Throughout the action of "November 17" there were many critical stations. It is true, for example, that it was one of the most crucial points the attack against the then Minister of Finance Giannis Paleokrassas where the unfortunate Thanos Axarlian lost his life. It was a crack that was never repaired even among the members of the organization.
An equally crucial turning point was his execution Pavlou Bakoyannis who, although a member of parliament for ND, had a great foothold in the voters of the Left because of his anti-dictatorship action. It was a blow that cost supporters in 17N.
The other two executions, which had enormous symbolism and terrifying consequences for the organization, were that of its chief torturer. junta Evangelos Mallios and the British brigadier Steven Saunders.
These two cases are to some extent interconnected, even if between these blows of "E.O. 17 November», Mediate, approximately, 24 years! The execution of Mallios was the one that gave the organization the necessary (for every city guerrilla who wants to live a long day) popular support and the corresponding one of the British military follower was the one who, through a series of events, removed it and, in fact, marked beginning of the end.
On Christmas Eve 1975, her stationmate falls dead from bullets fired by strangers. CIA in GREECE, Richard Wells. The times are suspicious. The wounds of the seven-year dictatorship are still open. If one reads what the newspapers wrote then, in combination with what we know today, one will surely laugh. Even for some πολύ "very dark" who "did not speak Greek at all" wrote.
Obviously, the journalists did not take these out of their "belly". This was the informal information from the police who wanted to quickly dispel any possibility that this murder would create a political problem in Greece.
Things get complicated when a «some" Revolutionary Organization November 17 "takes responsibility with a proclamation. The police still do not want to get involved, those to whom the text of the emerging organization reached do not care and in the end this is forgotten in a drawer.
Until about a year later, the reality comes to crush any funny scenario about Arabs and create a huge headache for the Greek law enforcement authorities.
The 17N strikes again and this time everyone takes it seriously. On December 14, 1976, shortly after 10 pm, Mallios falls dead outside his house in P. Faliro.
Shortly before he calmed down, he told the police, "1973. A tall man and a girl. " Apparently in 1973 was the license plate number of the vehicle of the two perpetrators. Maybe not. However, it is important that now everyone takes 17N seriously.
On the one hand the state that does not know what exactly to investigate and attributes the action of the organization "to centers from abroad seeking political anomaly" and on the other the vast majority of citizens who applaud the execution of the "bastard who witnessed in his hands many fighters in the dungeons of Bouboulina and the Mediterranean ", as the announcement of 17N wrote.
This execution was the biggest victory of the organization. He managed to gain a popular foothold that he would maintain for at least two decades, at a time when Greek police, along with FBI and CIA Americans assisting in the investigations, were navigating between jokes and conspiracy theories. The members of 17N gained the time but mainly the social immunity they wanted.
On June 8, 2000, the 17N executed in its vehicle, which at that time was moving downhill on Kifissia Avenue, the British military follower, Brigadier General Steven Saunders, who was to be the last person to die from its fire. organization.
It has been 24 years since the execution of Mallios and ELAS, always with the assistance of the Americans, has not achieved much in terms of investigations. Until the Scotland Yard considers the investigation into the murder of the British brigadier a matter of honor and is involved in the case.
All those who lived through those events believe that if this 17N energy had not existed, the organization would never have disintegrated or, at least, not to the extent that followed the historic summer of 2002.
The reason is simple: Scotland Yard officers who came to Greece were called in to handle a case unknown to them. The British police had been dealing with the IRA for many decades and they knew, they had the know-how, what needed to be done to arrest the members of the organization. That was the huge difference between Scotland Yard and FBI or the CIA.
This know-how, then, was immediately transferred (through special envoys) to the Greek counter-terrorism service, which now began to work at a completely different level from what it was working until then.
What almost immediately impressed the British officers was that the 17N still retained to a large extent the popular support it had acquired since the execution of Mallios.
"It simply came to our notice then. We must expose them in order to have immediate results ", he allegedly told Greek officers counter-terrorism, British official.
The British of Scotland Yard knew very well that what we called "popular support" actually meant a "wide network of coverage" and mainly closed mouths when the critical time came. They also knew that after almost three decades the relations between the members of 17N with a large part of the Greek society could not be broken by a proclamation (as had not been done, after all, in all the previous years).
What was needed was a completely different approach. More human. "The relatives of the victims must have a face. To show the pain. The loss", stressed the same Scotland Yard officer.
And somehow, along with the official part, there began to be a parallel project: that of the communication defeat of 17N.
In the foreground came the relatives of the victims, who since the beginning of 2000, had formed the club "Here". The television appearances of relatives (and especially of the children of the victims) multiplied. The discussions about the victims left the part of the justification on the part of 17N and were limited exclusively to the part of pain, grief, loss.
Pickets were organized where relatives demanded justice for their people. Everyone rallied around this case. The climate began to change and the British pushed even harder in that direction.
A website was created that published photos of the victims more humane, more everyday and which were accompanied by texts of their children.
The current mayor of Athens, Costas Bakogiannis, and his sister Alexia, the son of Nikos Momferatos and the daughter of Panagiotis Rousetis, the father of Kostis Peratikos were some of those who lifted the most weight in the area of publicity.
The scenes with the relatives of the victims standing speechless with lighted candles outside the parliament building in Syntagma drastically changed the attitude of the vast majority of Greek society.
From that point on, the 17N lost its grounding in society and so did what the British officers of Scotland Yard expected: When the time came for the arrests and photos of members of the organization to be made public, the mouths that had remained for so many years closed, opened and revealed a lot, among them the road to the central giafkes of the organization.