Greek junta
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| 1967–1974 | |||||||||
| Motto: Ἑλλὰς Ἑλλήνων Χριστιανῶν! Greece of Christian Greeks! | |||||||||
Anthem:
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Map of Europe in 1973, showing Greece highlighted in green | |||||||||
| Capital | Athens | ||||||||
| Common languages | Greek | ||||||||
| Religion | Greek Orthodoxy | ||||||||
| Demonyms | Greek, Hellene | ||||||||
| Government |
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| Monarchy | |||||||||
• King 1967–1973 | Constantine II | ||||||||
Georgios Zoitakis Georgios Papadopoulos | |||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1973 | Georgios Papadopoulos | ||||||||
• 1973–1974 | Phaedon Gizikis | ||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1967 | Konstantinos Kollias | ||||||||
• 1967–1973 | Georgios Papadopoulos | ||||||||
• 1973 | Spyros Markezinis | ||||||||
• 1973–1974 | Adamantios Androutsopoulos | ||||||||
| Legislature | Hellenic Parliament (nominal, suspended; de-facto ruled by decree) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
| 21 April 1967 | |||||||||
| 13 December 1967 | |||||||||
| 15 November 1968 | |||||||||
• Republic declared | 1 June 1973 | ||||||||
| 29 July 1973 | |||||||||
| 14–17 November 1973 and 25 November 1973 | |||||||||
| 15 July 1974 and 20 July 1974 | |||||||||
| 24 July 1974 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• Total | 131,957 km2 (50,949 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1971 census | 8,768,372 | ||||||||
| Currency | Greek drachma (GRD) | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Greece | ||||||||
| History of Greece |
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| Greece portal |
The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels overthrew a caretaker government a month before scheduled elections which Georgios Papandreou's Centre Union was favoured to win.
The dictatorship was characterised by policies such as anti-communism, restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment, torture, and exile of political opponents. It was ruled by Georgios Papadopoulos from 1967 to 1973, but an attempt to renew popular support in a 1973 referendum on the monarchy and gradual democratisation by Papadopoulos was ended by another coup by the hardliner Dimitrios Ioannidis. Ioannidis ruled until it fell on 24 July 1974 under the pressure of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, leading to the Metapolitefsi ("regime change"; Greek: Μεταπολίτευση) to democracy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic.