Stylianos Pattakos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Left to right: Stylianos Pattakos, Georgios Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos, in one of their earlier outings together as they appeared on Greek newspapers such as Vradini. Later these joint appearances would become much more rare and the military uniform would be discarded for civilian clothes, in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to look like, and become, mainstream politicians.
Left to right: Stylianos Pattakos, Georgios Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos, in one of their earlier outings together as they appeared on Greek newspapers such as Vradini. Later these joint appearances would become much more rare and the military uniform would be discarded for civilian clothes, in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to look like, and become, mainstream politicians.

Stylianos Pattakos (Greek: Στυλιανός Παττακός) (born November 8, 1912) was a Greek military man and one of the masterminds of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 that overthrew the government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos in a coup d'état on April 21, 1967.

He was born on November 8, 1912, in the small village of Agia Paraskevi in Crete and studied at the Hellenic Military Academy. He was commissioned an officer and saw action in World War II.

After the war, he eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General and was assigned to the armoured divisions of the Attica plain. It was then that he met Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos and Brigadier General Nikolaos Makarezos. The threesome planned and executed the coup on the night of April 20 to April 21, 1967, claiming political anomaly had made them to do so. For his trouble, Pattakos was awarded with the Ministry of the Interior. As head of that post, Pattakos stripped Greek actress and political activist, Melina Mercouri, of Greek citizenship. Ms. 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!"

On November 25, 1973, politically far right Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannides overthrew Papadopoulos and Pattakos found himself sidelined. The following year, the 7-year Junta came to an end in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

The newly-restored democratic government of Constantine Karamanlis put junta officials on trial for rebellion and treason and Pattakos was sentenced to death. That was later commuted to life imprisonment. He has been under house arrest since 1990 due to health reasons and has been living on the outside ever since on one leave extension after another. Ironically, his granddaughter is a self-professed member of the anarchist movement.