"During the XX. century, three totalitarian regimes happened in Greece, 4th of August Regime, the German Occupation and the Military Junta." Introduction The rich history of Greece in the past century, spans many historical events and covers a lot of changes in politics. The early 20th century finds Greece weak after many bankruptcies and the lost Greco-Turkish war of 1897. During the XX century 3 totalitarian regimes happened in Greece, 4th of August Regime, the German Occupation and the Military Junta. 4th of August Regime The 4th of August Regime, commonly also known as the Metaxas regime, was a totalitarian regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941. On 4 August 1936, Metaxas, with the support of King George II, suspended the Greek parliament and went on to preside over a conservative, staunchly anti-communist government. The regime took inspiration in its symbolism and rhetoric from Fascist Italy, but retained close links to Britain and the French Third Republic, rather than the Axis powers. Lacking a popular base, after Metaxas' death in January 1941 the regime hinged entirely on the King. Although Greece was occupied following the German invasion of Greece in April 1941 and the Greek government was forced into exile in the British-controlled Kingdom of Egypt, several prominent figures of the regime, notably the notorious security chief Konstantinos Maniadakis, survived for several months in cabinet until the King was forced to dismiss them in a compromise with the representatives of the old democratic political establishment. Metaxas imposed his regime primarily to fight the turbulent social situation prevalent in Greece in the 1930s, in which political factionalization had disrupted Greek parliamentary democracy. This regime had classical influences, like give the fascist salute to Ioannis Metaxas, believe in nationalism focusing on the heathen values of ancient Greece and Ancient Macedonia, Eastern Orthodox Christian values of Byzantium, and had as main symbol, the labrys/pelekys, the symbol of ancient Minoan Crete. The traditional Greek values of "Country, Loyalty, Family and Religion", which Metaxas praised repeatedly, were also close to those of the ancient Spartans. The regime promoted the perceived Spartan ideals of self-discipline, militarism and collective sacrifice, while Byzantium provided an emphasis on a centralized state and devotion to the monarchy and Greek Orthodox Church. Metaxas had also external influences, considered António Salazar's Estado Novo of Portugal his main inspiration and he took also some typical characteristics of authoritarian states such as the regime's propaganda presented Metaxas as "the First Peasant", "the First Worker" and as "the National Father" of the Greeks. Like his contemporaries Hitler with Führer and Mussolini with Duce, Metaxas adopted the title of Archigos, Greek for "leader" or "chieftain", and claimed that his regime had to lay the foundations for the appearance of a glorious "Third Hellenic Civilization" combining the best of ancient Greece and the Greek Byzantine Empire of the Middle Ages.
The Metaxas regime sought to comprehensively change Greece, and therefore instituted controls on Greek society, politics, language, and the economy. In each of these policy areas, the Metaxas government seemed more nearly an anticipation of Francoist Spain than to resemble its contemporaries Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. The German Occupation In October 28th, 1940, Metaxas was opposed to German and Italian domination and refused Mussolini’s demand to occupy the country during World War II. This day is celebrated as the “Ohi” (means no in Greek) Day in Greece, but the actual “NO” was said by the people who start to defend the boarders. Greece fell to the Nazi troops in April 1941. The Greek government went into exile, and an Axis collaborationist puppet government was established in the country. The occupation ruined the Greek economy and brought terrible hardships to the Greek civilian population. Much of Greece was subjected to destruction of its industry (80% of which was destroyed), infrastructure (28% destroyed), ports, roads, railways and bridges (90%), forests and other natural resources (25%) and loss of civilian life (7.02–11.17% of its citizens). Over 40,000 civilians died in Athens alone from starvation, and tens of thousands more died from reprisals by Nazis and collaborators. The Jewish population of Greece was nearly eradicated. Of its pre-war population of 75–77,000, only around 11–12,000 survived, either by joining the resistance or being hidden. Most of those who died were deported to Auschwitz, while those in Thrace, under Bulgarian occupation, were sent to Treblinka. The Italians did not deport Jews living in territory they controlled, but when the Germans took over, Jews living there were also deported. The results of the fascistic German occupation in Greece has a mass destruction of ancient sites, large scale executions and the extermination of the largest part of the Jewish community who were residing in many Greek towns, such as Athens, Thessaloniki, and Rhodes. Resistance movements sprang up but they were divided between a royalist and communist movement. In October 1944, Greece was set free by the Germans but a couple of months later a civil war started between the royalist and communists. The war lasted until 1949 when the royalists claimed victory. The Military Junta The years that followed after the civil war, were unstable from a political and financial aspect. A large immigration wave spread towards Athens and also abroad, mostly in the USA, Germany, Australia and South Africa. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections which Georgios Papandreou's Centre Union was favoured to win, the Greek junta. The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonel was a far-right authoritarian military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. The dictatorship was characterized by right-wing cultural policies, restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment, torture, and exile of political opponents. An attempt to renew its support in a 1973 referendum on the monarchy and gradual democratization was ended by another coup by hardliner Dimitrios Ioannidis. The colonels official justification was that a "communist conspiracy" had infiltrated Greece's bureaucracy, academia, press, and military, to such an extent that drastic action was needed to protect the country from communist takeover. Thus, the defining characteristic of the Junta was its staunch anti-communism. In a similar vein, the junta attempted to steer Greek public opinion not only by propaganda but also by inventing new words and slogans. A central part of the regime's ideology was xenophobia, which presented Greeks as the creators of civilization with the rest of the world jealous of the debts they owed to Greece. The Greek junta has also been described as Fascist. Long-standing political freedoms and civil liberties, that had been taken for granted and enjoyed by the Greek people for decades, were instantly suppressed. Article 14 of the Greek Constitution, which protected freedom of thought and freedom of the press, was immediately suspended. Military courts were established, and political parties were dissolved. Legislation that took decades to fine tune and multiple parliaments to enact was thus erased in a matter of days. The rapid dismantling of Greek democracy had begun. Under the junta, torture became a deliberate practice carried out both by the Security Police and the Greek Military Police (ESA) with an estimated 3,500 people detained in torture centers run by ESA. Gyaros, was a prison island for dissidents. According to a human rights report by Amnesty International, in the first month of the 21 April coup an estimated 8,000 people were arrested. The citizens' right of assembly was revoked and no political demonstrations were allowed. Surveillance on citizens was a fact of life, even during permitted social activities. That had a continuously chilling effect on the population who realized that, even though they were allowed certain social activities, they could not overstep the boundaries and delve into or discuss forbidden subjects. The junta allowed citizens to participate in ordinary societal events that reflected those of the United States and United Kingdom, such as rock concerts for example. However, citizens lived in extreme fear, as any behavior that the junta disapproved of, coupled with the complete absence of any civil rights or freedoms, could easily result in torture, beatings, exile, imprisonment, or worse, and the labeling of the victims as anarcho-communists, or worse. Complete lack of press freedom coupled with nonexistent civil rights meant that continuous cases of civil Many social rebellions would take place during the seven years of the junta, from 1967 till 1974. The most important rebellion was the Polytechnic Uprise on November 17th, 1973, when university students had locked themselves in the Polytechnic School and were asking for the fall of the junta. The Junta eventually fell in July 1974, after the government attempted to assassinate the leader of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, in order to unite Cyprus with Greece, which led to the Turkish invasion and occupation of Northern Cyprus. After the fall of the Greek Junta, Konstantinos Karamanlis, the former prime minister, came back to power organizing parliamentary elections and a referendum for the fate of monarchy in Greece. The monarchy was defeated by a two-thirds vote and a new constitution was established in 1975. A parliamentary republic was organized, with a president at the head of the state, appointed by the legislature. In 1981, Greece became a member of the European Community.
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