Dimitrios Ioannidis

Who was Dimitrios Ioannidis?

Dimitrios Ioannidis, also known as Dimitris Ioannidis, was a Greek military officer and one of the leading figures in the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.

He was born in Athens to a wealthy, upper middle-class business family with roots in Epirus.

During the Axis occupation of Greece was a member of the EDES resistance group. After the war he studied at the Hellenic Military Academy and complemented his military education by studying at the Infantry School, the War School, and the School of Atomic-Chemical-Biological Warfare. As an army officer he took part also in the Greek civil war.

Ioannidis took an active part in planning and executing the coup d'etat of 21 April 1967, but despite his great power he preferred to stay in the shadows allowing George Papadopoulos to take the limelight. Ioannidis became chief of the Greek Military Police which he developed into a feared paramilitary force of more than 20,000 men. The ESA men brutally hunted down and tortured political dissidents. They also became notorious for insulting their nominal superiors, the Generals of the Greek Army, who were generally royalist or republican and opposed to the junta leadership.