Remember 17
The French Institute in central Athens was vandalized yesterday morning by a group of youths who smashed windows and hurled paint at the building’s facade. The youths were expressing solidarity with French rioters. The slogan on the wall reads: ‘Sow armies, reap civil war.’ The attack came just a few hours after a similar incident in Thessaloniki and stirred fears of further copycat attacks.
In the wake of two attacks in 24 hours on French targets in Athens and Thessaloniki, police have been put on standby amid fears that youths expressing solidarity with rioters in France could try to cause trouble ahead of Thursday’s anniversary of a 1973 student uprising.
The measures were prompted by yesterday morning’s attack on the French Institute in central Athens in which about 50 hooded youths hurled paint at the building’s facade, smashed windows and spray-painted anarchist slogans. The attack followed a similar incident outside the French Institute in Thessaloniki on Thursday night, when around 40 anarchists, holding banners expressing their support for rioting youths in France, vandalized the entrance to the building. The youths eluded arrest.
Meanwhile, members of leftist groups yesterday staged peaceful demonstrations outside the French Embassy in Athens and in the center of Thessaloniki.
Police said dozens of people have been brought in for questioning, as is customary ahead of the November 17 anniversary, when violence often mars marches commemorating the military junta’s bloody suppression of a student rebellion at the Athens Polytechnic.
A total of 5,000 officers are to be deployed this year, with 1,500 to be posted around the site of the Polytechnic alone to discourage would-be trouble-makers, according to police, who fear that two weeks of French unrest could be mimicked in Greece by anarchists seeking a pretext to cause trouble.
In the wake of two attacks in 24 hours on French targets in Athens and Thessaloniki, police have been put on standby amid fears that youths expressing solidarity with rioters in France could try to cause trouble ahead of Thursday’s anniversary of a 1973 student uprising.
The measures were prompted by yesterday morning’s attack on the French Institute in central Athens in which about 50 hooded youths hurled paint at the building’s facade, smashed windows and spray-painted anarchist slogans. The attack followed a similar incident outside the French Institute in Thessaloniki on Thursday night, when around 40 anarchists, holding banners expressing their support for rioting youths in France, vandalized the entrance to the building. The youths eluded arrest.
Meanwhile, members of leftist groups yesterday staged peaceful demonstrations outside the French Embassy in Athens and in the center of Thessaloniki.
Police said dozens of people have been brought in for questioning, as is customary ahead of the November 17 anniversary, when violence often mars marches commemorating the military junta’s bloody suppression of a student rebellion at the Athens Polytechnic.
A total of 5,000 officers are to be deployed this year, with 1,500 to be posted around the site of the Polytechnic alone to discourage would-be trouble-makers, according to police, who fear that two weeks of French unrest could be mimicked in Greece by anarchists seeking a pretext to cause trouble.
posted by professor rat at 1:32 PM
<< Home