1972–1973 Cypriot ecclesiastical coup attempt
events staged by 3 bishops of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus against the President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, from March 1972 to July 1973
The Ecclesiastical coup is the name given to the events staged by three bishops of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus against the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, in the period from March 1972 to July 1973.
Background
At the session of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus held on 2 March 1972, Metropolitan Gennadios (Machairiotis) of Paphos, Metropolitan Anthemos (Machairiotis) of Kition and Metropolitan Kyprianos (Kyriakides) of Kyrenia tabled a motion proposing that Archbishop Makarios III resign the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus. They held that the holding of secular office by a cleric was against the canons of the Church. The Synod released an announcement reporting the position of the bishops, and stating that the Archbishop would announce his response at a later time.
Makarios issued his response on 19 March. In it he accused the three bishops of having conspired among themselves and with other people outside the church, hinting at the Junta of the Colonels ruling Greece at the time, and at George Grivas, leader of the EOKA guerrilla organization, who had secretly returned to Cyprus. Makarios argued that the office of President of the Republic of Cyprus could not be called secular at a time when the Orthodox Greeks of Cyprus were struggling for their national survival, and that in the circumstances the holding of secular office did not confer on the Archbishop any personal reward, but was an onerous and bitter duty which he could not shirk.
The bishops maintained their position and the crisis continued. It finally came to a climax after the unopposed re-election of Makarios to the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus on 8 February 1973. The three bishops summoned Makarios to account for himself before an extraordinary session of the Holy Synod which they called for 7 March 1973.
The public source identifies “1972–1973 Cypriot ecclesiastical coup attempt” as events staged by 3 bishops of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus against the President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, from March 1972 to July 1973. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cypriot, ecclesiastical and coup.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3556320. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1972 and 1973.
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This entry incorporates text from “1972–1973 Cypriot ecclesiastical coup attempt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.