Polytechneo Student Holiday
Description:
The uprising began with student unions protesting the government's plans to interfere in university elections. By the evening of Wednesday, November 14, 1973, students had established themselves at the Polytechnic University of Athens (Polytechnion) and proclaimed a struggle against the government. A homemade radio station began working at the university, which managed to draw the attention of the city's residents to what was happening.
On November 15 and 16, several thousand people gathered near the university, mostly students and schoolchildren. The students' coordination commission called for a "fight to victory." By the evening, clashes between protesters and police began, which gradually engulfed the entire city center. At nine in the evening, barricades were already built in the center, fires began in some places. Shootings were recorded in the city. About eleven o'clock in the evening, an order was issued for the army to intervene.
Around midnight, a column of armored vehicles advanced from the suburban area of Goody. At 2.45 a.m., the Polytechnion radio station broadcast its final appeal.
Tanks lined up opposite the university, one of which smashed the university gates. A brief assault followed, in which 24 people were killed and more than a thousand wounded, although according to official figures there were no casualties at all. Hundreds of students were arrested.
The storming of the university was followed by anti-government demonstrations suppressed by the military regime with the use of weapons. The head of the junta Georgios Papadopoulos was dismissed, in his place the military nominated Dimitrios Ioannidis. After that, the junta did not last long - less than a year.
After the restoration of a democratic government, the victims of the Polytechnion were proclaimed martyrs, honored at the state level, and monuments were erected to them. Their name was also used by terrorists from the November 17 group, which operated from the mid-70s to 2002.
Since the restoration of democratic rule, Greek universities have enjoyed the right of extraterritoriality – police entry is prohibited. Only a unanimous decision of the rector’s council, which consists of teachers and students, can allow the police to enter the university. Following recent similar student uprisings in Greece against the introduction of paid education, the country’s parliament is seriously discussing the abolition of the right to extraterritoriality.