Is Greece, near "coup d'etat"? Hellenic Cheifs of Armed Forces ALL REPLACED! November 1 2011		)
November 1, 2011 | Filed under: Army,Featured News In a surprise move, the defence minister proposed on Tuesday evening the complete replacement of the countrys top brass. At an extraordinary meeting of the Government Council of Foreign Affairs and Defence (Kysea), which comprises the prime minister and other key cabinet members, Defence Minister Panos Beglitis proposed the following changes to the army, navy and air force and the general staff: General Ioannis Giagkos, chief of the Greek National Defence General Staff, to be replaced by Lieutenant General Michalis Kostarakos (until now commander of the 3rd army corps) Lieutenant General Fragkos Fragkoulis, chief of the Greek Army General Staff, to be replaced by lieutenant general Konstantinos Zazias (until now commander of the 4th army corps) Lieutenant General Vasilios Klokozas, chief of the Greek Air Force, to be replaced by air marshal Antonis Tsantirakis (until now commander of the Tactical Air Force) Vice-Admiral Dimitrios Elefsiniotis, chief of the Greek Navy General Staff, to be replaced by Rear-Admiral Kosmas Christidis (untiTop brass replaced November 1, 2011 | Filed under: Army,Featured News In a surprise move, the defence minister proposed on Tuesday evening the complete replacement of the countrys top brass. History will repeat itself: On 21 April 1967, (just weeks before the scheduled elections), a group of right-wing army officers led by Brigadier Stylianos Pattakos and Colonels George Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos seized power in a coup d'etat.[13] The colonels were able to quickly seize power by using surprise and confusion. Pattakos was commander of the Armour Training Centre (Greek: , ), based in Athens. The coup leaders placed tanks in strategic positions in Athens, effectively gaining complete control of the city. At the same time, a large number of small mobile units were dispatched to arrest leading politicians and authority figures, as well as many ordinary citizens suspected of left-wing sympathies, according to lists prepared in advance. One of the first to be arrested was Lieutenant General Grigorios Spandidakis, Commander-in-Chief of the Greek Army. The conspirators were known to Spandidakis. Indeed, he was instrumental in bringing some of them to Athens, to use in a coup he and other leading Army generals had been planning, in an attempt to prevent George Papandreou's victory in the upcoming election and the Communist takeover that would, supposedly, follow it. The colonels succeeded in persuading Spandidakis to join them and he issued orders activating an action plan (the "Prometheus" plan) that had been previously drafted as a response for a hypothetical Communist uprising (see Operation Gladio). Under the command of paratrooper Lieutenant Colonel Kostas Aslanides, the LOK (see above) took control of the Greek Defence Ministry while Brigadier General Stylianos Pattakos gained control over communication centers, the parliament, the royal palace, and according to detailed lists, arrested over 10,000 people.[14] By the early morning hours the whole of Greece was in the hands of the colonels. All leading politicians, including acting Prime Minister Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, had been arrested and were held incommunicado by the conspirators. At 6 a.m. on the day of the coup Papadopoulos announced that eleven articles of the Greek constitution were suspended.[14] One of the consequences was that anyone could be arrested without warrant at any time and brought before a miltary court to be tried. Yannis Ladas the then director of ESA in an interview referring to the coup said: "Within twenty minutes every politician, every man, every anarchist who was listed could be rounded up... It was a simple, diabolical plan".[14] Georgios Papandreou was arrested after a nightime raid at his villa in Kastri. Andreas Papandreou was arrested at around the same time after seven soldiers with fixed bayonets and one with a machine gun forcibly entered his home. Andreas Papandreou escaped to the roof of his house but surrendered after one of the soldiers held a gun to the head of his then 14-year old son George Papandreou.[14] U.S. critics of the coup included then senator Lee Metcalf who criticised the Johson administration for providing aid to a "military regime of collaborators and Nazi sympathisers". Phillips Talbot, the US ambassador in Athens, disapproved of the military coup, complaining that it represented "A rape of democracy", to which Jack Maury, the CIA chief of station in Athens, answered, "How can you rape a whore?"[14] The Papadopoulos' junta attempted to re-engineer the Greek political landscape by coup.