The 1974 collapse of the far-right junta brought relief – but for some it took years to feel safe
fter a seven-year military dictatorship that tortured and exiled opponents, violently suppressed dissent, and restricted freedom of expression, a new dawn broke in“I was at a friend’s house when my mum called and demanded I return home. She said there might be trouble,” said Panagiotis Fourkiotis, 63, recalling the night the regime fell. But in his neighbourhood, all he remembered seeing were smiling faces as he walked home.
At secondary school, Pericles Grambas, 64, and his classmates were warned to steer clear of “undesirable influences”. The polytechnic uprising marked a turning point, noted Grambas. “I remember hearing the shots, and my parents crying and my dad muttering, ‘murderers’. After that, there were people who were openly about the junta.”
For Grambas, too, Greece after the restoration of democracy was like living on “another planet”. “Before that, even miniskirts were banned. Leftwing parties were legalised, and society changed.” Others experienced it differently, he acknowledged: “There were people who had been persecuted for decades – for many, it took years to feel safe.”
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