The end of the exciting political thriller illuminates the unknown background of July 1974 that changed the history of Greece and Cyprus. For the first time on Greek television, we hear the dialogues of the dictator Dimitrios Ioannidis, the military and politicians of the junta government during the critical hours when the first Attila was developing, in the last episode of (watch here or on hybrid TV by pressing the red button on your remote control in the documentary menu) of the long documentary series “Dark Decade 1964-1974”, by Alexis Papachelas.

July 20, 1974, the day of Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, the crucial war council takes place in Athens.

The voice of Ioannidis is heard: All the cities of Cyprus are being bombed, all of them. Nicosia, everywhere. Turkey started the war and Greece will defend itself and take appropriate measures.

What takes place in the war council alternates with stories of heroism but also of misery of people who lived on the front line the tragedy and brutality of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The legendary Cypriot Harita Mantoles, the locksmith Makis Oikonomidis describe what they experienced in those first hours and days of the invasion. American officials and agents say they stopped Ioannidis from attacking Turkey.

Why did the Greek guns fall silent in Cyprus? What secret mission did the Cypriot commandos undertake? What did Kissinger say when he learned of the Turkish invasion? How did the Turks sink their own ship? What went wrong with Operation Victory? Why were the orders to the Greek submarines and aircraft whose mission was to attack the Turkish landing force revoked? What happened to Ioannidis and he collapsed? What happened at the last meeting of the junta?

Watch here the first episode, here the second episode, here the third episode, here the fourth and here the fifth, or on SKAI hybrid TV by pressing the red button on your remote control in the documentary menu

Landing in Cyprus

“This morning we woke up with explosions, explosions. I opened the window facing Kyrenia, I saw a lot of black smoke coming out. I said to him, ‘Andrea, wake up, what’s going on?’ And he tells me, ‘The Turks have come’.” is narrated by Cypriot Harita Mantoles.

On the Five Mile coast outside Kyrenia, the great Turkish landing began at dawn on July 20.

At the same time in Athens the government is in a state of panic. Press and Information Minister Dimitrios Karakostas informs the political leadership.

Foreign Minister Constantinos Kypraios is looking for the dictator Ioannidis, but he is missing.

The State Department is looking for Kissinger on the phone. The Greek-American diplomat Patrick Thiros was there: “There’s about 10 to 15 of us in the office. They wake Kissinger up straight away and his voice was a little groggy. I guess he had just fallen asleep and you got the impression that he was suddenly woken up from a deep sleep and suddenly, says Kissinger, ‘What if we didn’t are we doing anything, what is going on?. And someone completely unrelated, among the fifteen of us in Hartman’s office, shouts loudly, ‘They will have “They will overrun the island in 24 hours.” Kissinger hears this and hangs up.

Kissinger in turn wakes up British Foreign Minister James Callahan.

The British Foreign Minister informs his government, while the American diplomat Joe Cisco hastily leaves Ankara and lands in Athens with one and only mission: to convince Ioannidis not to attack Turkey. The message it conveys is the same as the secret telegram that had come to Athens from the Greek ambassador in Ankara. The ambassador conveyed the assurance of the Turkish Foreign Minister that if the Greek forces did not open fire, then the Turkish forces that landed in Cyprus would not open fire either.

“For 5 hours they had no order to hit the Turks”

Ioannidis to the Americans: “You deceived us!”

Ioannidis’ behavior scares the CIA, which takes action behind the scenes to prevent a Greek backlash.

Former CIA agent: “The Greeks had no chance of winning by going to war against Turkey. It would be suicide”

Diplomat Joe Cisco had the same assessment: “Given what we knew of the strength of the Turkish military forces, and given that the dispute over Cyprus would have turned into a war between Turkey and Greece, our assessment was that Greece would be defeated militarily, I made that very clear. “

The unpredictable Ioannidis also worried the Turkish prime minister.

In Kasteli, Crete, there were Greek warplanes ready to leave for Cyprus, as foreseen in the Greek war plans.

The Greek officers receive the order to show restraint, while the Turks continue their landing in Cyprus.

But what exactly happened in those critical hours? What was discussed in a Pentagon room?

Council of War

For the first time we hear a rare audio document. It shows us why the Greek guns fell silent when the Turkish landing in Cyprus began, how the only operation that tried to save Greece’s honor in those days, operation NIKI, also ended in tragedy. And finally, it illuminates the circumstances under which the Ioannidis regime collapsed. How was it recorded? By order of the head of the armed forces Grigorios Bonanou. An officer, Bonanno’s confidant, recorded the entire historic meeting.

Around the table are the president of the republic Phaidonas Gizikis, the Prime Minister Adamantios Androutsopoulos, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Konstantinos Kypraios, the Minister next to the Prime Minister, Konstantinos Rallis, the Minister of National Defense Efstathios Latsoudis, the Minister of Public Order Giorgos Tsoumanis, the Minister of Trade, Georgios Anastasopoulos, the press minister, Dimitrios Karakostas, the deputy coordination minister Ilias Balopoulos, the dictator Dimitrios Ioannidis and from the armed forces their chief Grigorios Bonanos, the chief of the army, Andreas Galatsanos, the chief of the navy Petros Arapakis, and the chief of aviation Alexandros Papanikolaou.
Grigorios Bonanos takes the floor first.

“From the Greek side, as you all understand, it is now a matter of deciding war. So the formal part. I propose that mobilization be declared. And all the resulting military measures be taken, in such a way that, at least in the first year, we can prove to the Turks and to the Alliance that we are determined to fight.” says Grigorios Bonanos.

After Bonanno, Prime Minister Androutsopoulos takes the floor.

Ad. Androutsopoulos: “Mr. Task and Mr. Cisco from the same source were launched, but installed differently. As for Taska, it definitely seemed that something had to be done, and that he admitted that the Turkish side was 100% at fault. Cisco, perhaps to maintain a bargaining chip, invoked our interest in the Alliance, in the future of the Western world, bye, bye, bye. Why don’t they say it clearly, since they want the division of the island. So let’s face it in the same spirit.”

At this point in the recording Bonanos interrupts Androutsopoulos and finds that the assurances of the Americans and the Turks are not valid.

At the same time, panic and confusion prevails in the villages of Cyprus that are being bombed.

At the war council, Ioannidis gives the order to declare the Union of Cyprus with Greece. But even the straw men, the prime minister, ministers and the military officers who were there, disagree and effectively empty the invisible dictator.

Ioannidis at the Military Council of July 20: “Let them enter Kyrenia and then intervene”

In Cyprus, the reservists take their positions with a long delay.

The temperature rises in the war council as the disagreements between those who support the diplomatic route and Ioannidis, who wants direct conflict, sharpen. At some point, the Minister of Public Order Giorgos Tsoumanis takes the floor and asks the most important question to the head of the armed forces:And I ask Mr. Chief of the Armed Forces. We are recruiting. Are we going to beat Turkey here? In Evros? Will we strike, will Greek forces go to Cyprus? And are we in a position to hold two fronts?”

In the meantime, the Cypriot commandos undertake a very dangerous mission.

In the council, the generals and Ioannidis also disagree on other, very important issues. Sovereign, conscription. Ioannidis wants, in order to scare the Turks and the Americans, to be announced on the radio and to be general, while the leaders of the armed forces insist that it should be done gradually.

Androutsopoulos is looking to find a solution and addresses the Chief of the Navy Petros Arapakis. He asks him if he could send submarines to Cyprus, so that the Turks will be afraid, as well as the Americans.

“We declare war!”

The war council ends. Karakostas drafts the announcement declaring general conscription. A recruitment that would however end in fiasco.

At the same time, in a first attempt to react, Greek submarines receive a signal to go to Cyprus.

The submarines, however, never reached Cyprus, nor were they involved with the Turkish landing force. The commander of the tactical air force Pericles Economou orders a general alert

Makis Oikonomidis remembers how the Cypriot commandos captured the Kotzakaya camp

July 21

The hours pass. Cyprus is bleeding. The landing in Kyrenia is met with resistance but the Turks are determined. The tragedy has no end.

The Greek ships that turned out to be Turkish

Ioannidis asks the Russians for help

On July 21, Ioannidis orders a Greek attack on the Turkish landing forces in Cyprus. However, the orders given by Ioannidis are never carried out. The generals have now taken matters into their own hands.

July 22

The next day, an order is given to take off the warplanes in Crete.

The withdrawals of the Greek forces in paragraph five

Operation Victory

Ghosts are everywhere in Cyprus.

The Operation Victory fiasco

July 22-23 – Fall of Ioannidis

While the 1st commando squadron is counting losses in Cyprus, the Turks are trying to delay the negotiations in order to land more forces.

Cisco and Marder try to find someone in Athens to agree to a truce.

The fall of Dimitrios Ioannidis

Averof’s trick for the return of Konstantinos Karamanlis

Fifty years have passed since those fateful days. On the one hand Democracy came back to Greece, but on the other we experienced the great tragedy of Cyprus. Fifty years in which we matured. Our democracy has endured when it is not self-evident even within Europe itself. Greece now feels a sense of self-confidence despite the obstacles we have put ourselves through, it feels that it is a solid member of the European family. These 50 years that have passed will have to be seen again by looking at ourselves in the mirror. And of course to reflect on the future and what we have learned from these experiences.