Greece - US Department of State

Greece 691
5. Ioannidis then developed the theme of reconciliation of old divisions
within the country and said that a dialog was now becoming
possible between the regime and its opponents—namely the old politicians.
However, by way of criticizing the old politicians as selfish, he
said he had recently had an indirect approach from Evangelos Averof 2
proposing the rule for a few more years without elections by the present
regime plus Averof and Spyridon Markezinis—but excluding all
the other politicians. Throughout, Ioannidis showed a strong desire
that the 21 April revolution should appear in history as beneficial to
Greece and that the democratic successor to the present regime should
be strong and healthy.
6. Ioannidis made a strong case for the Greek army’s need of new
and modern weapons. He said that the Greek people would make sacrifices
if necessary to buy them. However, no matter what happened
about military aid, the United States could count on the love and respect
of the Greek people.
7. I described to Ioannidis the harm that was done to the prestige
of the Greek regime by acts in the name of security which aroused
protests abroad from cultural, scientific, or journalistic groups, among
which fraternal bonds are strong. Ioannidis acknowledged the argument,
but vigorously defended himself as follows:
A. The thirty cashiered officers who are being held by the military
police are not being held without charge. The charges, however,
have not been made public, which is perfectly legal by Greek military
law—when a conspiracy against the security of the state is under investigation—and
even by Greek civil law when the court so orders.
B. His action in detaining rather than bringing the arrested officers
to a speedy trial is “moderate” and humane. “Due process of law”
would mean a court martial which would deprive these officers of their
pensions and no doubt hand down severe prison sentences—to the
great hardship of these officers and their families.
C. As a further example, he said that ex-deputies John Tsirimokos
and Cleanthis Damianos had confessed to putting out with Averof an
illegal anti-regime publication and to conspiring with Averof to burn
down the military court house. Because of a regime desire to reconcile
old differences, however, none of these politicians would be courtmartialed—and
Averof might have legally received twenty years for
his part had he been brought to trial.
8. In response to my strong plea for an Easter amnesty—in the
spirit of resurrection—for the anti-Communist officers now detained,
2 Evangelos Averof was a former Greek Foreign Minister and leader of the ERE.