CIA PUTSCH
Police deployed in Athens for uprising anniversary marchestoday
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Thousands of police have been deployed in Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki on Thursday for commemorative marches to mark the anniversary of a 1973 student uprising that was brutally crushed by the military dictatorship then ruling Greece.
The anniversary is marked each year by marches to the U.S. Embassy in Athens, and the demonstrations have often, but not always, turned violent.
Around 5,000 police were expected to be deployed in the Greek capital, where major streets were to be blocked to traffic and three subway stations along the march route shut down on Thursday afternoon.
In 1973, the military regime that had been in power since 1967 sent police and troops to crush student-led pro-democracy protests centered in the Athens Polytechnic, a university in the center of the capital. Officers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators and bystanders, and an army tank smashed through the gates of the Polytechnic, behind which many students had gathered.
At least 20 people are believed to have been killed, although the exact death toll of the November 1973 events has never been definitively determined.
The uprising was followed by a putsch within the junta which brought even more hard-line officers into power. Democracy was restored in Greece in July 1974, after the dictatorship collapsed in the face of a Turkish invasion of Cyprus, provoked by the junta’s own machinations aiming to unite the island, whose majority population is Greek-speaking, with Greece.
Demonstrators have marched to the U.S. Embassy every year since 1974 in protest of Washington’s support at the time of the dictatorship in Greece.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Thousands of police have been deployed in Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki on Thursday for commemorative marches to mark the anniversary of a 1973 student uprising that was brutally crushed by the military dictatorship then ruling Greece.
The anniversary is marked each year by marches to the U.S. Embassy in Athens, and the demonstrations have often, but not always, turned violent.
Around 5,000 police were expected to be deployed in the Greek capital, where major streets were to be blocked to traffic and three subway stations along the march route shut down on Thursday afternoon.
In 1973, the military regime that had been in power since 1967 sent police and troops to crush student-led pro-democracy protests centered in the Athens Polytechnic, a university in the center of the capital. Officers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators and bystanders, and an army tank smashed through the gates of the Polytechnic, behind which many students had gathered.
At least 20 people are believed to have been killed, although the exact death toll of the November 1973 events has never been definitively determined.
The uprising was followed by a putsch within the junta which brought even more hard-line officers into power. Democracy was restored in Greece in July 1974, after the dictatorship collapsed in the face of a Turkish invasion of Cyprus, provoked by the junta’s own machinations aiming to unite the island, whose majority population is Greek-speaking, with Greece.
Demonstrators have marched to the U.S. Embassy every year since 1974 in protest of Washington’s support at the time of the dictatorship in Greece.
Greeks march to commemorate 1973 student uprising
Story by Reuters • Thursday, NOV 17,2022
ATHENS (Reuters) - Thousands of Greeks marched through central Athens on Thursday to mark the anniversary of a violently quashed student uprising in 1973 that helped topple the military junta which then ruled the country.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising, in Athens© Thomson Reuters
The annual march to the embassy of the United States, which many Greeks accuse of supporting the 1967-1974 military dictatorship, often becomes a focal point for protests against government policies.
Demonstrators on Thursday held banners reading "U.S. and NATO get out, disengagement from war" and a few protesters wore T-shirts that read "Fight for peace and disarmament". Brief tension broke out between police and protesters before the march reached the heavily guarded parliament on Syntagma square.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising, in Athens© Thomson Reuters
Police had deployed more than 5,000 of police officers in Athens. A helicopter and drones hovered over the central Syntagma Square and neighbouring districts through the day.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising in Athens© Thomson Reuters
At the front of the procession, youths held a blood-stained flag that belonged to the students engaged in the 1973 revolt.
Earlier, people laid wreaths and carnations at the Athens Polytechnic, site of a bloody clamp-down on Nov. 17 1973 when tanks smashed through the gates to crush the revolt that heralded the end of the junta.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising, in Athens© Thomson Reuters
The junta unravelled in 1974, amid a public outcry over a coup they instigated in Cyprus, triggering Turkey's invasion of the island just days later.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
ATHENS (Reuters) - Thousands of Greeks marched through central Athens on Thursday to mark the anniversary of a violently quashed student uprising in 1973 that helped topple the military junta which then ruled the country.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising, in Athens© Thomson Reuters
The annual march to the embassy of the United States, which many Greeks accuse of supporting the 1967-1974 military dictatorship, often becomes a focal point for protests against government policies.
Demonstrators on Thursday held banners reading "U.S. and NATO get out, disengagement from war" and a few protesters wore T-shirts that read "Fight for peace and disarmament". Brief tension broke out between police and protesters before the march reached the heavily guarded parliament on Syntagma square.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising, in Athens© Thomson Reuters
Police had deployed more than 5,000 of police officers in Athens. A helicopter and drones hovered over the central Syntagma Square and neighbouring districts through the day.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising in Athens© Thomson Reuters
At the front of the procession, youths held a blood-stained flag that belonged to the students engaged in the 1973 revolt.
Earlier, people laid wreaths and carnations at the Athens Polytechnic, site of a bloody clamp-down on Nov. 17 1973 when tanks smashed through the gates to crush the revolt that heralded the end of the junta.
Anniversary march for 1973 student uprising, in Athens© Thomson Reuters
The junta unravelled in 1974, amid a public outcry over a coup they instigated in Cyprus, triggering Turkey's invasion of the island just days later.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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