“Another man had been killed in my place…”: Michalis Chrysochoidis’ shocking account of his battle with terrorism

“… At that most important moment of my life, as George opened the dossier, the explosive device it contained went off. The explosion caused the entire Katichaki building to shake. (…) For a few seconds, I remained frozen, motionless, trying to comprehend the situation. Trying to stay as calm as possible, I began shouting the names of the colleagues I knew were still in the office. One did not respond to my call: George Vassilakis.”

This account belongs to Michalis Chrisochoidis and is one of the most emotionally charged sections of the book by the Minister of Citizen Protection. It describes the tragic moments of the murder of his aide, George Vassilakis, on June 20, 2010. The police officer was killed by a bomb that was meant for Chrisochoidis himself, and it is one of the events that has profoundly marked him. In his book, titled “On the Same Road”, Chrisochoidis narrates his journey from his village, Nisi in Imathia, and the most significant milestones of his life.

“Another person died in my place,” he says of George Vassilakis, his aide and longtime collaborator—the man who, just an hour before losing his life, had held Chrisochoidis’ ten-year-old son in his arms, who had visited his father at the office. “It’s very hard to describe someone who had no reason to be a target. (…) All this time—the explosion, the murder, the funeral, the mourning for the beloved deceased colleague—has scarred me forever. It has followed me since then and will continue to follow me…”

Michalis Chrisochoidis recounts fascinating details about the path to dismantling the 17 November terrorist group in his autobiographical book, published by Patakis Editions. He looks back on his childhood in Nisi, Imathia, as the son of an agricultural family. He recalls moments from the difficult life in the village, where he was known as “the son of Tsaganos,” his father’s nickname, which signified hard work and success. He also recounts his years at the Law School in Thessaloniki and his political activism. At the same time, he brings to mind events that have marked him personally while also offering a reflection on the era.

His First Term at the Ministry of Public Order

Michalis Chrisochoidis describes how “a series of developments, which completely unexpectedly led to the beginning of my term at the Ministry of Public Order,” took place. A key turning point in this chain of events was the capture of Abdullah Öcalan in Nairobi, in February 1999. After the resignation of three ministers, Prime Minister Kostas Simitis called him and appointed him to head the Ministry of Public Order. When he first arrived at Katichaki, Chrisochoidis says he made the reform of the police—a cleansing from corrupt officers—his top priority, a decision that ultimately led to the creation of the Internal Affairs Service, with Vassilis Tsaitouras appointed as its first director. Tsaitouras had previously been head of the Homicide Department and brought with him some of the best officers.
The Urgency of Tackling Terrorism

Chrisochoidis describes how, in a briefing meeting with Kostas Simitis at the Maximos Mansion on the current issues of his ministry, Simitis asked him if he had been informed about terrorism. “Caught off guard, I answered negatively. ‘Look here,’ he said sharply, ‘tackling terrorism is your top priority. And it’s absolutely urgent.'”

This remark by Kostas Simitis led to Chrisochoidis’ first communication with Fotis Nasiakos, then head of the Anti-Terrorism Unit. “He was short in stature, but imposing because he had a piercing gaze,” Chrisochoidis recalls. The first meeting filled Chrisochoidis with despair, as he felt he had not grasped the essence of what Nasiakos had explained.

The Unjustly Forgotten Victim of Terrorism, Virginia Konstantinou

Michalis Chrisochoidis makes an extensive reference to Virginia Konstantinou, one of the “unjust” victims of terrorism, as the perpetrators have never been caught. The murder of Virginia Konstantinou, an employee who was working on a conference at the InterContinental Hotel and was killed by a bomb placed in a flowerbed outside the hotel on April 27, 1999, was the first time he personally confronted the horror of terrorism. “I asked to see the dead woman,” he writes. “Her body was full of glass fragments that had essentially shattered it—a sight I will never forget in my life. (…) From that moment on, my stance on terrorism changed radically. I felt rage and indignation, furious with the cowardly act that cost the life of an unsuspecting citizen. (…) Such wretches, and unfortunately, these specific terrorists are still free, as the so-called Revolutionary Struggle has never been revealed. We may have dealt with 17N and the Revolutionary Struggle, but I still carry the burden in my conscience for them. The death of Virginia remains unavenged.”

The Meeting with Michalis Peratikos

A meeting in his office in September 1999, however, shook Michalis Chrisochoidis. Michalis Peratikos, the father of Kostas Peratikos, who was murdered by 17 November, visited him in his office. “I see you sitting very comfortably in your chair,” said Michalis Peratikos, and Chrisochoidis describes the continuation: “What do you mean? I asked. ‘You’re sitting here in your chair, calm and composed, just like your predecessor. But I have lost my child…’” (…) He took some photographs from a briefcase and spread them in front of me, with his dead son lying on the asphalt. ‘They murdered my child. For what reason? What did my child do that they killed him? Don’t you owe me an answer for this?'”

Chrisochoidis began meeting with the families of the victims of the terrorists. As he says, he didn’t sit down to read the proclamations “of the criminal terrorists, nor did I play the game of speculations about their beliefs and origins. I tried to approach the issue from two main sides: the police side, how the investigation should begin properly to discover them, and the human side—the side of the victims.”

The Informant X for 17 November

Reaching the dismantling of 17 November, Michalis Chrisochoidis describes the invaluable informant “X.” He says: “X opened our eyes for the first time to specific people who had been involved in 17 November. He initially spoke to us about the man with the crooked hand, as he called him—he was talking about Pavlos Serifis, as we later found out, who had participated in the murder of Wells.” Chrisochoidis describes unknown details about how the police proceeded to complete a shocking puzzle, which for the first time brought into focus Alexandros Giotopoulos from the infamous “circle of the disappeared of Paris” and even the notorious terrorist, Carlos the Jackal.

Time passed, the murder of Saunders, and the mobilization of the victims’ relatives through the “As Here” association completely changed the atmosphere regarding the terrorists. He admits that specific individuals, such as Georgatos, were already targeted, but Katichaki chose to wait, at least until September 2002.

“However, the circumstances changed dramatically on the night of Saturday, June 28, when a bomb exploded. The bomb exploded accidentally in the hands of the person who was trying to place it at the ticket counters of the Flying Dolphins company in Piraeus. His name was Savvas Xiros.”

In his vivid narrative, Chrisochoidis describes the phone calls with Fotis Nasiakos, now the head of the police, until one of these calls he heard Nasiakos tell him about the injured person: “The Syrian (head of the Anti-Terrorism Unit) and I believe it’s very likely we have 17 November here.” He describes the frantic journey he made from Veria, where he was, to Athens. The confirmation of the suspicion that it was 17 November came from the Forensic Laboratories: The pistol found on Xiros was the same one used to kill police officer Christos Matis, who had been killed by the terrorist organization during a robbery. From then on, Chrisochoidis describes how he personally experienced the dismantling of 17 November, the end of the most significant terrorist organization to operate in Greece, and that summer became part of history.

First Time MP

Although Chrisochoidis is essentially associated with the dismantling of the most significant terrorist organizations that operated in Greece, 17 November and ELA, in his book, he narrates moments that marked him as a person and as a politician. He notably recounts:

“During the 1989 elections, I triumphantly became the first MP of Imathia with a large percentage. That was my first time running as a political figure in Athens. I was the youngest MP in Parliament. Furthermore, I was an outspoken supporter of what was called the ‘left-wing PASOK,’ and my image perfectly matched the style of its founders from 1974. I had long curly hair, I went around without a tie, and so I went up for the first time to the Parliament presidium, as the youngest MP, for the swearing-in.
I remember that in front of me, in the first seats, sat Evangelos Averoff and Giorgos Rallis, side by side. At that moment, Averoff leaned over and quietly said to him, but not so quietly that I couldn’t hear, pointing at me with his eyes, ‘Look, look at this mess…’

I admit I was very embarrassed; I was never bold, I considered myself modest, and I didn’t expect my appearance to suggest anything else. (…) Averoff’s reaction to my appearance left a deep mark on me then, and I never forgot the phrase he whispered.”

The Meeting with Pavlos Bakoyannis

At another point, he describes his one and only meeting with Pavlos Bakoyannis:

“I started going to the Parliament cafeteria to meet colleagues and exchange opinions on the pressing issue of the impending referral of Andreas to the Special Court. There I met for the first and last time the late Pavlos Bakoyannis. At some point, we found ourselves face to face, it must have been early September. He said to me, with a casualness I wasn’t expecting, ‘Hello Michalis.’ I was surprised—how does he know me? Feeling awkward and completely unprepared, I responded as if we had known each other for years, ‘Hello Pavlos,’ and turned to leave. When I thought about it more calmly, after the initial shock, I imagined that maybe, because I was the youngest MP, he had asked who I was, what kind of person this young man with long hair was, or something like that, and that’s how he learned my name. Two weeks later, on September 26, Pavlos Bakoyannis was murdered.” (…)

1994: One Step Before Leaving Politics

Just before taking on his first ministerial position, he describes how he had decided to leave politics. He says: “The endless patronage system had worn me out. In July 1994, I had decided to leave politics and was looking for what my next steps in life would be. But fate, or whatever we want to call it, brought me to this difficult phase in my life, and right then, there was a cabinet reshuffle, and I was offered the position of Deputy Minister of Trade, alongside Kostas Simitis.”

From his tenure at the Ministry of Trade, he describes experiences from his interactions with businessmen at the Ministry. He specifically mentions the Sklavenitis family: “The businessmen I mentioned belonged to close-knit families, in which ethics passed from one generation to the next. This ethics influenced me not only in the business field but also on a personal level. For example, Spyros Sklavenitis, in his final days, suffered from a neurological disease that had effectively made him a living dead for a long time. Day and night, his children were always by his side, despite the fact that their father no longer had contact with the world around him. The devotion of these children deeply moved me.”

In his book, Michalis Chrisochoidis continues his narration up to the present, as he says in the title, “On the Same Road”.

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