REALITY UNDERLYING
17 NOVEMBER TERROR GROUP

US-Greece relations have reached quite tense dimensions in the recent days. Though the Simitis administration is trying to calm down this nasty state of affairs, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) has led its supporters on to the streets by handing them red flags with sickle-hammer figures. The target is the USA…and the American Embassy in Greece…and this is enough to infuriate Washington.

Reason for this nasty development between the two friendly and allied nations is the existence of "17 November" (17N) terror group, which has been embraced by Greece for the last 24 years.
USA blames this terrorist organization for perpetrating acts aiming at its citizens serving in Greece and the diplomats of its allies, whilst Greece has been immersed into a deep silence on the issue since 1975, almost taking the possession of the 17N.

While Turkey has been trying to explain to the world for 24 years that Greece "harbors terrorism", all her allies except USA have not taken Turkey's sensitivity on the issue seriously, accusing Ankara of creating tension over the Greco-Turkish relations. When the barrel of 17N was eventually directed at the British, Germans and the Dutch, it was then that the rightness of Turkey on the matter was acknowledged.

If we open the dossier of 17N-terror group at this sensitive time in Greco-Turkish relations, the information that transpires from the dossier would unfortunately disappoint our neighbors. As a matter of fact, they are also well aware of this reality but they keep silent as they consider the issue as a matter of dignity (FILOTIMO).

HOW DID THE GROUP TAKE THE NAME "17 NOVEMBER"?
17N-terror group took this name from the day of 17 November in 1973, when the students of the Polytechnic in Athens up rose against the Junta regime in Greece.

The day of 17 November is on the political agenda every year, with anti-American demonstrations. What the foreign diplomats who were then on the service in the country and thus eye-witnessed the incidents, as well as the journalists tell highly interesting things about the day.
The one who agitated the students against the junta was the Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy in Athens. This person was actually an agent of the French Intelligence Agency. During the students' demos in Athens, the police and the army had opened fire on to the youth. When bloodshed was caused, the students took refuge at the premises of the polytechnic. Many had been injured during the clashes. What was more striking was that the AMX tanks sold by the French to the Greeks during those days knocked down the iron gates of the Polytechnic, moving on crushing everything on their way. Pushed into a very difficult condition, students established a radio link asking for medicine and relief from the people.

The student who called for help from the polytechnic radio was Maria Damanaki. She is the leader of the Greek communists. Her father is a high ranked, retired army officer.

In the meantime, they phoned to the French Embassy asking for medicine for their injured friends. But when the Embassy people shut the telephone into their face, students who started the movement angrily damned the French. In their furious reactions sent out to the Greek people and other foreign journalists, they shouted, "They first provoked us and now they condemn us to death".

During the uprising, members of the military police leaked amongst the students in plain clothes as agitators. When those who knew them identified them, this created much controversy. The press had then reported that these people climbed on to the roofs of the nearby buildings and aimed and fired at the people and students who were gathered to follow the incidents, shooting at least 80-90 people. During these events, Brigadier-General Ioannides was the Military Police Chief and was responsible for turning the student insurgency into a clash by instigating his men on to the civilians. One week after the incidents, he staged a coup against the Junta leader Papadopoulos, taking over the state control.

The interesting aspect of the matter was that, on the first days of return to democracy following 20th July 1974, Greek people took to streets waving French national flags and demonstrating against USA.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis who had fled to France on one night in 1963, with a passport issued in someone else's name, returned later to Greece as a conqueror of democracy, aboard a private plane of the French President of State. Interesting allegations that he had had very "special" relations with the French President, during his 11-year stay in Paris also occupied prominent space in both Greek and French press. Among these allegations was that the French President wanted marry his sister with Karamanlis. There were even those who claimed, during the days when Greece was hastily admitted to the European Community
with France's support was in fact a "trachoma" or a wedding gift given to Greece because of Karamanlis.

17N group, named after the polytechnic uprising, first made itself heard of by killing in November 1975, Richard Welch, CIA's stations chief in Athens. In the same period, the US Ambassador in Cyprus William Roger was also murdered.

Before being appointed to Athens, Richard Welch had been serving in Cyprus during the days of 20 July 1974. Assassination of the American ambassador and the CIA chief was retaliation against the Turkish intervention in Cyprus.

17N terrorist organization killed three high-ranking police officers in 1975, 76 and 77. They had been pursuing the terror group. The ones who turned them into human targets were the PASOK sympathizers within the police force. Murders of the terror group continued until 1999. It was discovered between 1975-1981 that 17N had links with those terrorist organizations under the control of Libya, PLO and Syria.

WHO CREATED 17 NOVEMBER TERROR GROUP?
It is the late Andreas Papandreou who established 17N. An organization much hated by the Greek people, 17N is an extension of PAK terror group, formed by Papandreou together with a group of followers who fled Greece for Italy during the Junta era. PAK's objective was to organize terrorist acts against the military regime.

It is also alleged that PAK is a political organ of PASOK. Even the letters in its name is of nature confirming this (As in PASOK).

This organization is an after-1974 extension of PAK, formed by a group of politicians (currently the MPs of PASOK), based in Italy during the era of the junta (1967-1974), with the aim of perpetrating acts against the military regime. The only act realized by the group during the era of the dictatorship was to blow up a bomb near a swimming pool. But its militants based in Italy established links with the terrorist organizations in the country; furthermore, other terror groups in Libya and Beqaa Valley trained some of them. The first thing they after returning to Greece, with the collapse of dictatorship in 1974, was to establish ties with the intelligence agencies in Syria, Libya and Iran-- countries known for their hostility against Turkey. What is thus seen for the last 25 years is that, the acts by these new breed of "saloon terrorists", who introduce themselves as the champions of democracy and human rights did not go beyond taking photos with kalashnikovs at hand at terrorist camps. But they did not refrain from handing guns to those who were hostile to the Turkish and American peoples, in order to have them killed.

Founders of PAK are those politicians who have established themselves in today's PASOK. From among these Sifis VALIRAKIS is the one who is best known. VALIRAKIS was arrested in 1976, while trying to smuggle arms to Turkish terror groups via Cyprus. When PASOK came to power, he was appointed as the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Communications. During his term in office, he established traffic for consigning arms to PKK, acquired from the Eastern Bloc countries. Later he served once as the Undersecretary of the Public Order Ministry did and twice as the Public Order Minister. During his term in ministerial office, it was found out that the arms "stolen" from the Greek police arsenals was used at the terrorist acts perpetrated by 17N and DEV-SOL against the Americans and the Turks. One such pistol belonging to the Greek police was found at a terrorist cellular-house in Turkey.

Some of the names of those influential politicians (including MPs who are currently in the parliament) who were trained as terrorists at the Beqaa Valley are given below:
Michaelis CHARALAMBIDES, Christos KIPUROS, Dimitris VUNATSOS, Konstandinos TSIMAS, Andonis DROSOYANIS, Manolis SEITANIDES, and PAIPUTLIDES. These are only some of the revealed ones…

WHO HAS BACKED 17 NOVEMBER TERROR GROUP?
When we count those who have been involved in the shaping of 17N we come face to face with an interesting picture. For instance, Makarios, East Germany's Intelligence Agency (Stasi), Syria's Intelligence Agency (Mukhabarat), Libyan leader Qaddafi, Soviet KGB, and many others have taken part in the establishment of this terrorist organization.

17N is a terror group, created to operate in particular, against NATO, USA and Turkey.
Syria and Libya, Makarios, Greece showed NATO and USA, as well as Turkey as a target for the terror they created. Makarios showed Turkey as a target owing to his hostile feelings against the latter. Greece's target was Turkey too, as the latter constituted an impediment for her goals of Enosis in Cyprus and turning the Aegean Sea into a Greek lake. KGB and Stasi had taken their places in this terror group in order to wear out the West. By 1999, a group of Greek politicians and a few Greek Cypriots have been left as supporters of 17N.

Coming to those harboring it in Greece.. Right-wing politician Constantine Karamanlis, who had been in power from 1975 to 1981, turned a blind eye to the acts of 17N, in order to open the way of anti-Turkish terrorism. PASOK party that came to power in 1981 escalated its acts.
In a study published on 14 October 1990 in the Athens-based Tipos newspaper, Greece's relations with the Arab terrorist groups are explained as follows:

"17N organization has close relations with Abu Nidal terror group. It is 17N that provides all the materiel for Abu Nidal group's acts in Europe. Libyans have used 17K as a cover-up against the Americans. There were American soldiers aboard the commutation bus belonging to the 'Civil Aviation Organization', which was blown up on 27 April 1987. Abu Bakir Kundakar, one of the culprits of the sabotage, had been introducing himself as a medical doctor in Greece. Hamdi Hussein and Mohamed Mahir were officers serving the Libyan intelligence. They used 17K as a cover-up for their operation."

Despite its murders it has committed since 1975, not a single militant of the organization has yet been caught and no sound information has been obtained about it. It would be unfair to place all the blame for this on the Greek police. The main reason for this is the fact that the men of the PASOK administration (that stayed in power for many years), who were placed in the key positions in the state machinery, clearly harbored terrorism. Hundreds of news reports have been published in the Greek press that occasionally confirms this argument. Two examples follow:

ACROPOLIS, October 1987:
"Though they have got evidence in their hand that can deal blows on 17K and ELA terrorist groups, the Greek police are able to do nothing to the terrorists because of PASOK."

APOYEVAMITINI, September
"Arms used by the terrorists lately caught carry the serial numbers of the arms stolen from the arsenals of the army and the police."


"17 NOVEMBER" IS A MOCK-UP FOR INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
USA offered a 500 thousand dollar-reward for assistance leading to the capture of the murderers of William Norden, a military attaché of the US Navy serving in Athens, who was assassinated with a remote-guided bomb. This helped the surfacing of certain information regarding 17N terror group, if not the murderer themselves. A man from Morocco revealed everything he knew in order to get the reward promised by the Americans to those who would tell everything about the murderers. Name of the Moroccan was Bashi Bayi'i. Because of his mistrust about the Greeks, he approached the Americans and revealed everything he knew. What the Moroccan mentioned was very interesting. All of this not only confirmed the information at the hands of the intelligence agencies but also created a brand-new picture.

According to the information supplied by the Moroccan informer, 17N had cooperated with Abu Nidal group and had provided all the materiel it had needed for its operation in Europe. He also said that 17N had also lent support to the Libyan terrorists who carried out bloody acts against the Americans. There were American soldiers on the commutation bus belonging to the "civil aviation organization", which was blown up on 24 April 1987. Abu Bakir Kundakar, one of the saboteurs, had been introducing himself as a doctor in Greece. Hamdi Husein and Mohamed Mahir were officers working for the Libyan Intelligence. Libyans who were operating as terrorists in Greece were in fact, intelligence agents.

In November 1983, Abu Nidal's men attempted to assassinate some of the diplomats serving the Jordanian Embassy in Athens. A few days after this incident, 17N group murdered George Tsantes, an American Military Attaché. Also a few months later, Kenneth Withly, the British cultural attaché in Athens was killed. In the meantime, it attempted to kill the American Major Robert Cain.

Following the consecutive assassination in Athens in 1983 of officials of the two NATO countries and upon the Greek Government's failure to heed all the warnings, an American anti-terror squad raided in March and May 1984 a hideout of the terrorists in Athens. Two Arab terrorists were shot dead at the clash resulting from the raid. Those captured alive were handed to the Greek police.
After this incident, terrorists killed Manferatos, owner of the "Vradini" newspaper. Terrorists left a message next to the body of Manferatos, known for his closeness to the Americans, reading, "Greece is not under the occupation of the USA".

An article published in June 1989 issue of the internationally acclaimed American magazine "Reader's Digest" spoke of Costas Tsimas, Chief of the Greek Intelligence; Sifis Valirakis, the Greek Minister of Public Order; Vasilis Konstandineas, Papandreou's Head Adviser as persons securing secret links with the Arab terrorists on behalf of the Greek Government.

During those days when terrorist attacks on the American officials in Athens were on the rise, a story that appeared in the New York Tribune under the headline, "Greek Terrorists Aim at US Bases Personnel" had this to say:
"While investigating into 17K, the Greek police traced a group calling itself "People's Front Initiative". A raid at the cellular house of the group, detailed plans of the embassy premises were found. In February 1980, the Athens Prosecutor would accuse the members of the "People's Front Initiative" of attempting to murder the US, West German and Turkish ambassadors. Some of the members of "People's Front Initiative" who made certain confessions said that they underwent terrorist training at the camps of George Habbash's Democratic Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Angelopoulos, the new chief of the Greek national intelligence agency, who was appointed to the post following the fall of Andreas Papandreou from power, appealed to the Attorney General to launch an investigation against the outgoing chief Cimas. He argued that the Cimas had not hand over to him, during the takeover routine, very important dossiers concerning the terror groups in Greece.."

US State Department's "1991 Report on Terrorism", issued in 1992, gives prominent coverage to Greece's links with terror groups. The report indicates that the Greece-origin terror has two targets: One: the officials in Athens of the nations who were allied against Iraq during the Gulf War and two: Turkey, because of Cyprus.

Report also explains that the reason of the assassination of the Turkish press attaché in Athens by 17N is to protest Turkey's policy on Cyprus:

"The real purpose of the terrorist acts in Greece is the national sentiments owing to Cyprus. Before the Turkish diplomat who had been murdered by planting and blowing up a bomb in his car, car of the Undersecretary of the Turkish embassy was also a target for a bombed attack, which nearly killed the diplomat. The attack was organized on the eve of Bush's visit to Turkey, during which Cyprus was one of the topics of the talks."

US State Department's Terrorism Report, issued in 1992, revealed the true face of Greece's terrorist acts against Turkey in a more frank and formal manner. During the days just before Bush's visit to Turkey, terrorists also killed an American pilot, alongside with the Turkish diplomats in Athens. The only wrong the American pilot did was to have visited North Cyprus.
A story published by "Kathimerini", one of the most serious papers in Greece, under the headline, "FBI's evaluation of 17N" reads as follows:

"According to the information obtained by the US units combating terrorism, 17N is cooperating with an extreme-left Turkish terror group (DEV-SOL). According to a report originating from Washington, the anti-terror units in USA are assessing information obtained in Washington regarding the collaboration between the Greek and Turkish terror groups in the last 10 days. American analysts declined to disclose the name of the Turkish terror group but described this as a very serious state of affairs."

Despite all its confidentiality, the fact that 17K terror group has in fact an organic link with the Greek national intelligence agency has repeatedly been a topic of debate both in the Greek press and among the public opinion.

In an interview he granted, in his capacity as a State Minister, to one of October 1992 issues of Apoyevmatini newspaper, the famous Greek musician Mikis Theodorakis described 17N as follows:

"We can evaluate 17N as a terrorism company. Constituents of this organization have nothing to do at all with humanity or any ideology. They are a murderous network that issues statements, steals arms and kills people. They perform orders they receive from a certain headquarters. It is already known that the orders come from a wing of PASOK. It has been found out that 17N has got its arms within the police, KYP and the army."

Following its bloody acts against the Turkish diplomats, 17N issued a press release in which it stated:
"We will continue to shoot those who are responsible for murders committed against the Hellenism of Cyprus, due to their official positions within the Turkish political-military establishment. We are going to shoot until the very last Turkish soldier leaves Cyprus and the Cypriot refugees return to their homes in the occupied places. In our statement issued following our act in July against the Turkish Embassy Undersecretary, administrator, adviser and the security officer-driver, we had declared that we had killed them because they were definitely responsible for the crimes committed against the Cyprus Hellenism and the Kurdish people, owing to their posts they acquired within the Turkish political-military establishment. We candidly greet the Turkish armed resistance, as well as the Kurdish guerrilla groups waging an armed campaign in Turkey."

"If a state, Turkey in particular, commits a murder by occupying the territories of Cyprus-not to mention the murders committed against the Kurds-those who hold official and especially diplomatic posts within this state are held responsible."

"Even if we assume that a murder case of a Turkish diplomat is the work of secret organizations, this constitutes an answer to what Turkey has done to Greece."

A reference to the "work of secret organizations" may be accepted as an implication about a possible link of this murderous gang with the "Greek National Intelligence Agency".

At the same moments when this statement was made, DEV-SOL, stationed in Istanbul and Ankara murdered a number of army generals who had had significant roles in 1974 Peace Operation in Cyprus. Even the Greek press reports regarding these murders were carried under such headlines as: "We Take Revenge of Cyprus".

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's declaration, as an official figure, on 17K's link with PKK came during her meeting with her German counterpart Joshcka Fischer in mid-1999.

In these remarks that angered the Greek part very much, Madeleine Albright, among other things, told the press, "Greece has a terrorism problem, that she has not done what is incumbent on her on combat with terrorism and that there are findings showing that PKK and 17K have links."

Following the tense atmosphere created by Albright's statements, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister expressed to Nicholas Burns, American Ambassador in Athens, the Greek side's discontent but the reply he got was as follows:

"USA feels uneasy about the terrorism issue in Greece. You have failed so far to catch even a single member of 17N which has been operating for the last 25 years and you hosted Öcalan at your embassy in Kenya."

During those days when NATO aircraft were bombarding the Serbs because of the "human butcher" Milosevic, 17N made its name known to the world through a series of acts.
Rocket strikes were carried out against: PASOK headquarters on 17 March 1999, French, British and American Banks in Piraeus 36 days later, the residence of the Dutch ambassador on 7 May, PASOK's bureau in Galatsi region on 10 May and then US Embassy and the residence of the German ambassador.

Very shortly before President Clinton's visit to Greece, the 17K issue was raised once again.
Yannis Skularikis, an ex-Minister of Public Order in Greece, claimed, in an interview to Apoyevmatini newspaper based in Athens, that foreign forces and CIA in particular, was behind 17K terror group. Skularikis said, "After what I read from the books on CIA, I do not find it very strange that CIA kills his own men", alleging that there existed people in the Greek Intelligence Agency and the Police Force, passing information on the Americans.
On his part, Costas Tsimas, who served as the Chief of the Greek intelligence between 1986 and 1989, told the same newspaper in a separate interview that, on the contrary, 17K was a Communist organization.

Costas Tsimas stated, " that he could swear on the Holy Bible that there are no one within 17N from the PAK group formed by PASOK to operate against the Junta."
In the meantime, Theodoros Anagnostopoulos told Apoyevmatini that "17 November and PAK have ideological ties".

Skularikis, a PASOK party member, it is CIA, which is behind 17K… Tsimas, another PASOK member, speaks of a Communist link…

Anagnostopoulos, who was a Public Order Minister under the New Democracy Party Government, alleges that 17N is an extension of PAK terror group…these contradicting statements may seem strange but the reality about 17N, mentioned above, lies before us with all its nakedness...