On July 15, 1974, the Athens Junta through its organs in Megalonis (National Guard, ELDYK, EOKA B') overthrows the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, and installs a "puppet" government under the journalist Nikos Sampson.
Five days later, the Turks will invade Cyprus.
The relations of the Greek junta and especially of the strong man of the brigade Dimitrios Ioannidis with the archbishop Makarios were particularly tense. Ioannidis believed that Makarios had rejected the "Union", was pro-communist and feared his spirit of independence. Since April 1974, a plan to overthrow him has been brewing. "We have to finish with Mousko" he reportedly said at a gathering of officers at the home of Prime Minister Adamantios Androutsopoulos (Michael Mouskos was Makarios' secular name).
Makarios had been warned about Ioannidis' plans by Evangelos Averof and other Greek political figures, but he does not seem to have paid much attention. Constantinos Karamanlis and Andreas Papandreou had expressed their fears about the possibility of a coup d'état on the Greek island from abroad. In Cyprus, extraordinary measures had simply been taken to protect actors of public life, also due to the activity of EOKA B'.
The reason for the acceleration of developments was given on July 1, 1974, when the Council of Ministers of Cyprus decided to reduce military service to 14 months and limit the number of Greek officers of the National Guard. The next day, July 2, Makarios, in a letter to his Greek counterpart, General Phaedon Gizikis, accused the Greek government of involvement in the conspiracies against him and demanded that 650 Greek officers, who served in the Cyprus National Guard, be recalled to Greece.
In his letter he pointed out to Gizikis:
...I am saddened, Mr. President, because I found it necessary to say many unpleasant things in order to describe in blunt terms with the language of raw honesty the situation that has existed in Cyprus for a long time. However, this is imposed by the national interest, which I always have in mind in all actions and I do not wish to stop my cooperation after the Greek government. It should, however, be taken into account that I am not an appointed prefect or supervisor in Cyprus of the Greek government, but an elected leader of a large part of Hellenism and I demand a similar behavior towards me from the national center...
On the same day, in a meeting in the office of the Chief of the Armed Forces, General Bonanos, with the participation of Ioannidis, it was decided that the coup against Makarios would take place on Monday, July 15, 1974. Bonanos assigned the leadership of the coup to Brigadier General Michael Georgitsis, with commanding officer colonel Konstantinos Kompokis as deputy leader. Both officers served in the National Guard.
On July 11 the cabinet met in Athens to discuss Makarios' letter and it was decided to convene a general meeting on Saturday July 13, to assess the effects of the threatened reduction of military service in Cyprus. This meeting was attended by the President of the Republic General Phaidon Gizikis, the Prime Minister Adamantios Androutsopoulos, the Chief of the Armed Forces General Bonanos and the Commander of the National Guard Lieutenant General George Denisis (uncle of the well-known actress Mimi Denisis). The meeting, which lasted just a few minutes, was done for show, to mislead General Denisis, who was opposed to a possible coup in Cyprus, and to leave the ground free for his two subordinates, Georgitsis and Kombokis, to act undisturbed on the island.
Early Monday morning, July 15, 1974 , Makarios made his way back to the Presidential Palace in Nicosia from his country house on Mount Troodos, where he had spent the weekend. Makarios' procession passed in front of the National Guard camp in Kokkinotrimithia, where the tanks were already warming up their engines for the impending coup. Makarios' procession passed undisturbed from that point, without any of the members of his entourage noticing anything suspicious.
At 8.15 am, the first armored vehicles started to leave their base, heading for the Presidential Palace. At the same time, a squadron of raiders was ordered to occupy all relevant points and public buildings. The long-awaited coup had been manifested with the slogan "Alexander has entered the hospital".
At the time of the coup, Makarios was receiving a group of Greek children from Egypt. Some of the children heard the shots, but Makarios calmed them down. When the fire intensified and the Presidential Palace began to be shelled by the armored vehicles of the National Guard, Makarios, after first protecting his little visitors, then escaped through the only unguarded passage, which existed to the west of the Presidential Palace.
With the help of three of his bodyguards and dressed in civilian clothes, he followed the bed of a nearby stream and under novel circumstances arrived at the Kykkos Monastery. There, he rested for a while and then made his way to Paphos. The question that has been lingering since then is why the coup plotters did not completely block the Presidential Palace, but left a passage unguarded, through which Makarios escaped. Colonel Kompokis, who had the general command of the attack, claims that he had orders to leave a passage free for Makarios to escape, while the leader of the coup, Brigadier General Georgitsis, cited the lack of forces.
By midday, the coup plotters had put almost all of Nicosia under their control, despite the reaction of the EDEK militia of Vasos Lysaridis and the Reserve Army, which consisted exclusively of Greek Cypriots. They immediately started looking for the person who would take over the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus. Three supreme judges and Glaukos Cleridis were targeted, but they refused. Eventually, Georgitsis ended up with journalist and former EOKA fighter Nikos Sampson, one of the most controversial figures in the history of Cyprus. When Ioannidis was informed of this, he reportedly said indignantly:"There are 500,000 Greeks in Cyprus, you found him to be president".
And while the coup plotters considered Makarios dead and constantly announced it through RIK, he was alive and sent a message through an improvised Paphos radio station:
Greek Cypriot People! The voice you hear is familiar. You know who is talking to you. I am Makarios. I am the one you chose to be your leader. I'm not dead. I am alive. And I am with you, fellow competitor and standard bearer in the common struggle. The junta coup failed. I was its target and I, as long as I live, the Junta in Cyprus will not pass. The Junta decided to destroy Cyprus. To divide it. But it will not succeed. It resisted the Junta in every way. Don't be afraid. All of you join the legal forces of the state. Junta must not pass and will not pass. Now in favor of everything the fight!
Until the morning of July 16 all of Cyprus was under the control of the coup plotters. The price of the coup was heavy. The dead from the fratricidal conflict reached 450. Makarios, after spending the night in the camp of the UN peacekeeping force in Paphos, boarded an English military plane and via Malta arrived in London, where the next day, July 17, he met with the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Secretary of State James Callahan.
Regarding international reactions to the coup, Great Britain kept a cautious attitude and recommended "restraint". The United States called for support for Cypriot independence and called on all nations to do the same, while Secretary of State Henry Kissinger rejected a proposal to support the ousted Makarios regime. In Athens, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Constantinos Kypraios stated, among other things, that "the recent developments in Cyprus are a matter for an independent state, a member of the United Nations".
The Turkish Cypriots remained apathetic, as they believed that the coup was purely the work of the Greek Cypriots. On the same day as the coup, Turkey put its military forces on alert because, as stated, the constitutional order on the island was overthrown. The National Security Council met in Ankara on the occasion of the situation in Cyprus. The military assured Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit that they will be ready to land in Cyprus within five days.