By Tolis Koinis
Every event of great historical importance is surrounded by various myths. Usually these are random incidents, which coincided in time, did not influence, but gave food to the conspiratorial imagination. Such incidents I will try to record and explain (as much as possible):
1 “THE DICTATORSHIP WAS THE WORK OF ISRAEL”!!!! Because every bad thing that happens is easy to blame on the Jews, in the case of the Junta this does not prove to be the case. How did this spread come about? There were three elements:
A) Israel’s Defense Minister, the legendary one-eyed General Moshe Dayan was in Athens on the day of the coup. There is a signed personal testimony of the journalist Christos Pasalaris, who declared post-politically how (and where and when) he had met him personally. It does not appear from anywhere his contact with Papadopoulos and his team.
B) A few days after the coup, the 6-day war broke out, in which – according to rumors – a Greek student’s PhD was used for the successful electronic warfare during the air battles that followed. This particular student, at the time, although avowedly anti-Juntian, was not relentlessly hunted down by the April 21 regime. But, for a foreign power to exploit a published scientific research is not surprising… The thing is that some people claim that this mythical Ph.D. was never published. But this does not justify a direct connection with the coup, perhaps it has to do with General Dayan’s presence here.
C) The origin of Dim. Ioannidis. He came from a Jewish family from Ioannina, he was a so-called “Romaniotis Jew”. However, they had already converted three generations ago… (Because he had relatives – first degree – also in Nafplio, no one suspected such a family history). His contact with the services of the state of Israel has not been officially recorded and we discovered the “strange” origin forty years later, with research by Mimi Androulakis.
D) The dictatorship in Greece brought about the state of Israel, which was preparing for war with the Arabs (of the “6 days”). Right. But it also involved the Americans, who were protectors of the Israelis and had (in my view the upper hand).
2. “THE DICTATORSHIP SHOCKED AMERICANS”!!!! Apparently it didn’t surprise them.
A) The Americans knew of the existence of the “Pericles” plan. It was a “legal” plan to impose a state of emergency as part of the famous “Red Provia” tactic. It was a plan approved by NATO. “Well written.” It was written by our fellow citizen General Vasilios Kardamakis (a very intelligent man and pro-Nato to the bone).
B) The Americans knew how the “Pericles” plan would be activated (In which cabinet of the Ministry of Defense were the files with the draft orders. Who had access to them. And how the entire state apparatus would move.) It was an important plan and they knew it until the last paragraph because they had approved it… it was part of the NATO planning.
C) The Americans knew that the “second offices” of the military units kept files on the political activities of their area. (As soon as the coup took place, it appeared that they had “mapped” all the political and trade union officials at the local level and “hierarchized” according to the degree of danger. More dangerous were those who had … previous experience in the guerrilla).
D) The Americans knew Papadopoulos and his movements. He had officially cooperated with the secret services of the Americans since the 1950s (it was not by chance that he was chosen as a military judge in the Belogiannis trial). He had the protection of the Americans (if not their guidance, when two years before he had planned the famous scheme that became known as “sabotage on the Evros”). His career in intelligence offices (although he was from the Artillery) had brought him many times in cooperation -officially- with them…unofficially what was happening, we don’t know.
E) The American ambassador in Athens Phil. Talbot plowed Greece with a seaplane!!! (Nafplio was visited in the summer of 1966 and the seaplane landed next to Pi). He had stopped moving and was seeing the people’s reaction to the involvement of the Americans (and not only the Court) in the apostasy.
3. “THERE WAS A COMMUNIST DANGER”!!!!
Everything else… The Soviet Union was the party that kept the Yalta agreements, unlike the Westerners and especially the Americans who did not honor their signatures.
A) EDA as a legal expression of the communist movement would get a percentage of 10-14%, in the elections that would be held on 5/20/1967.
B) The assistance requested by the Government of Center and the government of Makarios in Cyprus from the Eastern countries was important, it was paid in hot money, it did not hide political rewards and it was necessary for the armoring of Cyprus. It does not justify communist danger.
C) The program of the Center Union, which would win the elections, was moderately pro-NA and extremely pro-European. It all but justified communist danger.
4) AND FIVE STRANGE STORIES OF NAVAL INTEREST.
A) In the days following the coup, patrols of armed parastatals, allegedly TEA, went out in the evenings in Nafplio. At a time when there was no danger, and the army and the Gendarmerie were sufficient for police (such) duties, why were they brought out into the streets? I believe the spread: This outing was paid for…about 100 dh per person for each night, but the leader got another 200 (for each one!!!!). I have not read that something similar had happened in other places.
B) The military meeting that took place in the Palamides Library – ten days before April 21. Rumors say that G. Papadopoulos was also present. No library calendar had been kept, as there was constant co-operation with the Military Club, which is right next door.
C) The beating, by a group of infantrymen. fellow citizens, who had been arrested and were being held at the KEMH before the destroyer came to take them, for Gyaro. One officer claimed it was the initiative of some fanatical sergeant. Impossible. In a state of martial law, no subordinate dares to act voluntarily. An officer gave the order to enter with “Guard” globes and knock indiscriminately.
D) The Asphalite who encouraged them to create a resistance organization.
In the fall of 1968, a huge 114 in red digits was written on the City Clock in Akronafplia. They blamed it – unfairly – on the late Yiannis Bazos, who kept a boyish attitude. On this occasion, they also arrested some twenty executives of the Left and the Andreiki wing of the Center. They had them at the Gendarmerie Department which was on Papanikolaou Street, but it also had a balcony on Agios Georgios Square. They called them one by one to the office of the Major, where a policeman in political uniform (from Athens, not ours) was waiting for them and urged them to organize with the others and take action!!!! The trick caught on. No one trusted anyone for a while.
E) On the day of the coup, the army placed machine guns in Roloi in Akronafplia and in Tapia Grimani. In the latter, rather logically, because he supervised the KTEL station, the Court and OTE. On the clock why? Because they opened that day and the door where the images are painted (now open to visitors), the “Gate of Peace”, they took something from inside. What; We do not know. Possibly one of the Red Provia’s caches was there. The two events were combined, although it may be a coincidence.
After all, what was the Junta? The photo I am posting says it all… G. Papadopoulos, going to Turkey, in September 1967, to sign the withdrawal of the Division from Cyprus (essentially the disarmament and handing over of the island to the Turks) considered it his duty to visit the elderly then Ismet Inonou, former deputy leader and successor of Kemal Atatürk then declared that he believes in the federation of Greece and Turkey (=the NATO plan)…. Otherwise he was a nationalist…
Tags: Myths truths April strange stories Neapolitan interest
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