Street violence around the Athens Polytechnic was the “order of the day” throughout much of Thursday evening in the Greek capital’s center as up to 500 self-styled anti-state / anti-authoritarian protesters took advantage of the annual commemoration of a students’ uprising against a military junta then ruling Greece in 1973.
Street violence around the Athens Polytechnic was the “order of the day” throughout much of Thursday evening in the Greek capital’s center as up to 500 self-styled anti-state / anti-authoritarian protesters took advantage of the annual commemoration of a students’ uprising against a military junta then ruling Greece in 1973.
The same scenes have been played out practically every year for the past decades on Nov. 17: groups of masked youths dressed in nondescript black throwing firebombs and rocks at assembled riot police, with the latter then charging at the hooligans, who usually end up barricaded in the Polytechnic’s grounds or flee through the narrow and poorly-lit streets of the Exarchia district, a hub for anarchist activity. The Polytechnic enjoys a no law enforcement asylum status.
On rare occasions prosecutors have allowed police to enter the facility, located next to the national archaeological museum, in order to arrest suspects.
As with previous such occasions, damages to property and extensive vandalism, including university facilities, was reported.
Similar but not as widespread rioting was reported in Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Patras and Irakleio.