Parties on Tuesday condemned the April 21, 1967 coup in Greece, which installed a military dictatorship that ruled for seven years and came to an end after Turkey invaded and occupied Cyprus in July 1974 following an Athens-instigated attempt to topple president Makarios.
Dubbing it the national revolution, the military junta led by Colonel Papadopoulos, Colonel Makarezos and Brigadier Pattakos seized power in Greece in April 1967.
They imposed strict controls over the media and judicial system, suppressed any political opposition and dismantled the reforms of the last elected prime minister, Georgios Papandreou.
By 1974, the junta was controlled by Brigadier Demetrios Ioannidis. It crumbled over the growing crisis in Cyprus three days after the Turkish invasion of July 20, 1974. On July 15, the dictatorship, assisted by local elements, launched a coup to overthrow president Makarios. The attempt failed and their puppet government on the island collapsing eight days later as Turkish troops advanced on the island.
Main opposition Akel, said the day was a black page in the history of the Greek and Cypriot people.
“The colonels’ coup installed an American-driven dictatorship that oppressed Greece for seven years under the banners of anti-communism and patriotism,” the party said in statement.
Along with Nato, the junta orchestrated the division of Cyprus in the summer of 1974.
“Not only did the junta overthrew the legally elected Makarios government but it deliberately left our country unfortified in the face of the invader,” Akel said.
Diko said the term treacherous was too weak to describe the Greek military Junta which wrote the darkest and bloodiest page in Greece’s modern history.
“The junta strangled democracy at the place of its birth, imposed darkness in the country were the light of civilisation burned for thousands of years before, they exiled, persecuted and until then end, faithful lackeys of their foreign masters, they delivered Cyprus to Turkey.”
Ruling Disy said five decades later and Cyprus was still bleeding.
“The effort to reunite our country and to defend and strengthen the Republic are identical concepts for the Democratic Rally,” the party said.
It would be unacceptable if documentation of the seven-year oppression of the Greek people which sold half of Cyprus to the Turkish invader, was not used as an example and dedication to the ideal of democracy, it added.
