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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/world/europe/17ioannidis.html
Dimitrios Ioannidis, Greek Coup Leader, Dies at 87
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: August 16, 2010
Dimitrios Ioannidis, a Greek military officer who twice helped plot successful coups in his own country, and once in Cyprus, prompting the 1974 invasion of that island nation by Turkey, died in Athens on Monday. He was 87.
Dimitrios Ioannidis
News of his death came from European news reports that said he died in a hospital after experiencing breathing problems in his prison cell. He was serving a life sentence for treason.
Mr. Ioannidis (pronounced ee-o-ahn-EE-dis) held tightly to a belief that patriotism and honesty were in short supply among civilian Greek politicians. It was this conviction that impelled him to become part of the colonels coup in 1967 as a young lieutenant colonel himself.
He became head of the military police and used the forces extraordinary powers under martial law to build a highly effective paramilitary force. He employed it to crack down brutally on all forms of dissent, employing means that included torture.
He was promoted to colonel in 1970, and to brigadier general in 1973. In 1973, he presided over a violent response to student demonstrations.
Mr. Ioannidis became convinced the military government and the civilian partners it had installed had become too liberal. He was the principal organizer of a countercoup by younger officers against President George Papadopoulos, who as a colonel was a leader of the earlier coup.
Mr. Ioannidis invisibly called the shots in the new government. In 1974, The New York Times quoted an Athenian as saying: Under Papadopoulos, the opposition went underground. Now the government is underground.
But the results of the governments actions were evident enough. Newspapers were censored, foreign journalists were expelled and errant politicians were put on trial. Enemies were accused of being Communists and persecuted.
Mr. Ioannidiss means included a complex watchdog system of junior officers strategically placed throughout the military. They were given virtually unlimited authority to pursue and punish political dissenters. These young men cowed even generals, The Times reported.
But the economy floundered in the face of sharply higher energy prices, and Greeces image suffered because of stories that leaked out about torture.
A bigger crisis came when Archbishop Makarios, president of Cyprus, demanded in a public letter that Greek officers be removed from Cypruss national guard. He said they had become a center of conspiracy against the state.
Mr. Ioannidis wanted to protect Greeks, who make up the vast bulk of Cypruss population, as well as continue to push for the island nation to unite with Greece. He had come to believe that the archbishop had abandoned this as his own stated objective, and come to favor Cypriot independence.
The archbishop and his government were brought down by a coup led by Greek officers on the island. The Greek government in Athens tried to distance itself from the event but with small success.
Turkey then launched a full-scale military invasion of Cyprus, saying it needed to protect Turks who lived there. It ended up taking over a third of the island and creating a stalemate that continues today.
One result in Greece was another coup. This one removed Mr. Ioannidiss government in July 1974. Constantine Caramanlis, the former conservative prime minister who governed from 1955 to 1963 before his self-imposed exile to Paris, headed a civilian government of national unity.
Mr. Ioannidis was born on March 13, 1923, in Athens, but his family came from the part of northwest Greece called Epirus. Taki Theodoracopulos wrote in The Greek Upheaval (1976) that he came from extreme poverty, like many Greek officers.
He attended the Greek military academy, fought against the Axis occupiers with non-Communist forces and was involved in his first coup attempt in his mid-20s: he and other junior officers tried to compel Greeces king to accept the armys field marshal as prime minister.
The marshal, Alexander Papagos, asked the junior officers to stop all this nonsense, and they did.
Mr. Ioannidis lived simply in a two-room apartment; cared for his widowed mother and other relatives; read Plato and Aristotle for relaxation; and remained a bachelor. Information on survivors was unavailable.
In the trial of Mr. Ioannidis and other former colonels, defense lawyers unsuccessfully argued that the government had prejudged the case by calling the 1967 coup a criminal offense. They contended that it was a revolution, which upended any previous legal landscape.
Mr. Ioannidis greeted his initial death sentence, handed down in 1975, with a half-smile. It was almost immediately commuted to life.
Dimitrios Ioannidis, Greek Coup Leader, Dies at 87
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: August 16, 2010
Dimitrios Ioannidis, a Greek military officer who twice helped plot successful coups in his own country, and once in Cyprus, prompting the 1974 invasion of that island nation by Turkey, died in Athens on Monday. He was 87.
Dimitrios Ioannidis
News of his death came from European news reports that said he died in a hospital after experiencing breathing problems in his prison cell. He was serving a life sentence for treason.
Mr. Ioannidis (pronounced ee-o-ahn-EE-dis) held tightly to a belief that patriotism and honesty were in short supply among civilian Greek politicians. It was this conviction that impelled him to become part of the colonels coup in 1967 as a young lieutenant colonel himself.
He became head of the military police and used the forces extraordinary powers under martial law to build a highly effective paramilitary force. He employed it to crack down brutally on all forms of dissent, employing means that included torture.
He was promoted to colonel in 1970, and to brigadier general in 1973. In 1973, he presided over a violent response to student demonstrations.
Mr. Ioannidis became convinced the military government and the civilian partners it had installed had become too liberal. He was the principal organizer of a countercoup by younger officers against President George Papadopoulos, who as a colonel was a leader of the earlier coup.
Mr. Ioannidis invisibly called the shots in the new government. In 1974, The New York Times quoted an Athenian as saying: Under Papadopoulos, the opposition went underground. Now the government is underground.
But the results of the governments actions were evident enough. Newspapers were censored, foreign journalists were expelled and errant politicians were put on trial. Enemies were accused of being Communists and persecuted.
Mr. Ioannidiss means included a complex watchdog system of junior officers strategically placed throughout the military. They were given virtually unlimited authority to pursue and punish political dissenters. These young men cowed even generals, The Times reported.
But the economy floundered in the face of sharply higher energy prices, and Greeces image suffered because of stories that leaked out about torture.
A bigger crisis came when Archbishop Makarios, president of Cyprus, demanded in a public letter that Greek officers be removed from Cypruss national guard. He said they had become a center of conspiracy against the state.
Mr. Ioannidis wanted to protect Greeks, who make up the vast bulk of Cypruss population, as well as continue to push for the island nation to unite with Greece. He had come to believe that the archbishop had abandoned this as his own stated objective, and come to favor Cypriot independence.
The archbishop and his government were brought down by a coup led by Greek officers on the island. The Greek government in Athens tried to distance itself from the event but with small success.
Turkey then launched a full-scale military invasion of Cyprus, saying it needed to protect Turks who lived there. It ended up taking over a third of the island and creating a stalemate that continues today.
One result in Greece was another coup. This one removed Mr. Ioannidiss government in July 1974. Constantine Caramanlis, the former conservative prime minister who governed from 1955 to 1963 before his self-imposed exile to Paris, headed a civilian government of national unity.
Mr. Ioannidis was born on March 13, 1923, in Athens, but his family came from the part of northwest Greece called Epirus. Taki Theodoracopulos wrote in The Greek Upheaval (1976) that he came from extreme poverty, like many Greek officers.
He attended the Greek military academy, fought against the Axis occupiers with non-Communist forces and was involved in his first coup attempt in his mid-20s: he and other junior officers tried to compel Greeces king to accept the armys field marshal as prime minister.
The marshal, Alexander Papagos, asked the junior officers to stop all this nonsense, and they did.
Mr. Ioannidis lived simply in a two-room apartment; cared for his widowed mother and other relatives; read Plato and Aristotle for relaxation; and remained a bachelor. Information on survivors was unavailable.
In the trial of Mr. Ioannidis and other former colonels, defense lawyers unsuccessfully argued that the government had prejudged the case by calling the 1967 coup a criminal offense. They contended that it was a revolution, which upended any previous legal landscape.
Mr. Ioannidis greeted his initial death sentence, handed down in 1975, with a half-smile. It was almost immediately commuted to life.
