Anarchism in Greece

The raid, following another one two days earlier, triggered fierce debate over the role of police in enforcing public health measures as Greece begins to lift its COVID-19 lockdown, amid accusations that security forces - frequently accused of acting unaccountably - are being used by the conservative government to promote gentrification in a city where years of extreme austerity since 2010 have

Greece's anti-terrorism service detained 26 people and seized heavy weaponry including anti-tank arms in a large, ongoing counterterrorism operation in central Athens on Thursday to dismantle a suspected far-leftist militant group, police sources cited by state-run news agency ANA-MPA said.

Greece's anti-terrorism service raided a house and an office of a rights committee for Kurds in central Athens on Thursday, detaining 26 people on suspected of links to a far-leftist militant group outlawed in Turkey, police sources cited by state-run news agency ANA-MPA said.

At least six people were detained on Tuesday following a series of raids by police in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia which the conservative government has pledged to purge of crime. 
According to police sources, the raids focused on drug dealing and the illicit trade in contraband tobacco as well as a crackdown on undocumented migrants living in anarchist-run squats in the area.

Residents of the central Athens district of Exarchia held a rally outside the local police station on Saturday to call for more policing to crack down on crime in their neighborhood. The rally came after locals living on central Kallidromiou Street published a letter denouncing a criminal gang that has been conducting robberies in the area around the police precinct.

A barrage of vandalisms took place in central areas of Athens and the second biggest city Thessaloniki on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, police said.

An Athens prosecutor has brought charges against 28 suspects who were arrested on Sunday following clashes in the downtown Athens district of Exarchia between self-styled anarchists and riot police.

Heavy police presence in Athens has prevented an escalation of clashes with anarchists and other extreme leftists marking the 46th anniversary of a student uprising against the then-ruling Greek military dictatorship.

Over 20,000 people made the traditional march from the National Technical University of Athens, site of the 1973 uprising, to the US Embassy on Sunday.

The Supreme Court prosecutor's office has decided to review the release in summer of Epaminondas Korkoneas, a police special guard convicted for the deadly shooting in December 2008 of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in the downtown Athens district of Exarchia, it emerged on Monday.

Greek police say they detained a total of 34 people in dawn raids on two squats in Athens mostly occupied by refugees and migrants, as part of a crackdown on lawlessness in the area by the new conservative government.

Dozens of officers cleared two sites in the Exarchia neighborhood of the capital.