Word: parliament
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...faded off the air. Then the armed forces station broke the silence to announce a curt and chilling bulletin: in the name of the King, the army had seized power. Tanks and armored personnel carriers stood at every intersection, five of them with pointed barrels taking up posts outside Parliament. Greece's borders were closed, and its communications with the outside world stopped. No planes could land or take off, and arriving ships were turned away from ports. Suddenly, a land of 8,550,000 people, roughly the size of the state of New York, found itself totally...
...willed woman who hotly defends royalty's every prerogative, she lives in retirement in a small villa at Psychiko outside Athens, frequently sees the King and his wife. Last winter, the criticism of the Queen Mother became so strong that in December the government introduced a special law in Parliament extending the lese majesty protection to all members of the royal family, including Frederika. On her part, Frederika voluntarily asked the government to cancel plans to award her a $100,000 annuity lest the action provoke another press storm...
...monarchy but with the strength and determination of a modern king. In fact, the Greek King has considerably more constitutional powers than most kings. He is the supreme authority of the state and commander in chief of the armed forces, concludes treaties and declares war, convokes and dissolves Parliament and appoints and dismisses ministers...
Papandreou's Center Union Party won an unprecedented 53% of the vote in national elections and carried 171 seats in the 300-seat Greek Parliament. Greece seemed about to enter another period of stable government under the new Premier. But no sooner had he taken over than Papandreou started a mass transfer of pro-palace military officers to the hinterlands, shuffling off no fewer than 2,350 officers to outlying districts away from the army nerve centers in the cities. Since the King must turn to the army when in trouble, Constantine did not like to see his loyal officers...
Since Papandreous forces in Parliament remained a majority, the King thereafter had to appoint feeble caretaker governments. Papandreou's eventual successor, Stephan Stephanopoulos (who was also arrested last week), succeeded in whittling the Papandreou majority to a bare plurality by forging a coalition of parties. At the same time, the whole country anxiously awaited the opening of the Aspida trial, in which 28 officers were charged with high treason. The raucous proceedings, which began last November and lasted for four months in an Athens court room, finally resulted in March in conviction and prison sentences for 15 of the defendants...