Revolutionary Organization 17 November

The Revolutionary Organization 17 November (RO-17N, or 17N) is a Greek terrorist group that has carried out dozens of operations and whose members eluded capture for more than 25 years.

17N takes its name from the events of November 14–17, 1973, when a student protest against Greece's military dictatorship at the Athens Polytechneio was met with excessive police force: 34 protestors died and hundreds were injured. The military junta subsequently fell and was replaced by a civilian government in 1974.

No member of 17N had ever been arrested and interrogated until July 2002, thus information about the group's goals and leadership is gleaned largely from communiqués released by 17N after its attacks. The leadership of 17N seems to have hoped that the fall of the junta would bring about a Marxist, or a least a socialist, revolution. The election of the moderate, somewhat conservative Prime Minister Konstatinos Karamanlis appears to have disillusioned members of the group, and they set about making the group a vanguard whose violent attacks on the repressive establishment are, according to Leninist theory, supposed to spark a communist revolution.

Although 17N is Marxist, its communism has a distinctly nationalist flavor. The group advocates the closing and repatriating of U.S. military bases in Greece, opposes Greek membership in the European Union, and frowns on closer ties between Greece and Turkey. (Turkey ruled Greece for several hundred years; the continuing animosity between the two nations has led them to the brink of war many times.) The number of members of 17N is unknown, but given the extreme difficulty police have had in penetrating the organization, experts believe that it may be extremely small, perhaps having as few as a dozen members. However many their number, 17N has demonstrated thoroughly professional organization throughout its existence; its operations have been noted for their careful planning and execution and its members for their coolness under pressure.

17N's first attack was the assassination of CIA station chief Richard Welch in Athens on December 23, 1975. Over the next five years, the group attacked noted Greek political figures. Following each attack, 17N claimed responsibility and provided details about the crimes to prove its culpability. In 1981, following the election of a socialist government in Greece, 17N seemed to have briefly suspended operations, resuming them in 1983 with the assassination of U.S. Navy captain George Tsantes, after the Greek government agreed to let the U.S. military bases remain on Greek soil. In 1985, 17N detonated its first car bomb, killing one police officer and injuring 14. Following a raid on a Greek military museum in 1990, which netted the group two rocket launchers, many of its attacks have used rockets.

Since 1983, 17N has mounted more than 100 attacks against U.S. and Greek government targets and Western businesses in Greece; these attacks have killed more than 20 people. 17N increased its activity during the Persian Gulf War and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization air strikes in Kosovo. In 1997, a Kurdish member of 17N alleged that the group was connected to leftist Greek political parties. That no member of the group has ever been arrested gives some credence to the speculation that 17N may be protected by elements within the Greek government. Over the years, the group seems to have lost some of fervor and some of its operations have failed.

The first break in the investigation came on June 29, 2002, when Greek police arrested Savvas Xeros, believed to be a 17N commander, after he had been injured while attempting to plant a bomb. The arrest of Xeros led the police to a cache of weapons and documents, including a Colt .45 pistol used in several of 17N's attacks. Hundreds of people were arrested and detained for questioning. The Greek police believe the capture of 17N's arsenal to be a crushing blow to the organization. At the time of this writing, it remains to be seen whether Xeros's arrest will be enough to kill the organization, or whether it will remain an active threat, posing a significant security challenge for the organizers of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

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