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Well on this day in 1973 the Greeks had a small military coup to replace their rather corrupt president Papadopoulos. Unlike most military coups this actually led to a much better quality of life for Greeks, and greater freedom (especially of the press).
I'm a big fan of Greece (I love the diving in Rhodes), and used to spend 3 weeks there every summer.
So HOORAY for the Greeks. I'm off to have some Ouzo and a good salad with roast lamb

Hi Mark

Oh my you mentioned roast lamb

I love lamb but the old girl is not stuck on it, I think it is because she finds it very greasy when we roast it.

My late grandmother was from Yorkshire and boy she could cook anything including roast lamb (I think it was roasted but could be wrong) certainly not greasy.

If you have a secret recipe you would like to share would be wonderful to see it.

Cheers...Happy Landings...Doug
P.S. We have difficulty buying fresh lamb here as this is dairy country and most of the lamb we see is frozen unlike the larger cities with markets and butcher shops.

Well I've got the usual receipes Doug, I just like it Greek style with a nice goats cheese salad...

No offence to any Greek members of this forum but I'll give it a miss thanks. While aircraft enthusiasts like me might be considered a tad eccentric in this country (a bit like trainspotters) they tend to get arrested in Greece - especially if they happen to be carrying a camera.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/11/07/wspott07.xml

At the heart of the plane-spotters' ordeal was a culture clash between British eccentricity and Greek obstinacy. The Greeks struggled to come to grips with plane-spotting; they have no word in their language for the hobby.

Well on this day in 1973 the Greeks had a small military coup to replace their rather corrupt president Papadopoulos. Unlike most military coups this actually led to a much better quality of life for Greeks, and greater freedom (especially of the press).
I'm a big fan of Greece (I love the diving in Rhodes), and used to spend 3 weeks there every summer.
So HOORAY for the Greeks. I'm off to have some Ouzo and a good salad with roast lamb

I am terribly terribly terribly sorry to drag this ancient thread out of the deep depths of the forum, but as the resident Greek I have to clarify a few things here, I am afraid.

Papadopoulos was indeed a corrupt barsteward. However, he wasn't the "President." He was a former SS collaborateur who, with CIA backing, performed a military coup in 1967 and took control of the country. Him and his friends were known as "the Colonels", as the ringleaders of this coup were all Colonels in the army.

He increased the size of the Greek version of the CIA (called KYP) and under his direct instructions, thousands of "commies" (whether they actually were members of the Communist party, or just uncomfortable to the colonels is irrelevant) were systematically tortured to such an extent that the international press slated Greece for these occurrences of mass torture. I must stress that this was all done in the name of the American crusade against communism.

On a sidenote, I am not having a go at our esteemed American co-forumers; merely a go at the State Department and the CIA.

Anyway, on November 17, 1973, Greek students of the Athens Polytech staged a sit-in on their campus, demanding the abdication of the Colonels and a return to democracy. Papadopoulos, may he rot in hell, decided to take the Polytech by force. He sent in a couple of tanks and some shock troops, I think they were members of the mountain warfare unit (LOK). Either way, during this action, many many students were killed. Official records indicate 23, but according to several eye wittnesses, up to 500 people were killed that night, amongst them some close friends of my mum's.

After this action, Papadopoulos was betrayed by his fellow Colonels and deposed by them - nothing, absolutely nothing, changed for Greece though. On the contrary, it got worse as this bunch of muppets then proceeded to muck up the Cyprus situation.

In 1974, the Junta and the Colonels FINALLY fell and democracy returned to its birthplace, carried by Andreas Papandreu.


As for the plane spotters that got arrested - they were explicitly told to not record the tail numbers. Furthermore, one of them was a special guest on a Turkish airbase just two weeks prior to his visit to Greece!! Play with fire and you get burned

Once again, my apologies for resurrecting this thread.

Interesting stuff.

Good to see that the CIA can't do anything right when it comes to regime changes.

I've noticed the Greeks started to go down hill after the end of Ancient History....


A.

I've noticed the Greeks started to go down hill after the end of Ancient History....


A.

Then you don't know much about history, do you mate?

After the end of the Hellenistic period came the Byzantine Empire which lasted longer than Alexander's Empires, and almost as long as the Mycanean period.

Then came the Turks and 400 yrs of darkness, but we eventually got rid of them. Then came the Balkan Wars and WW1, in which we claimed most of Greece back and protected the Entente's southern flank.

Then WW2, guess who the first allied nation was that defeated an axis power on the battlefield? Yeapp, we did. Not only did we stop the Italians, we routed them and sent them packing and if Hitler had waited another week, we would have chased them straight back into the sea.

Hitler attacked with 62 heavily armed divisions into Greece, we had about 20 divisions, lightly armed, no air force worth mentioning, and war weary and short of supplies. We still gave them one hell of a fight for 6 weeks. As a respect of our courage, many German officers allowed our troops to walk away after they had been captured.

Today, Greece is a member of Nato, the EU, the Eurozone, and owner of one of the 5 largest merchant navies in the world.

Anyway, this is way off topic, we're talking about the Junta in this thread

Well it is nice to get a history lesson from someone who knows. Sometimes a little junta goes a long way, but I suppose it depends on your perspective. Having not lived through this I'll not argue the toss, afterall Britain had their glorious Fuhrer Margret
Oh and the Greeks fought with great enthusiasm alongside the British, the courage of many ordinary Greeks during the Med. campaign was incredible, not only the Sacred Squadron working alongside the SAS/SBS/SOE, but also ordinary Greeks who hid escaped British POWs or injured servicemen knowing that if they were caught they and their families would be brutally murdered....
I like Greeks, they are fun people

I lived in Greece when I was very young. My dad was in the USAF and was stationed at Hellenikon AFB before it was handed over to the Greek government (To whom it rightfuly belonged). I don't remember much of Greece, but what I do remember is nice. Nice people, beautiful cities, and the food... my god, the food. I would love to go back sometime.


P.S. My Grandfather fought alongside Greek soldiers in WW2, I dont know anything specific, just what he mentioned in passing.

Cheers ozzy, your praise is much appreciated

To make you understand just how much of a bastard Papadopoulos and the rest of the Junta were (pre and post-73): you know how you said that many Greeks would hide allies away until they were picked up?

Well, sometimes allied soldiers were handed in instead, or worse, some Greeks would help the Nazis find allied soldiers and then help them kill the Greek families and burn their houses. ALL of the Junta were part of these traitors, collaborateurs, causing the death of many allied soldiers and Greek civilians :-/

But yeah, the Anzacs, you lot, and us gave the Gerries quite a fight on Crete Never knew about that Sacred Squadron, gotta read up on it

@Tacit - you didn't attend the American Community Schools by any chance, did you? I know a lot of US Army/Air Force personnel used to attend it before they moved out.
I know there was a Greek-American parachute battalion which consisted of mostly Greek-Americans (hence the name, duh ) and had some American officers too, they were dropped in the North of Greece at around '44 I think to wreak havoc amongst the Gerries as they were retreating and to keep the commies out of Greece - both domestic and foreign commies that is Maybe he was part of that operation?

Yes I did attend the American schools. I was 6 years old when we moved away so I can only remember the name of one of the schools. Glifada? I know I didn't spell it right.

My grandfather may have been part of that operation. I do know that he eventually ended up in northern Europe.