Greece's Junta Devoured Its Own Leader

On the night of 25 November 1973, Greece’s military regime turned on itself. Brigadier General Demetrios Ioannidis, the feared chief of the military police, mounted a bloodless coup that ousted dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, who had ruled since the colonels seized power in 1967.

The trigger was the Athens Polytechnic uprising. Days earlier, students occupying the university had been crushed when the army sent a tank through the gates, killing dozens. Papadopoulos had been cautiously loosening his grip, even abolishing the monarchy and promising elections. His hardline rivals used the bloodshed as cover to seize control.

Ioannidis “not only has masterminded the entire new coup but remains without question the dominant figure,” the U.S. embassy in Athens cabled Washington the next day.

Far from ending military rule, the coup replaced one junta with an even more repressive one. Ioannidis ruled from the shadows for just eight months. His reckless backing of a 1974 coup in Cyprus provoked a Turkish invasion, collapsed the junta, and finally restored Greek democracy.