Anarchism in Greece

Police have used tear gas to disperse crowds at a rally in Athens organized to protest plans to set up a state security division at university campuses.

Mass gatherings are banned under current lockdown rules imposed because of the pandemic, but members and supporters of student and left-wing groups joined a rally Thursday near parliament in central Athens.

Police said on Monday that 399 people were detained in the central Athens neighborhood of Exarchia on Sunday during commemorations for the 12th anniversary of the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy by a police officer.

Of these, 143 were arrested and charged with violating the ban on gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

A group of anti-establishment youths held a protest rally against police violence in the downtown district of Exarchia on Monday evening, a day after the anniversary of the killing of a teenager by a police officer 12 years ago.

Officers detained an unspecified number of protesters on Athens' main Syntagma Square on Friday who threw flyers and unfurled a banner with slogans ahead of the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager in 2008.

Police in Athens are investigating whether a spate of arson attacks on "establishment" targets and a fight involving members of a soccer fan club may be part of an effort by organized anarchist groups to establish new turf in other parts of the city center after being ousted from the downtown district of Exarchia.

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.