The Best of GRReporter
flag_bg flag_gr flag_gb

The military were ready for action during the big night of vandalizing in Athens

09 March 2012 / 06:03:02  GRReporter
2367 reads

On the night of 12 February the Greek army was ready to take control of the situation in the centre of Athens, when lawmakers voted in parliament for the new memorandum of economic aid, while outside hooded youths were breaking and burning. According to information published in the electronic portal iefimerida.gr the government was ready to turn to the military because of fears that the vandalizing could spread. After the first fires occurred fears arose that the riots may have been only the beginning of a plan to destabilize the country and to completely destroy the capital.

Unnamed sources, cited by the website, said that Defence Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos informed senior government officials and ministers that if the burning of buildings continued and the country was in danger of sinking into chaos, the only solution would be the intervention of the army. And this was because it became clear that the police could not effectively thwart an organized attempt to destabilize the country. Dimitris Avramopoulos described the "Deucalion" plan, which envisaged the intervention of mechanized troops with small arms to limit the vandalizing.

The same sources claim that many of the interlocutors of the Defence Minister shared his concerns. The article states that they have realized that the intervention of troops would cause a series of political problems within the country and abroad and would increase speculation that Greece is on the verge of a civil anyway calling through its rhetoric that night.

However, the ministers decided that the "symbolic harm" that could be caused would be much less than the price of a burned Athens within an organized plan for destruction. They relaxed in the early hours of Monday when they were assured that the riot was under control and the intervention of the military, was not needed.

In an official announcement by the Defence Ministry it was stressed that the "Deucalion" plan had no connection with the events of 12 February. It would have been put into action only in cases of natural disasters with the intervention of specially trained commandos.

Meanwhile, the new and also former minister of citizen’s protection, Michalis Chrisohoidis, made indirect attacks on his predecessor Christos Papoutsis about what happened in his office. He said that when he left the ministry 17 months ago he had left behind him DIAS police squads employing 2,000 people with at least 1,000 motorcycles.

On Wednesday, the Director of the specific police squads informed him that currently there are 1,300 police officers and the remaining 700 were assigned to office services. Michalis Chrisochoidis turned to the director of the DIAS squad and asked rhetorically in which specific offices those policemen were. The new minister also wondered where  the 2,500 new officers were and stressed that work could not be done if also the new squad of 1,200 was "buried" in other departments.

Michalis Chrisohoidis said that his priority would be the permanent presence of police on the streets, and in addition to the "missing" 700, this mission would be joined by another 1,000 police officers. The main reason for crime is the crisis, the minister said and urged relevant departments to focus on finding the criminal groups. In the fight against organized crime, he intends to restructure the police.

Christos Papoutsis, who resigned in order to run for leadership of PASOK, did not leave the matter aside and issued a news release in which he described in detail the situation in the DIAS squads. According to him on 7 March 2012 there were 70 more squad members compared to 7 May 2010 during the preceding term of Mihalis Chrisohodis in the Ministry.

 

Tags: Athens Greece riots protests fire
SUPPORT US!
GRReporter’s content is brought to you for free 7 days a week by a team of highly professional journalists, translators, photographers, operators, software developers, designers. If you like and follow our work, consider whether you could support us financially with an amount at your choice.
Subscription
You can support us only once as well.
blog comments powered by Disqus