The Greek Upheaval: Kings, Demagogues, and Bayonets

by Taki Theodoracopulos

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892410809
• ISBN13: 9780892410804
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Aristide D. Caratzas, Publisher
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Penetrating insights, a maverick work

Reading much of Greek history, especially modern history one is dismayed at the divisions and polarizations of Greek society. Juntists and anti-juntists, monarchists vs republicans, communists against non-communitsts, EOKA-B against Makarios supporters, etc. but Taki the author of this work seems to have little allegiance to any political creed or faction. He probably views himself more as a Greek, rather than with any one faction, and this is why this work has honest, valid criticism for every Greek political figure appearing in it, instead of partisanship to make one glorious over the others. This book is not in chronological order, rather it is in thematic order. The book starts with the Ioannides military faction in 1974 giving power back to Karamanlis, then going into the Cyprus debacle and Turkish invasion, then back in time to Karamanlis's reign in the 1950s to his fall in the early 1960s, the instability of George Papandreou's reign which brings us forward in time to the Papadopoulos coup, etc. The Chapters are: (1)Karamanlis And Democracy Return To Their Birthplace, (2)The Two Protagonists And The Inevitable Collision, (3)Why Makarios Had To Go, (4)The Coup, (5)The Turkish Invasion And The Fall of the Junta, (6)The Historical Background, (7)Preamble to a Dictatorship: The Fall Of Karamanlis, (8)The Papandreou Government and the "Royal Coup", (9)Political Turmoil, (10)April 21, 1967: The Night Of The Colonels, (11)The Colonels' Rule -- The King's Countercoup, (12)Papadocracy, (13)The Fall of Papadopoulos, (14)Epilogue.Alot of his insights are not possible to make for people with rigid loyalty to certain political figures and doctrines. His contention that the Greek communists rose to power during WWII because of a polticial vacuum is very valid, since most Greeks at that time were getting arranged marriages to increase land holdings and wealth. Instead of being for collectivization, such people would rather have had more land holdings. His contention that the Greek junta was initially popular was valid though not a view you will hear from many, especially leftists. Some of the reasons why the junta was initially popular, was because the military was from a peasant background unlike the more aristocratic politicans, George Papandreou was irresponsible and divisive(his demogagic son Andreas Papandreou was even more divisive) throughout his reign. This is in line with what the sociologist Wilhelm Reich established in his work "the Mass Psychology of Fascism" that a few politicial figures cannot oppress millions, the irresponsibility of the masses of people is what juntas, politicians and dictators thrive on. His comments about Vice Admiral Arapakis on pages 80-81 being convinced by Sisco, the US Undersecretary of State that if he foiled the plans to attack the Turkish fleet invading Cyprus with Greek submarines, the Turks would withdraw from Cyprus, explain why Greece did nothing to counter Turkey's invasion of Cyprus. Air-force Chief Papani