Third Hellenic Republic

The current Third Hellenic Republic was declared in 1974 during the period of metapolitefsi, after the end of the Regime of the Colonels which had controlled Greece since the coup d'etat of 21 April 1967.
The Junta had already held a staged plebiscite to abolish the monarchy on 29 July 1973, and passed a new Constitution which established a presidential republic (with junta ringleader Georgios Papadopoulos as President). This short-lived attempt at controlled democratization was ended by Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannides' overthrow of Papadopoulos in November 1973. The Republic was maintained, but was nothing more than a façade for the military regime.
After the fall of the regime and the return to civilian rule in August 1974 however, the legal and constitutional acts of the junta were deemed invalid, and a new plebiscite was held on December 13, 1974, which finally abolished the monarchy. A new Constitution, promulgated on 11 June 1975, declared Greece a presidential parliamentary democracy (or republic – the Greek can be translated both ways). This constitution, revised in 1985 and 2001, is still in force today.