These days we will have the 50th anniversary, half a century, since that dramatic period that is remembered in History as the Apostasy.
Two decades after the end of the Second World War and after the infamous “stone years, Greece was slowing beginning to form a democratic parliamentary political system, that was naturally going through its childhood diseases.
At the start of the 1960s the political conflict began to heighten, with the two major parties – the right-wing ERE and the centrist Center Union – began exchanging insults instead of arguments.
Given the political… tradition of the country, it was natural for the Palace to intervene, if not instigate, the political conflict. The young king Constantine was at the center of a political uproar, that ultimately exiled him.
The political uproar of 1965 created the conditions of instability that allowed the infamous junta to emerge. A relatively small group of perjurer officers seized power on the 21st of April in 1967 and imprisoned and exiled politicians. To justify its existence and actions, the junta incited the “communist threat” and the nefarious political life in Greece.
The junta eventually collapsed, after causing the catastrophe in Cyprus.
The Regime Changeover, the post-junta period, brought back to the political scene all of the politicians who survived the seven-year dictatorship and permanently abolished the throne.
With the proper political management, top politician of the changeover era, Kontantinos Karamanlis, restored Democracy in the country and later dedicated himself to what he called his life’s work: the induction of Greece in the European Economic Community (EEC) ensured the country’s alliance with the most advance European countries.
Karamanlis’ “untold” goal was to ensure the democratic regime by accession of Greece in the democratic core of Europe.
In an era where capitalism, communism, socialism and all kind of isms are declining, it would be useful if our inexperienced politicians look back at the newspapers of the time that did and continue to do their job.
“The dogs are barking, the caravan moves on” said Willy Brandt years ago, at a reception in the “Grande Bretagne”.
Stavros P. Psycharis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
