A New Dawn? Change and Continuity in Political Violence in Greece
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09546553.2011.633133
ISSN1556-1836
Autores Tópico(s)Irish and British Studies
ResumoAbstract With the arrest and conviction of members of the Greek Revolutionary Organization 17 November in the early 2000s, the chapter appeared to be closing on one of the last of a generation of urban guerrillas in Western Europe. Before the end of that decade, however, not only had a new batch of violent political organizations arisen in Greece, but the country had also experienced its worst social unrest in over thirty years. With a view to helping fill an emerging descriptive and analytical gap, this article summarizes key features of political violence in Greece between 1974 and 2011, and highlights the importance of three factors to explaining the resumption of organized political violence in the 2000s: the socio-economic environment, the treatment of radical demands by the political system, and the dynamics of violence between the state and non-state groups. In so doing, the article includes an unprecedented account of the role of the state and far-right organizations in the escalation of political violence in Greece. The article goes on to critically review expert, political, and media accounts of the evolution of political violence in the country, and concludes by considering pertinent policy implications. Keywords: anarchismcounterterrorismfar-right violenceGreeceinternational co-operationpolitical violence Acknowledgments Research for this article was funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 237163, and was conducted whilst the author was a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Athens, Greece. This article was completed and accepted for publication in October 2011, and does not take into account developments that have occurred since. Thanks are due to Nicholas J. Xenakis and Leonidas K. Cheliotis for their invaluable feedback on earlier drafts, and to the journal's anonymous reviewers for their comments. Notes The application of "far-leftist" or "anarchist" appellations to covert groups and instances of political violence in contemporary Greece is not without its controversies and pitfalls. For the purposes of shorthand, however, and in addition to evidence of certain basic characteristics of far-leftist and anarchist thought (radical anti-capitalist and anti-state sentiments in particular) which such groups appear to promote—not least since these are ideological markers with which, on occasion, they have self-identified—these broad labels are also used in this paper. A rich archive of proclamations from a variety of radical groups operating in Greece between 1975 and 2010 has been gathered by former U.S. Foreign Service Officer John Brady Kiesling and made publicly available at https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxswDOCtp5r2ZWE0 Mjc4OWUtMGY3Mi00YmMyLWEzZDctNDA3MzBlODI0NThm&sort=name&layout=list&num=50 (accessed 17 May 2011). To offer some regional contextualization, according to the Global Terrorism Database, Greece experienced over half the number of "terrorist" incidents as Italy between 1970 and 2008 (893 and 1494 incidents, respectively), whilst Germany experienced less than half the number of those which took place in Italy (554). The peak numbers of incidents recorded in Greece have never gone above one hundred (usually hovering between the upper 40s and lower 60s), in contrast to recorded peaks of incidents in Italy and Germany. See further the Global Terrorism Database, START, available at http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/ (accessed 7 May 2011); EUROPOL, EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report TE-SAT (The Hague: European Police Office, 2007-2011), available at http://www.europol.europa.eu/index.asp?page=publications (accessed 17 May 2011). See, e.g., George Karyotis, "The Securitisation of Greek Terrorism and the Arrest of the Revolutionary Organization November 17," Cooperation and Conflict 42, no. 3 (2007): 271–293; Christos Kollias, Petros Messis, Nikolaos Mylonidis, and Suzanna-Maria Paleologou, "Terrorism and the Effectiveness of Security Spending in Greece: Policy Implications and Some Empirical Findings," Journal of Policy Modeling 31 (2009): 802-788; Christos Floros and Bruce Newsome, "Building Counter-Terrorism Capacity Across Borders: Lessons from the Defeat of 'Revolutionary Organization 17N,'" Journal of Security Sector Management 6, no. 2 (July 2008): 1–14. George Kassimeris, "For a Place in History: Explaining Greece's Revolutionary Organization 17 November," Journal of Conflict Studies 27, no. 2 (2007): 129–145. See respectively, Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos and Theodore Modis, "Urban Guerrilla Activities in Greece," Technological Forecasting and Social Change 72, no. 1 (2005): 49–58 at 57; George Kassimeris, "Last Act in a Violent Drama? The Trial of Greece's Revolutionary Organization 17 November," Terrorism and Political Violence 18, no. 1 (2006): 137–157 at 154. A recent exception, offering a largely descriptive account of the new group "Revolutionary Struggle," is George Kassimeris, "Greece's New Generation of Terrorists: The Revolutionary Struggle," Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 34, no. 3 (2011): 199–211. For explanatory accounts of political violence in Greece between 1974 and 2003, see indicatively: Daphne Biliouri and Tamara Makarenko, "Is This The End of 17N?," Jane's Intelligence Review 14, no. 9 (2002): 6–10; Alexis Papahelas and Tassos Telloglou, File on 17 November [in Greek] (Athens: Hestia, 2002); Konstandopoulos and Modis (see note 5 above); P. A. Krythimou, Greek Justice Unmasked: The Painful Experiences of the Prosecutor who Discovered 17N [in Greek] (Athens: Eleftheri Dikaiosyni, 2005); Karyotis (see note 3 above); George Kassimeris, "For a Place in History" (see note 4 above); Floros and Newsome (see note 3 above). However, a broader account of the first generation of politically violent groups that addresses their trajectory until 2001 has been provided by George Kassimeris, Last Red Terrorists: The Revolutionary Organization 17 November (London: Hurst, 2001). See also John Brady Kiesling, Explosions in Athens: Violent Greek Politics, 1969–2011 (unpublished manuscript, 2011). Donatella Della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). Konstandopoulos and Modis (see note 5 above); Kassimeris, Last Red Terrorists (see note 7 above). On the Italian case, see Della Porta (see note 8 above), 193–194. It was not until 1989, for example, that the Greek government finally took steps to destroy 16.5 million intelligence files that had been compiled by the Greek police and intelligence services since 1944 on the political and private sentiments of Greek citizens. Yet this constituted destruction of less than half of all the (41.2 million) police files that had been created since 1981: Minas Samatas, Surveillance in Greece: From Anticommunist to Consumer Surveillance (New York: Pella, 2004), 64. See further Leonidas K. Cheliotis and Sappho Xenakis, "What's Neoliberalism Got to Do With It? Towards a Political Economy of Punishment in Greece," Criminology & Criminal Justice 10, no. 4 (2010): 353–373. See further Sappho Xenakis, "Organized Crime and Political Violence," in Leonidas K. Cheliotis and Sappho Xenakis (eds.), Crime and Punishment in Contemporary Greece: International Comparative Perspectives (Oxford: Peter Lang AG, 2011), 241–287. See further Papahelas and Telloglou (see note 7 above), 45; Konstantinos Ifantis, "From Factionalism to Autocracy: PASOK's De-Radicalisation during the Regime Transition of the 1970s," in Richard Gillespie, Michael Waller, and Lourdes López Nieto (eds.), Factional Politics and Democratization (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1995), 77–89. On the weakness of post-dictatorship lustration actions in Greece, see Neovi M. Karakatsanis, The Politics of Elite Transformation: The Consolidation of Greek Democracy in Theoretical Perspective (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001). On the Italian case, see Della Porta (see note 8 above), 192–194. Kassimeris, Last Red Terrorists (see note 7 above), 56; Robert McDonald, Pillar and Tinderbox: The Greek Press and the Dictatorship (New York & London: Marion Boyars, 1983), 187–188. Stamos Zoulas, "Terror Unfettered as No One Took Charge," Kathimerini, 26 August 2002. "The Black Bible of 'Chrysi Avgi'" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 2 July 1998; Seraphim Seferiades, "Polarisation and Nonproportionality: The Greek Party System in the Postwar Era," Comparative Politics 19, no. 1 (1986): 69–95; see further Xenakis, "Organized Crime and Political Violence" (see note 12 above); Vassilis Nedos, "Greek Right: The Rotten Egg of the Snake" [in Greek], To Vima, 11 September 2005. In addition to its far-right ideology, examples of use by Chrysi Avgi of imagery and practices redolent of fascist and Nazi influences (such as the flag design and roman salute; see further the organization's website at http://xryshaygh.wordpress.com/) have meant the party is also commonly characterised as "neo-fascist." This allegation was supported by the publication of what appeared to be a copy of the Intelligence Agency's official salary records, reproduced in Charis J. Kousoumvris, Demolishing the Myth of Chrysi Avgi [in Greek] (Piraeus: Erevos, 2004), 9. The document in question was denounced as a forgery by Chrysi Avgi, whose website has cited the decision (no. 52803/04) of an Athenian Court of the First Instance in May 2004 to convict an individual related to the far-right party LAOS for defamation and repeated use of a forged document which was the basis for the allegation. Chrysi Avgi has retained a reputation for intimidation and violence and by 2011 constituted the largest of the extra-parliamentary far-right groups. Following local elections in November 2010, where the party attracted 5.5% of the vote, Michaloliakos took up a seat on the Athens City Council (see "Muslims Mark Eid with Outdoor Prayers: Tension Ensues," Athens News, 16 November 2010). Attempts were repeatedly made by the far-right parliamentary party LAOS to include Chrysi Avgi members as candidates for municipal or national office but these efforts were abandoned due to negative political and press reactions; see, e.g., "Dancing with Greece's Extreme Right," Kathimerini, 17 October 2007. See, e.g., "The Cache of Karamanlis: The Forgotten Terrorism" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 29 September 2002. The centre-right broadsheet newspaper Kathimerini has proposed exactly the opposite thesis, that the rare actions of far-right fringe groups have always "overexcited the democratic sensibilities of those in the media who systematically underestimated the actions of real terrorists," implying those of the far-left 17N group and its well-documented lethality (Zoulas, see note 16 above). As elaborated further below, however, there is considerable consensus of the existence of official and scholarly lacunae on the subject of violence perpetrated by the far-Right and the underreporting of crimes (such as those motivated by a racist ideology) in which they are believed to regularly engage. See further Kassimeris, Last Red Terrorists (see note 7 above). See, e.g., ibid.; Christos Giovanopoulos and Dimitris Dalakoglou, "From Ruptures to Eruption: A Genealogy of the December 2008 Revolt in Greece," in Antonis Vradis and Dimitris Dalakoglou (eds.), Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come (London: AK Press/Occupied London, 2011), 91–114. See further Kassimeris, Last Red Terrorists (see note 7 above), 56–64. See also, indicatively, the list of parties contesting national elections over the decade of the 2000s, as listed on the elections information website of the Greek Ministry of the Interior at http://ekloges.ypes.gr. On the significant patterns of collective protest (labour strikes, political demonstrations, student strikes, and occupations) in the years after the fall of the dictatorship, see further Nikos Serdedakis, "Democratisation and Collective Action in Post-Junta Greece (1974–1981)," paper presented at the European Consortium for Political Research General Conference, Pisa, 6–8 September 2007. Available at: http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/generalconference/pisa/papers/PP389.pdf (accessed 20 July 2011). Indeed, under the PASOK government surveillance targets were re-characterised as "anarchists" rather than "leftist/communists," although communists in general and the KKE still remained subject to surveillance: Samatas (see note 11 above), 52–54. On the swift move to centrist politics by PASOK, see Ifantis (see note 13 above); Seferiades (see note 17 above). Panagiotis Kalamaras, "There Were Many People Who Felt We Had an Unfinished Revolution," in A. G. Schwarz, T. Sagris, and Void Network (eds.), We Are an Image From the Future: The Greek Revolt of December 2008 (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2010), 14–16; Alkis, "December is a Result of Social and Political Processes Going Back Many Years," in A. G. Schwarz et al., op. cit., 8–13, 294–299. "ELA Architect Behind Bars, Makes Partial Confession," Kathimerini, 5 February 2003; "ELA Four Get 25 Years," Kathimerini, 12 October 2004. Christos I. Chalazias, The Ideology of Revolutionary Popular Struggle: The Texts [in Greek] (Athens: Ellinika Grammata, 2003). Dora Antoniou, "Fighting Revolutionary Popular Struggle, Revolutionary Nuclei," Kathimerini, 4 February 2002. Tassos Telloglou, "The Turbulent History of ELA" [in Greek], To Vima, 9 February 2003. Ioanna Mandrou, "Five In, Five Out for ELA – '1st May'" [in Greek], To Vima, 24 August 2003. Vassilis Lambropoulos, "The Hide-and-Seek between the Hellenic Police and ELA" [in Greek], To Vima, 9 February 2003. Kassimeris, Last Red Terrorists (see note 7 above), 100. "ELA Sentencing Delayed," Kathimerini, 8 October 2004. "ELA Architect Behind Bars," Kathimerini, 5 February 2003. "ELA Four Get 25 Years," Kathimerini, 12 October 2004. "Tsigaridas Describes ELA to Court," Kathimerini, 9 July 2004. "Prosecutors Call for Kassimis, Serifis to be Freed, 4 Convicts to be Sentenced," Kathimerini, 8 June 2005; "ELA Acquitted," ERA, 1 July 2005. "Innocent: The Three Defendants of the ELA Trial" [in Greek], Kathimerini, 4 December 2009. Kassimeris, Last Red Terrorists (see note 7 above). Kassimeris notes that early media reports of the incident speculated that Xiros was a member of "Revolutionary Cells" or "Popular Resistance," two other minor domestic groups that had been active around that time: Kassimeris, "Last Act in a Violent Drama?" (see note 5 above). Dimitris Kastriotis, "Heroes and Villains," Kathimerini, 19 July 2002. Kassimeris, "Last Act in a Violent Drama?" (see note 5 above). "17N Appeal is Rejected," Kathimerini, 4 May 2007; "17N Sentences Could be Trimmed," Kathimerini, 8 May 2007; "17N Sentences," Kathimerini, 10 May 2007. The appeal was due to be heard in January 2011, and the defendant's case was presented to the court in April 2011 (the appeal process was ongoing as of September 2011): Valia Kaimaki, "In January Yiotopoulos Appeal at the European Court" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 24 November 2010; Valia Kaimaki, "Witch Hunt Trial of Yiotopoulos" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 17 April 2011. A list of these regularities was presented by his lawyer to the Greek Appeals Court in 2007. Katerina Kati and Panagiotis Stathis, "What Will You Reply to the European Court?" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 23 March 2007; see also Kassimeris, "For a Place" (see note 4 above), 144–145. On the unrest of December 2008, see, e.g., Andreas Kalyvas, "An Anomaly? Some Reflections on the Greek December 2008," Constellations 17, no. 2 (2010): 351–365. See Cheliotis and Xenakis, "What's Neoliberalism Got to Do With It?" (see note 11 above); Leonidas K. Cheliotis and Sappho Xenakis, "Crime, Fear of Crime and Punitiveness," in Leonidas K. Cheliotis and Sappho Xenakis (eds.), Crime and Punishment in Contemporary Greece: International Comparative Perspectives (Oxford: Peter Lang AG, 2011), 1–43; Xenakis, "Organized Crime and Political Violence" (see note 12 above). See, e.g., discussion in Antigone Lyberaki and Christos J. Paraskevopoulos, "Social Capital Measurement in Greece," paper presented at the OECD-ONS international conference on Social Capital Measurement, London, September 25–27, 2002, available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/15/2381649.pdf (accessed 17 May 2011). See, e.g., Kalyvas (see note 45 above). Opinion poll carried out by Kappa Research for the centrist To Vima broadsheet newspaper: "Fear, Anger and Uncertainty" [in Greek], To Vima, 31 December 2010. See, e.g., Pericles Korovessis et al., Political Violence is Always Fascistic: A Collection of Texts Against Terror [in Greek] (Athens: Diapiron, 2010). See, e.g., footage and accompanying discussion of allegations of agents provocateurs active during mass protests on 29 June 2011, which took place against the introduction of harsh financial measures by the government to secure international loans against a background of economic crisis: "What Are These 'Hoodies?'" [in Greek], Main News 20:00 (at 20:53–20:55), Alter television. Available via the news portal Real.gr at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-d_qJ77tU0&feature=related (accessed 21 July 2011). See, e.g., comments by convicted 17N member Vassilis Tzortzatos against Revolutionary Struggle, cited in George Gilson, "Terrorists Up the Ante," Athens News, 20 February 2009. On past infiltration, see, e.g., comments by former U.S. Foreign Service Officer Brady Kiesling on the Danos Krystallis case: "Danos Krystallis and the 'Critical Dialogue' with 17N," article on personal website: (accessed 29 November 2010). See, e.g., comments by the former PASOK advisor Mary Bossi: "The Expert: The Next Terrorists' Steps Will Be More Dangerous," GR Reporter, 5 November 2010. One was a bomb attack targeting a Pakistani Community leader, another involved the lethal mafia-style "hit" of a journalist known for exposing stories of corruption and sleaze about leading public figures, and more recent examples were the parcel bombs targeting the Chilean and Mexican Embassies (amongst others). See, respectively, "Greece: Bomb Hits Pakistani Leader's Home in Athens," BBC News, 20 March 2010; Helena Smith, "Gunmen Murder Greek Investigative Journalist Socratis Giolias," The Guardian, 20 July 2010; Helena Smith, "Greek Letter Bomb Attacks Put Europe on High Alert," The Guardian, 3 November 2010; Mark Heinrich and Peter Apps, "Bomb Incidents in Greece," Reuters, 2 November 2010. See Sian Sullivan, "'Viva Nihilism!' On Militancy and Machismo in (Anti-) Globalisation Protest," in Richard Devetak and Christopher W. Hughes (eds.), The Globalization of Political Violence: Globalization's Shadow (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 203–243; and Schwarz et al. (see note 25 above). Not all Greek antiauthoritarians self-identify as anarchists, however. See further Schwarz et al. (see note 25 above), and contributions from Greek anarchists in the international anarchist journal 325, 8 (September 2010), available at (accessed 29 November 2010). For a detailed indicative critical assessment of far-leftist politics in Greece from a far-left perspective, see Tassos Anastassiadis and Andreas Sartzekis, "Left Perspectives on the December Revolt," International Viewpoint 4, 411 (2009). For a more positive reading of a strong relationship between SYRIZA and the grass-roots far-left and anarchist activists of December 2008, see Loukia Kotronaki and Seraphim Seferiadis, "Sur les Sentiers de la Colère: L'Espace –Temps d'une Revolt (Athènes, Décember 2008)," Actuel Marx 48 (2010): 152–165 at 157. To give an indication of the electoral strength of these parties, the KKE has seen a modest rise in its share of the vote in national elections from 5.9% in 2004 to 7.54% in 2009, whilst Syriza saw its share rise from 3.26% in 2004 to 4.60% in 2009 (for further details see http://ekloges.ypes.gr). The failure of SYRIZA to make gains in the elections for the European Parliament in 2009 were commonly blamed on its supportive stance towards the unrest of December 2008; see, e.g., Takis S. Pappas, "Winning by Default: The Greek Election of 2009," South European Society and Politics 15, no. 2 (2010): 273–287 at 278; but contrast the far-leftist account offered in Josephine Iakovidou, Kostas Kanellopoulos, and Loukia Kotronaki, "The Greek Uprising of December 2008," Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination 3, no. 2 (2010): 145–157 at 156. On the growing membership of anarchist associations in Greece, see, e.g., "In Greece, Austerity Kindles Deep Discontent," The Washington Post, 13 May 2011; Schwarz et al. (see note 25 above), 342. See, e.g., Kostas Kyriakopoulos and Aris Chatzigeorgiou, "Anarchists in the Trenches and 'Flowerboxes'" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 20 January 2007. See Schwarz et al. (see note 25); Giovanopoulos and Dalakoglou, "From Ruptures to Eruption" (see note 21). See, e.g., "New Protest March for Exarchia" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 12 November 2009; "Spree of Anarchist Violence in Centre," Kathimerini, 23 October 2009; "Bill Imposes Strict Penalties for Vandals Wearing Hoods," Kathimerini, 24 April 2009; "'Hoodies' Law is to be Scrapped," Kathimerini, 24 October 2009; and, following the protests of 17 November 2010, "Fifteen Charged with the Felony of Wearing a Hoodie" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 18 November 2010; "NTUA Anger Over Charges," Kathimerini, 19 November 2009; "Prosecution of the Rector of EMP for Indymedia" [in Greek], To Vima, 18 November 2009; Amnesty International, Greece: Alleged Abuses in the Policing of Demonstrations (London: Amnesty International Publications, 2009). See Amnesty International, Greece (see note 61 above). As also illustrated by the predominant imagery and discourse of the December 2008 protests; see, e.g., Aris Chatzistefanou (ed.), December '08: History, We are Coming … Look at the Sky [in Greek] (Athens: Livanis, 2009); Melina Charitatou-Synodinou (ed.), Ash and … Burberry: December 2008 Through Slogans, Pictures and Texts [in Greek] (Athens: KΨM, 2010); Alexandros Kyriakopoulos and Efthymios Gourgouris (eds.), Anxiety: A Record of the Spontaneous December 2008 [in Greek] (Athens: Kastaniotis, 2009). See National Federation of the Blind (E.O.T.), "The Blind Get Tear-gassed!" [in Greek], Press Release, 12 March 2010; "Glezos Sprayed with Teargas" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 5 March 2010; "Police Gas 'Mutineers': Riot Squad Moves In Against Colleagues in Central Athens Protest," Kathimerini, 10 October 2003; European Confederation of Police, "Peaceful Demonstrations Not Mutiny," Press Release, 10 October 2003. Journalists have also reported growing violence against them by the police during public protests; see Olivier Basille and Angélique Kourounis, Greece: Is the Crisis in Greece a Chance for Its Media? (Paris: Reporters Without Borders, 2011). See "Hellenic Police: Special Guards. The Institution" [in Greek], Official Information Website of Members of the Union of Special Guards, Hellenic Police of Attica, available at: http://www.sefeaa.gr/ (accessed 15 May 2011). See further Xenakis, "Organized Crime and Political Violence" (see note 12 above). See, e.g., Nasos Theodorides, 2009 Annual Report of the Information and Documentation Centre on Racism 'ANTIGONE' [in Greek] (Athens: Antigone, 2010), 114; "The Year of the Black Terror" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia 3 January 2010; "Grenade Attack in Exarchia" [in Greek], Ta Nea, 25 February 2009; "Syriza: New Outbreak of Racial Violence in Agios Panteleimonas" [in Greek], I Avgi, 9 September 2009; "Racist Attacks Fuelling Tensions," Kathimerini, 19 November 2010. See, e.g., Achilleas Chekimolgou, "The Extra-Parliamentary Right Organize and Attack" [in Greek], To Vima, 5 April 2009; "Attacks on Immigrants on the Rise in Greece," New York Times, 1 December 2010. See e.g., Dimitris Psarras, "The 'Privatisation' of Nazism" [in Greek], Kyriakatiki Eleftherotypia, 28 November 2010. On the mass far-right attack on immigrants in central Athens of 2011, see: "Pogrom against Immigrants by Racist Groups" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 12 May 2011; "Far-Right Protest in Athens Turns Violent," Associated Press, 12 May 2011. See, e.g., "The Blackshirts of the Police" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 10 February 2008. "Chrysochoidis on the Police and Agios Panteleimonas: 'I Know about Chrysi Avgi – I will Stop the Abuses'" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 21 October 2009. Later that year, the Minister also talked of the rise of new far-right violent groups, and the possibility that right-wing violence might reach terrorist proportions in the future: "Michalis Chrysochoidis: 'I Don't Pray In Front of the Icon of Stalin'" [in Greek], To Vima, 13 December 2009. In 1997, a previous Minister of Public Order, Georgos Romeos, had admitted that some police had good relations with Chrysi Avgi, but the existence of systematic good relations were denied by government spokesman Dimitris Reppas the following year: "The Lower Ends of the Police" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 29 September 1998. See the "Demand for Right-Wing Extremism Index" of the political consultancy group Political Capital, which is based on data from the European Social Surveys. According to the Index, the percentage of Greeks predisposed to right-wing extremism rose from 14.6% in 2005 to 17% in 2009, a fairly high level by European comparison: Political Capital, Back by Popular Demand: Demand for Right-Wing Extremism (DEREX) Index (Budapest: Political Capital Policy Research and Consulting Institute, 2010). On the scapegoating of immigrants in Greece, see Miltos Pavlou, Annual Report 2007: Racism and Discrimination against Immigrants and Minorities in Greece. The State of Play (Athens: Hellenic League for Human Rights, 2007), available at: http://www.i-red.eu/resources/publications-files/hlhr-kemo_ar_2007.pdf (accessed 15 May 2011); Cheliotis and Xenakis, "What's Neoliberalism Got to Do With It?" (see note 11 above); Cheliotis and Xenakis, "Crime, Fear of Crime and Punitiveness" (see note 46 above). See, e.g., footage of the violence of 12 May 2011 in central Athens (clip minute 2:54): "New Cycle of Violence in Athens with Attacks on Immigrants," AlphaTV News, 12 May 2011. Available at: (accessed 13 May 2011). In a telling reversal of common media conventions to protect the anonymity of victims of violence, the AlphaTV footage blurred the faces of the far-right attackers to protect their anonymity but did not obscure the faces of the immigrant victims: Dimitris Psarras, "Pogroms Against Immigrants Planned Since 1997" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 22 May 2011. The former was an incident subsequently tied to Revolutionary Struggle by the police; see "Face of Terror," GR Reporter, 13 April 2010; See also, respectively, "Gunman Kills British Envoy's Greek Guard," The Telegraph, 31 December 2004; David Batty, "Athens Bomb Blast Kills One and Badly Injures Two," The Guardian, 29 March 2010. See "Strange Letter about the Bomb against Chrysochoidis" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 10 July 2010. Police authorities have reportedly suggested that a convicted bank robber, Vassilis Palaiokostas, in co-operation with anti-authoritarians, were behind the bomb: Giannis Souliotis, "Palaiokostas Behind The Parcel-Bomb" [in Greek], Kathimerini, 24 October 2010. "Athens Bomb Targets McDonald's, No Injuries," Reuters, 3 July 2009. The assessment of expert and former government advisor Dr. Mary Bossi, cited in Ian Fisher and Anthee Carassava, "US Embassy in Greece is Attacked," New York Times, 12 January 2007. See further, e.g., Dionysis Vythoulkas, "The New Terrorism is Driven by a Centre" [in Greek], To Vima, 6 September 2009. Vassilis Lambropoulos, "The Human Key of the 'Cells'" [in Greek], To Vima, 28 November 2010. The suggestion of overlapping membership between Synomosia ton Pirynon tis Fotias and Sehta Epanastaton has reportedly since been repeated by police. See, e.g., Vassilis Lambropoulos, "'Nuclei of Fire' Without End" [in Greek], To Vima, 22 May 2011. "'Struggle' on the Citibank Attacks" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 13 March 2009. See note 52 above. See Helena Smith, "Death Threat to Greek Media as Terrorists Plot Bomb Havoc," The Guardian, 22 February 2009; "Bomb Blast Outside Bank in Greece," BBC, 9 March 2009; George Gilson, "Cracking Revolutionary Struggle," Athens News, 18 April 2010; "Revolutionary Struggle: Citibank Attacked Over Crisis," The Huffington Post, 30 November 2010. The manifesto (not the group's first) was published in To Pontiki on 22 December 2005. See Kostas Kyriakopoulos, "At War With the Police" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia, 7 January 2009. For a more detailed account of the group's ideological stance and actions, see further Kassimeris, "Greece's New Generation of Terrorists" (see note 6 above). Proclamation of Revolutionary Struggle published in To Pontiki, 12 March 2009; see George Gilson, "Terrorist Group Blasts the System," Athens News, 13 March 2009. Athanasios Drougos, cited in "Bomb Blast Kills Aide to Greek Counter-Terrorism Minister," BBC News, 25 June 2010. EUROPOL, EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report TE-SAT 2011 (The Hague: European Police Office, 2011), 26. "Greece: Health Concern/Prisoner of Conscience: Nikos Maziotis," Amnesty International, 6 January 1993. Gilson, "Cracking Revolutionary Struggle" (see note 82 above); "Revolutionary Trio Claim Terror Hits," Kathimerini, 30 April 2010; see also "Terrorists 'Old' and 'New,'" Research Institute for European and American Studies: Editorial, 18 April 2010. "Terrorist Suspects Freed Pending Trial," Kathimerini, 16 May 2011. "Three Detainees for Revolutionary Struggle Freed" [in Greek], Eleftherotypia,
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