Forty-five years later

The event was long overdue, even by the lethargic standards of the Greek state. Forty-five years after the first assassination by November 17 urban guerrillas, 18 years after the group's dismantling and 14 years after Greece established "a day of memory for the victims of terrorism," the Greek state finally got around to organizing an event to commemorate those who were slain by men who believed that they would change the world by killing people.

Having a reaction to such an event would be strange in any other country. But in the case of Greece, the strange thing was that the criticism of it was largely subdued - with the exception of two comments that were reminiscent of yesteryear.

Former SYRIZA MP Nikos Xydakis said: "We feel that tomorrow's conference on terrorism at the War Museum, under the auspices of and with the keynote address by the prime minister, in the...