GREECE: The Colonel Fires His King

"He cooperated with all kinds of reactionaries, turned against the armed forces and behaved like a party leader of adventurists, fellow travelers, saboteurs and even murderers." With those sharp words, Premier George Papadopoulos, in a ten-minute, nationwide broadcast, last week abolished the monarchy and appointed himself head of the new Greek Republic.

Papadopoulos, who is not only chief of the military junta that has ruled the nation since 1967 but also Greece's regent, denounced exiled King Constantine (see box) for "an unforgiveable lack of maturity." He accused Constantine of supporting an abortive coup planned by royalist naval officers, which gave Papadopoulos an ideal excuse to extend the junta's heavyhanded rule and depose the King.

Under the constitution that Papadopoulos promulgated in 1968, which provides that the King is titular head of state, last week's announcement that Greece had become a republic was patently illegal. But it did not come as much of a surprise. Originally, the colonels had used the throne as a way of giving their rule some illusion of legitimacy. King Constantine's refusal to return to Greece from exile in Rome until democracy was restored had long since made a mockery of that claim.

At week's end there was no clear-cut evidence that Constantine had any knowledge of the attempt to overthrow the junta, which government spokesmen initially brushed off as an "operetta" involving "a handful" of men, including two retired admirals. But shortly afterward, 32 senior naval officers were arrested and presumably will be tried on charges of treason. Then 31 other navymen, led by the commander of the destroyer Velos, mutinied and were granted asylum at the port of Fiumicino in Italy. Then the government admitted that the "operetta" had been a serious attempt at revolution.

According to junta spokesmen, the plot called for "as many as possible" of the Greek navy's ten destroyers and seven submarines to rendezvous at the Aegean island of Syros. From there, an ultimatum would be issued to the junta in Athens: either restore democracy or face a blockade of Greece's two principal ports. Piraeus and Salonika.

The night before the coup was to take place, three destroyer captains who had thrown in with the conspirators witlessly gave the plot away. With their vessels tied up at the tightly guarded Greek naval base in Salamis, the captains told crew members to remain aboard because of "top secret maneuvers" set for the next day. When no men went ashore that night, shore police became suspicious and began questioning the crew. After government officials heard the story about unscheduled maneuvers, the captains were arrested.