Coup plot in Greece fails

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33778, 26 February 1975, Page 17

Coup plot in Greece fails

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

ATHENS, February 25. The Greek Government blamed “a few unrepentant fools” today for an abortive plot by young Army officers to free gaoled junta leaders and set up a new military regime.

Sources close to the Armed Forces said that at least 28 Army officers had been arrested for plotting to overthrow the seven-months-old civilian Government in Greece. The Defence Minister (Mr Evangelos Averoff) described the plotters last night as “a few unrepentant fools related to the detained protagonists of the dictatorship.”

Mr Averoff insisted that the Prime Minister (Mr Constantine Karamanlis) “is governing the country undisturbed,” after the coup plot. “I can assure you there is no reason for anxiety," he told a national television audience. The Government declined to disclose details of the first known plot against the civilian Adminstration that came to power last summer after seven years of military rule.

Sources close to the Armed Forces said a small number of junior officers, mostly captains and a few majors and lieutenant-colonels, planned

to overthrow Mr Karamanlis next Sunday and set up a military regime.

The sources said the Blotters also wanted to free Brigadier-General Dimitrios loann ides, the former iunta strongman, and his closest aides from prison. General loannides, a leader of the coup that brought the Armed Forces to power in 1967, is awaiting trial on charges of overthrowing democracy and torturing political prisoners. His strongman regime collapsed last July when Turkey invaded Cvprus after a Greek-led coun brieflv deposed Archbishon Makarios as President of the island. Mr Karamanlis, who returned from exile to head a new civilian Govvemment, won an overwhelming mandate on November 17 in Greece’s first free election in a decade. Military sources said that a few voung navy and air force officers approached by the plotters tipped authorities about the plans for a coup.

The sources said that the plotters intended to strike simultaneously in three places —the Goudi Army training school in Athens, the paratroop training centre in Asnorpyrgos and the 2nd Army corps headquarters in Kozani. The Defence Minister then discused the situation with Mr Karamanlis before putting the Armed Forces on partial alert and ordering the arrests of Army officers suspected of taking part in the plot.