Revolutionary Organization 17 November
November 17 (also known as 17N or N17) has been described as a
Marxist Greek terrorist group (
Greek: Επαναστατική Οργάνωση 17 Νοέμβρη,
Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri); it is listed as a terrorist organization and its members were convicted as such by the Greek justice system, the U.S. State Department list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, the List of EU designated terrorist organisations, and the UK Home Office list of terrorist groups.
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Photo of one of the Manifestos of the group. |
N17 was formed in
1975, and was named in reference to an
uprising against the
military regime ruling Greece at the time.
Since the
Regime of the Colonels was backed by the
United States as part of that country's
anti-Communist efforts, the newly-founded
terrorist group often attacked American targets. For instance, the group's first attack in December
1975, was directed against the Athens station chief of the
CIA,
Richard Welch, who was gunned down outside his residence. Even after the formation of a Socialist government in 1981, the group continued their attacks. After the 1984 slaying of
Nikos Momferatos, a note was found which said that Greece "remained a puppet regime in the hands of the American imperialists and the economic establishment" In addition to its anti-American agenda, the group was also opposed to
Turkey and
NATO. In total, N17 has conducted 19 attacks against U.S. targets and 9 against Turks. However, the majority of the 103 attacks carried out between 1975 and 2002 were directed against right-of-centre Greeks and Greek companies.
One of their most prominent targets was
New Democracy member
Pavlos Bakoyannis, who was gunned down in Athens in September
1989. Other victims included Captain
George Tsantes Jr, United States Navy and the head of JUSMAGG (Joint United States Military Aid Group to Greece), who was shot dead with his Greek driver on
15 November 1983; on Feb. 21, 1983,
Nikos Momferatos, the publisher of a conservative newspaper titled
Apogevmatini, was shot in downtown Athens; one of Tsantes' successors, Captain
William Nordeen U.S.N., whose car was destroyed by a car-bomb a few meters from his residence, as he drove past it on
28 June 1988; U.S. Air Force Sergeant Ronald O. Stewart, who was killed by a car bomb outside his residence on
12 March 1991 in an anti-
Gulf War protest; Cetin Gorgu, a Turkish press attaché, who was shot in his car on
7 October 1991; Omer Haluk Sipahioglu, a Turkish embassy official shot on an
Athens street on
4 July 1994; Anglo-Hellenic shipping tycoon Constantinos Peratikos, who was shot leaving his office on
28 May 1997; and Brigadier
Stephen Saunders on
8 June 2000. This list is by no means comprehensive.
In many instances, the group used a .38 caliber pistol retrieved from a policeman killed in 1984, or a .45
M1911 handgun, which came to be regarded as their trademark. While face to face assassination was sometimes their modus operandi, the group used rockets and bombs on over 55 occasions, starting with an attack on a Greek police bus in which 14 were wounded and 1 killed.
Usually, after an attack, 17N sent a communique to the newspaper
Eleftherotypia. The group argued in its communiques that it wanted to rid Greece of U.S. bases, to remove the Turkish military from
Cyprus, and to sever Greece's ties to the NATO and the
European Union.
The actions of N17 were conducted with impunity from
1975 to
2002, as no member of the group was identified or arrested during that period. However, on
June 29,
2002 the Greek authorities captured an injured suspect, Savvas Xiros following a failed bombing attempt on the
Flying Dolphin company in Piraeus . A search of his person and an interrogation led to the discovery of two safe houses and to the arrest of a further six suspects, including two brothers of Savvas. A 58-year-old professor and economist,
Alexandros Giotopoulos, was identified as the group leader and was arrested on
July 17 on the island of
Lipsi. On
September 5, Dimitris Koufodinas -identified as the group's chief of operations- surrendered to the authorities. In all, nineteen individuals were charged with some 2,500 offences relating to the activities of N17. Because of the 20-year statute of limitations, crimes committed before 1984 could not be tried by the court.
The trial of the terrorist suspects commenced in
Athens on
March 3,
2003, with District Attorney Christos Lambrou serving as the prosecutor for the Greek state. On
December 8, fifteen of the accused, including A. Giotopoulos and D. Koufodinas, were found guilty; another four were acquitted for lack of evidence. The convicted members were sentenced on
December 17, with A. Giotopoulos sentenced to 21
life terms, the heaviest sentence in modern Greek legal history. Koufodinas received 13 life terms, Christodoulos Xeros receive 10 life terms, Savvas Xeros six, Vassilis Tzortzatos four, Iraklis Kostaris one. Lesser sentences were imposed for the remaining nine, in the light of extenuating circumstances.
Defense lawyers of the defendants as well as several civil rights groups have stressed the special character of the trial. The trial was conducted by a special court with closed doors and the use of television cameras was prohibited. People sympathetic to their cause believe that this was so that it would be easier to condemn
all the accused. Many of the accused, notably Alexandros Giotopoulos, denied their participation until the end of the year-long trial. According to Giotopoulos, he was framed so that the image of a terrorist organization led by a clear leader could be presented. The accused who did admit participation in the group, notably Dimitris Koufodinas who took "full political responsibility for all of the group's actions", presented a picture of a loose horizontally organized structure with small cells and decisions taken by discussion and consensus.
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Photo of Alexandros Giotopoulos as he was being brought in the Greek Police HQ for questioning. |
Under Greek law, one life term is equal to a 25-year term and a convict may apply for parole after 16 years. If sentenced to more than one life term, he or she must serve at least 20 years before being eligible for parole. Other sentences will run concurrently, with 25-year terms being the maximum and with parole possible after three-fifths of this term are served.
On
September 17,
2004, the imprisoned declared that they had started a
hunger strike, protesting allegedly harsh conditions of imprisonment at the Korydallos prison. In statements which were characterized a publicity stunt by critics, they claimed that "bourgeois democracy" took revenge on them by enclosing them in "a prison within a prison." In response to these protests, the Greek minister of Justice satisfied their demands, such as that roof-top bars be removed from their "courtyard space" and the hunger strike came to an end.
In December
2005, journalist Kleanthis Grivas published an article in
To Proto Thema, a Greek Sunday newspaper, in which he alleged that "Sheepskin", the Greek branch of
Gladio,
NATO's
stay-behind paramilitary organization during the
Cold War, was responsible for the assassination of CIA station chief
Richard Welch in Athens in 1975, as well as of the assassination of
Stephen Saunders in 2000. This was denied by the
US State Department, who responded that "the Greek terrorist organization '17 November' was responsible for both assassinations" [
1], and asserted that Grivas's central piece of evidence had been a document ("Westmoreland Field Manual") which the State department, as well as a Congressional inquiry had dismissed as a Soviet forgery. It should be noted the documents make no specific mention of Greece, November 17th, nor Welch. The State Department also highlighted the fact that, in the case of Richard Welch, "Grivas bizarrely accuses the CIA of playing a role in the assassination of one of its own senior officials" as well as the Greek government's statements to the effect that the "stay behind" network had been dismantled in 1988.
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Terrorismfiles info on 17N*
Judgment day for N17 - Kathimerini, Athens*
All 17N communiques (1975-2001) in Greek* Constantine Buhayer, "The UK's Role in Boosting Greek Counter Terrorism Capabilities," Jane's Intelligence Review,
September 1 2002.
* Miltiadis Fakitsas, ‘The rise and the fall of organisationis in post-dictatorial Greece: the role and the lessons for the intelligence services'. Naval post-graduate School, Monterey (California) June 2003.
* Kleanthis Grivas,
Terrorism in Post-War Europe,
To Proto Thema, December 2005
