36 years since the assassination of Iakovos Koumis

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This year marks the 36th anniversary of the murder of law student Iakovos Koumis by Sotira in Athens, by the MAT, during the 1980 Technical University Course. The Cypriot student is brutally and unnecessarily murdered by state authorities, a victim of police brutality Greek authorities, who tried to stifle the Polytechnic's memorial marches.

On November 16, 1980, Stamatina Kanellopoulou and MAT were assassinated by MAT men. Iakovos Koumis, during the course of the Polytechnic. 7 years after the November uprising, in 1980 the celebrations for the anniversary of the Polytechnic culminated on November 16, Sunday with the established procession.

On November 20, 2012, the Municipality of Sotira honored the hero of Independence in a simple event with recitations of his poems.

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The Ralli government had banned the procession from heading to the US embassy that year, and protesters were only allowed to reach the constitution and disperse there.

The majority of the EFEE was disciplined despite the lions of the previous days, but several thousand protesters decided to follow the left minority of the EFEE (PPPS, AASPE, EKON Rigas Feraios-XNUMXnd Panhellenic American, etc.) to continue the operation.

"The march went up Stadiou Street, continued in Syntagma Square, where citizens gathered on the sidewalk of various factions insulted those who participated, and entered V. Sofias Street. At the height of the parliament, the "forces for the restoration of order" had lined up. For a few minutes the two fronts remained motionless and some phrases were exchanged. The protesters then took the first steps towards the formation of the Mat, and then they attacked. The mass of protesters was dense and the retreat was difficult "(Testimony from Inside Outside).

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MATs then turned the center of Athens into a real slaughterhouse with two dead protesters (Kanellopoulou, Koumis), at least two wounded by police revolvers, hundreds of broken heads, arrests, etc.

Stamatia Kanellopoulou, a 20-year-old worker, was found fallen on a sidewalk on Panepistimiou Street and badly beaten by police. She was taken unconscious to Hippocrates, where she died before her doctors offered first aid.

The 26-year-old Cypriot law student Iakovos Koumis He was accidentally found in Syntagma Square, where after a cowardly attack by the MAT, he was left with severe craniocerebral injuries from a globe (from a police revolver bullet, others claim), he was served in "Laiko" and died a few days later.

At 10 o'clock in the evening of the same day, Andreas Papandreou declares: "Small groups of irresponsible elements and provocateurs of unknown and suspicious origin created sad deviations with the obvious purpose of tarnishing and discrediting the great popular anniversary of the Polytechnic." helped the government of ND "as if it has already taken over the ministry of Public Order" (Proclamation of the Polytechnic Initiative group '80). (The step)

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The government limited itself to expressing its anger at the "organized groups of anarchist and extremist elements" who "tarnished the great popular anniversary and brutally provoked the democratic and peaceful feelings of the entire Greek people", merely clarifying that "the conditions under which The death of a young worker took place, and administrative inquiries were ordered. "

One week later, a long debate took place in Parliament. "And the Archangel Michael holds a sword in his hands to defend himself against the demons. It doesn't hold flowers ", said G. Rallis.

While Giannis Zigdis: 
"The main reason for the evil is that the government maintains a body that is a disgrace, the MAT. This is not a police force, this is an ES-ES Corps, it is worse than the ESA, its members are criminals, not that people were born criminals, but are being trained to become criminals. I saw them in Rhodes, where they attacked a people who made a peaceful parade. They were attacked with such rage that I have not seen even the Italian fascists when I was a child in Rhodes (…). Let's have a special meeting on whether a Republic can maintain state institutions, such as MAT. These are only for 'Hitler', only for 'Mussolini'. It is inconceivable that they exist in a democratic state. "

In the same discussion, Papandreou and Florakis were content with suggestions about the place and time during which police forces should open the heads of protesters. "The police would really be able to maneuver to the point of conflict, so that the body of 2.000 extremists could be cut off, I repeat, and there they could be dealt with," Andreas said. He knew that in order to gain power, he had to make some concessions. (IOS of Eleftherotypia).

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An EDE was ordered for the deaths, which of course did not end up anywhere, as usual. The perpetrators of the two deaths went unpunished as those accused by police of the November 16, 1980 incidents were acquitted seven years later.

PS: The photos (1, 2) are from Indymedia and the cartoon is from his page Nikos Sarantakou

Who was Iakovos Koumis?
He was born in 1956 to Giannis and Eleni Koumi in Sotira, Famagusta. He graduated from the Technical School of Famagusta and after his military service he worked at the Oil Refinery in Larnaca, while at the same time he graduated from the Night High School in order to get a diploma and go to the Law School of the University of Athens.

An anxious spirit, as his friends described him, with great involvement in the public and a deeply politicized and thinking man.

Shortly before going to Greece, in 1980 he married Maria Kaikki, also from Sotira. In the same year, he enrolled in the Political Department of the University of Athens. He eventually settled in Athens with his wife, in an apartment in Sepolia.

Lucas Axelos describes:During the short period of its establishment in Athens, we met through the project of "Notebooks". "We caught up and made an excursion to Nea Makri, when a week before he was murdered together with our friend Pavlos Hatzipavlou and our wives, Angela, Daphne and Maria, wandering around the oranges and lemons of my paternal estate," recalls the magazine's director. Together with our other comrades we lived that year on the three days of the anniversary of the Polytechnic, at the "table" of the "Notebooks" and the "Work". 

On Sunday, November 16, we went down early to the Polytechnic to participate in the march, as it happened. "Iakovos' obsession for participation in the process is characteristic," his first ", as he put it in Pavlos", continues L. Axelos. "When the arrival of all of us was over, we started towards the American embassy. 

But the events took on explosive proportions. Having been cut off from the rest, we found ourselves in the Propylaea, our companion Giannis Kargiotis, Iakovos and I, relatively far from the center of the conflicts in Syntagma and Vasilissis Sofias and since Iakovos was essentially ignorant, not only of Athens but also of police violence, we deemed it appropriate to disband and return to our homes. It was 10 to 10:15 at night when we broke up. Alas. It was forever… 

Late at night, I was informed that Iakovos had been murdered by the MAT in Syntagma. " To this day, no one knows why Iakovos Koumis decided not to return home directly that fateful night. He headed to Syntagma Square and there, sitting in a chair, he was killed in the back by the MAT, with a key blow to the brain, as the Italian medical examiner Durante wrote. 

According to eyewitness accounts, including his good friend Lefteris Rizas, a member of the "Notebooks", the young student had not lost consciousness completely. During the transport to the hospital by ambulance, although he was literally bathed in blood, he managed to say: "They do not have their God, they ate me". He arrived at the People's Hospital clinically dead. One week later, on November 23, Iakovos Koumis passed away… ”

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