Tens of thousands of people on Wednesday joined protests in Greece’s two largest cities, marking the anniversary of a 1973 student revolt against a US-backed junta, an annual event that often sparks violence.
Twenty thousand turned out in the capital of Athens, police said.
Most of the marchers were students, union members and members of leftist parties. A further 14,000 marched in the second city, Thessaloniki.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Police were deployed in their thousands in the capital, supported by drones, a helicopter and water cannons, as violence regularly breaks out during the annual protest.
However, the two demonstrations remained peaceful into the evening.
In Athens, thousands marched to the US embassy to protest against Washington’s support for the Greek military dictatorship during the Cold War.
“No to police violence and suppression,” one banner read, while another read: “Resistance to fascism.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a statement: “Let us welcome this great anniversary ... without extreme behavior.”
Social discontent has been growing in Greece against the conservative government, which has been criticized for its security crackdown, police violence and alleged control of the media.
On Wednesday, the US embassy in Athens was ringed with riot police and police vehicles, with embassy staff sent home early, while central Athens subway stations were closed on security grounds.
“US government personnel have been advised to avoid the downtown areas of Athens and Thessaloniki in the late afternoon and to stay behind police lines until the Greek authorities announce the conclusion of the event,” the embassy said ahead of the protests.
Last year, the Greek government tried to ban the protests as the anniversary fell in the middle of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, before residents were able to get vaccinations.
However, hundreds defied the ban, and police used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons to disperse the demonstration in Athens.
This year, as the vaccination rate in Greece is more than 63 percent, the government did not ban the demonstrations.
The annual protests mark the day in 1973 when at least 24 people were killed at the Athens Polytechnic, when the junta sent troops and police against a pro-democracy student uprising.
The brutal crackdown shocked Europe, and is generally considered to have broken the dictatorship’s grip on power, leading to the restoration of democracy months later.
The bloodstained Greek flag that flew that night over the polytechnic’s iron gate was carried at the head of the demonstration in the capital, as it is each year.
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