Nikolaos Makarezos

Nikolaos Makarezos ( Greek Νικόλαος Μακαρέζος ) (* 1919 in Gravia , Fokida ; † August 3, 2009 ) was a Greek officer and, alongside Georgios Papadopoulos and Stylianos Pattakos, the leading head of the military coup of April 21, 1967, with which the Greek military dictatorship began.

Training and military career

Makarezos was born in 1919 in the village of Gravia (Γραβιά Παρνασσίδος) in Fokida. After attending the village school and grammar school in Lamia , he attended the army cadet school from 1937 , from which he graduated in 1940 with the rank of lieutenant to the 1st heavy artillery regiment . He finished his military training at the artillery school in Megalo Pefko (Μεγάλο Πεύκο), the English artillery training school in Almaza near Cairo and the American artillery school in Babenhausen (Hesse) in Germany. He also studied economics and political science. He took part in the Greco-Italian War and the other armed forces of the 1940s.

He was an instructor at the Megalo Pefko Artillery School, the Army Cadet School and the Higher War School and military attaché at the Greek Embassy in Bonn (1962–1965).

Military government

→ Main article : Greek military dictatorship

With Georgios Papadopoulos , who like himself only held the relatively low rank of colonel, and Brigadier General Stylianos Pattakos , he planned the coup to overthrow the government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos , which was carried out on the night of April 20-21, 1967. The three-person junta initially pushed Konstantinos Kollias , who was loyal to the king, as prime minister. After the failed counter-coup by the king in December 1967, Papadopoulos took over this office and played the leading role in the colonel's regime.

Makarezos belonged to the governments during the military dictatorship until October 1973 with special responsibility for economic policy: until August 1971 as coordination minister, then until 1973 as vice-prime minister with the responsible supervision of the economic sector.

From 1967 to 1973 high growth rates were achieved with low inflation and low unemployment. The increase in the gross national product was achieved through investment in the tourism industry, public spending and the stimulation of domestic and foreign capital investment, which led to investments by numerous international companies. Furthermore, the construction of energy supply and other infrastructure projects took place to a significant extent. Particularly extensive investments have been made in the tourism industry. Given the large volume of state funds used for this, signs of corruption were not absent. Numerous low-interest loans were granted for large hotel buildings in an uninteresting tourist area, which led to the emergence of ruins. However, the economic success of previous years eased noticeably in 1973 and led to a dissatisfied mood.

When Papadopoulos appointed the politician Spyros Markezinis as the new prime minister on October 8, 1973 , Makarezos left the government.

Criminal prosecution

After the collapse of the military regime, he was arrested and interned on Kea . After about a year he was sentenced to death as one of the three leaders of the military coup for high treason , but shortly afterwards he was pardoned by Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis to life imprisonment . He was in various prisons for 16 years . For health reasons, the sentence was continued in 1990 as " house arrest ". He died on August 3, 2009.

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1. ↑ Message on elkosmos.gr, accessed on August 4, 2009 (Greek, with photo)
2. ↑ Manousakis, Gregor: Hellas - Where to? The relationship between the military and politics in Greece since 1900. Verlag Wissenschaftliches Archiv, Godesberg 1967. S. 213.

predecessor	Office	successor
Panagiotis pipinelis	Coordination Minister of Greece April 21, 1967 - August 25, 1971	Athanasios Kapsalis (dictatorship)
Grigorios Spandidakis (dictatorship)	Deputy Prime Minister of Greece August 26, 1971 - September 28, 1973	Charilaos Mitrelias (dictatorship)