Ron Estes and Avrakotos met with Greece's dictator at the time, Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis, formally Chief of Military Police, to warn him against the escalation of tension with Archbishop Makarios because of the danger of a Turkish reaction. These documented meetings happened on 7 and 20 June 1974. Nevertheless, Archbishop Makarios, then President of Cyprus, decided to end the Greek junta's constant interventionism against his young republic, thus directly and publicly confronting dictator Ioannidis.