The coup of July 15, 1974 is undoubtedly the greatest betrayal in modern Greek history. And yet, this enormous national crime remained unpunished! The treacherous junta in Athens was never brought before a court to account.
In August 1997, Faidon Gizikis, 'President of the Republic' of the military junta in Athens and also President of the Republic for the first months of the transition period after the fall of the junta, made a statement to the Greek press admitting that together with Ioannidis, Bonanos, and Georgitsis, he, as the installed President of the Republic, ordered the coup plotters to act against the democratic government in Cyprus.
After the uproar that ensued in Cyprus and Greece from these statements by Faidon Gizikis, I took the initiative to accompany the Pan-Cyprian Union of Relatives of Fallen Resistance Fighters to Athens to submit the request for criminal prosecution of the masterminds of the coup following Gizikis's cynical confession.
Why, however, were the masterminds of the coup of July 15, 1974 against President Makarios and the legitimate government of Cyprus not criminally prosecuted?
Not for Cyprus
When, after the fall of the Junta, from the ashes of the Cypriot tragedy, criminal prosecutions were filed against the masterminds of the coup of July 15, 1974 against President Makarios, the Karamanlis government of the post-junta period suspended the prosecutions by invoking legislation that provided for such a suspension 'when the relations of Greece with any third country are threatened' (Article 30 par. 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The country was not mentioned, of course, but it was obvious that it referred to the United States and NATO. That is, there was no criminal prosecution of the junta leaders who ordered and executed the betrayal of the coup, which led to the Turkish invasion and therefore there was no punishment, so that the role and the glaring responsibilities of the United States and NATO would not be revealed.
On December 3, 1975, MPs G. Farakos, A. Giannou and K. Kappos submitted a question in the Greek Parliament, and Leonidas Kyrkos did the same on January 22, 1976, 'concerning the delay in the prosecution of those responsible for the Cypriot tragedy'.
After a discussion of the question, the then Minister of Justice K. Stefanakis replied with a statement by Prime Minister K. Karamanlis dated October 16, 1975: 'The prosecution of those responsible for the coup in Cyprus will remain pending, of course, because the Government believes that at the present phase of the Cyprus issue, it is not possible to conduct this trial without detriment to the Cyprus case.'
Thus, the junta was prosecuted and punished only for the coup of April 21, 1967 and for the bloody suppression of the Polytechnic uprising in November 1973. Not for the national betrayal of Cyprus.
And yet, while the Karamanlis government saw to 'protect' the Americans and NATO and to impose a blackout on their responsibilities in the Cypriot tragedy, US President Bill Clinton during his official visit to Athens in November 1999, apologized for the support the US offered to the Greek junta. But also the senior American diplomat Richard Holbrooke, in moments of candor, exclaimed MEA CULPA for the role the Americans played in supporting the dictatorship and in the Cypriot tragedy.
The Representations to Athens
In Athens we submitted the request for the termination of the suspension of criminal prosecution of the masterminds of the Cyprus coup. We met with the Minister of Justice Evangelos Giannopoulos and with representatives of the Parliamentary Parties. All showed understanding, however no initiative was taken towards bringing the coup plotters before justice.
In Athens we met in his office the late lawyer Takis Pappas from whom we requested an opinion 'concerning the statute of limitations for criminal offenses committed against a foreign state, its leader and every related crime by Greek nationals'.
Takis Pappas 'was a distinguished Greek criminal lawyer, resistance fighter and politician, one of the most important figures in the legal world'. He died in 2001 from neurological diseases due to the horrific torture he suffered during his imprisonment in the dungeons of EAT-ESA in 1973.
I quote the most important findings of Takis Pappas's opinion:
'The opinion concerns the criminal acts committed during the coup organized and executed, with its instruments, in Greece and Cyprus by the government of the Greek junta against the legitimate government and Makarios in July 1974.
The occasion for formulating my opinion was the recent statement by Gizikis in the Greek press that together with Ioannidis, Bonanos and Georgitsis (military commander of the Greek forces in Cyprus), he, as the installed President of the Republic, ordered the coup plotters to act against the democratic authority in Cyprus.
Very reasonably, the Pan-Cyprian Union of Relatives of the Fallen during the coup asks: Can the crimes shamelessly confessed be punished and under what conditions...'
... 'After the fall of the dictatorship, in July 1974, the government of National Unity assumed the leadership of the country with Prime Minister Mr. Konstantinos Karamanlis and Minister of Foreign Affairs Evangelos Averoff.
Then a preliminary examination was conducted (i.e., an investigation under Greek law) to determine whether the conditions exist, based on the acts committed and the available evidence, to bring a criminal prosecution in personam (against specific persons), according to Articles 31, 240, and 241 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. During the aforementioned preliminary examination, the then Minister of Justice, with the concurring decision of the cabinet, suspended the criminal prosecution for the crimes committed, because in his opinion he judged that the international relations of the State were likely to be disturbed, according to Article 30 par. 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Since then, in February 1986, a discussion took place in the Greek Parliament on the establishment of a committee of inquiry into the Cyprus File. However, the legal regime of the suspension of criminal prosecution for the crimes of the coup continues to apply'...
... 'And certainly, from a justice-policy perspective, the institution of prescription is an institution of JUSTICE, which operates according to the sense of justice, i.e., when a significant time has passed from the commission of the punishable act to its criminal punishment, the right of the state to punish is extinguished.
But when it comes to crimes of enormous political importance, with which the Cabinet of the country is occupied, according to Article 30 par. 2 and as in the specific case, significant aggregates of legal goods are offended, then crime-preventively punishment (which undoubtedly entails a cruelty) acquires timeless importance (thus no question of a subsequent more lenient law can be raised)'...
... 'The Greek Parliament, in 1996, (and the Minister himself voted for the provision), recently confirmed the exception of the suspension of prosecution under Article 20 par. 2 of the Penal Code from the limitation periods for crimes and very logically, due to the nature of criminal offenses, where the doctrine of expediency specifically prevails over the doctrine of legality.
Therefore, the revocation of the decision of the Cabinet and the Minister of Justice to suspend criminal prosecution has no legal problem. The issue of prosecuting the instigators for crimes against a foreign state, homicides and other related felonies and misdemeanors is a governmental matter i.e., political and not legal.
The Government is the only one that knows what the international relations of the country are that will be disturbed if the coup plotters are convicted, who led to many dead and opened the way for Attila and the Cypriot tragedy.
And if in 1974 there were ostensibly evidentiary difficulties in criminal prosecution, now that the guilty are revealing themselves, what tolerance protects democracy from the crimes of the military rulers against the Greek entirety in Cyprus? And how does the punishment of the guilty disturb our international relations in an exclusively Greek affair?
Unless you consider that the USA, TURKEY and relations with these countries are affected if Gizikis is prosecuted. In any case, in democracies, transparency in the decisions of governments and ministers is required and immediate revocation of the suspension of prosecution by the Cabinet'.
No response
This was the clear opinion of Takis Pappas dated August 20, 1997. We communicated it to the Greek Government, we communicated it to the Greek Parliamentary Parties. No response. The enormous crime of the betrayal of Cyprus, the causing of thousands of deaths, the refugee status of 200 thousand Greek Cypriots, the missing persons, the occupation of 37% of the territories of the Republic of Cyprus, remains unpunished to this day. And it continues to haunt those responsible for this criminal omission. It remains an indelible stain and eternal national disgrace that the masterminds of the greatest betrayal in modern Greek history remained unpunished.
*Former President of the House of Representatives
