Revolutionary Organization 17 November
| Revolutionary Organization 17 November | |
|---|---|
Flag of 17N
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| Leader(s) | Alexandros Giotopoulos, Dimitris Koufodinas |
| Dates of operation | 1975-2002 |
| Motives | Removal of U.S. bases in Greece Removal of Turkish military presence in Cyprus Severing of Greek ties with NATO and the European Union. |
| Active region(s) | Greece |
| Ideology |
Marxism Anti-capitalism Left-wing nationalism Anti-Americanism Anti-imperialism |
| Status | Dormant |
Revolutionary Organization 17 November (Greek: Επαναστατική Οργάνωση 17 Νοέμβρη, Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri), (also known as 17N or the 17 November Group) was an urban guerrilla organization (characterized as a terrorist group by the Greek state and the United Kingdom and formerly by the United States) formed in 1975 and believed to have been disbanded in 2002 after the arrest and trial of a number of its members. The group assassinated 23 people in 103 attacks on U.S., British, Turkish and Greek targets. They were named after the day of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military junta.
The group's name, 17N, refers to the final day of the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising, in which a protest against the Greek Military Junta (1967–1974), also known as the Regime of the Colonels took place. The uprising was bloodily suppressed by the army. In addition to assassinations, kidnappings, and symbolic attacks on corporate and government offices, 17N supported its operations with at least 11 bank robberies netting approximately US$3.5 million. Members of 17N kept detailed financial records, found in one of their safe houses in 2002, to document that the stolen money was used for revolutionary purposes.
17N's first attack, on 23 December 1975, was against the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Athens, Richard Welch. Welch was gunned down outside his residence by three assailants, in front of his wife and driver. 17N's repeated claims of responsibility were ignored until December 1976, when it murdered the former intelligence chief of the Greek security police, Evangelos Mallios and left its proclamation at the scene. In January 1980, 17N murdered Pantelis Petrou, the deputy director of the riot police (MAT), and his driver. It also intervened with two long proclamations offering theoretical guidance to the Greek armed struggle and criticizing a rival group, Revolutionary People's Struggle (ELA) for poor target selection and operational incompetence.
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