Greece (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

The Greek terrorist group 17N or 'Revolutionary Organization 17 November' was remarkable for eluding detection for so long, twenty seven years from foundation in 1975 and the first, critical arrests in 2002. Wikipedia shows:

The group assassinated 23 people[3] in 103 attacks on U.S., British, Turkish and Greek targets.

Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolut...on_17_November

A new, exceptionally well reviewed book has been published 'Inside Greek Terrorism' by George Kassimeris, this comment is by Bruce Hoffman:

This is both an important and a timely work, especially given the recent re-emergence of extremist violence in Greece. Kassimeris is without any doubt the leading analyst today on Greek violent extremism and one of the leading younger scholars in the field of terrorism and political violence.

From the publisher's website:

The long story of Greek terrorism was meant to have ended in the summer of 2002 with the collapse of the country’s premier terrorist organisation and one of Europe’s longest-running gangs, the notorious 17 November group (17N). However, rather than demoralising and emasculating the country’s armed struggle movement, the dismantling of 17N and the imprisonment of its members led to the emergence of new urban guerrilla groups and an upsurge in and intensification of revolutionary violence.

Given the sheer longevity of the 17N terrorist experience, George Kassimeris sets out to analyse the life histories of the group’s imprisoned members. Their stories, told through their own words, offer us a clearer picture than we have ever had of the political and ideological environment that provided the foundations upon which revolutionary terrorism took root in the mid-1970s. This book also brings up to date the gritty story of Greek terrorism by analysing the country’s post-17N generation of urban guerrilla groups, placing their extremism and violence in a broader political and cultural perspective.

Link to publisher's website:http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=...8&e=80d42c7c0a

[davidbfpo]

I finally got to read this book whilst commuting this week.

It is a slim book, 176 pgs and is easy to read. 17N is not the only group examined, indeed Greece has had a plethora of small terrorist groups; one killed two and then was never active again. The group is mentioned in the footnotes at the rear of the book - a reminder to me to check them as reading, not at the end.

How the Greek state failed to counter terrorism is not included - which is a weakness. The state certainly contributed to the radicalisation of tiny groups. Several times the police's propensity to accidentally fire shots during protests added "petrol to the fire" and I do not overlook the murder of police officers and others.

Well worth reading, especially how a small group can escape detection and fail to be successful - except to themselves.