Jon,

The WW2 motto 'Keep Calm and Carry On' appears to fit the situation in Greece, as regards this story and this sentence from the original story posted helps and with my emphasis:
the sudden, sweeping changes, which were scheduled to be considered on November 7 as part of a regular annual review of military leadership retirements and promotions. Usually the annual changes do not affect the entire leadership.
There are different ways of interpreting these moves, notably that Greece is in a bad predicament and if emergency civilian rule is required a new set of fresh, younger military leaders could be a wise move.

Looking back at recent history, when Greece had military rulers so did for far longer Portugal and Spain. Europe I hope has moved a long way from that.

From my limited viewing of events in Greece the violence is very limited, with the focal point being the national parliament and this week I've seen footage of the Greek PM arriving at the parliament in an unescorted car (unlike David Cameron in the UK, even when driving the half mile or less to parliament).