The Year of the Colonels

...Nevertheless, the "treason of the clerks" (professors, members of the Council of State, judges, writers, and trade union officials) has left the mass of workers, students, and the middle class without leadership, as it did under the Metaxas dictatorship and the Kara-manlis regime...

...Though the Center had repeatedly tried to modernize the postwar E. Criss is the pseudonym of a Greek writer who lives in Athens...

...After the excitement, George Papadopoulos emerged as top man in the ruling triumverate and the new Premier...

...Yet replacing him would be difficult, given the extremely low level of their own training and achievements and their poor organizational abilities...

...When a delegation of German Social Democrats conferred with him in March, Papadopoulos pointedly informed them that East Germany was ready to finance Greece's Megalopolis Industrial Complex if West Germany proved unwilling...

...But ex-Premier George Papandreou has publicly labelled the proposed debate and voting a "parody" under the present system, and ex-Premier Panayotis Kanellopoulos insists that the conditions for an "honest plebiscite" are lacking...

...During those critical days in early December, the brave colonels withdrew from the spotlight like frightened bats, leaving the veteran Right-wing politician and Palace favorite, Panayotis Pipinellis, to handle the affair...

...Since the small nucleus of the put-schists is drawn solely from within the Army, it is there that tire problem of power and the future of the coup d'etat will have to be resolved...

...For the more the putschists applied "Communist salami tactics," the more their opponents in the government viewed the King as their sole hope...

...They then set about imposing all the oppressive measures characteristic of a totalitarian society...

...The employe must also list the addresses of his parents, his grandparents, etc...

...Papadopoulos' decision, despite the junta's initial opposition, to hold a plebiscite on the new draft constitution before the September 15 deadline is surely an effort to brighten his public image at home and abroad...

...No resistance to the Papadopoulos regime has yet made itself felt...

...Pattakos, supposedly the junta's most rigid conservative, readily confirmed the Premier's threat...

...An accelerated purge of teaching personnel is being carried out, too, under the guidance of the reactionaries who have taken triumphant possession of the Ministry of Education...

...Its primitive and arbitrary policies, its persecution of political opponents, its disruption of social and economic life, and its thorough-going purge of the Army have placed the present junta in a class all its own...

...And bureaucrats who manage to pass this test are further required by a July directive?signed by the then Minister of the Interior Stylianos Pattakos—to attend mass regularly with their families "since, as the leading class of the cities and towns, it is their duty to set an example for other citizens...

...Worse, the colonels had involuntarily handed the King the initiative by mishandling the Cyprus question...

...Some 200,000 functionaries have been forced to fill out a questionnaire reminiscent of the Inquisition for examination by a purge commission...

...To save itself from collapse, the Greek government had to give in all along the line to the Turks, withdrawing Greek troops from Cyprus and permanently dropping its policy of enosis (immediate union between Cyprus and Greece...

...As a consequence the rise in national income, which had averaged 8.6 per cent annually in the four years from 1962-1966, did not surpass 2.9 per cent in 1967...

...So has the supply of foreign and domestic capital...

...To begin with, it was split between the hard-liners and the triumvirate of George Papadopoulos, then Minister to the Premier, Pattakos, and Nicholas Makarezos, then as now Minister of Economic Coordination...

...With the approach of May 29, 1967, the scheduled date of the balloting, the Right became increasingly frightened by the policies Andreas Papandreou, popular head of the Left-Center group and son of George, threatened to carry out if victorious...

...The communiques of the information service, and the photographs distributed by that service, [must appear] on the first or second page...

...All three branches have been deprived of their top echelons, and rumors of a new wave of purges affecting over a thousand officers persist...

...Despite these maneuvers, it took the Royal countercoup of last December 15 to finally consolidate the junta's power and relieve the constant friction between the colonels and those persons in the Cabinet, Administration and Army who remained faithful to the King...

...The King was finally prompted to open rebellion by the crisis within the junta, by the known plans of the colonels to speed up the purge of the Army in December, and by the declarations of former Premier Constantine Karamanlis demolishing the Communist specter invoked day and night in the colonels' propaganda...

...To overcome this he may turn for support to suprising elements within the population...

...The King's flight was also followed by a removal of the court camarilla and the legitimist Right from all important posts in the Administration and banks...

...The junta at the moment forms a sort of Praetorian Guard, the majority of whose members are sons of poor peasants resentful of the existing social order...

...The period from July 1965 to April 1967, therefore, was one of civil cold war...

...Papadopoulos himself is endeavoring to bring the various garrisons, the fleet and the Air Force under his personal control...

...Although the money in circulation has risen by 8.4 billion drachmas since the coup, the budget includes a camouflaged deficit of over five billion drachmas (about $170 million...

...Indeed, the entire opposition, including the Center, looked to King Constantine for a dynamic and personal resolution of the situation...

...Foreigners ask why the Greek people remained passive during the revolt, but they forget that most Greeks never heard of the coup until after it failed...

...Pipinellis had apparently come to their aid in the hope of moderating their line...

...Thus the junta has installed uniformed commissars throughout the Armed Forces, government ministries, banks, state-owned enterprises and public utilities, municipal transit systems, and even the universities...

...And in foreign policy, he may very well follow the example of the Middle Eastern countries and move closer to the Soviet Union to escape isolation...

...GREECE UNDER MILITARY RULE The Year of the Colonels By E. Criss Athens In the year since the military coup of April 21, 1967, Greece has been living under a tyranny far worse than the 1930s Metaxas dictatorship...

...It has destroyed or seized control of every other sphere of political, social and economic life as well—deporting, court-martialing or simply imprisoning opponents by the thou-sands,while brainwashing the populace over radio and in the controlled press...

...An affirmative response to any of these questions brings automatic dismissal with three months' severance pay...

...One must go back to Louis XVI's flight to Varennes for a scene comparable to Constantine's hasty departure with his queen, his mother, his babies, and his courtiers—the difference being that Louis XVI was subsequently forced to return to Paris while the colonels were quite satisfied to be rid of their King...

...Labor's place had been taken by the Communists, thereby effectively excluding one-fifth of the electorate from the political process...

...The Greek dictatorship is still not a Fascist movement, for it lacks a popular base and a party...

...The fall of George Papandreou's government two years earlier, in July 1965, had produced an unstable equilibrium that neutralized the country's main political forces—the Center Union on the one side, the National Radical Union (ere) and the defectors from the Center on the other...

...Does any member of your family belong to any of these Communist organizations or live in a Communist country...

...and, generally, "anything which in the judgment of the press office is harmful to the work of the government...

...the only crowd at their public appearance in the capital on New Year's Day was made up of soldiers, and when they visited the Port of Piraeus for Epiphany, spectators remained glacially silent...

...General confusion best describes Greek politics today, with the Right sitting stupefied and the Centrists maliciously enjoying the scene, although they had initially looked forward with great hope to Constan-tine's success...

...Have you participated in meetings where the public order was disturbed...

...Have you participated in peace marches...

...Promising total freedom for public debate on the constitution "in the spirit of the revolution," Papadopoulos ingenuously maintains that the martial law in force since the coup will in no way interfere with this...

...But here the unity of the junta, disrupted during the Cyprus crisis and reconstituted in the face of the Royal threat, once again broke down...

...regime erected by the Right to stave off the Communist danger, it failed because of the obstinacy and shortsightedness of its opponents...

...The hard-liners succeeded in sabotaging the return of the King and limiting the amnesty to about 300 persons...

...The press, among other things, is forbidden to publish "any article, commentary or news item . . . which directly or indirectly in any way whatsoever criticizes the Premier and the members of the government or their acts . . .; historical accounts or news items relating to changes of government, revolts, or revolutions...

...the questionnaire asks, supplying its own checklist of 17 "Communist" organizations...

...On the eve of the Royal coup, the junta seemed quite shaky...

...In addition, each paper is required to print at least one daily commentary related to government business...

...The purchasing power of the ordinary consumer has fallen...

...Lacking the cloak of legality and faced with foreign hostility, the trio—Papadopoulos, Pattakos, now Vice Premier, and Makarezos?immediately sought a reconciliation with King Constantine and announced an amnesty...

...So far criticism has largely been an affair of amateurs, with the situation remaining fluid and most people quietly hoping for a change...

...Those pardoned were mainly from the Center opposition, the most important figure being Andreas Papandreou, who had become something of an incubus to the regime and is currently in exile in the U.S...

...Like the junta, what he lacks most is the support of a popular movement...

...At this point the colonels stepped in and seized power for themselves, successfully exploiting the Prometheus plan devised by nato to keep the Communist masses leaderless in case of war...

...In time, as the government's repressive measures become more acute and employment and dismissals increase, a real resistance movement will almost certainly develop...

...On the other hand, newspapers are obliged to publish "with headlines drawn from the text and in a format corresponding to the importance of the subject...

...The Communist-influenced Union of the Democratic Left (eda) is unhappy about the rather restrained attitude of the Soviet bloc toward the new regime, and this has encouraged an expansion of pro-Chinese tendencies Meanwhile, there has been no visible increase in the popularity of the colonels...

...Have you ever been a member of any Communist organization, or of one serving the kke [the Greek Communist party], or of one direot-ly or indirectly serving the goals of that party...

...As a result, those around the Palace fell victim, like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, to their own machinations...

...They are devoting themselves to rapidly undoing the reforms of the Papandreou government...

...the speeches, declarations or communiques of the Premier and members of the government...

...a final draft will be presented by the government in June...

...Income from emigrants' remittances and tourism has also declined...

...Public fear over the future is exacerbated by anxiety over the economy, at present in a state closer to depression than recession...

...Already in control of the bureaucracy and the Army, the Right and the Palace temporarily ended the 1965 crisis by dislodging the Center government—with the aid of Centrist rebels...

...The document preserves "crowned liberal democracy" and bans all Communists and fellow^travelers from Greek politics...

...Thus the weaknesses of post-war Greece have again made themselves felt...

...Wherever the King presented himself in Macedonia and Thrace during his few hours of resistance, at Kavalla for instance, there were great public demonstrations in his favor...

...This was accompanied by a breakdown of the nation's institutions?the monarchy, the Parliament, the press, even the church—due, ultimately, to the absence of both a genuine bourgeoisie and a democratic labor movement...

...And the tragedy of Greece in the 1960s demonstrates once more that a country which fails to develop a democratic labor movement—both economically and politically—becomes easy prey for Communism or reaction...

...Since the economy was booming, resistance from the Center—despite the revolutionary verbiage of its leaders—did not go beyond a persistent demand for new elections, which were finally agreed to...

...These men have designated Papadopoulos as their emperor, but this does not mean they will not some day dethrone him in favor of someone else...

...Have you had contacts with persons connected with the kke...

...But even those who answer all questions in the negative can be dismissed on the ground that they "are inspired by anti-national and Communist ideas...

...Press censorship, he says, will be lifted for comments and criticism...

...It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that even if the Monarchy is preserved, King Constantine will never regain his throne without the junta's consent: "The King will return when, in consultation with the government, this shall be deemed beneficial for the nation," the Premier told a March 15 news conference...

...Hoping to avoid a test at the polls, the leaders of the Army, the Palace, and several important Right-wing politicians agreed to stage a military coup but remained divided over the date...

...The preliminary document is based upon a controversial draft submitted by a commission of 20 jurists last December...

...If events seemed favorable to King Constantine's enterprise, however, bad organization, disregard of the commissars installed in key Army posts, and the King's own personal inexperience far outweighed them...

...But they did not dare face the voters...

...Once he fulfilled his mission, though, he found himself isolated, kept on as Foreign Minister to be used when needed, a veritable Greek von Papen...

...Whatever the final outcome of the latest struggle within the junta, the Army, Navy and Air Force no longer exist as organized, disciplined bodies...

...Industrial production for 1967 showed an increase of 0.5 per cent, compared to 17 per cent the previous year...