The Athens Polytechnic uprising, a milestone of peaceful resistance not to be forgotten

Τhis year Greece celebrates half a century of a well-functioning democracy following the collapse of the junta in July 1974.

The invasion of Cyprus and the tragic division of the island were the last and most painful chapter of that dark period in the nation's modern history.

It was preceded by the Athens Polytechnic uprising, a milestone of peaceful democratic resistance to the junta, that is celebrated every year on November 17, the date in 1973 when the military violently entered the university campus with tanks and brutally clashed with the students who were revolting against the authoritarian regime's oppression, torture and the traumatic absence of civil liberties and neglect for human dignity.

A year later, in 1974, on the same date, Greece held its first national elections after the fall of the junta that had been in power since 1967.

As we honor...