An Athens Story

 It's sort of a comical story that I'll reference back to a Athens-Greece newspaper.

At some point this week....a demonstration occurred over on the far east side of Athens, Greece (neighborhood of Zografou)....about halfway from the middle of Athens to the airport (way on the eastern side).

What the demonstration was about?  It's a long-winded episode, but basically leads back to a 'hitman' for a revolutionary 'cell'....that did 'work' for them from 1975 to 2000 (yes, going back over twenty years ago).

The group in question?  '17 November'.

The number of folks executed in this period?  The government says 23 dead, and a number wounded.

To tell the basic story....right around 2002....the government started to make arrests and raids.  Group members were starting to be identified and detained.  The terror group was basically falling apart.  Reason for the government figuring out the players?  This part of the story has never been fully laid out.  It may be that cellphone technology started to be used and was more easily identifying people.  Maybe the government actually got a member inside of the revolutionary cell.

So this one single guy who played a major role was detained.  He ended up with a hefty sentence, but was sent to a regular-type prison (nothing special).  Back three years ago....a prison council group actually signed off on a low-security situation where he was to be in some farm-type atmosphere prison (basically gardening).  

Somewhere in 2020....something happened.  No one say the magic situation or the trigger to this....but this terror guy was transferred from the gardening prison....over to a fairly secure facility (maximum security in Greece probably doesn't mean what a Brit or American would imagine).  

This guy....approaching 64 years old...didn't take all this stress very well, and back around three months ago....went on a hungar strike.  

His supporters in this neighborhood of Zografou?  This week, they decided to set up barricades on the main avenue, and start stopping cars.  What they wanted from folks?  An ID situation and to know if you were police or not.  

If you read through various accounts of this episode....locals didn't really support this traffic stop, or the required ID check....with a bunch of people who had no real connection to the government.  

Adding to the mess even more?  Well....some of the supporters for this guy....showed up in Athens at the Cultural Ministry and had a decent demonstration there.  Curiously, with the Athens Covid-ban-rules in place.....those identified at that episode ended up with citations by the police for breaking the ban-rules (figure 300 Euro each if the judges carry out the business).  

So all of this....is really about a terror group that was heavily operating from 1975 to 2002, and then kinda dissolved away?  With the members mostly sitting in jails or prisons, and mostly all approaching 65 to 70 years old?  Then you have a number of punks operating makeshift barricades, asking for some form of ID to let you through?  Yeah, that's the basis of the story.  

If you ever needed a basic script for a Netflix drama-comedy movie....this is it.