News

Harvard Alumni Email Forwarding Services to Remain Unchanged Despite Student Protest

News

Democracy Center to Close, Leaving Progressive Cambridge Groups Scrambling

News

Harvard Student Government Approves PSC Petition for Referendum on Israel Divestment

News

Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 Elected Co-Chair of Metropolitan Mayors Coalition

News

Cambridge Residents Slam Council Proposal to Delay Bike Lane Construction

Anti-Junta Greek Asks for Support

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

George Mylonas, former Greek Minister of Education, asked that the U. S. take a "clear stand" against the ruling Greek military junta in a speech at Ames Courtroom yesterday.

America's "lukewarm" position has discouraged the Resistauce Movement in Greece, said Mylonas, who escaped from house arrest last year. If the United States makes its position clear, "the days of the colonels are numbered." he added.

"There is a general feeling in Greece that the U. S. was behind the coup," said Mylonas. "And whether rightly or wrongly, what the people think is important."

The Greek army, led by Lieutenant General Gregorios Spandakis, overthrew a democratically elected government on April 21, 1967. Since then a military junta under Colonel George Papadopoulos has ruled Greece.

Mylonas compared the situation of the U. S. to Caesar's wife Calpurnia. "She must not only be honest but she must appear to be honest. Appearances in this case are not honest."

Mylonas claimed that "Greece is being made less and less safe for NATO" under the military regime. Three thousand officers have been purged from the army because of their political opinions, he said.

He also denounced the junta's suspension of civil liberties and covert press censorship. "If you compare it with the press law of Dr. Goebbel's under the Hitler regime, it is very similar," he said.

Mylonas was on the verge of tears at the end of his speech because of the audience's applause. "Such a thing has not happened in Greece for the past three years," he said. "When the Greeks go to a meeting, they are ordered to."

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags