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- First evidence of Lithuanian democracy dates back to 16th century during Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth time
- In 1791 first written constitution in Europe and second in the World was created
- During 19th-20th centuries "knygnešiai" or "book smugglers" appeared to save Lithuanian Language
- 1918-1926 was a freshly created democratic state
- 1990 Lithuanian regained its independence and is a free country since

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A Treviso s'inaugura un monumento ai caduti in guerra

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L'Archivio Storico Luce è uno dei più ricchi al mondo, e continua a incrementarsi. Con le sue centinaia di migliaia di filmati e fotografie rappresenta la memoria visiva dell'Italia.

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Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism[1][2] characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy[3] which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.[4] The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries.

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An institutional referendum (Italian: referendum istituzionale, or referendum sulla forma istituzionale dello Stato)[1][2][3] was held in Italy on 2 June 1946,[4] a key event of Italian contemporary history. Until 1946, Italy had been a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, kings of Italy since the Risorgimento and previously rulers of Savoy. However, Benito Mussolini imposed fascism after the 28 October 1922 March on Rome, eventually engaging Italy in World War II alongside Nazi Germany. The popular referendum resulted in voters favouring the replacement of the monarchy with a republic. Monarchists had suspicions of fraud, but were never able to prove these. A Constituent Assembly was elected at the same time

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The institutional referendum

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Armenia declared its sovereignty from the Soviet Union on 23 August 1991. In the wake of the August Coup, a referendum was held on the question of secession. Following an overwhelming vote in favour, full independence was declared on 21 September 1991. However, widespread recognition did not occur until the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991.

Armenia faced many challenges during its first years as a sovereign state. Several Armenian organizations from around the world quickly arrived to offer aid and to participate in the country's early years. From Canada, a group of young students and volunteers under the CYMA - Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia banner arrived in Ararat Region and became the first youth organization to contribute to the newly independent Republic.

Following the Armenian victory in the Nagorno-Karabakh war, both Azerbaijan and Turkey closed their borders and imposed a blockade which they retain to this day, severely affecting the economy of the fledgling republic. In October 2009 Turkey and Armenia signed a treaty to normalize relations.

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- Peaceful political demonstration for independence
- 23 August 1989
- 2 mln people from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined their hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 kilometres across all three countries
- Brought worldwide attention to human rights violations by the Soviet Union

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania

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Nepakartojamas Baltijos kelias / The Inimitable Baltic Way / #BalticWay30

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Levon Ter-Petrosyan was popularly elected the first President of the newly independent Republic of Armenia on 16 October 1991 and re-elected on 22 September 1996.

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After the resignation of his predecessor Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Robert Kocharyan was elected Armenia's second President on 30 March 1998, defeating his main rival, Karen Demirchyan, in an early presidential election marred by irregularities and violations by both sides as reported by international electoral observers. Complaints included that Kocharyan had not been an Armenian citizen for ten years as required by the constitution.,

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Serzh Sargsyan, then Prime Minister of Armenia and having President Kocharyan's backing, was viewed as the strongest contender for the post of the President of Armenia in the February 2008 presidential election.

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Lietuvos nacionalinis radijas ir televizija

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A referendum, in the Italian legal system is a request directed to the whole electorate to express their view on a determined question. It is the main instrument of direct democracy in Italy.[1]

The Constitution of Italy only provides for four types of legally binding referendums:[2]

A popular referendum, in which the electorate is called to vote on whether they wish to abolish (abrogate) an existing law, either totally or partially.[3]

A constitutional referendum, which can be requested in some cases when a new constitutional law is approved by Parliament.[4] Similarly, a referendum can be requested to confirm the adoption of the Statute of ordinary regions.[5]

An advisory referendum is required to approve the modification of regions, provinces, or municipalities.[6]

A popular referendum on regional laws and regulations may be regulated by regional statutes

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Янукович и конфета

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Зрадника народу України В. Литвина закидали яйцями

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Winter on Fire

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Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom | Trailer [HD] | Netflix

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Democracy in ancient Greece served as one of the first forms of self-rule government in the ancient world. The system and ideas employed by the ancient Greeks had profound influences on how democracy developed, and its impact on the formation of the U.S. government.

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Ինչպես են  ոստիկաններն առևանգում Նիկոլ Փաշինյանին

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"I was wrong, while Nikol Pashinyan was right".

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In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or "rule by the people" (from demos, "the people," and kratos, or "power"). It was the first known democracy in the world.

This system was comprised of three separate institutions: the ekklesia, a sovereign governing body that wrote laws and dictated foreign policy; the boule, a council of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes and the dikasteria, the popular courts in which citizens argued cases before a group of lottery-selected jurors. Although this Athenian democracy would survive for only two centuries, its invention by Cleisthenes, "The Father of Democracy," was one of ancient Greece's most enduring contributions to the modern world. The Greek system of direct democracy would pave the way for representative democracies across the globe.

Who Could Vote in Ancient Greece?

"In a democracy," the Greek historian Herodotus wrote, "there is, first, that most splendid of virtues, equality before the law." It was true that Cleisthenes' demokratia abolished the political distinctions between the Athenian aristocrats who had long monopolized the political decision-making process and the middle- and working-class people who made up the army and the navy (and whose incipient discontent was the reason Cleisthenes introduced his reforms in the first place).

Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from Athens for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia.

However, the "equality" Herodotus described was limited to a small segment of the Athenian population in Ancient Greece. For example, in Athens in the middle of the 4th century there were about 100,000 citizens (Athenian citizenship was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens), about 10,000 metoikoi, or "resident foreigners," and 150,000 slaves. Out of all those people, only male citizens who were older than 18 were a part of the demos, meaning only about 40,000 people could participate in the democratic process.

The Ekklesia

Athenian democracy was a direct democracy made up of three important institutions. The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. Any member of the demos-any one of those 40,000 adult male citizens-was welcome to attend the meetings of the ekklesia, which were held 40 times per year in a hillside auditorium west of the Acropolis called the Pnyx. (Only about 5,000 men attended each session of the Assembly; the rest were serving in the army or navy or working to support their families.)

At the meetings, the ekklesia made decisions about war and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws and approved or condemned the conduct of public officials. (Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from the Athenian city-state for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia.) The group made decisions by simple majority vote.

The Boule

The second important institution was the boule, or Council of Five Hundred. The boule was a group of 500 men, 50 from each of ten Athenian tribes, who served on the Council for one year. Unlike the ekklesia, the boule met every day and did most of the hands-on work of governance. It supervised government workers and was in charge of things like navy ships (triremes) and army horses. It dealt with ambassadors and representatives from other city-states. Its main function was to decide what matters would come before the ekklesia. In this way, the 500 members of the boule dictated how the entire democracy would work.

Positions on the boule were chosen by lot and not by election. This was because, in theory, a random lottery was more democratic than an election: pure chance, after all, could not be influenced by things like money or popularity. The lottery system also prevented the establishment of a permanent class of civil servants who might be tempted to use the government to advance or enrich themselves. However, historians argue that selection to the boule was not always just a matter of chance. They note that wealthy and influential people-and their relatives-served on the Council much more frequently than would be likely in a truly random lottery.

The Dikasteria

The third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria. Every day, more than 500 jurors were chosen by lot from a pool of male citizens older than 30. Of all the democratic institutions, Aristotle argued that the dikasteria "contributed most to the strength of democracy" because the jury had almost unlimited power.

There were no police in Athens, so it was the demos themselves who brought court cases, argued for the prosecution and the defense and delivered verdicts and sentences by majority rule. (There were also no rules about what kinds of cases could be prosecuted or what could and could not be said at trial, and so Athenian citizens frequently used the dikasteria to punish or embarrass their enemies.)

Jurors were paid a wage for their work, so that the job could be accessible to everyone and not just the wealthy (but, since the wage was less than what the average worker earned in a day, the typical juror was an elderly retiree). Since Athenians did not pay taxes, the money for these payments came from customs duties, contributions from allies and taxes levied on the metoikoi. The one exception to this rule was the leitourgia, or liturgy, which was a kind of tax that wealthy people volunteered to pay to sponsor major civic undertakings such as the maintenance of a navy ship (this liturgy was called the trierarchia) or the production of a play or choral performance at the city's annual festival.

The End of Athenian Democracy

Around 460 B.C., under the rule of the general Pericles (generals were among the only public officials who were elected, not appointed) Athenian democracy began to evolve into something that we would call an aristocracy: the rule of what Herodotus called "the one man, the best." Though democratic ideals and processes did not survive in ancient Greece, they have been influencing politicians and governments ever since.

Modern representative democracies, in contrast to direct democracies, have citizens who vote for representatives who create and enact laws on their behalf. Canada, The United States and South Africa are all examples of modern-day representative democracies.

HISTORY Vault: Ancient History

Fact Check

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In the year 507 B.C., the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or "rule by the people" (from demos, "the people," and kratos, or "power"). It was the first known democracy in the world.

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Duxov Mix 2018 QaylAra Armenian Dance Mix DJ ZENO

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Russian Invasion

Ukrainian language is banned
Russian Propaganda
2 citizenship (People are forced to have Russian passports)
Limitation of Rights
(no freedom of speech....
closed borders/
policy
Persecutions of Crimean Tatars/
Political Prisoners)
Total control and totalitarian
What happened to me

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Zelensky challenges Poroshenko to Olympic debate

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1710 - first Constitution in the world (never adopted though)
24th of August 1991 - peaceful Independence Day
28th of June 1996 - we finally got our Constitution
We had 6 presidents, 3 revolutions, 1 war.

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Янукович и венок .mpg

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The January Events took place in Lithuania between 11 and 13 January 1991 in the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania.
There were attempts to attack the government palace, main post office, the Lithuanian national radio and television building, the TV tower and publishing houses.
As a result of Soviet military actions, 14 civilians were killed and 702 were injured.
The events were centered in its capital, Vilnius.
Lithuanians fought for their freedom with a peaceful demonstration without any weapons against armed Soviet soldiers that came in tanks.

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Referendum on the divorce  on 12 May 1974

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Referendum on the divorce  on 12 May 1974

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Voters were asked whether they wanted to repeal a government law passed three years earlier allowing divorce for the first time in modern Italian history. Those voting "yes" wanted to outlaw divorce as had been the case before the law came into effect, and those voting "no" wanted to retain the law and their newly gained right to divorce. The referendum was defeated by margin of 59.26% to 40.74% on a voter turnout of 87.72% out of 37 million eligible voters, thus allowing the divorce laws to remain in force.

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SYND 14-5-74 RESULTS ON DIVORCE REFERENDUM DIVORCE LAW STAYS

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania

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The13th of January (second part)/Sausio 13-oji (antra dalis)

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On 13th of January 1991, unarmed Lithuania struggled for its right to be a free, independent and democratic country. 14 people were killed, about 1000 were injured as the Soviet occupation army and the KGB attempted to overthrow the legitimate government of the country and to seize the Lithuanian national radio and television building, the TV tower and publishing houses.

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Present democracy situation in Lithuania

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Present democracy situation in Lithuania

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- After the independence we chose to be a democratic republic
- But people didn't had enough practice or understanding in democracy, because voting in SSRS was fake
- So now they are not interested in political life or voting
- Some Lithuanians still want to be ruled by "the strong arm" so they are not so responsible for voting and its easy to blame others than to take personal responsibility
- Slowly the awareness of democracy importance is growing and hopefully people will start to care more about what they choose to be represented by

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The Ruins of Donetsk Airport- Russian Roulette (Dispatch 95) (online-video-cutter.com) (1)

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There are some things that refuse to be covered over. It would be more convenient, yes, and easier for everyone if the official version were believed. But then the facts begin to trip over one another, and contradictions emerge, and an "accident" is revealed as a crime.

The film "Z" is about one of these things: about the assassination, six years ago, of a leader of the political opposition in Greece. It is also about all the rest of them. For Americans, it is about the My Lai massacre, the killing of Fred Hampton, the Bay of Pigs. It is no more about Greece than " The Battle of Algiers" was about Algeria. It is a film of our time. It is about how even moral victories are corrupted. It will make you weep and will make you angry. It will tear your guts out.

It is told simply, and it is based on fact. On May 22, 1963, Gregorios Lambrakis was fatally injured in a "traffic accident." He was a deputy of the opposition party in Greece. The accident theory smelled, and the government appointed an investigator to look into the affair.

His tacit duty was to reaffirm the official version of the death, but his investigation convinced him that Lambrakis had, indeed, been assassinated by a clandestine right-wing organization. High-ranking army and police officials were implicated. The plot was unmasked in court and sentences were handed down -- stiff sentences to the little guys (dupes, really) who had carried out the murder, and acquittal for the influential officials who had ordered it.

But the story was not over. When the Army junta staged its coup in 1967, the right-wing generals and the police chief were cleared of all charges and "rehabilitated." Those responsible for unmasking the assassination now became political criminals.

These would seem to be completely political events, but the young director Costa-Gravas has told them in a style that is almost unbearably exciting. "Z" is at the same time a political cry of rage and a brilliant suspense thriller. It even ends in a chase: Not through the streets but through a maze of facts, alibis and official corruption.

Like Gillo Pontecorvo, who directed "Battle of Algiers," Costa-Gravas maintains a point of view above the level of the events he photographs. His protagonist changes during the film as he leads us from an initial personal involvement to the indictment of an entire political system. At first, we are interested in Yves Montand, the wise and gentle political leader who is slain. Then our attention is directed to the widow ( Irene Papas) and to the opposition leaders who will carry on ( Charles Denner and Bernard Fresson).

And then, in the masterful last third of the film, we follow the stubborn investigator ( Jean-Louis Trintignant) as he resists official pressure to conceal the scandal. He puts together his evidence almost reluctantly; he has no desire to bring down the government, but he must see justice done if he can. His sympathies are neutral, and a truly neutral judge is the most fearsome thing the Establishment can imagine. What good is justice if it can be dealt out to the state as well as to the people? (The implications here for Chicago's conspiracy trial are obvious.)

The movie at first seems to end with triumph. The rotten core of the government is exposed. The military men and the police chief are indicted for murder, official misconduct, obstructing justice. One of the assassinated leader's young followers races to bring the widow the good news. He finds her waiting by the seashore. He is triumphant; justice will be done; the government will fall. Irene Papas hears his news silently and then turns and looks out to sea. Her face reflects no triumph; only suffering and despair. What is really left for her to say?

Nothing, as we know now. The right wing won in the long run and controls Greece today. This film's director, writer, composer and Miss Papas are all banned in Greece ("banned" -- that terrible word we heard from Russia and South Africa, and now from Greece). Even the letter "Z" (which means "he is alive") is banned in Greece.

When this film was shown at the San Francisco Film Festival, it was attacked in some quarters as being anti-American, but does it not tell the simple truth? We do support the Greek junta. We do recognize the government that murdered Lambrakis. We did permit the junta to prevent free elections in Greece. And in Vietnam, the candidate who placed second in the "free elections" we sponsored sits in a Saigon jail today. His name is also banned.

Popular Blog Posts

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Z movie review & film summary (1969) | Roger Ebert

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There are some things that refuse to be covered over. It would be more convenient, yes, and easier for everyone if the official version were believed. But then the facts begin to trip over one another, and contradictions emerge, and an "accident" is revealed as a crime.

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The years 1940-1949 were ones of continuous horror for the Greek people.

When the Second World War (WWII) ended in 1945 and the rest of Europe was beginning to rebuild itself, Greece entered into a second war, more vicious than that fought against the Axis powers. If eight percent of the population of seven million had died or been killed during WWII, the Greek civil war (GCW) brought that figure up to ten percent.

After the First World War, Greece did not enjoy political stability, enduring repeated coups d'état and dozens of governments. Although Greek communists had been a serious threat to all Greece's frequently changing governments, the struggle between monarchists and republicans was also bitter.

Despite pro-German sympathies the Greek government remained neutral at the outset of World War II. When the country was invaded by Italy, Greece became an Allied nation in 1940. Although the Italian invasion was repulsed, by May 1941 when German troops swept through the Balkans, Greece was also occupied and partitioned among Italian, German, and Bulgarian forces. The occupation was brutal: the people were crushed and the land and whatever grew or was built on it decimated.

The period of Greek civil strife is commonly divided into three "rounds". The first one began in 1943, long before WWII was over. At that point, the communist-supported Greek resistance movement that fought the occupation-the National Liberation Front (EAM)-and its guerilla units-the National People's Liberation Army (ELAS)-found themselves fighting at times against their rival in the resistance, the National Republican Greek League (EDES).

In May 1944 the communists appeared to be gaining the upper hand in most of the country. In areas under their control they launched a terror campaign against their opponents. When liberation came in October 1944, Greece was in a state of crisis, which soon led to the outbreak of another round of violence.

By early December of that year, round two ( Dekemvriana, the December events) erupted. The regular Greek National Army (GNA), assisted by British units, crushed the ELAS forces. The conflict appeared to have been settled by the Varkiza Agreement, February 1945. The communists accepted defeat and agreed to disband, and the government consented to general amnesty of EAM/ELAS members.

Neither side fully abided by the agreement: a government-backed terror campaign was launched against the EAM/ELAS members and supporters, and the left did not fully comply with its obligation to surrender all weapons. The remnants of EAM went underground and the ELAS fighters retreated to the mountains to conduct guerilla warfare.

In December 1946, they renamed themselves the Greek Democratic Army (DSE) and were completely controlled by the Greek Communist Party (KKE). The DSE was assisted by the new communist regimes of Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The third round, the civil war proper, was only a matter of time.

This change in tactics proved afatal mistake. Manpower shortage prevented the DSE from conducting a successful conventional warfare. Its guerilla style-hit-and-run attacks-had been much more effective. The GNA (heavily supplied by American instructors, weapons and materiel from the Truman Administration) now proved its superiority in manpower, weapons, and particularly air-force.Indeed, in March 1946, ELAS guerillas attacked a police station in the village of Litochoro killing its occupants, an event that signaled the beginning of the third round. A series of successful attacks and wide grassroots support encouraged the KKE's leadership (September 1947) to change its strategy from that of guerilla to full scale conventional military warfare.

DSE fighters, circa 1947 (left) and the Greek Communist Party (KKE) logo (right)
Several other mistakes also proved critically detrimental to the communists' efforts and eventually doomed it to failure.

Greek public opinion tilted against the communists because of the evacuation (or abduction) of close to 28,000 Greek children to safe heavens in the Balkan countries (or, according to government sources, to training centers that were meant to turn the children into a communist avant-garde military force, à-la-the Ottoman Janissaries, to enforce communism around the globe).

In addition, the growing share of Slavic Macedonians within the DSE caused many Greek citizens to fear that they harbored separatist interests that would lead to the disintegration of Greece.

The GCW was not only a bitter internal struggle between two ideologically irreconcilable Greek camps-derogatively labeled " monarcho-fascists" and " bandits "-each envisaging and proposing diametrically opposed programs for the rehabilitation and future of the their war-devastated country. The GCW was also an end-game among the Allies to tie up the loose ends of their spoils-of-war agreements.

The gravest KKE mistake was the support given (in late 1948) by its leadership to Stalin, in the latter's row with the "renegade" Yugoslav leader Tito ( left). Yugoslavia had been the main training and supply center of the DSE, but the moment the KKE supported Stalin and condemned Tito, the latter severed his military and logistics ties with the DSE (July 1949). Without Tito's support, the communist forces suffered a defeat three months later in the last battles of the DSE on Greek soil, in the mountains of Grammos and Vitsi.

It was one of the first conflicts of the Cold War: Greece was the only place in Central, Balkan and Eastern Europe where communism attempted, but failed, to take power.

The civil war was further complicated by the fact that while the communists may have enjoyed considerable grassroots support in Greece itself, their putative ally, the Soviet Union, had other fish to fry. In an agreement (unknown to the Greek left) Moscow had agreed with Great Britain not to support communism in Greece, apparently in exchange for the Soviets having the upper hand in the rest of Eastern Europe. Deprived of their own great power backing, Greek communists were hardly a match for their British and American-backed opponents

The civil war left Greece in a greater economic crisis than the country suffered as a result of the German occupation.

Of a population not much greater than seven million, well over 100,000, possibly close to 150,000, perished in the civil war. One million became homeless and 28,000 children "disappeared" (to become ardent communist fighters or taken abroad for their own safety).

A deep political polarization prevailed in Greece, resulting in the imprisonment and execution of tens of thousands. A vehemently right-wing, anti-communist military establishment led the country, culminating in the rise of the military junta of 1967-1974. The abolition of the colonels' regime (1974), and the Greece's European Union membership (1981) buttressed Greek democracy and isolated its anti-democratic forces.

In the early 1980s, the center-left government allowed the return to Greece of veterans of the DSE who thirty years earlier took refuge in communist countries. Their return brought at least a certain measure of closure to the years of violence and destruction that accompanied the Greek Civil War.

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The years 1940-1949 were ones of continuous horror for the Greek people. When the Second World War (WWII) ended in 1945 and the rest of Europe was beginning to rebuild itself, Greece entered into a second war, more vicious than that fought against the Axis powers.

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Theodorakis Farantouri To Yelasto Pedi 1974

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Παρουσίαση χωρίς τίτλο

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The first elections since the fateful ones of 1936 were held in March 1946. These were flawed and, with the far left abstaining, resulted in a sweeping victory for the royalist right. In September a plebiscite issued a vote for the return of King George II; he died within six months and his brother Paul succeeded him. Against this background the country slid toward civil war, as the far left was undecided as to whether to work within the political system or to make an armed bid for power.

The turning point came with the establishment in October 1946 of a communist-controlled Democratic Army, and the following year the communists established a Provisional Democratic Government. Although heavily outnumbered, the communists were able-with the logistical support from the newly established communist regimes to the north, coupled with skillful use of guerrilla tactics-to control a wide area of northern Greece for a substantial period of time. Following the declaration of the Truman Doctrine in March 1947, which pledged support for "free peoples" in their fight against internal subversion, the tide gradually began to turn. The United States, assuming Britain's former mantle as Greece's chief external patron, soon provided military equipment and advice. American intervention and the consequences of the break between Josip Broz Tito (under whose leadership the Yugoslav state would eventually unite) and Stalin, combined with factionalism and altered military tactics on the left, all contributed to the defeat of the communist guerrillas in the summer of 1949.

Greece emerged from the laborious 1940s in a state of devastation. The post-civil-war political regime was distinctly authoritarian, and from the mid-1950s Greece underwent a rapid but unevenly distributed process of economic and social development, far surpassing its communist neighbours to the north in standard of living. The population of greater Athens more than doubled in size between 1951 and 1981, and by the early 1990s about one-third of the entire population was concentrated in the area of the capital. However, if urbanization progressed quickly and living standards rose rapidly, the country's political institutions failed to keep pace with rapid change. The right maintained a firm grip on power for the majority of the period from 1952 to 1963 and was none too careful in the means it employed to retain it.

By the early 1960s, however, the electorate-which now included women-had become increasingly disillusioned with the repressive legacy of the civil war and sought change. Georgios Papandreou, whose Centre Union Party secured a sweeping victory in 1964, responded to this need as prime minister; yet the promise of reform and modernization was cast aside with renewed crisis in Cyprus, and groups within the army conspired to subvert the country's democratic institutions. A guerrilla campaign in Cyprus-fought from the mid-1950s onward with tenacity and ruthlessness by the Greek-Cypriot general Georgios Grivas -had resulted in 1960 in the British conceding not the union with the Greek state sought by the overwhelming Greek-Cypriot majority on the island but rather independence. However, within three years the elaborate power-sharing arrangements between the Greek majority and the Turkish minority on the island had collapsed.

During and following the civil war, Greece's armed forces had come to look upon themselves not only as the country's guardians against foreign aggression but also as its defenders against internal subversion. They increasingly viewed Georgios Papandreou as a stalking horse for his much more radical American-educated son, Andreas Papandreou, who had returned to Greece and joined his father's government.

In April 1967, middle-ranking officers led by Col. Georgios Papadopoulos launched a coup designed to thwart an expected Centre Union victory in elections planned for May of that year. The conspirators took advantage of a prolonged political crisis, which had its origins in a dispute between the young King Constantine II, who had succeeded his father, King Paul, to the throne in 1964, and his prime minister, Georgios Papandreou. Alternating between policies that were heavy-handed and absurd, the "Colonels," as the military junta came to be known, misruled the country from 1967 to 1974. After a failed countercoup in December 1967, King Constantine went into exile, with Papadopoulos assuming the role of regent. In 1973 the monarchy was abolished, and Greece was declared a republic. That year, following student protests, which were violently suppressed, Papadopoulos himself was overthrown from within the junta and replaced by the even more repressive Gen. Demetrios Ioannidis, the head of the much-feared military police.

In July 1974, in the wake of an increasingly bitter dispute between Greece and Turkey over oil rights in the Aegean Sea, Ioannidis, seeking a nationalist triumph, launched a coup to depose Makarios III, the archbishop and president of Cyprus since 1960. Makarios survived, but the coup triggered the invasion of the northern part of the island by Turkey, which, together with Britain and Greece, was a guarantor of the 1960 constitutional settlement. The Turkish army occupied nearly two-fifths of the land area of the island, despite the fact that the Turkish population constituted less than one-fifth of the total population. Ioannidis responded to the Turkish invasion by mobilizing for war with Turkey. The mobilization proved chaotic, however, and the regime, bitterly unpopular domestically and totally isolated diplomatically, collapsed.

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Greece - Greece - Civil war and its legacy: The first elections since the fateful ones of 1936 were held in March 1946. These were flawed and, with the far left abstaining, resulted in a sweeping victory for the royalist right.

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Παρουσίαση χωρίς τίτλο (2)

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Cleisthenes (b. late 570s BCE) was an Athenian statesman who famously reformed the political structure and processes of Athens at the end of the 6th century BCE and, thereby, greatly increased the influence of ordinary citizens on everyday politics. Accordingly, he is credited with creating a celebrated system of democracy, which, over the following decades, would become ever more direct so that all citizens could actively and directly participate in government.

Early Life

Cleisthenes (also Kleisthenes) was born into the aristocratic Alcmaeonid family of Athens sometime in the late 570s BCE. His father was Megacles, himself a powerful figure in Athenian politics, and his mother, Agariste, was the daughter of Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, a city west of Corinth. Cleisthenes first came to political prominence when he was made archon, a high administrative official, in 525 BCE during the reign of the tyrant Hippias. However, when the Alcmaeonid family fell out of favour with the ruling regime Cleisthenes went into exile.

Cleisthenes vs. Isagoras

Whilst in exile, Cleisthenes, claiming support from the sacred oracle at Delphi, convinced Athens' old rival Sparta to remove Hippias. Cleisthenes then returned to Athens and vied for power with his great rival, Isagoras. The latter gained political ground when he was made archon in 508 BCE, but Cleisthenes fought back by proposing a programme of political reforms which would win him popular support amongst the citizenry of Athens. Seeing the danger of this, Isagoras appealed to his ally, the Spartan king Cleomenes, to intervene and remove his rival. The Spartans did send a small force to lay siege to Athens, and Cleisthenes prudently left the city. The Spartans were rebuffed, though, by popular resistance and, when Isagoras and the Spartans withdrew, Cleisthenes was able to return to his home city. There was now no obstacle to Cleisthenes' proposed reforms.

Traditional Athenian classifications & kin groups such as the four Ionian tribes were replaced in significance by a Whole new System.

Cleisthenes' Democratic Reforms

The most important element of Cleisthenes' reforms c. 508 BCE was to reorganize the citizen body of Athens. Traditional classifications and kin groups such as the four Ionian tribes were replaced in significance by a new classification where each member of the citizen body ( demos) was to belong to one of 139 local units or demoi ( demes). Demes, distributed all over Attica, then belonged to one of 30 trittyes, which, in turn, belonged to one of 10 tribes or phylai. Further, the three trittyes which made up a single tribe each had to come from one of three different areas of territorial classification (Coast, Inland, and City) so that it now became much less likely that tribes would act based on geographical and family loyalties.

All political and military groupings would now be based on these new divisions. Any male who registered with their deme automatically became a citizen and so could participate in the new council of 500, the boule, where everyone had an equal right to speak. Cleisthenes' main motivation in these reforms was probably to reduce the influence of traditional groups and allow himself and the Alcmaeonids more freedom of political maneuver in a more stable political system. He had realized that stability would only come if the political base was broadened to include more citizens and as Herodotus stated, "By adding the people to his side, he gained the upper hand by far over his political opponents (5.69)."

For the ordinary citizens (that is males only) the reforms would allow them to, at least in theory, access institutions and power previously reserved for the traditional aristocratic families. In this sense, and although perhaps not fully realized yet in practice, Cleisthenes established democracy in Athens and prepared the way for further reforms over the next decades which would create a fully and direct democratic system of government in which all citizens could participate. Solon had made all citizens equal before the law and reduced the influence of the landed Athenian aristocracy in the previous century, but in Classical Athens it was Cleisthenes who was credited with being the true founding father of Athenian democracy.

Another reform which is highly likely to have been instigated by Cleisthenes was the political procedure of ostracism whereby the citizen body could vote in a public assembly to exile any person thought to be dangerous or too powerful for the city's welfare. Although not used that often over the next century, the process, and especially the threat of it, was, nevertheless, the greatest example of how ordinary citizens could directly curtail the career of over-ambitious, corrupt, or simply inept politicians. Nothing, unfortunately, is recorded of Cleisthenes' later life after his reforms but they, at least, have ensured his lasting reputation as one of the earliest rulers to promote democracy and the ideal that government should rest with the many rather than the few.

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Cleisthenes (b. late 570s BCE) was an Athenian statesman who famously reformed the political structure and processes of Athens at the end of the 6th century BCE and, thereby, greatly increased the influence of ordinary citizens on everyday politics.

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Greece riots: protesters in Athens start to clash amongst themselves