Former Greek dictator Ioannidis dies

FORMER Greek dictator Dimitris Ioannidis, one of the leaders of a 1967-1974 military junta, and instigator of the coup that led to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, died yesterday from lung disease at the age of 87, hospital staff in Greece said.

Ioannidis was transferred to hospital on Sunday night, where he had been serving a life sentence, having been found guilty of high treason in 1975.

“He was hospitalised last night and died this morning,” an official at the Nikaia state hospital in Athens told Reuters.

As the junta’s military police chief, Ioannidis was one of those responsible for a bloody crackdown against an uprising at the Athens Polytechnic University in 1973. Days later, he overthrew dictator George Papadopoulos.

Ioannidis was also behind the coup that overthrew Cypriot president Archbishop Makarios in 1974, triggering a Turkish invasion and the division of the island.

Ioannidis was handed a death sentence for high treason in 1975, later reduced to life imprisonment

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.