ATHENS (Reuters) -Thousands of Greeks marched through Athens on Monday to mark the anniversary of a violently quashed student uprising in 1973 that helped topple the military junta that then ruled the country.
The annual march to the embassy of the United States, which many Greeks accuse of having supported the 1967-1974 military dictatorship, often becomes a focal point for protests against government policies.
At the front of the procession on Monday, youths held a blood-stained flag that had belonged to the students engaged in the 1973 revolt at the Athens Polytechnic.
They briefly stopped outside Parliament and chanted the national anthem, a symbolic move to honour the victims of a 2023 train crash, the country’s deadliest rail disaster, which has become a painful emblem of state failures.
They later reached the U.S. embassy, which was blocked off with rows of police buses. Some of the demonstrators who followed held carnations or banners reading “Resistance”. Others chanted slogans in solidarity with Palestinians.
“Fifty-two years ago some people sacrificed their lives for us to enjoy today all those rights acquired,” said Niki Steinhauer, 21.
“The message of the Polytechnic (revolt) is more relevant than ever,” she added, as she protested against the government over a recent law which extends working hours in the private sector.
Police had deployed about 5,000 officers in Athens. More than 30 people were detained before the march and 11 people were arrested, police said.
Earlier, people laid wreaths and carnations at the Athens Polytechnic, site of the bloody clamp-down on November 17, 1973, when army tanks smashed through the gates of the building to crush the students’ protest against the colonels ruling Greece at the time. Dozens were killed.
The revolt heralded the end of the junta.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Vania Turner; Editing by Michele Kambas, Rod Nickel and Leslie Adler)
