Piraeus the Greek government in the British courts, most were uninterested in continuing to base their headquarters in Piraeus, both out of distrust of the Greek government, and because the war had left the greater Athens area in a state of severe poverty. As a result, Greece's shipowners left Piraeus en masse in favour of operations in London, New York, Alexandria and other major shipping cities. Today the port of Pireaeus ranks 7th in Europe in terms of TEUs transported through it each year. In 1967, when a group of colonels staged a coup d'état against the government, in order to
Port of Thessaloniki Port of Thessaloniki The Port of Thessaloniki () is one of the largest Greek seaports and one of the largest ports in the Aegean Sea basin, with a total annual traffic capacity of 16 million tonnes (7 million tonnes dry bulk and 9 million tonnes liquid bulk). As a free port, it also functions as a major gateway for the Balkan hinterland and southeastern Europe. The Port of Thessaloniki also contains the second largest container port in Greece, after the Port of Piraeus. In 2007 the Port of Thessaloniki handled 14,373,245 tonnes of cargo and 222,824 TEU's, making it one