It might be that the case of the gas explosion in the stolen car, Monday morning in Pagrati, is
valued as unrelated to terrorist issues, it woke however memories of the Pagrati-Vironas-Zografou triangle. «Exarheia might be considered the centre of the anti-authoritarian hard-core, at the red line of Pagrati however, many incidents are linked with cases of armed organizarions. Even today, it is estimated that there is a hideout of the new terrorism in this area» says an officer at protothema.gr.
The historical triangle
When during the summer of ‘02 the tangle of the dislocation of the 17N began to unfold, it was found that the central hideout of the once ghost/organization was in Damareos street at Pangrati. But it was not just that. The alleged leader of the organization Alexandros Giotopoulos lived in the area of Byron and one of the most spectacular attacks was done on August 15, 1988, when members stormed the local police station, expropriated weapons and locked the officers in the cells.
Eight years earlier, in January 1980, the same organization had murdered again in Pagrati the then Deputy Director of MAT, Pantelis Petrou and his driver. Also in the wider area of Pagrati a police wagon was blown at the height of Caravel in 1985 and in January 1989 in Zografou prosecutor Kostas Androulidakis was murdered.
Last time tha 17N was active in the area was in 1991 when they murdered Turkish diplomat Cetin Giorgiu.
In the post-17N era, there are many events in this triangle. At the campus, on Christmas 2008, the Revolutionary Struggle attacks with two Kalashnikov against a police a MAT van without any injuries.
On November 1, 2010 two youths are arrested in Pangrati carrying trapped folders that would have been sent to embassies. Also in this area a hideout was found, of the organization Conspiracy of Cores of Fire in which there was a laptop computer with names and addresses of the judiciary.
Why there
The police estimate that in that specific area of Athens there was and still is intense activity by people of urban guerrilla warfare. Which is interpreted by analysts of anti-Terrorism as follows:
* It is in the center of Athens but not targeted by the Police as much as Exarchia. So they can move more easily as soon as they become a target.
* It is a highly populated area with narrow streets providing the perfect cover to get lost in the crowd when being watched or hunted.
* It also has many avenues for escape. Whether to the city by Vasilisis Sofias, or to the east from the peripheral or via Imitos Avenue to the south suburbs
