Greece claims itself the heir to millennia of civilization, full of rich discourse, philosophy, science, government, and virtually every other area of study known to man; from the stars above to the earth below. It has been split into a thousand city states; consolidated into one; ruled by empires from abroad as governments come and go. Worship has passed from the days of Zeus and Ares to Christianity, Orthodoxy and now in one half of the country state atheism. Virtually every governmental system ever tried has been seen in Greece; which can also claim ownership of the very words we use to describe some of them. Perhaps the only constant; despite what Greek nationalists might say, is that of change.

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The streets of Thessaloniki and Athens would certainly agree. The past thirty years have not been kind to either Greece, but in recent years the situation has grown significantly worse. With the death of Comrade Glezos--at the hands of the Yugoslavs, as many in the party and the public continue to believe--and continued hardliner/moderate squabbling the communist regime in North Greece has grown increasingly fragile, with tensions rising between them and Yugoslavia, both on governmental and societal levels. Meanwhile, South Greece has seen increasing tension as the people, especially the younger portion of the population, and students, struggle against the illiberal, incompetent rule of the junta.

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The only question was whether these actions would remain at a low, barely perceptible simmer--or instead boil over. As it would turn out, the rise in oil prices turned the burner to full. Both South Greece and North Greece primarily imported their oil from OPEC suppliers--Soviet pipelines didn't come this far south, and Soviet tankers were not wont to come through the Bosporus in great quantity. With the rise in prices and cut in production, both South and North Greece resorted to rationing. And, with fuel shortages; a rampant black market, and shortages of other goods resulting as secondary effects, people began to whisper. Murmuring quietly. Perhaps pushed on by outside actors, as both regimes would say [and not entirely without merit], but voicing legitimate complaints and venting genuine anger nevertheless.

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North Greece

The nominal cause of the protests was the sort of thing that often serves as catalyst: The death of a young mother and two schoolchildren after their car ran into a Yugoslavian tank driving down the wrong side of the road in Kozani. Or at least that was the story; you couldn't find it in any of the newspapers--not that they'd be inclined to print such things, given the government's status as a de facto Yugoslav client, even after the Glezos incident--but it might have happened. The bit where the Yugoslavs (Albanians!) were smuggled out of the country afterwards and the government hushed it up definitely sounded like the sort of thing that Yugoslavia and North Greece might do.

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Of course, what began as small demonstrations in Kozani didn't stay there. Within days, the entire country seemed out on the streets, marching. Against what? Well, everything really. "YUGOSLAVS GO HOME", read the posters. "DOWN WITH THE TYRANTS" read others. Flags were everywhere--flags with the communist symbols in the centre cut out, by and large, a symbol of opposition to the regime. Protestors have attacked Yugoslavs whom have left their military bases and demanded lowered food prices, while burning Yugoslav flags and even Soviet ones--at least those that they can find.

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As is wont to happen in these events, things have spiraled out of control quickly. The entire country is now out on the streets; a general strike has been declared. Hardliners within North Greece attempted to use the army to break up the protests but have discovered, to their horror, that they cannot rely on their armed forces any longer--indeed, many are now marching with the protestors, and they have arrested and disrupted police and intelligence attempts to break up the protests which have proven totally inadequate.

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With the situation lost, the government in North Greece has collapsed, with a transitional administration forming announcing new freedoms of speech, of the press, and promising new elections to be held shortly that will be free, fair, and democratic--in addition to promising the pursuit of Greek reunification through peaceful means "as long as it is a democratic Greece". Yugoslav forces have been told in so many words to "fuck off" and active work is taking place demolishing border defenses meant to prevent crossings between North and South Greece. Oh, and they support the protest movement in South Greece. What protest movement, you might ask?

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South Greece

Student protests have been very much in vogue lately, and the Greek junta has, oddly enough, paid relatively little attention to managing student life. Student activism in Greece has always been strong, and though it has been many years since Greece had anything resembling a proper democracy, the self-immolation of Kostas Georgakis in Italy served as a spark that ignited underlying tensions between the students and the government that have been ongoing for years.

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Declaring the Athens Polytechnic an autonomous commune, fortifying the campus and calling for a general strike and protest to restore democracy; their short but spirited uprising was crushed after a few days--the pictures of tanks bursting into the university made international headlines--the general public rose up; the student movement--now martyred in the eyes of the Greek people, North and South--serving as the catalyst for pent-up anger over years of mismanagement and economic stagnation, most recently amplified in the oil shortages.

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South Greece, however, had a military that was loyal to the hardliner faction. So instead of putting down their weapons and joining the protest movement, Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis used the feared military police to depose the government and violently suppress the protests, killing hundreds in what has, at least for the moment, resulted in the restoration of "peace and order" to the streets of Athens. However, the de facto Ioannnidis regime is extremely fragile. Sensing this, and seeking to get a big political win that would legitimize him with the Greek public at large, Ioannidis set into motion a plan laid by the Greek government some time ago.

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Cyprus

Cyprus was beginning to feel the heat from the protest movement spreading across the Hellenic World, being impacted by the same oil shock and hearing news both from North and South Greece. A combination of local protests, largely complaining about increased oil prices and some calling for Enosis, with Archbishop Makarios III's outreach to the new transitional government in North Greece being the final straw for Ioannidis.

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In a bloody coup, Greek officers led the Cypriot National Guard to attack the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, killing Archbishop Makarios III, President of Cyprus and head of the Eastern Orthodox Church there. Coup leaders proclaimed their victory on television and radio, with leftist newspapers being shuttered and left-leaning Greek Cypriots attacked, while Turkish Cypriots wait in terror as the broadcasts of South Greece and Cyprus talk of "immediate enosis".

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South Greece has erupted in what appears to be massive support for the coup, but in reality this support is probably paper-thin and largely propped up by the regime trying desperately to generate public backing. Their armed forces have begun preparing to deploy to Cyprus to ensure that annexation goes off without a hitch. The death of Archbishop Makarios III has also significantly hurt their cause with the more religious segment of the population.

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North Greece, on the other hand, has been horrified by the present turn of events, especially the coup in South Greece and the suppression of leftists in Cyprus resulting from the bloody coup there--the death of Makarios III not helping matters--and calls for unification are heavily qualified with "democratization". The transitional regime has openly offered to hold joint elections with the South under international observation [which have been rejected], and have stated that they will not recognize Enosis by force.

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Turkey is deeply concerned by all of this, especially the push by South Greece to annex Cyprus and the coup there which many Turks believe will mean the end of the small population of Turkish Cypriots. Public sympathies there, and in the world at large, are mostly with the North Greeks and Cypriots, with Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis and his puppets being centre-stage villains well... just about everywhere.

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Summary:

• Rising oil prices and lingering domestic discontent with the status quo have erupted into revolution throughout the Hellenic World
• The communist regime in North Greece has fallen and a transitional government now seeks to guide Greece towards new elections, out of being a Yugoslav client, and towards reunification
• The junta in South Greece has once again been replaced by Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis, who has ruthlessly crushed protests there--for the moment
• South Greece has sponsored a bloody coup and violence against leftists in Cyprus that has left the world at large deeply dismayed
• Regional actors are hastily determining what their next move should be; as any sort of action could have potentially unpredictable effects
• Internationally, North Greece is generally seen as the good guy, to some extent in the Eastern Bloc where governments haven't suppressed the news