Stylianos Pattakos

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Left to right: Stylianos Pattakos, Georgios Papadopoulos and Nikolaos Makarezos, in one of their earlier outings together as they appeared on Greek newspapers such as Vradini. Later these joint appearances would become much more rare and the military uniform would be discarded for civilian clothes, in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to look like, and become, mainstream politicians.

Stylianos Pattakos (Greek: Στυλιανός Παττακός) (born November 8, 1912) is a Greek military man who was one of the principals 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 on November 8, 1912, in the small village of Agia Paraskevi in Rethymno Prefecture, Crete and studied at the Hellenic Military Academy. 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 Colonel 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 participation, 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. 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. He was released from jail in September 1990 due to "irreparable damage to his health".

Pattakos made a recent public appearance in 2009 at the age of 97.