Stylianos Pattakos
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Stylianos Pattakos (Greek: Στυλιανός Παττακός) was a Greek military man and one of the masterminds of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 that overthrew the government of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos in a coup d'état on April 21, 1967.
He was born in 1912 in the small village of Agia Paraskevi in Crete and studied in Greek military school. He was commissioned an officer and saw action in World War II.
After the war, he eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General and was assigned to the armoured divisions of the Attica plain. It was then that he met Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos and Brigadier General Nikolaos Makarezos. The threesome planned and executed the coup on the night of April 20 to April 21, 1967, claiming political anomaly had made them to do so. For his trouble, Pattakos was awarded with the Ministry of the Interior. As head of that post, Pattakos stripped Greek actress and political activist, Melina Mercouri, of Greek citizenship. Ms. Mercouri retorted "I was born a Greek and I will die a Greek. Mr. Pattakos was born a fascist and he will die a fascist!"
On November 25, 1973, politically far right Brigadier General Dimitrios Ioannides overthrew Papadopoulos and Pattakos found himself sidelined. The following year, the 7-year Junta came to an end in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The newly-restored democratic government of Constantine Karamanlis put junta officials on trial for rebellion and treason and Pattakos was sentenced to death. That was later commuted to life imprisonment and Pattakos spent the next 15 years behind bars. He was released in 1990 due to health reasons and has been living on the outside ever since on one leave extension after another. He claims to have found religion but has never shown remorse for his actions.
