WreathOfLaurels
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Paul Prestson, in his book on the King of spain, it is obvious that ignores the facts that occurred in Greece.
First, the elections scheduled on May 28, 1967, was the King who did it to solve the problem . Given the political instability that had been created, the confrontation between political forces in parliament to reach agreements, did not allowed create a stable government in Greece. The King constantine convoked meetings with the leaders political, George Papandreou attended the meetings ... of these meetings came an agreement to hold elections and political parties pledged to respect the result.
Preston got all his info from one very questionable book; but then again, he's not a Greece expert but a Spain one - all things considers it's something I can forgive.
Second, Colonels give a coup against the military leadership of the King, against the agreement call for elections and against ASPIDA complot.
Third, George Papadopoulos, was not General Franco.
Damn right 'bout that
Queen Frederika had nothing to do with the coup of the colonels. On 21 April, the colonels introduced in Athens the tanks , taking advantage of the confusion, many people thought it would be a military parade. They put tanks on the streets and squares, public buildings, parliament, the royal palace..and take the media and suspend the telephone line. They put tanks in the houses of politicians and also in the house of the Queen Frederika when the tanks is put into her door , the Frederika sees them, she thought it was a coup of the "reds", the Communists, but after a while a soldier had to reassure telling her that they'd just avoid coup communist state.
I forgot to mention that Preston actually uses Measure of Understanding in Juan Carlos - ????
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This last WreathOfLaurels you are commenting:
when Karamanlis returned to Greece in July 1974, Constantine had been betrayed by him, knew that the monarchy would not be restored , because Constantine knew that to restored of monarchy was necessary that the 1952 Constitution would restored in full, also the head of state, in the person of King, after the referendum could be celebrated .....but Karamanlis knew of it, he did not restored the title of constitution of monarchy . After he announces a referendum in a short time, he did not allow the participation of supporters of the monarchy, and the king , Constantine knew it would be a miracle.
Karamanlis always denied having betrayed the king, and denied have been managing the return of the King. He denied contacts with the King. But Constantine said otherwise, that he had spoken and met with him , when a British politician or a personality claimed it was true, that Karamanlis had been managing the return of King ...... then Karamanlis ,always resorted to this kind of story, where he was the hero who had saved Greece once again![]()
That the old 1952 constitution wasn't fit for purpose is hard to deny - Greece was in desperate need of social and economic reform and the fact that there was considerable vested interest in maintaining what was a very conservative and corrupt state system is also hard to deny but frankly I fail to see how abolishing the monarchy would further the cause of reform. Although in all honesty Constantine probably should have returned to greece before Karamanlis got a chance - this would have poss forced his hand, but tradition stated that you only returned after the referenda was held...
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f61/greek-royal-family-10656-2.html#post1901399
Here's a link through to what i've had to say about the book in question on another thread
Βασιλιάς Κωνσταντίνος Β΄και ΓεώÏγιος Î*απανδÏÎ*ου ‹ The Royal Chronicles
More background from a really fantastic website - what a great resource (even if it needs google translate for an unfortunate monolingual like me!)
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