The Colonel Fires His King

"He cooperated with all kinds of reactionaries, turned against the armed forces and behaved like a party leader of adventurists, fellow travelers, saboteurs and even murderers." With those sharp words, Premier George Papadopoulos, in a ten-minute, nationwide broadcast, last week abolished the monarchy and appointed himself head of the new Greek Republic.

Papadopoulos, who is not only chief of the military junta that has ruled the nation since 1967 but also Greece's regent, denounced exiled King Constantine (see box) for "an unforgiveable lack of maturity." He accused Constantine of supporting an abortive coup planned by royalist naval officers, which gave Papadopoulos an ideal excuse to extend the junta's heavyhanded rule and depose the King.

Under the constitution that Papadopoulos promulgated in 1968, which provides that the King is titular head of state, last week's announcement that Greece had become a republic was patently illegal. But it did not come as much of a surprise. Originally, the colonels had used the throne as a way of giving their rule some illusion of legitimacy. King Constantine's refusal to return to Greece from exile in Rome until democracy was restored had long since made a mockery of that claim.

At week's end there was no clear-cut evidence that Constantine had any knowledge of the attempt to overthrow the junta, which government spokesmen initially brushed off as an "operetta" involving "a handful" of men, including two retired admirals. But shortly afterward, 32 senior naval officers were arrested and presumably will be tried on charges of treason. Then 31 other navymen, led by the commander of the destroyer Velos, mutinied and were granted asylum at the port of Fiumicino in Italy. Then the government admitted that the "operetta" had been a serious attempt at revolution.

According to junta spokesmen, the plot called for "as many as possible" of the Greek navy's ten destroyers and seven submarines to rendezvous at the Aegean island of Syros. From there, an ultimatum would be issued to the junta in Athens: either restore democracy or face a blockade of Greece's two principal ports. Piraeus and Salonika.

The night before the coup was to take place, three destroyer captains who had thrown in with the conspirators witlessly gave the plot away. With their vessels tied up at the tightly guarded Greek naval base in Salamis, the captains told crew members to remain aboard because of "top secret maneuvers" set for the next day. When no men went ashore that night, shore police became suspicious and began questioning the crew. After government officials heard the story about unscheduled maneuvers, the captains were arrested.

Meanwhile, Captain Nicholas Pappas, commander of the Velos, was engaged in NATO maneuvers in the Mediterranean when news was flashed about the misfired coup d'etat. "All of the officers with me immediately demanded that we act," Pappas told TIME last week. "Our colleagues, and some of our best friends, had been arrested. As their commander, I had to make a decision, and I saw before me two choices: I could have taken my ship with its 8,000 rounds of high-explosive ammunition back to Crete or some other Greek island and demanded the release of those officers under threat of blowing the place up. But rather than risk starting a civil war. I chose to bring my ship into Italy and ask for asylum here to tell the world the truth of what is happening in Greece."

Pappas said that all of the 270 officers and crew on the ship were sympathetic with his action. But he carefully limited the number to come with him, and insisted that those with large families at home, who could be the subject of reprisals, remain aboard. Under a new captain, the destroyer returned to its NATO exercises.

Bitter Broadside. In the wake of the coup, there were reports that the regime had rounded up hundreds of civilians and military men who were suspected of being royalist partisans. Last week, Papadopoulos sacked his chief of the navy after sitting down to dinner with him the night before. The air force was also grounded for fear that dissident pilots would fly their planes to Italy, in a show of support for the coup.

There is little doubt that popular sentiment against Papadopoulos' regime has risen sharply in recent months. Amid charges of corruption in high places, junta favoritism to business interests, accelerating inflation and the decreasing value of the drachma (which is tied to the dollar), student unrest broke into the open this spring. Last month, exiled former Premier Constantine Caramanlis, 66, issued a bitter broadside from Paris against the regime, calling for its resignation and the return of the King to oversee the restoration of democracy.

The government last week sought to link Caramanlis with the attempted coup. Close associates of the respected ex-Premier insisted that he had nothing to do with it, but Caramanlis is known to have strong support in the military. His appeal fell on fertile ground. "There is a lot of ferment in all branches of the services," said Captain Pappas last week. "There are many committees that have been formed, all talking about ousting this regime."

At week's end the rule of the colonels seemed secure. The ruler of the rulers, indisputably, was Papadopoulos, 54, who in addition to being Premier and provisional President is Minister of both Defense and Foreign Affairs. Son of a village schoolteacher, Papadopoulos is a gruff, wily former intelligence officer who combines fanatical hatred of Communism and anarchy with a strong puritanical bent. Although Greece's populace, by and large, accepted the change in government passively, there is some question as to how long Papadopoulos, who is widely disliked, can keep the lid on an explosive situation. Many Greeks have mixed feelings about King Constantine, but the monarchy has traditionally been viewed as a symbolic support of democracy. Last week the Premier promised a national referendum on a new constitution and parliamentary elections by the end of next year. But with the old constitution which Papadopoulos himself helped draft now in tatters, Greeks might well ask of what value any new one will be.

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