On this day, May 15, 1968, Alexandros Panagoulis, a politician and activist who opposed the Greek military dictatorship (junta) of 1967–1974, arrived in Cyprus seeking assistance

On this day, May 15, 1968, Alexandros Panagoulis, a politician and activist who opposed the Greek military dictatorship (junta) of 1967–1974, arrived in Cyprus seeking assistance.

Alexandros Panagoulis returned to Cyprus on May 15, 1968, after passing through Greece using his Cypriot passport.

Interior Minister Polykarpos Giorkajis assists Panagoulis and his organization in various ways.

Following the imposition of a military dictatorship (junta) in Greece (April 21, 1967), Alekos Panagoulis went underground as the leader of the “Greek Resistance” and embarked on a multifaceted struggle against the Greek colonels and their regime. Although he initially managed to flee abroad (to Europe and Cyprus), he soon returned secretly to Greece to fight “from within” against the dictatorial regime. The culmination of his resistance activities was his attempt to assassinate the dictator Georgios Papadopoulos on August 13, 1968.

The failed attempt involved blowing up the car carrying the dictator on the Sounion-Athens highway. The failure, primarily due to a lack of coordination, resulted in Panagoulis’s arrest at the scene of the attempt. In custody, he endured terrible torture, yet he did not yield. He was ultimately sentenced to death twice (November 17, 1968), a decision that stirred international public opinion and sparked an international outcry. Protests by governments and international organizations, along with appeals from international figures (including the UN Secretary-General and the Pope), resulted in his sentence being commuted to life imprisonment. He remained a prisoner of the junta and was constantly tortured, but his indomitable strength not only allowed him to endure but also led him to make repeated escape attempts. He thus became an international symbol of the anti-dictatorial struggle and the fight for democracy.

When Panagoulis went into hiding in 1967, he managed to evade the pursuit of the secret police and other agencies of the Greek junta and secretly and illegally entered Cyprus on May 27 of that same year, using a Cypriot student passport. When he arrived in Cyprus, he was initially hosted by the family of a student (Christakis Zoppou) in Paphos. Later, Panagoulis explained that he had decided to come to Cyprus to be trained in guerrilla warfare methods. From Paphos, he got in touch with another Cypriot friend of his, Andreas Christodoulides (later a PASOK official), and was sent to Nicosia, where he appeared as “Marios” and was hosted for a short time by the lawyer Andreas Panagiotou. Soon, however, the Greek secret services discovered his trail leading to Cyprus and began investigating him on the island. Panagiotou then turned to Vassos Lysarides and Takis Hatzidimitriou to secure protection for Panagoulis. It was then arranged for him to move and hide in another house, that of actor Nikos Siafkalis.

Meanwhile, Panagoulis’s whereabouts were traced to Cyprus by the team of Polykarpos Giorkatzis, the Minister of the Interior, who had initially ordered his arrest. At that point, Panagoulis decided he had to leave Cyprus. Vassos Lyssarides spoke with President Makarios, and the latter—who just two months earlier had faced the major crisis in Kofinou ordered that Panagoulis be granted an exit permit (laissez-passer) for Lebanon. Thus, Panagoulis finally made personal contact with Giorkatzis himself, which marked the beginning of their future collaboration. Giorkatzis gave Panagoulis a regular passport, and the latter left for Europe as scheduled on January 27, 1968.

In Rome, Panagoulis founded his anti-dictatorship organization, aided by his friends from Cyprus. Giorkatzis himself, in fact, had other personal and, of course, secret contacts with Panagoulis in Paris and in Cyprus, where Panagoulis returned on May 15, 1968, after passing through Greece as well, using his Cypriot passport. Georkatzis had finally agreed to help Panagoulis and his organization in various ways: financially, materially (by supplying weapons), and by training both Panagoulis himself and the men he had recruited in Cyprus. The first small quantities of weapons had already been sent from Cyprus to Athens via the diplomatic pouch.

It is said that the bomb Panagoulis planted to assassinate the dictator Papadopoulos was delivered to him personally by Giorkatzis. However, this theory was disproved when it became clear that Panagoulis’s attempt to assassinate the dictator Papadopoulos had not been approved by Giorkatzis and that he had acted without his knowledge.