The 1967-1974 Greek junta concluded with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said on Friday in a tweet marking 56 years since the imposition of the dictatorship.
“56 years since the dictatorship was imposed, which led to the abolition of constitutional freedoms and ended in the tragic Attila’s invasion of Cyprus,” Dendias wrote.
“Today it is our duty to preserve our democracy with responsibility and unity,” he added.
56 χρόνια από την επιβολή της Δικτατορίας, η οποία επέφερε τη στέρηση των συνταγματικών ελευθεριών και είχε ως τραγική κατάληξη την εισβολή του Αττίλα στην Κύπρο. Χρέος μας σήμερα, με υπευθυνότητα και ομοψυχία, να διαφυλάξουμε τη Δημοκρατία μας. pic.twitter.com/rpFbksq7zR
— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) April 21, 2023
The Greek junta or ‘Regime of the Colonels’ was a right-wing military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.
On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections which Georgios Papandreou’s Centre Union was favoured to win.
The dictatorship was characterised by right-wing cultural policies, anti-communism, restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment, torture, and exile of political opponents.
A coup d’état supported by the junta in Athens with the cooperation of the irredentist EOKA B paramilitary group in Cyprus, on July 15, 1974, against the elected government of President Makarios was used by Turkey as a pretext to invade the island.
Turkey still occupies the northern third of the island, while repeated rounds of peace talks under the auspices of the United Nations have so far been without results.
Read more:
On This Day: A military coup in Athens established the regime of the “Greek Colonels”
