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March 20, 2011

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Lambrakis accused of heading Makarios coup in Cyprus

Statue of Makarios III, archbishop and preside...Image via Wikipedia
Was one of Greece's top leftist publishers the mastermind behind the coup in Cyprus? This mind-blowing story is currently headlining the Cyprus version of Kathimerini today. 

It refers to an accusation made by parliamentary MP Zaharias Koulias that the late Christos Lambrakis, one of Greece’s most well-known media tycoons, and owner of the Lambrakis Press Group, was actually a close associate of the Greek military junta and, according to Koulias, was the mastermind behind the coup against Makarios on 15 July, 1974.

Lambrakis was one of the most influential political and cultural figures in post-1974 Greece. He was the publisher of the To Vima, Ta Nea and Athens News newspapers as well as 20-plus other weekly and monthly publications, with a large interest in the Mega TV channel. 

The news is shocking, coming from a man with a symbiotic connection to the now ruling socialist party of PASOK.

Koulias, a member of the parliamentary committee investigating the 1974 events that led to the invasion of Cyprus from Turkey, told the Cypriot parliament a couple of days ago that a document presented to his committee by Haris Vovidis, Makarios’ former personal secretary, revealed that three days before the coup, a meeting of the leaders of the plot against the Cyprus president took place at Christos Lambrakis’ villa on the island of Poros.
 

Apart from Lambrakis, other attendees were the dictator Demetris Ioannides, his staff officers, the shipowner Giorgos Potamianos (previously accused of funnelling money from Turkish secret services to EOKA B) and, from Cyprus, Nikos Sampson, the EOKA B stalwart, who assumed the presidency of Cyprus after Makarios was toppled. 
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