When Greece came out of the seven-year adventure of the junta of colonels, it tried for many years to find its "footprints". Mostly people tried not to see their neighbor with… half an eye and as a possible security idiot.
For this reason, small "escapes" from everyday life even in the center of the capital were a balm for everyone.
Large department stores in particular were a unique attraction. People were even coming from the countryside to go for a walk in Minion, in Katranzos, in Klaudatos, in Lambropoulos. Department stores that took off retail and became a reference point in the city. For too many people (even today) Christmas means… Minion.
1980 is a critical year for post-political Greece. THE New Republic of Georgios Rallis is in the government which, however, has a clear expiration date. The river does not turn back and everyone sees that its "Change" PASOK with Andreas Papandreou in front, he is at the gates.
In this climate, then, the capital and its inhabitants are preparing to celebrate Christmas. The department stores have put on their festive clothes and have opened their gates to welcome thousands of their customers.
Until everything is not just overturned but literally turned to ashes. December 19, 1980 went down in history as the day that forever changed the map of retail in Athens. It is the day that Minion and Katrantzos were completely burned.
It was dawn on December 19, when, at about 03:10 a.m., eyewitnesses heard successive explosions from inside Minion and Katranzos. Moments later, the same people saw flames springing from the windows of the two department stores and alerted the fire department.
The mobilization was huge and almost immediately the battle with the flames began. This battle, however, was unequal. The fires quickly escalated and especially in the case of Minion the firefighters only tried and finally managed to keep the flames away from the basement of the department store where tens of tons of oil were stored. "Do not get there. We will all burn like mice "shouted, according to reports at the time, the head of fire brigade.
A total of 42 vehicles with 170 men attempted the two fires (in addition, even the firefighters' probationers had been mobilized that night to help) who managed not to spread the flames to the adjacent buildings. For both department stores, however, it was too late.
All that was left of Minion was the skeleton while Katrantzos collapsed. That night 2.000 workers lost their jobs within hours. The fire brigade estimated the damage at 2 billion drachmas but was probably far from reality.
Giannis Georgakas, the man whose vision was Minion, had said then that this amount concerns only his own department store and only the goods.
According to reports at the time, in fact, Georgakas had said that the store was insured for only 200 million drachmas (at that time there were no major insurances, nor of course a catastrophe of this magnitude could be foreseen) and that the catastrophe was complete.
As always happens in Greece, so in this case the tragedy (because it is a tragedy despite the fact that fortunately there were no dead) became the subject of fierce political controversy.
Ο Andreas Papandreou accuses the government of allowing parastatal and criminal elements to engage in disasters that affect professionals and workers. The KKE is talking about a "dark case". The Prime Minister, George Rallis, speaks of micropolitical expediencies and cold exploitation.
On December 22, a then-emerging organization bearing the signature "Revolutionary Organization, October 80" took responsibility for the double arson. "Every business, so they rely on the exploitation of the proletarians. "The bosses are taking advantage of the need of the proletarians to have an income to live on and pushing them into part-time work, alienation and misery," he said in a postal message to newspapers.
Such was the numbness that followed that even the traditional forces of the domestic guerrilla town of the city reacted to this taking of responsibility. Especially the "E.O. 17 November"Issued a proclamation in July 1981 stating, among other things:
"The first mistake - albeit a secondary one - is that in these shops they do not sell products that satisfy the false needs created by capitalism, but on the contrary essential products. This fact creates a confusion and makes the energy incomprehensible to the popular strata since they see them as shops where they shop cheaper than elsewhere. Second: another expropriation and another destruction. The brilliant idea that what we can not expropriate we will destroy, not only does not stand up to any serious discussion, no matter how well we look at it, but it is also an intellectual construct to cover other weaknesses. Third and foremost: with the destruction of Minion - Katranzou, their employees lost their jobs and their benefits. The reasoning works for the broad masses of the people: well, the owners of the great sharks, but what was the fault of the workers? As a result, they see the energy not with sympathy or even indifference but with discomfort ".
Police, moving in the dark, proceeded to mass arrests of people moving in the anarchist space hoping to find some evidence. Most had an alibi for where they were on the night of the arson. The few who did not have them were arrested and taken to the investigator.
The case at the investigative level was then taken over by Michalis Margaritis (who about 20 years later would be the president of the 17N court) who deems that the few elements of the police have no value and leaves them free.
Finally, when was no one arrested for that case which theoretically remains unsolved to this day.
The arsons in Minion and Katranzo, however, were not the only ones. Within the next six months, others followed. Always aiming at the big department stores in the center of Athens.
The fiery scene (for carbon attacks, the newspapers of the time spoke) was repeated on June 3, 1981 with the simultaneous burning of the department stores "Klaoudatos" and "Atene". On July 4 was the turn of "Dragon". Only "Lambropoulos" escaped from the rule of the center of Athens, whose department store in Piraeus burned down three days later.
The police started extensive investigations from the very beginning but were always one step behind. Perhaps for this reason, senior officers were extremely sparing in what they said and completely restrained in their assessments.
Everything showed that the arson plan was well organized and in most of the attacks the explosive device was almost the same. As the investigation revealed, in fact, the perpetrators placed the incendiary devices inside cigarette packs (boxes).
One wonders "well, complete destruction by such a small incendiary device"? It turned out that the perpetrators took care to place the mechanisms (many in each attack) in key points. In the case of Minion, for example, they were located in the camping area, close to the gas cylinders. In Katranzo among clothes.
Moreover, perhaps the most interesting of the evidence-scenarios heard at that time comes from him COME. whose members in the "Counter-Information" magazine published at that time by the organization revealed that the perpetrators, in order to be sure of the results of their plan, in addition to the incendiary mechanisms, also used a material that had been imported from the Netherlands and used it. to speed up fires on oil wells!
Whatever happened, the retail trade in Athens was hit so hard that for many it changed the image of the market once and for all. In addition to the shops that were set on fire, the smaller ones were also damaged as they either remained closed for days due to fears of collapse for the burned buildings, or operated under Draconian security measures as there was concern about new attacks. And this was a big blow to the shopping movement as the Athenians were not used to entering the shops after a physical check and with police officers (overt or covert) between the corridors.
"We are on fire without being burned," the shopkeepers told Patision and Chafteia…
The new Minion operated again in record time. But nothing was the same. In 1983 it joined the so-called "troubled companies" and passed control to the state. No matter how many efforts were made, it remained stagnant in an era where market developments were rapid as the first shop in shop stores appeared and soon put retail in a new era.