Fifty years ago, Konstantinos Karamanlis landed at Ellinikos airport. The end of the junta, the beginning of the transition. A few days before, a tragedy unfolds. Turkish forces invade Cyprus.

“It seems to me that the events are taking us. All the cities of Cyprus are being bombed, all of them. Nicosia, everywhere,” declared Dimitrios Ioannidis, the man who played with the fate of Greece and Cyprus, to the War Council. How did we get here?

This is the second episode of the new major documentary series “Dark Decade 1964-1974”, by Alexis Papachelas, which illuminates unknown behind-the-scenes of the most turbulent decade of our modern history.

Watch the second episode here or on ‘s hybrid TV by pressing the red button on your remote control in the documentary menu

Conspiracies and conspiracies

The political crisis that began in July 1965 plunged the country into a prolonged period of instability. It’s something unprecedented. In the salons of Athens, many conspiracies are taking place. There is a great deal of anxiety from the palace and other actors that control is being lost. Big demonstrations in the streets. Everything shows that the country is heading for a major political crisis.

“Within a few seconds there was a pyramid of people’s bodies, one on top of the other. I’d never seen that before. And you’d see a hand sticking out, a head out, when the cops came with the globes, by choice they hit the heads of the people that were crammed, stacked one on top of the other in the shape of a pyramid. Sotiris Petroulas was also killed” the Associated Press photojournalist narrates Aristotle Sarrikostas which was found in one of the wildest demonstrations.

Mikis Theodorakis and Ar. Sarrikostas remember the murder of Sotiris Petroulas in Iouliana

Amidst this tense climate, the Nova government falls within a month. The next government, that of Ilias Tsirimokos, is also collapsing. It took three attempts to swear in a government which had the approval of the palace, the Stephanopoulos government. Konstantinos meanwhile tried to find a bridge of cooperation with Papandreou and the Center Union.

For the palace, the survival of the Stephanopoulos government is a matter of life and death. That’s why a lot of intrigue is going on in the background. There are rumors of attempts at financing, of blackmail and other means used by both the palace and other actors to achieve in the end the securing of the majority in the Parliament by the Stephanopoulos government.

Former King Konstantinos remembers the intense background of the vote in favor of the Stephanopoulos government

However, one of the persons who played a role in the background is the Greek-American tycoon Tom Papas. A man who maintained close relations with the American services as well.

For the Pope, Andreas Papandreou reveals how “by his own admission, he even said that he was proud of it, he was a CIA agent and may still be today. He gave an interview to a Greek newspaper in July, asserting that he was proud to be in the CIA. This personifies his strange combination that is characteristic of our age, the military, espionage and industrial establishment.”

The conspirators

George Papadopoulos is one of the coup plotters. For many years, the then major served in the Counter-Espionage office of the KYP and was close to the political system of the time. Papadopoulos maintained close relations with the CIA. Especially with him Greek-American agent John Facheaand others, who served in the stations of Athens and Kavala and from there operated in communist, at that time, Bulgaria.

Former CIA agents talk about their contacts with George Papadopoulos

In the early 1960s, a lot was played on the territory of Cyprus. Agents, military, foreign powers were advancing their interests.

What was the profile of Dimitrios Ioannidis

How close did G. Papadopoulos come to being discharged and how did he finally escape?

In 1965 it is circulated that the communists put sugar in the tanks of military vehicles in Evros to destroy them. But the truth was very different. Papadopoulos was behind the alleged sabotage. It was an attempt to frighten public opinion with the threat of communist danger. His punishment should normally be immediate dismissal. However, Prime Minister George Papandreou makes another decision and in the end Papadopoulos does not leave.

Diversion Plan

In 1966 the officers who would play a central role in the coup were scattered throughout Greeceby decision of the Center Union Government. But, a few months before the Stephanopoulos government falls, an order goes out and they get a roadmap for here, in the Pentagon. The conspirators gather again in Athens.

Michalis Papakonstantinou remembers how the conspirators managed to return to Athens

While the conspirators occupy key positions in the Army, Papandreou and the king try to find them to pull the country out of prolonged political instability. Papandreou’s secretary, Yiannis Manousakis, remembers how the king tried in his own naive and paradoxical way to send a message to the leader of the Center Union while passing outside his house in Kastri.

The Stephanopoulos government falls and the governor of the National Bank, Ioannis Paraskevopoulos, is sworn in as prime minister, with the aim of leading the country to elections in the spring of ’67.

The alarm is sounding in the White House. The American Embassy in Athens recommends that there be a secret operation to financially support the opponents of Andreas Papandreou within the Center Union. The proposal is rejected.

American diplomats are concerned that the Center Union would win the election. But that the real potential prime minister would be Andreas, not George Papandreou.

The pressure around Papandreou is increasing. The American intelligence service sends reports on their political activity and their impact on the Greek people.

How close had the CIA gotten to Andreas Papandreou and his family?

“Will he make a revolution and I won’t?”

The fear of Andreas seizing power was so great that top ERE officials went to the King and pressured him to impose martial law.

Constantine tries to find another solution.

“I thought that all the political forces of the country had to be present to end the deadlock, to go to an orderly situation. And of course the president, Mr. Karamanlis, played an essential role in Greece. And I thought he should come back to enter politics,” he says.

The diplomat and director of the royal political office, Dimitris Bitsios, conveys Constantine’s message to Karamanlis, who is in Paris. But he gets a different answer.

“Then Mr. Bitsios told me that the President asked him to bring the Army down, to make martial law, to impose a military solution to the problem, and he would come back. And I told Mr. Bitsios then that night: ‘No was the purpose of your trip. The purpose of your trip was to convince the President to return to politics. You know very well that I will never make such a move, to bring down the army and seize power, because I am against it ideologically and mentally in such a solution'” notes Konstantinos.

Design Supplier

A military intervention plan, for reasons of internal security, always existed. And his name was Prometheus.

Constantine instructs the head of the GES to prepare a variant of the Prometheus plan. GES leader Grigoris Spantidakis is assigning it to the completely wrong people.

Constantine’s assistant, Michalis Arnaoutis, constantly checks the plan. But when he takes it in his hands he sees something that scares him…

Shortly before the coup, something very strange happens. Two projects are underway: One is the official one, of Constantine. The other is a special version prepared by Papadopoulos with the other conspirators.

Meanwhile, Papadopoulos is trying to learn what will be the reaction of americans.

Messages and reports from CIA agents were arriving in Washington, saying that the Papadopoulos and other low-ranking officers were plotting and preparing a coup.

Universal government

Konstantinos calls the leaders of the parties to his office.

The attempt for a universal government fails, mainly due to the reactions of Andreas Papandreou, but also some far-right members of the ERE. Finally, the caretaker government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos is sworn in. After a while, elections are announced for May 28.

“Greeks and Greek women. By royal decree the Parliament of February 16, 1964 was dissolved. You are invited from this moment to prepare for the fulfillment of the highest rights of the citizen. The times are difficult. Take care all of you – take care all of you with me! preserve intact both the prestige of the state and the great good of freedom” says Panagiotis Kanellopoulos in his speech.

Papadopoulos, Pattakos, Makarezos and Ioannidis meet at the house of Colonel Balopoulos in Nea Smyrni for the latest details of the coup.

At that time, General Zoitakis meets with Makarezos and tells him not to proceed with a coup for a few days, to wait for the king.

All this time, the King is confident that he is in complete control of the Army and that no one would do anything without their own green light.

The coup plot was nearly blown up by a phone call the day before. An officer, apparently one of the conspirators, called the deputy head of the GES to his house. His wife picked up the phone.

– Please?
-Listen carefully. Tonight, your husband and the chief of the Army General Staff, Spantidakis, will be hit.
-What; Who; Who is he?

The information reaches the ears of Brigadier General Panourgias, who is in charge of security for the Pentagon. Worried, he immediately calls Pattakos. Pattakos does everything for Panourgias to believe that it is a farce.

April 20

In the evening, Papadopoulos goes home. But he doesn’t share his real plans for that night, not even with his partner.

In Goudi, at the armored camp, the commander Stylianos Pattakos, orders a night drill. It immediately means an alarm, the engines are turned on. Pattakos immediately calls the officers to explain to them that this is not an exercise.

St. Pattakos tells how he announced the coup to the officers

Watch the first episode here or on hybrid TV by pressing the red button on your remote control in the documentary menu