Revolutionary Organization 17 November

The Revolutionary Organization 17 November (RO-17N, or 17N) is a Greek terrorist group that carried out dozens of operations and whose members eluded capture for more than 25 years, until many of the group's members were convicted of terror-related crimes in 2003.

17N took its name from the events of November 14–17, 1973, when a student protest against Greece's military dictatorship was met with excessive police force, resulting in the death of 34 protestors. 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, and most of the information about the group's goals and leadership was gleaned largely from communiqués released by 17N after its attacks. The leadership of 17N hoped that the fall of the junta would bring about a Marxist, or at least a socialist, revolution. The election of the moderate, somewhat conservative Konstantinos Karamanlis as prime minister disillusioned members of the group, and they set about making 17N a vanguard whose violent attacks on the repressive establishment would, according to Leninist theory, spark a communist revolution.

Although the members of 17N were Marxist, their ideology had a distinctly nationalist flavor. The group advocated the closing and repatriating of U.S. military bases in Greece, opposed Greek membership in the European Union, and frowned 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.) Given the extreme difficulty police had in penetrating the organization, experts believed that it was probably extremely small, perhaps having as few as a dozen members. However many their number, 17N demonstrated thoroughly professional organization throughout its existence. The group's operations were noted for their careful planning and execution, and its members were known 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 [Page 516]suspended operations, but it resumed them in 1983 after the Greek government agreed to let the U.S. military bases remain on Greek soil. In response, the group assassinated Captain George Tsantes of the U.S. Navy. 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 used rockets.

After resuming operations in 1983, 17N mounted more than 100 attacks against U.S. and Greek government targets and Western businesses in Greece; more than 20 people were killed in these attacks. 17N increased its activity during the Persian Gulf War and the NATO 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 was ever arrested during these years gives some credence to the speculation that 17N may have been protected by elements within the Greek government. Over the years, however, as some of its operations failed, the group seemed to lose some of its fervor.

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