Forging the Chains

Swiftly and ruthlessly Greece's military dictatorship moved to complete the transition from monarchy (without a King) to republic (without an elected President). The regime made it clear that any support for deposed King Constantine is now considered treason. Opposition leaders were followed and warned to remain silent about the monarchy, or risk arrest. Some military leaders suspected of lingering royalist sympathy have lost their posts, while others have been arrested. There were reports that some naval officers accused of participation in last month's mutiny attempt (TIME, June 11) were being tortured. Portraits of the King vanished from walls in restaurants and other public places. Military insignia bearing the crown were ripped off uniforms, creating a severe button crisis--each officer's uniform requires 13 buttons. Regime-approved replacements are nonexistent and tailors are making do with plain metal buttons.

In Athens, the atmosphere was uneasily calm. For the present, at least, Strongman George Papadopoulos has won out. Said one Western diplomat: "Once the colonels got through the first 24 hours, they were home free." If the mutiny had spread throughout the armed forces, the regime would have been in dire straits.

Why had the colonels moved in the first place? According to another high-ranking observer, "The regime was in serious trouble. It had to do something fast and dramatic, and it did." By abolishing the monarchy and naming himself "provisional President" of the new republic, Papadopoulos seems to have stifled, at least for the short term, anti-regime activity rising from a host of factors: charges of corruption within government, soaring inflation and spreading student unrest. Capping the dissent was the mutiny aboard the Greek destroyer Velos, which some sources believe was intended to be part of a wider navy-sponsored revolt.

For Papadopoulos and his fellow colonels, that had been a heavy blow: dissension within the military--upon which their power rests--could bring them down. The subsequent purge has involved at least 50 line officers in the lieutenant commander, commander and captain ranks--a third of the officers in those ranks.

Last week Papadopoulos announced that Greeks would vote on their new form of government before the end of July. As outlined in a statement entitled "Twelve Basic Principles," the new republican Greece will strongly emphasize presidential power.

The head of state would be a President elected for a single seven-year term, with almost limitless powers in the areas of defense, foreign affairs and public security. There would be a 200-member Parliament: 180 elected and 20 appointed by the President. Almost certainly, that President would be Papadopoulos himself.

National elections were promised by the end of next year. The worth of such elections, however, was questioned by opposition politicians. "Plebiscites have a meaning to people who are free," said John Zigdis, a former minister who was jailed for 18 months in 1970 by the junta. "For a bound people, plebiscites are an insult. It is an attempt to make them collaborate in the forging of their chains."

The exiled King of the Hellenes (see box) will probably continue to be a focus for antiregime forces. Constantine, however, is considerably less potent as a deposed King than he was as the constitutional, if exiled monarch regardless of how unconstitutional his deposition was. His hopes that other nations might withhold recognition of what is technically a new government appear to be vain: the U.S. and other Western nations seemed to be regarding the issue as a relatively minor question of protocol. Meanwhile, Constantine has lost not only his annual $580,000 stipend but his palaces in Tatoi and probably Corfu as well, and the regime has ordered the Greek Orthodox Church to cease singing prayers for the health and safety of the royal family. Even birthday greetings are forbidden: Athens police summoned a group of 23 women from a working-class suburb of the capital and warned them that repeating their birthday salute to the King last week would put them "in serious trouble."

The progovernment press was filled with telegrams praising the regime's action, from such organizations as the Horticultural Association of Macedonia, the Dentists' Association of Thrace and the Parents' Association of Xanthi Secondary Schools. Individuals were less ready to comment. In a rural village outside Athens, TIME Correspondent William Marmon asked one man what he thought about the sacking of the King. His reply: "Yes, I have an opinion, but I can't say anything. I am afraid of what might happen to me. I don't trust anyone."

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