Dimitrios Ioannidis was considered a "purist and a moralist, a type of Greek Gaddafi".
14 Facts About Dimitrios Ioannidis
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Dimitrios Ioannidis was born in Athens to a wealthy, upper middle-class business family with roots in Epirus.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis began his career as an officer in Napoleon Zervas's guerilla forces.
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Dimitrios 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.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis became chief of the Greek Military Police which he developed into a feared paramilitary force of more than 20,000 men.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis was promoted to colonel in 1970, during which he would oppose Papadopoulos's efforts to democratize, and to brigadier general later in 1973.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis proceeded to install his friend and fellow Epirote Phaedon Gizikis as figurehead President of Greece, although total power belonged to him.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis did not control the higher military hierarchy completely, but he could impose his will on them with the support of the lower ranks nicknamed "the small junta".
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Dimitrios Ioannidis pursued a crackdown internally and an aggressive expansionism externally.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis was determined to annex Cyprus to Greece and achieve Enosis.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis felt a bitter personal antipathy towards the President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, considering him opportunistic and communistic.
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On 14 January 1975, Dimitrios Ioannidis was detained and tried on charges of high treason, rebellion, and of being an accessory to the manslaughters perpetrated during the Athens Polytechnic uprising.
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Dimitrios Ioannidis received a life sentence, for the charge of treason, which he served at Korydallos Prison.
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On 21 July 2007, the 84-year-old Dimitrios Ioannidis filed a request to be discharged for health reasons, which was denied.