Phaedon Gizikis ( el, Φαίδων Γκιζίκης ; 16 June 1917 – 26 July 1999) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

army general, and the second and last

President of Greece The president of Greece, officially the President of the Hellenic Republic ( el, Πρόεδρος της Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας, Próedros tis Ellinikís Dimokratías), commonly referred to in Greek as the President of the Rep ...

under the

Junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by a ...

, from 1973 to 1974.

Early life and military career

Born in

Volos Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...

, Greece, Gizikis was a career

Hellenic Army The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is th ...

officer. His service number was 21756. He graduated from the

Hellenic Military Academy The Hellenic Army Academy ( el, Στρατιωτική Σχολή Ευελπίδων), commonly known as the Evelpidon, is a military academy. It is the Officer cadet school of the Greek Army and the oldest third-level educational institution in G ...

in 1939, achieving the rank of second lieutenant in artillery, and participated in the

Greco-Italian War The Greco-Italian War (Greek language, Greek: Ελληνοϊταλικός Πόλεμος, ''Ellinoïtalikós Pólemos''), also called the Italo-Greek War, Italian Campaign in Greece, and the War of '40 in Greece, took place between the kingdom ...

and the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος}, ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom and ...

. In 1967, he supported the

Georgios Papadopoulos Geórgios Papadopoulos (; el, Γεώργιος Παπαδόπουλος ; 5 May 1919 – 27 June 1999) was a Greek military officer and political leader who ruled Greece as a military dictator from 1967 to 1973. He joined the Royal Hellenic ...

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

and received a number of senior military posts during the dictatorship that followed.

Later life

He was given the title of President of the Republic on 25 November 1973, after Papadopoulos was ousted by

Dimitrios Ioannidis Dimitrios Ioannidis ( el, Δημήτριος Ιωαννίδης ; 13 March 1923 – 16 August 2010), also known as Dimitris Ioannidis and as The Invisible Dictator, was a Greek military officer and one of the leading figures in the junta that ru ...

as head of the regime in an internal power struggle. Three days later, he was promoted to full General (Stratigos), a decision he signed himself. While serving as president, following the supported coup in Cyprus, he would detract from open confrontation with Turkish forces during the invasion of Cyprus. Ioannidis would later blame Gizikis and other hesitant leaders as the reason for the Greek loss. As president he gave the task of forming a new government, following the collapse of the Junta, to

Constantine Karamanlis Konstantinos G. Karamanlis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Καραμανλής, ; 8 March 1907 – 23 April 1998), commonly Anglicisation, anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or just Caramanlis, was a four-time prime minister and List of he ...

. After the fall of the dictatorship in 1974, he retained his post for four months ''

pro tempore ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a '' locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence o ...

'', until a new constitution could be enacted during

metapolitefsi The Metapolitefsi ( el, Μεταπολίτευση, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek peop ...

; he was then replaced by

Michail Stasinopoulos Michail Stasinopoulos ( el, Μιχαήλ Στασινόπουλος; 27 July 1903 – 31 October 2002) was a Greek jurist and politician who served as President of Greece from 18 December 1974 to 19 July 1975. A member of New Democracy, he was the ...

. Gizikis retired from the army in 1974, on the same day he resigned from his position as head of state. In 1976, a military judicial council dropped proceedings against him and 88 other former officers charged with treason and mutiny for collaborating with the former junta. He died on 26 July 1999 at the NIMTS military hospital in Athens.Pace, Eric
"Phaidon Gizikis, '73 Greek Junta Officer, 82."
''The New York Times'' 30 July 1999

References

1917 births 1999 deaths 20th-century presidents of Greece Leaders of the Greek junta Hellenic Army generals Leaders who took power by coup Presidents of Greece People from Volos Heads of government who were later imprisoned {{Greece-mil-bio-stub