Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis

Greek statesman, who guided the nation back to democracy after the deposition of the authoritarian “colonels' regime.” He was born in the village of Próti, Macedonia, earned a law degree from the University of Athens in 1932, and was elected to the Greek parliament in 1935. Having served in various ministerial posts after World War II, he succeeded to the office of prime minister in 1955. During his tenure he continued Greece's pro-Western policies, and he solved the thorny Cyprus problem by agreeing to make the island an independent republic in 1960. He held office (with two brief interruptions) until 1963, when he resigned in a dispute with King Paul and went into exile in France. In 1974, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the fall of the seven-year-old military dictatorship in Greece, Karamanlis was recalled to head a caretaker government. He restored democratic freedoms and formed his own New Democracy party, which easily won the elections of 1974. As prime minister for the fourth time (1974-1980), Karamanlis introduced a republican constitution (adopted 1975) and reintegrated Greece into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In 1980 he won a five-year term as president, pledging to abstain from party politics. He resigned in March 1985 after the ruling Socialists withdrew their support for his reelection. Karamanlis ran for the presidency again in 1990 and was narrowly reelected to a second term.