Multiple terrorist attacks have occurred in Greece.
Banned terrorist organizations
Nihilist Faction
The Nihilist Faction ( el, Φράξια Μηδενιστών, translit=Fraxia Midheniston) was a nihilist
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
organization in Greece, which claimed responsibility for a 28 May 1996 bombing of
IBM offices in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. The attack caused extensive structural damage but no injuries. The group was responsible for other attacks, primarily
arson
Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...
and
fire bombing
Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs.
In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary d ...
. The group was founded c. 1996.
Revolutionary People's Struggle
Revolutionary Organization 17 November
N17 was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
far-left
Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
urban guerrilla organization formed in 1975. The Greek government arrested many members of the 17 November organization in the summer of 2002. In 2003 15 members were found guilty of multiple murders and convicted for more than 2,500 crimes.
[Background Note: Greece]
United States Department of State
Revolutionary Struggle
The Revolutionary Struggle is a
far-left
Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
paramilitary group known for its attacks on Greek government buildings. It is widely described as a
terrorist organization
A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
by both the Greek government and the media.
Revolutionary Nuclei
Revolutionary Nuclei (RN) was, anti-U.S., anti-NATO, and anti-
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
urban guerrilla organization that conducted 13 bomb attacks in Athens between 1996 and 2000. The first attack for which RN took credit was a bomb attack on Greek Coast Guard installations in Piraeus on 11 May 1997, but it later acknowledged that two earlier attacks were carried out by RN members. Per its four proclamations, RN fought against the "imperialist domination, exploitation, and oppression" of Greece.
[List of known terrorist organizations]
Center for Defense Information
On 27 April 1999 an RN bomb targeting a conference at the
InterContinental
Intercontinental is an adjective to describe something which relates to more than one continent.
Intercontinental may also refer to:
* Intercontinental ballistic missile, a long-range guided ballistic missile
* InterContinental Hotels Group (IH ...
Hotel in Athens killed one person (Despite telephoned warnings, the building was not evacuated). In December 1999 RN set off explosives near
Texaco
Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...
's offices in Athens.
[
]
Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei
Sect of Revolutionaries
Revolutionary Self-Defense
The Revolutionary Self-Defense group claims to fight to "construct a mass internationalist revolutionary movement, by strengthening militant resistance on the entire spectrum of class antagonism".
On November 10, 2016 a police officer, who had been on guard outside the embassy, was wounded when unknown assailants threw a hand grenade on the French embassy building, days later the group claimed responsibility for the attack. Militants shot against members of the riot police when they are parked in the downtown in Athens, Greece. The incidents left no one injured.
The group is suspected of a 2016 grenade attack the Russian embassy in Athens.
Black Star
Black Star (also known as Mavro Asteri; el, Μαύρο Αστέρι) is a Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
anarchist urban guerrilla group involved in violent
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened o ...
direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...
.
During the period between May 1999 and October 2002, Black Star was one of the most active anarchist groups in Greece. They describe themselves as anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
, anti-establishment
An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine ''New Statesman'' ...
, and anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...
. The group has declared itself to be dedicated to "resistance against the mass organizations of US imperialism and to their local collaborators." They believe that "the only terrorists are the US imperialist forces, their European allies, and their local capitalist associates."[FBIS London Bureau, June 22, 2000]
Outlawed groups
As Greece is a member of the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, the following terrorist entities that are outlawed in Greek territory via the EU Terrorist list:
* Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
* Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
(ISIL/Daesh)
* Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
(military wing only)
* Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
(including the military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades ( ar, كتائب الشهيد عز الدين القسام, , Battalions of martyr Izz ad-Din al-Qassam; also spelt Izzedine or Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades; often shortened to Al-Qassam Brigades, IQB )
* Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist par ...
* Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...
Timeline
See also
*Terrorism in the European Union
history of terrorism in Europe. This has often been linked to nationalist and separatist movements (separating countries), while other acts have been related to politics (including anarchism, far-right and far-left extremism), religious extremis ...
References
{{Europe topic, Terrorism in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
Human rights abuses in Greece