Omonoia

The attack could have left him permanently brain-damaged. It could even have killed him. That said, the assault on the 52-year-old Athens metro station master at Omonia last Wednesday should not surprise us. Blind violence is no rarity anymore. Remember how many rude awakenings, how many times we struggled to understand acts of great brutality, much less digest them.

Two brothers, aged 15 and 17, were arrested on Friday night in connection with the violent beating of a metro station manager in central Athens on Wednesday, after he asked them to wear a mask in the train.

It is a "matter of time" to identify and arrest the two passengers who viciously attacked a metro station manager on Wednesday after he asked them to put on their mask, police sources said on Thursday.

According to the sources, their faces have been recorded clearly in the metro's CCTV cameras and officers are now focusing their investigation in the area of West Attica.

In a strongly worded press release, the Citizen's Protection Ministry pledged to bring to justice the two young men who punched and kicked a metro station manager in Athens on Wednesday after he asked them to wear their masks in the train, calling them "beasts."

A station manager of the Athens metro was beaten up by two men who refused to wear their mask on the train, the public company responsible for managing the metro, tram and electric railway, Urban Rail Transport (STASY), said on Wednesday.

Ranging from the changes being planned for Panepistimiou Street to the recent revamp of Omonia Square, my discussion with Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis was focused on his plans for the "Grand Walk," as he's dubbed an ambitious overhaul of the city center. The capital's new mayor, elected in May 2019, also responded to criticism over last week's unveiling of the new fountain in Omonia.

Athens' downtown Omonia Square will open to the public on Thursday after months of renovations that were part of an ambitious revamp of one of the capital's busiest areas.

Work on the square was completed a while back but due to the coronavirus lockdown it had remained closed.

People will most certainly love the revamped Omonia Square at the heart of Athens. Any comparison with what had been in its place over the past 15 years would, after all, be devastating. Sure, we must pay heed to the objections raised by architects, which are legitimate from an institutional point of view: An architecture tender should proceed a project of this magnitude.

Could Omonia reclaim its status as the heart of Athens? But the heart of which Athens? Of the real Athens? Of the imaginary Athens? Or of the desirable Athens? Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, who has been credited with the effort to revamp Omonia Square (in partnership with the private sector), had every reason to be satisfied with Thursday's rehearsal, as it were.

The reconstructed Omonia Square in central Athens will be delivered to the public by the end of next week, Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis said on social media on Thursday.

"Very happy that Omonia square has entered the final stretch and will be delivered to the Athenians," he said