HALF a century ago, on November 17 1974, a general election took place in Greece. Former prime minister and far from socialist Konstantinos Karamanlis then returned to the premiership with more than 50 per cent of the vote.  

Little publicity about the event and the outcome touched the British press, massively contrasting with the centre stage media treatment given to the turbulence in Cyprus which had given the fascist Athens’s colonels’ regime its come-uppance the previous July.  

Nor was the election an occasion for bringing into greater public consciousness the terrifying seven year rule of the military junta.