More than 5,000 officers are on duty to police the three-day events that mark the 51st anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military junta.
The events began on Friday with people gathering outside the Athens Polytechnic, to leave a flower in memory of those who resisted and fought for democracy.
The annual march that will take place Sunday afternoon in Athens will start at the Polytechnic and will terminate at the US Embassy.
Each year, the Polytechnic anniversary is celebrated with a march toward the US Embassy which many Greeks accuse of supporting the military junta. The march usually ends with clashes between police and anarchist groups.
As every year, this year too there will be a strong police presence around the Polytechnic and from other university institutions, the US embassy, public buildings, as well as in the Athens district of Exarchia.
At the same time, due to the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, police will implement special security measures around the Israeli embassy but also in other buildings and businesses of Israeli interest.
Additionally, there will be traffic regulations, especially on Sunday when the commemoration events will peak.
The 1973 Polytechnic uprising in Greece
The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurred on November 17, 1973, as a massive student demonstration of the popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967 to 1974.
The uprising that began a few days earlier, escalated to an open, anti-junta revolt and ended in bloodshed in the early morning of November 17th after a series of events, starting with a tank crashing through the gates of the Polytechnic.
As of November 1973, it had been six and a half years since Greece had been placed under strict, far-right military rule. Opponents of the junta that took over in the April 21, 1967 coup had been tortured, jailed, exiled, or put under surveillance ever since that time.
By Friday, November 16, the Polytechneio building and the surrounding area were packed with people who had gone there to protest. Some had gathered out of curiosity since it had been years since demonstrations had been allowed.
Suddenly, police surrounded the area, stopping the influx of people to the building. The authorities started calling on the crowd to disperse and threatened them with violence.
Tensions were high and there began to be reports of shootings and killings of people by the police.
At least 24 protesters killed
By nightfall, all the protesters moved inside the campus of the Polytechnic, and the authorities decided to call in the Army. By 1:30 AM a tank stood menacingly in front of the gate, with police repeating the calls for people to come out of the Polytechnic building and disperse — but the students and the rest of the protesters did not budge.
The Junta’s tank crashed into the gate of the Polytechnic campus at about 3 AM. Some grainy footage shot by a Dutch reporter shows the vehicle tearing down and crashing through the main steel gate of the university as people still clung to its railings.
Related: Athens Polytechnic Uprising: When Greeks Rebelled Against the Junta
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
