis should, together with President Makarios of Cyprus and Major Karoussos (whom they described as "the legitimate successor to the late General Grivas"), make proposals to Britain and Turkey for an immediate settlement of the Cyprus crisis; and that free elections should be held in Greece within six months.
The appeal, stating that those in power in Athens had brought Greece to the brink of national catastrophe, also called upon Greece's allies, notably the United States, to discontinue immediately all support for the Athens regime.
Mr. Konstantinos Rallis, then Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, had in a broadcast assured the nation that rumours about an impending coup (by the Third Army Corps in Thrace, stationed along the Turkish border and commanded by Lieut.-General Ioannis Davos) were "malicious fabrications", and that the armed forces were "vigilant for the protection of the interests of the nation and of internal order and tranquillity"; he had urged all Greeks to offer whatever they could "for the salvation of the nation".
The "national emergence" referred to above involved the mobilization of Greece's armed forces and a call-up of reserves for possible military action against Turkey. In the circumstances, President (General) Phaedon Ghizikis on July 23 summoned four former Prime Ministers--Mr. Panayotis Kanellopoulos, Mr. Stefanos Stefanopoulos, Mr. George Athanasiadis-Novas and Mr. Spyros Markezinis--as well as Mr. George Mavros (the Liberal leader), Mr. Petros Garoufalias (a former Minister of Defence), Mr. Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza (a former Foreign Minister), General (retd.) Solon Ghikas and Professor Xenophon Zolotas (a leading economist) to a meeting, which was also attended by General Gregorios Bonanos (C.-in-C. of the Armed Forces) and the three service chiefs--Lieut.General Andreas Galatsanos, Vice-Admiral Petros Arapakis and Air Vice-Marshal Alexandros Papanicolou.
At this five-hour meeting President Ghizikis was said to have explained to the politicians that the country was practically without a Government and that it was "absolutely vital" that a new one should be formed immediately in view of reports that the Turks were "violating the cease-fire in Cyprus" and of the need for Greece to be "strongly represented in Geneva" at the talks on Cyprus arranged by Britain.
On the same day President Ghizikis had asked Mr. Konstantinos Karamanlis, the leader of the (conservative) National Radical Union and Prime Minister between 1955 and 1963, to return immediately to Greece from his self-imposed exile in Paris. Mr. Karamanlis thereupon returned to Greece during the night of July 23-24 in an aircraft placed at his disposal by the French President, and was asked to form a Government by President Ghizikis on July 24.
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