Riot Police Attack on Squat in Athens
At 10 minutes past midnight on the 29th of August 2019, a rogue MAT riot police squad initiated an unprovoked attack on KVOX squatted bar in Exarcheia, Athens, the headquarters of infamous anarchist group Rouvikonas, on the night of a music festival.
Riot police smashed the glass doors of the building, sending shards flying everywhere. Tear gas and flash bangs were thrown inside at unarmed men and women, who were drinking beers and listening to music, with a tear gas canister hitting a bystander’s foot. One person was taken to hospital in a taxi with injuries from broken glass.
Eyewitnesses stated one of the police had his finger on the trigger of his gun. This has now been confirmed.
Exarcheia is an autonomous anticapitalist neighbourhood in the centre of Athens, Greece, which has been long resented by the state for its status as a safe space for unregistered refugees, anarchists and freaks, and for its stubborn refusal to acquiesce to the strong iron hand of the law.
After the refugee crisis it became an area full of squats dedicated to housing these people, who received no help from the state. Many squats appeared, organised by anarchists or the refugees themselves, and housed some 1000+ people at the beginning of August.
Since the landslide election of right-wing political party New Democracy in July, their leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has attempted to deliver on his promise to “clean Exarcheia”. He referred to the recent evictions and subsequent deportations of unregistered refugee children in squats, who were enrolled in schools in the area as “hoovering up the trash”.
The police began their occupation of Exarcheia in the middle of August, with a military style takeover of almost every street corner and a relentless series of violent squat evictions, which independent press are not allowed to film. A journalist was arrested last month for photographing the eviction of the 5th school, a squat full of refugee children.
During the eviction of Spirou Trikoupi 17, a social centre run by anarchists for years, a three-year old’s tooth was broken by police as they pushed him into the police bus. Regular checks of papers, random harassment and arrests, tear gas thrown and guns being drawn have become the new normal.
There have been hundreds of arrests made, and dozens of deportations.
These were the only photos from the attack, and the only proof that it happened.
The majority of the squats have been evicted, though some are left remaining.
The riot police continue to occupy Exarcheia.
The future is unclear.
What is certain is that there will be resistance from the residents of this neighbourhood, at whatever cost.
photos used by:
https://www.zougla.gr/greece/article/mat-stin-katalipsi-sto-k-voks
https://www.newsit.gr/egklhma/eksarxeia-nea-epeisodia-epta-prosagoges-kai-eleytheroi/2862040/
https://www.katechaki.gr/to-archigeio-el-as-ta-epeisodia-sta-exarcheia-ta-mat-epedeixan-aytosygkratisi/
https://www.real.gr/koinonia/arthro/eikones_sok_apo_ti_nyxta_agrion_sygkrouseon_sta_eksarxeia_molotof_ximika_kai_traumaties-568546/
https://www.efsyn.gr/ellada/astynomiko/209067_epideixi-dynamis-ton-mat-sto-kbox
https://www.imerodromos.gr/aprokalypti-epithesi-ton-mat-sta-exarcheia/
https://thefaq.gr/entoni-antidrasi-tis-neolaias-syriza-gia-tin-epidromi-kai-tin-askopi-via-ton-mat-ston-polychoro-vox-kathe-mafiozikoy-typoy-energeia-tis-astynomias-tha-mas-synanta-apenanti/
