August 27, 2018
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Grigorios Spandidakis (Greek: Γρηγόριος Σπαντιδάκης, 1909 – 1996) was a Greek Army officer who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and the post of Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff in 1965 – 1967. From this position, he was instrumental in the military preparations that resulted in the coup d'état of 21 April 1967 and the establishment of the Regime of the Colonels. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for National Defense in the first government of the new regime, but was dismissed after supporting the failed counter - coup attempt launched by King Constantine II on 13 December 1967. After the fall of the regime, he was tried and convicted to life imprisonment for his role in it. He secured an early release on health grounds and died in 1996.

Spandidakis was born in Rethymno, Crete, in 1909. He entered the Hellenic Army Academy, graduating on 5 August 1931 as a Cavalry Second Lieutenant. Promotions followed to Lieutenant in 1935 and Captain in 1938. Spandidakis fought in the Greco - Italian War, and was wounded during the German invasion of Greece. During the Axis Occupation of Greece, he participated in the Omiros resistance group, and in 1944 he fled to the Middle East and joined the elite Sacred Band of the Greek government in exile.

In 1946 he was promoted to Major and fought in the first operations of the Greek Civil War. In 1947 he was appointed as the first head of the new Armor School, a post he held until 1949. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the same year, he was placed for a while as aide de camp to Marshal Alexandros Papagos, followed by command of the 391 Tank Regiment. During the 1950s he was posted in a succession of staff and command posts: Operations Officer of the First Army and of the National Defense General Staff, director of the 1st Staff Office of the NATO HQ in Izmir, CO of the II Tank Battle Command, director of the Army's Organization Bureau, director of the Armor Training Center, and CO of the 20th Armored Division and later of the I Army Corps. In the process he rose to Colonel (1955), Brigadier (1959), Major General (1961) and Lt General (1964). On 9 October 1965, he was appointed Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff.

From this position, Spandidakis became the driving force behind the Army's plans to seize power in view of the ongoing political crisis in the country, under the codename IERAX II. The Army hierarchy, supported by King Constantine II, feared the growing influence of the left, particularly after the Apostasy of July 1965 and the rising anti - palace sentiment among the populace. Spandidakis promoted several officers who would later play a leading role in the coup d'état of 21 April 1967 to key positions; most notably the then Lieutenant Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos.

In early March 1967, in view of the oncoming legislative elections in May which the right wing National Radical Union was widely expected to lose, preparations began for implementing the plan, and Spandidakis postponed a planned visit to the United States. Nevertheless, Spandidakis was caught by surprise by the outbreak of the military putsch of 21 April 1967, which the group of mid level officers around Papadopoulos initiated without waiting for authorization by the King and the Army leadership. He was at first arrested by the putschists who replaced him with Odysseas Angelis, but quickly agreed to assist them. His acquiescence was a crucial factor in allowing the coup d'état to unfold smoothly: he used his authority to persuade the acting CO of the III Army Corps, Brigadier Orestis Vidalis, that the coup was sanctioned by the King, and prevented the formation, the most powerful in the Hellenic Army, to descend upon Athens.

The putschists initially planned to name him Prime Minister, but were persuaded by the King to appoint a civilian, the judge Konstantinos Kollias, instead. In the new government, Spandidakis was thus appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense. When King Constantine II tried to overthrow the junta on 13 December 1967, Spandidakis was on a NATO summit. He supported the failed attempt, and was dismissed from his offices.

After the fall of the junta in 1974, he was tried and condemned to life imprisonment for his role in the coup d'état, but released on grounds of ill health. He died in Athens in 1996.


Konstantinos Kollias (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Κόλλιας; 1901 - 13 Ιουλίου 1998) was a high ranking member of the Greek Judiciary. He took part in the Court Proceedings related to the murder of Grigoris Lambrakis and served as the first prime minister appointed by the junta of the colonels.

Kollias was Deputy Prosecutor of the Areios Pagos since 1946 and Prosecutor since 1962. It was from this post that he was involved ultra vires in the interrogations pertaining to the murder of Grigoris Lambrakis by paramilitary agents in Thessaloniki. His involvement was purposefully designed to muddy the affair by separating the indictments and interrogate separately the actual perpetrators of the murder from those that ordered it, so that it would become easier through manipulation to acquit the latter, who were Police Officers. In the same vein, as a Prosecutor, he applied his authority to avoid imprisonment of Police Officers that were under investigation for the murder.

After the centrist government of Georgios Papandreou was formed, a public inquest was ordered over Kollias' handling of the Lambrakis affair that was directed by the Areios Pagos Judge Antonios Floros. Floros' written Report concluded that there had been several unlawful interferences of Prosecutor Kollias' that influenced, distracted and impeded a proper impartial interrogation. The Minister of Justice, based on this report, submitted an Official Reprimand and started Proceedings against Prosecutor Kollias for dereliction of duty. Finally, a penalty of a six - month Administrative Leave was imposed by the Justice Ministry. However, Kollias took the case to the Council of State, acting as a Court of Appeals, which annulled the Ministry's decision on technicality grounds and sent the relevant documents back to the ministry for reconsideration. The Minister put Kollias once more in a three - month Administrative Leave and sent the Report to the Areios Pagos requesting the dismissal of the Kollias from the post of Public Prosecutor. However, the body correctly judged that it was outside the Ministry of Justice's Prerogative to impose sanctions on members of the Areios Pagos and, therefore, declared the Minister's decision null and void. This left Kollias unpunished and back in his post without any sanctions.

Kollias was the first Prime Minister of the April 21, 1967 Military Dictatorship Regime (junta of the colonels, as is better known throughout Greece). His appointment at this post was a compromise between King Constantine II and the mid - ranking officers of the army that instigated and directed the putsch. Constantine, under pressure to legitimize the illegal government, agreed to do so on condition that a civilian prime minister be appointed while the putschist colonels would not agree on any civilian with friendly tendencies towards the king. The two sides settled on Kollias, who, because of his role in the Lambrakis affair, had a well - documented and proven ultra - conservative right -wing record and ideology. Of course, in reality, the real power was exercised by Georgios Papadopoulos and his fellow officers and Kollias was simply a puppet.

Kollias held the prime ministerial post up until the failed counter - coup organized by the king on December 13, 1967. After that date, Papadopoulos himself assumed the Prime Ministerial post de jure as well.