The last surviving member of the Greek military dictatorship passed away on Saturday. Stylianos Pattakos was one of the junta principles who ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974 and abolished political freedoms and legalised torture, thus sending thousands to so-called “exile” camps mostly on remote Greek islands.
Pattakos had the rank of Brigadier and was assigned to the tank training centre at Goudi in Athens. He along with Georgios Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos planned and executed the coup on the night of April 20 to April 21, 1967, claiming political anomaly had made them to do so.
from left: Makarezos, Pattakos, Papadopoulos
Pattakos was assigned the Ministry of the Interior. As head of that post, Pattakos made the decision to strip Greek actress and political activist, Melina Mercouri, of her Greek citizenship and to also confiscate her property.
Mercouri retorted “I was born a Greek and I will die a Greek. Mr. Pattakos was born a fascist and he will die a fascist”.
When democracy was restored in 1974, the government of Constantine Karamanlis put junta officials on trial with charges of high treason and insurrection against Georgios Papadopoulos and other co-conspirators.
The principal leaders of the 1967 coup, Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos and Nikolaos Makarezos, were sentenced to death for high treason, following the trial. Shortly after the sentences were pronounced, they were commuted to life imprisonment by the Karamanlis government.
Stylianos Patakos was released from jail in 1990 by the government of Konstantinos Mitsotakis due to alleged health reasons.
He managed to survive his “health reasons” for whole 26 years. He died after suffering a brain stroke.
Two days before Pattakos’ death, thieves had broke into his apartment in Patisia district of Athens and stole jewelry and a medal.
After his release, he had stated in an interview that he did not regret any of his actions during the dictatorship.
Had this group been around to follow through Greece would have become an economic and political powerhouse instead of the joke it is today. 21 April will come around again. It may not be too late.
Right… the 1967 dictatorship was a big success story. It shows your political credentials, mate: I wouldn’t bother to tell anyone in Greece how much you like the ignorant, incompetent and corrupt military regime of the 1960s. You might find yourself with a couple of black eyes.
Agreed..
3 incompetent a-holes and losers who screwed Greece six ways to Sunday for 7 years…There’s something to admire…NOT. God help us if we were to get more like them.
Our tragedy is that we still got the same if not worse. Goeffrey, Antonis and Alex are not very different: low moral, low intellect, paid servants of foreign powers, just like Pattakos and his buddies.
1967 and 2009 the years of high treason.
I was in Corfu when the coup happened – when I saw the military rolling through town, I thought it was some sort of parade celebrating something! My first time in Greece, and I got caught up in a military coup! Heh! Didn’t speak a word of Greek then, either, so it wasn’t until days later that I found out what was going on. I did wonder why the soldiers seemed to be uptight when I was wandering around after what I now know was curfew. They were shouting at me in Greek, and I was smiling and saying “Yeah, kalispera to you, too, mate”.
Ah, the innocence of youth. Good job they weren’t trigger-happy.
thanks for sharing.