An Analysis of the Greek Riots

As VH reported a couple of days ago, the riots that spread across Europe this week in solidarity with the Greek rioters were well coordinated by anarchist groups and websites like Indymedia. This was no spontaneous outpouring of citizen outrage; the riots were carefully planned and prepared for by leftist and anarchist networks throughout Europe.

A detailed analysis of what happened (and is still happening) is provided by International Analyst Network in an interview by Ioannis Michaletos with the journalist Tomasz Pompowsk, Deputy Opinion Editor of POLSKA The Times (newspaper interview in Polish).

Some excerpts:

		Could you analyze important aspects of present street battles in Athens?
1)		The street battles are the worst Athens has ever experienced, although it is a city with rather frequent clashes with the police.
		Important characteristics include the rapid mobilization of the rioters. For example they were out in the streets destroying property in just 20-25 minutes after the death of the young person was announced. It happened in 21.03, it was first announced in a website around 21:30 and the riots were already swinging at 22:00. I have served in the Navy but I don’t think armed forces are that quick in mobilizing their personnel!
		Over the coming days, the rioters that numbered between 1,500-2,000 people (30% of those immigrants-mostly Muslim), were able to move from one part of the city to another in a quick way using a variety of methods, such as public transportation in small groups, motorcycles or even riding taxis alone and gathering in a specific “meeting place”.
		Lastly, they used extensively the internet, mobile phones and instant messaging services to alert against police and gather information of what the media were transmitting. In a few words they were trained in a fashion that distinct them from the usual “Athenian rioters”. They seemed to have international experience and plenty of hideouts within the city centre.
		What is your assessment of unrest in Greece?
2)		I think it was a mixture of social disappointment, aftershocks of the global economic crisis coupled with foreign involvement and Greek tradition in extrovert activities such as taking out in the streets for a number of reasons! For the moment although it is a bit early to tell, I think that foreign involvement played a big part in making these riots last long and create big damages.
		Do you know how they started?
3)		During the first two days, the street fighting was intense, although the police had orders not to use violence in order to calm things down. The rioters had plenty of molotov bombs, heavy sticks, stones and other heavy equipment and were targeting specific items in the city: Shops and cars. Public buildings were not hurt especially due to police protection and that shows that the rioters were very much concerned of not get caught and “become heroes”. They were more interested in creating damage, rather than attacking a public building to present a political message but having also the risk of being arrested. The last two days the police took more action against them and they disappeared. This is a typical urban guerrilla way of fighting; avoid confrontation and strike when least expected, always in a very fast mode. There was looting involved but it was not done by the rioters but by other elements that exploited the situation. Therefore the rioters were not seeking immediate financial gains, nor did they want to make a political pronouncement. Their aim was to inspire fear.
		How would you describe those street fighting?
4)		They started immediately after the Greek Indymedia website posted the news of the death of the young boy, with phrases such as “Revenge for the dead” “Police should pay now” “Everybody out in the streets”. As I said that happened les than 30 minutes after the incident. It is interesting to note that the national TV learned of the killing only after the first rioters took out in the streets. According to unverified information, the local media were informed of the whole incident by the rioters that called them with their mobiles as soon as they were marching out in the streets.
		Do we have any reason to say about foreign involvement in sustaining those street battles?

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5)		The rioters were trained, disciplined and in a fighting mood for 3 days; and another 2 days with less stamina though. This is not a typical Greek group and I would say not typical of any country if one takes into account that the rioters were not replenishing their numbers but were the same people more or less for the whole period.
		Secondly, after the riots broke out in Athens, almost simultaneously riots begun in all major Greek cities with the same style. Next day, almost 50 Greek cities were experiencing street battles and the following incident was reported were groups of people were moving from a city to city to start a riot for a few hours and then moving to the next one. Also in one city, named Kozani, groups of people that started the riots came from Athens, rented a hotel room and took the streets the next day. So we have people that are coordinated, able to control their “anger” and expose it with ferocity when needed. I would call them “urban guerrillas-mercenaries”. There were reliable estimations by police circles over the past few months, that something is “happening” in the Greek radical scene and there are evidence that Greek NGO’s collaborate with foreign ones by bringing volunteers in Greece from abroad, which in reality turn out to be radicals-anarchists. So a web of relations has been developed between Greek radicals and foreign ones. In that sense a provocation or the involvement of foreign intelligence apparatus it is not improbable judging by the recent European history.
		Why Greece became a target of that attack?
6)		My point of view is that Greece is the “weakest link” of the Eurozone, and I am not talking only from an economic point of view. It is Europe’s gateway to the Middle East; its neighbour Turkey is a large country with explosive social problems and on its Northern borders it is accustomed into coexisting with the Balkan insecurity of Albania-Kosovo and so on.
		[…]
		Who organized that fighting?
7)		The culprits in first sight are the leaders of the anarchist-radical networks in Europe. Greek radicals are an important part of the European networks along with their “comrades” in Italy, France and Spain the so-called Mediterranean networks. The other elements to be found are based in Germany and UK. The former provided human resources and the latter have already organized the so-called “Antifa” groups in Athens.
		So we have a Pan-European network, which is to an extent under the surveillance of the European intelligence services…
		Also if one adds the question “Cui bono?” in the long-term…the answer could perfectly be: The terrorist networks based already in the Middle East trying to find ways to establish firm roots in a Eurozone country. They have already managed to do so in Bosnia, Kosovo to an extent but Greece is a gateway to Brussels in all senses.
		[…]
		What weak sides of national security were exploited by organizers of those attacks?
9)		The weakest side was I think the disinformation and psychological warfare one. The Greek police do not have the ability to use such techniques and deter any “Opponent”…

One interesting thing to note in this interview is the estimated 30% participation of Muslim groups in the rioting. Those were presumably the “asylum seekers” whose violent actions were described in various press reports. It’s yet another example of the Demonic Convergence of the Left and the Great Jihad.


Hat tip: Paul Green.