which could effectively negotiate an end to the Cyprus conflict. In the early hours of the Cyprus crisis, indications of panic and indecision in the junta government were manifestly evident from the reaction of the Greek public as they raided supermarkets and grocery stores all over Greece, fearing an all out war with Turkey and sensing the inability of the junta to govern, as well as the anxious attempts of the junta members to communicate with and surrender power to the very same members of the democratic Establishment of Greece that they had demonised and maligned as palaiokommatistes (meaning old party system men) throughout the dictatorship. They had also worked hard during their seven years in power to create a New Greece (Νέα Ελλάδα) under the slogan of Ellas Ellinon Christianon (translated as Greece of the Christian Greeks) completely devoid of any link with the old party system and its politicians.<ref name="Past Present, 22 July 2005">"Past present", Athens News, 22 July 2005 quote: Greece's seven-year military rule collapsed under the weight of its disastrous blunders... Early in the morning of July 24, general Faedon Gizikis, the figurehead 'president' of the then ruling junta faction headed by reclusive military police chief, brigadier-general Dimitris Ioannides, invited former politicians of the pre-junta era for consultations on the army's intention to hand over power to a civilian government comprising top cadres from the traditional centre and right. The news of the handover plans sparked nationwide enthusiasm as the military rulers had set the country on a war footing in the wake of a full-scale Turkish invasion of Cyprus on July 20, ostensibly provoked by a pro-junta coup in Nicosia which toppled the island-republic's president, Archbishop Makarios. Battles were still raging in the island's north when Greeks took to the streets in all the major cities, celebrating the junta's decision to step down before the war in Cyprus could spill over across the Aegean. But talks in Athens were going nowhere with Gizikis's offer of the mandate to form a government to Panayiotis Kanellopoulos, the last civilian prime minister before the April 1967 army coup. That is when Evangelos Averoff, a close aide of Karamanlis, suggested that only the former rightwing leader could take charge of the domestic situation and negotiate a ceasefire in Cyprus. Averoff knew that Karamanlis was already on his way, and cheering Athenian crowds chanted 'Here he comes!''' Article by Dimitris