1967

April, 1967 A bitter political deadlock between the two largest parties in Greece brings end to the government of Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, formed in December 1966 to prepare Greece for a parliamentary election on May 28, 1967. He is replaced by Panayotis Canellopoulos, leader of the National Radical Union party. Andreas Papandreou is accused for taking part in a conspiracy with army officers in 1965 to plan a coup and create a left wing regime – the so called Aspida plot.
04.04.1967 13 students and 2 police officers are injured during clashes between student groups from the political left and right outside the University of Athens. The clashes started when the leftist National Students Union called for a meeting at the university to demand the dismissal of the new government of Panayotis Canellopoulos and to hold new elections. The students chant “Down with the Government” and wave banners with anti-NATO and anti-American slogans. The student groups from the right stage a counterdemonstration.
13.04.1967 Clashes between demonstrators and police in Athens.
14.04.1967 Prime Minister Panayotis Canellopoulos dissolves parliament and orders elections for May 28 after failed efforts to solve the political crisis.
21.04.1967 A junta, lead by Colonel George Papadopoulos, takes control in Greece through a military coup. Prime minister Panayotis Canellopoulos and his conservative National Radical Union government are ousted by the military. The new regime imposes martial law. Constantine V. Kollias is installed as new prime minister by the military junta. Political parties are abolished, political leaders arrested and freedom of press and expression are curbed. Plays by Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles are banned in theaters. The election scheduled for May is canceled.
24.04.1967 The new regime bans miniskirts for girls and long hair for boys.
September, 1967 The Scandinavian countries, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, as well as the Netherlands, file a complaint against Greece before the Human Rights Commission of the Council of Europe.
13.12.1967 King Constantin II of Greece unsuccessfully tries to replace the military junta through a royal countercoup due to a lack of military support. The king together with his wife, two children and his mother, Queen Frederika escapes to Rome. The Greek junta purges army, air force and navy and ousts all supporters of the king. Many high ranking officers are forced to leave their positions, among them the chief of the air force, Lieutenant General George Andonakos. Lieutenant General George Zoitakis replaces the king as regent.
23.12.1967 Andreas Papandreou is released from prison after having been arrested during the coup on April 21.
31.12.1967 The International Press Institute in Geneva labels the “overnight abolition” of a free press by the military junta in Greece the “most dramatic suppression” of freedom of press in the last 15 years. Five Greek newspaper men have been arrested since the coup, among them Leon B. Carapanayotis, a member of the International Press Institute.

1968

January, 1968 Andreas Papandreou is permitted to leave the country for Paris. Papandreou is the son of the former Greek Prime minister George Papandreou and was a minister in his father’s Center Union Cabinet. Due to his alleged left of center politics; he was very controversial before the military coup in April 1967. Andreas Papandreou initially planed to lead his father’s party (Centre Union) abroad, but instead he decided to launch a resistance organization called PAK (Panhellenic Liberation Movement). After the return to democracy in 1974 Papandreou returned from abroad and PAK served as the basis for the creation of PASOK (Panellenic Socialist Movement) which only some years later became ”large” and ultimately won the elections in 1981. Andreas Papandreou was a renowned Economics Professor in the States, Chair of the Department of Economics at Berkeley.
20.01.1968 George Drossos, former Press Minister and now journalist and part-time correspondent for the Mutual Broadcasting System is arrested and held for 19 days in a cell in Athen’s security headquarters. He is released February 8.
21.01.1968 The regime brings the famous Greek musician Mikis Theodorakis to trial.
01.02.1968 The regime extends its purge of the civil service to the diplomatic corps. 4 senior envoys are dismissed.
03.02.1968 - 05.02.1968 46 army officers are ousted for supporting King Constantine in his unsuccessful countercoup December 13, 1967. More than 100 army officers, 37 of them generals, have been dismissed since December.
09.02.1968 The Greek Prime minister George Papadopoulos appeals for student support at the University of Athens while giving a speech to a middle-aged audience of civil servants, professors, priests and a handful of honor students.
16.02.1968 King Constantine gives up his residence at the Greek embassy in Rome. The move is seen as indication of a break with the Athens government he had tried to overthrow in December. The junta still promises that the King could return to Greece as soon as “the revolution has accomplished its mission.”
17.02.1968 Diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Greece are restored.
17.02.1968 At the 12th Plennary Session of the Central Committee of the exiled Greek Communist Party in Bucharest the Party is divided into two rival factions. The so-called ’Interior’ one and the so-called ’Exterior’ one.
20.02.1968 Addressing the speaking to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the Soviet ambassador accuses Greece of mass terror and torture. Similar charges are submitted to the Commission by Amnesty International. Almost 3,000 prisoners are reportedly in detention without trial in Greek detention camps on the islands of Leros and Yaros at the end of January. The most common torture is said to have been a beating on the soles of the prisoners’ feet, also called falanga.
21.02.1968 Leslie Finer, correspondent for the BBC and several London newspapers is expelled from Greece after 13 years. The Greek government accuses Finer of biased coverage and of having “distorted facts, and thereby violating the ethics of his profession.”
01.03.1968 Prime minister George Papadopoulos promises that a plebiscite would be held on what he describes as a new constitution that would preserve the monarchy and wipe out Communism. In a talk in Salonica he uses for the first time the term ’Hellas of the Hellenic Christians’ that would become the regime’s motto.
02.03.1968 The Greek regime releases 80 political prisoners.
03.03.1968 The Greek ambassador to Sweden leaves the country for “consultations” in Athens, underlining the deterioration of relations between the Swedish government and the Greek junta.
09.03.1968 Andreas Papandreou calls on the U.S. to reconsider its policy of support for what he terms a “brutal dictatorial” Greek regime. Papandreou gives his speech before the 20th annual Roosevelt Day dinner of Americans for Democratic Action in Washington.
13.03.1968 The Orthodox Church of Greece announces that it would boycott the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches at Uppsala, Sweden on July 2. The Greek Church opposes what it terms as blatant intervention in Greek domestic affairs by both Sweden and the World Council.
15.03.1968 The Greek regime publicizes the draft of a new constitution, prepared by a commission if 20 lawyers. The draft would ban all communists and fellow travelers from public life. It subordinates individual liberties to the security of the regime and social order. Martial law and general press censorship are lifted only for comments on the draft.
15.03.1968 Ioannis Passalidis, titular leader of the United Democratic Left party, dies in his home in Salonika, northern Greece at the age of 82. Passalidis founded the Socialist party of Greece and cooperated with the Communists in the resistance during the Second World War. He and his party played an important political role in Greek politics from 1945 until the coup.
24.03.1968 40 students were arrested after putting up posters with slogans against the junta on a building of the Agricultural University in Salonika.
06.04.1968 On behalf of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement and as their leader, Andreas Papandreou tours the USA and Canada. 7,000 Greek-Canadians give him a thunderous reception during a rally at the University of Toronto when he denounces the junta.
08.04.1968 The Greek regime rejects all allegations that political prisoners have been tortured.
15.04.1968 Georges Papandreou, the 80-years-old leader of the Center Union Party, and Panayotis Canellopoulos, the 64-years-old leader of the rightist National Radical Union party are placed under house arrest. Both were former prime ministers. The Greek opposition interprets the measure as a way to prevent demonstrations on the first anniversary of the 1967 coup.
17.04.1968 In his first major political statement since the coup, George Papandreou appeals to the world to boycott Greece and asks for help in toppling the Greek junta through economical and political isolation. The Greek newspaper Estia publishes quotations of the statement and denounces it in an editorial. 
17.04.1968 Demetrios Papaspyrou, president of Greece’s last Parliament, is placed under house arrest.
17.04.1968 Anghelos Anghelousis and Efstathios Anthopoulos, Center Union deputies, are arrested and the authorities prepare to deport them to the Aegean islands.
18.04.1968 The regime announces the release of more than 100 political prisoners held on the Aegean islands.
19.04.1968 The authorities ban the sale of records by Melina Mercouri, one of the regime’s most vocal critics abroad.
19.04.1968 Panayotis Canellopoulos urges the U.S. to stop any support of the Greek junta.
30.04.1968 In a statement to foreign correspondents, George Rallis, former Minister of Interior, urges Greek politicians to unite and press for the immediate return of King Constantine to power.
01.05.1968 Demetrios Papaspyrou, former president of parliament, George Mavros, former Minister of Economic Coordination, and George Rallis are arrested for statements against the regime.
02.05.1968 Dr. Iakovos Diamantopoulos, former vice president of parliament, is placed under house arrest for urging the regime to restore democracy.
14.05.1968 The regime extends its emergency powers.
19.05.1968 Clashes between supporters and critics of the Greek junta during a parade on Fifth Avenue in New York. The parade was a celebration of the 147th anniversary of the Greek independence from the Turks.
23.05.1968 Andreas Papandreou accepts a guest professorship in economics at the University of Stockholm, Sweden.
28.05.1968 The regime announces restoration of the constitutional safeguards for the rights of peaceful assembly and free association. Both rights were suspended by the martial law imposed by the coup on April 21, 1967. More than 500 trade unions and other organizations had been dissolved by the regime for suspected political activities.
01.06.1968 53 political prisoners detained on the islands Leros and Yiaros are released.
01.06.1968 The Greek regime orders a curb on teenagers’ dress and a stronger enforcement of “good behavior” both at school and in public, banning certain hairdos, loud shirts, and moccasin shoes with “the distasteful dollar-sign-shaped buckle.”  
13.06.1968 The Greek Orthodox Church eases the boycott of the World Council of Churches’ fourth assembly at Uppsala, Sweden and sends a delegation of lay theologians.
20.06.1968 The Greek government is restructured by prime minister George Papadopoulos: 9 civilian ministers are replaced by civilian experts.
21.06.1968 The leaders of Greece’s Orthodox Church formally condemn abortion as a “sinful and criminal act.”
July, 1968 The Greek government announces the draft of a new Constitution and a plebiscite for September 29.
08.07.1968 The newly appointed Minister of Justice, professor Ioannis Triandafylopoulos, resigns after alleged disagreements over the draft for a new Greek constitution.
10.07.1968 3 senior Greek officers ousted from the army for backing King Constantine’s countercoup. 57 senior officers have been purged from the army.
12.07.1968 7 retired Greek senior officers are arrested.
13.07.1968 The socialist leader Elias Tsirimokos dies at the age of 60.
14.07.1968 70 U.S. students organize a sit-in at the Greek Ministry of Tourism in Athens.
15.07.1968 The regime orders 100 persons to be brought to trail on charges of resisting the authorities during the farmers’ riots in Salonika in 1966. The farmers were protesting the government’s agricultural policies and clashed with police.
06.08.1968 The Greek government announces that the vote on the draft of a new constitution on September 29 is compulsory.
10.08.1968 Ten leading Greek political and military prisoners to forced exile in Aegean islands. Among the exiled politicians are Demetrios Papaspyrou, Iakovos Diamantopoulos, George Mavros and George Rallis.
13.08.1968 Assassination attempt on Prime Minister George Papadopoulus life outside Athens. Alexandros Panagoulis and more than 20 others are arrested for participating in the plot.
22.08.1968 The Greek government protests against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
26.08.1968 The Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe brands the draft of the new Greek constitution as undemocratic and calls for free parliamentary election in Greece within six months.
16.09.1968 Prime minister George Papadopoulos promises to release all political prisoners before the nationwide vote on a new constitution. Communist prisoners are not included in the plan.
20.09.1968 Former Minister of Defence, Panayotis Papaligouras is placed under house arrest in Aigion.
23.09.1968 Former prime ministers Georges Papandreou and Panayotis Canellopoulos are released from house arrests together with 5 other former government officials.
26.09.1968 The Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe brands the draft of the new Greek constitution as undemocratic and calls for free parliamentary election in Greece within six months.
29.09.1968 The voters in Greece approve the new charter drafted by the junta after a extensive government campaign in its favor (91.87 % vote in favour; most votes against it area of Athens).
01.10.1968 The regime bans an edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel in Greece containing a 17-page article on “the anatomy of the dictatorship” with interviews of Greek politicians in exile.
21.10.1968 The U.S. embargo on the delivery of major military equipment to Greece ends 17 months after the coup.
29.10.1968 The regime releases 85 political prisoners from the Aegean prison islands of Leros and Yaros.
01.11.1968 George Papandreou dies in a hospital in Athens at the age of 80.
03.11.1968 Clashes between demonstrators and police in Athens during and after the funeral of George Papandreou. In the first major demonstration in Greece since the coup in April 1967, thousands are following the casket to the cemetery chanting “Pa-pan-dre-ou! Pa-pan-dre-ou !” and singing the national anthem. The police arrests about 40 demonstrators when a group starts to shout “Out with the junta!”, “Down with tyranny” and “An-dre-as! An-dre-as!”
13.11.1968 The junta increases its penalties for oppositional behavior: 6 Solonika liberals are found guilty of printing and distributing anti-regime literature and receive prison sentences of 5.5-16.5 years.
17.11.1968 The 30-years-old Alexandros Panagoulis receives the death sentence after confessing that tried to kill Prime Minister Papadopoulos. The regime later decides to spare his life and after mounting international pressure. He remains in solitary confinement for five years and he was ruthlessly tortured.
22.11.1968 16 Athens students, aged between 22 and 27 years, are prosecuted for allegedly attempting to overthrow the junta and on charges of sedition and violating martial law by disseminating anti-regime propaganda.
23.11.1968 Prime Minister George Papadopoulos announces plans for far-reaching institutional reforms in Greece.
25.11.1968 Start of the proceedings against Greece before the European Commission on Human Rights in Strasbourg.
01.12.1968 Contantine Mélitis and Panthalis Marketakis, who defected from the Greek delegation to the European Commission on Human Rights in Strasbourg, arrive in Oslo, Norway for political asylum. Marketeakis later in December returns to Greece from Sweden. Greek authorities’ claims the return was voluntary, while the Scandinavian press speculated about a possible kidnapping by the Greek regime. 

1969

28.03.1969 The author Giorgos Seferis, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963, makes public statements against the military regime on the BBC World Service. This statement was followed by the manifesto of 18 well-known writers against the lack of intellectual freedom imposed by the regime. The publication that followed, called “18 Texts”, including some of the ones who had signed the Manifesto, was the first time that anti-regime intellectuals broke their silence which had been decided in order to avoid submitting works to the censorship. 
December, 1969 Greece voluntarily leaves the Council of Europe before a verdict is given by the Human Rights Commission about its human rights violations.

1970

19.09.1970 The Greek geology student Kostas Georgakis puts himself on fire in Matteotti Square in Genoa, Italy, in protest against the junta in Greece. He is the only known activist that sacrificed himself in protest against the Greek regime.

1972

20.09.1972 Massive demonstrations against the regime during and after the funeral of Giorgos Seferis.

1973

February, 1973 Students occupy the Law school building at University of Athens for two days. The occupation is the first serious encounter between the student movement and the government since late 1968. The police do not intervene.
March, 1973 Students occupy the law school building at University of Athens for the second time. The police take the building by using extensive force. Students are beaten and the police make numerous arrests.
23.05.1973 Velos mutiny: Commander Nicholaos Pappas on the Greek destroyer HNS Velos refuses to return to Greece with his ship after his fellow anti-junta officers in the navy have been arrested. Velos had participated in a NATO patrol between Italy and Sardinia and is now anchored outside the coast of Rome. All the officers on board apply for political asylum in Italy do not return to Greece before the fall of the junta.
01.06.1973 After a controversial referendum George Papadopoulos abolishes the monarchy and declares himself to be President of the Greek Republic. The old conservative politician Spyros Markezinis is sworn in as a Prime Minister.
14.11.1973 - 17.11.1973 5,000 students boycott classes and occupy the building at Polytechnic School of Athens for three days. The students distribute leaflets and are operating a pirate radio station on the premises and transmit anti-junta slogans such as “Bread, Education, Freedom.” After three days the police intervenes using extreme violence. Snipers and police start to shot at the crowd outside the school and tanks are used to crash through the gate. Several people are killed and injured. The regime imposes material law.

1974

May, 1974 The German writer Günter Wallraff is arrested while protesting against the junta at Syntagma Square in Athens. He is tortured by the police, sentenced to 14 months in prison, and released after the fall of the junta in August.
15.07.1974 A Greek sponsored military coup in Cyprus overthrows Archbishop Makarios III, the Cypriot president, and Turkey responds to the intervention by invading Cyprus. The Turkish troops occupy the northern part of the island. The invasion brings Greece to the brink of war with Turkey.
24.07.1974 The end of seven years of dictatorial rule in Greece. Dimitrios Ioannidis falls from power after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus which paves the way for a handover of government to civilian politicians. Constantine Karamanlis returns from exile in Paris where he had been since 1967 and becomes the new Prime Minister.
16.08.1974 Turkish forces on Cyprus implements the operation ”Attila II” and occupy 40% of the island.
17.11.1974 The first free general election in Greece after the fall of the junta. Constantine Karamanlis and his National Radical Union win a substantial majority in the elections.  Karamanlis re-establishes civil liberties and democracy in Greece. He legalizes the Communist Party and puts the leaders of the junta on trial.
08.12.1974 A plebiscite makes Greece a republic and abolishes the monarchy.

1975

23.08.1975 The ringleaders of the coup, Papadopoulos, Makarezos and Pattakos, are sentenced to death for high treason. Their sentence is comminuted to life imprisonment by Prime Minister Karamanlis.
24.12.1975 The terrorist organization “17 November” appears for the first time and assassinates the CIA Station Chief in Athens, Richard Welsh.