The hot triangle in Pangrati-Vironas-Zografou

It might be that the case of the gas explosion in the stolen car on Monday morning in Pagrati, has been assessed as unrelated to terrorist issues; however, it awakened memories of the Pangrati-Vironas-Zografou triangle.

«Exarheia might be considered the centre of the anti-authoritarian hard core, at the red line of Pangrati however, many incidents are linked with cases of armed organizarions. Even today, it is estimated that there is a hideout of  new terrorism in this area» says an officer on protothema.gr.

The historic triangle

When during the summer of ‘02 the tangle of the breaking up of the 17N group by the police began to unfold, it was found that the central hideout of the once-phantom organization was at Damareos street in Pangrati. But it was not just that. The alleged leader of the organization Alexandros Giotopoulos, lived in the area of Byron and one of the most spectacular attacks was carried out on August 15, 1988, when members stormed the local police station, expropriated weapons and locked the officers in the cells.

Eight years earlier, in January 1980, again in Pagrati, the same organization had murdered the then Deputy Director of MAT, Pantelis Petrou and his driver. Also in the wider area of Pagrati a police wagon was blown up in the Caravel area in 1985 and in January 1989 in Zografou, Prosecutor Kostas Androulidakis was murdered.

The last time tha 17N was active in the area was in 1991, when they murdered Turkish diplomat Cetin Giorgiu.

In the post-17N era, there have been many incidents in this triangle. At the campus, on Christmas 2008, the Revolutionary Struggle attacked a MAT van with two Kalashnikovs, without any injuries.

On November 1, 2010 two youths were arrested in Pangrati carrying booby-trapped folders that would have been sent to embassies. Also in this area a hideout was found, belonging to the organization Conspiracy of the Cores of Fire, in which there was a laptop computer with names and addresses of members of the judiciary.

Why there

The police estimate that in that specific area of Athens there was, and still is intense activity by individuals embracing urban guerrilla warfare, which is interpreted by analysts of anti-Terrorism as follows:

* It is in the center of Athens but not targeted by the Police as much as Exarchia, so they can move more easily as soon as they become a target.
* It is a highly populated area with narrow streets, providing the perfect cover to get lost in the crowd when being watched or hunted.
* It also has many avenues of escape, whether to the city via Vasilisis Sofias, to the east via the roundabout, or via Imitos Avenue to the southern suburbs