Unit:
Department of History and ArchaeologyLibrary of the School of Philosophy
Author:
Stratos Konstantinos
Dissertation committee:
Ευάγγελος Καραμανωλάκης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Ειρήνη Καραμούζη, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ιστορίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Sheffield
Δήμητρα Λαμπροπούλου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Ευάνθης Χατζηβασιλείου, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Εμμανουήλ Κούμας, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας, ΕΚΠΑ
Πολυμέρης Βόγλης, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Ιστορίας και Κοινωνικής Ανθρωπολογίας, Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας
Σωτήριος Ριζάς, Διευθυντής Ερευνών Κέντρου Ερεύνης της Ιστορίας του Νεωτέρου Ελληνισμού, Ακαδημία Αθηνών
Original Title:
Το "Κίνημα του Ναυτικού" (1972-1973): τα γεγονότα, οι άνθρωποι, η μνήμη
Translated title:
The "Navy's movement" (1972-1973): facts, people, memory
Summary:
This thesis deals with the «Navy’s Movement» in May of 1973, as it is called the conspiracy of senior and junior ranking officers of the Hellenic Navy aiming to overthrow the Colonels’ Dictatorship. The principal research question is how the conspiracy ended up serving as an official symbol of the Third Hellenic Republic for the anti-dictatorial struggle and the restoration of democracy. In order to answer it the thesis is subcategorized in two main research axes. The first, attempts to establish a new interpretation of the «Movement» by aspiring to thoroughly understand it and its characteristics within the era in which occurred. The second axis aims, based on the previous interpretation, to follow the «Movement» in the collective memory after the collapse of the dictatorship, to interpret the logic of later re-definitions of it, to show how its memory adapted to the political and social needs of each historical time. The basic hypothesis is that the «Navy’s Movement», which was an expression of the political role of the post-war Hellenic Navy, in the context of the regime transition from the dictatorship to democracy, the “Metapolitefsi”, gradually lost its political dimension, integrated into the collective memory, and ultimately became an integral element of the official narrative about the birth and nature of the Third Hellenic Republic. From its methodological aspect, the research belongs in the field of political and cultural history, using from the latter methodological tools from the field of memory studies. The thesis studies the «Movement» using a variety of sources: archives (archives of the officers that took part in the conspiracy, personal archives of K. Karamanlis, E. Averoff etc.), newspapers and periodicals and audiovisual sources. The thesis came to some basic conclusions. To sum up a few; the conspiracy was indeed an expression of the political role of the post war Navy. A role that transformed the fleet into the guarantor of the affiliation of Greece with the West. This role resulted from the mission the fleet had to fulfill as part of the NATO naval forces; the protection of the sea lines of communication leading from the Mediterranean to Greece, both in times of peace and war. The main motivation of the conspirators was the fear that the anti-Americanism cultivated by the military regime in the Greek society would strengthen the Left, thus jeopardizing Greece’s relationship with the West. The arise of the conspiracy as a symbol of the Third Republic has its roots in the “Metapolitefsi” of 1974-1975, when the Right, for which the conspiracy was an important act against the dictatorship, formed a new image of it. An image that is characterized by its political consensus and established it as the «Navy’s Movement». This formed the basis of the subsequent redefinitions of the «Movement». It allowed it to be integrated into the post-dictatorial collective memory and a few decades later, in the new political and ideological context of the post-Cold War period, to serve as an official symbol of the Third Republic for the new era.
Main subject category:
History
Keywords:
Hellenic Navy, Officers, Military Dictatorship 1967-974, Anti-dictatorial Movement, Third Hellenic Republic, Political role of Hellenic Navy, Collective Memory, "Navy's Movement" 1973
Number of references:
1285
