Greece, 1951 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 31 May 1951 a group of right-wing officers of the secret military society IDEA, the Sacred Bond of Greek Officers, staged an abortive coup in Athens, occupying the General Staff building, the radio station, and other key points. The rising was triggered by the resignation of Field Marshal Alexandros Papagos, the victorious civil war commander, who stepped down from his army command to enter politics; his departure alarmed IDEA officers whose charter pledged to impose a dictatorship if civilian leaders failed to contain communism. The movement collapsed within a day when Papagos himself intervened to end it, a demonstration that he retained the loyalty of the armed forces.
The coup left the constitutional government intact, and IDEA's grip on the army only tightened after Papagos won the November 1952 election, when officers disciplined for the attempt were rewarded with senior posts.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
35005311951
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The Greek government survived the IDEA coup intact; it was ended within a day by Papagos's intervention.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Wikipedia
Detroit Free Press
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →