With a video on social media, the MEP and leader of the party “Voice of Reason,” Aphrodite Latinopoulou, calls for the complete abolition of the celebration of the Polytechnic Uprising in Public Education, presenting – as she says – six myths that have prevailed in the public discourse about the anniversary.
Ms. Latinopoulou states that the anniversary is not celebrated in most private schools, “unfortunately, it is a ceremonial holiday in public schools.” She adds that “any teacher or professor who wants to celebrate it with their students can very well do so in their free time.”
She then presents the six myths, as she calls them, which range from the number of deaths to the connection of the uprising with the fall of the Junta.
Myth 1: The Polytechnic belongs to the Left
Aphrodite Latinopoulou states that the Polytechnic belongs not to the Left but to all Greek Democrats. She notes that the Left and the KKE, when the occupation of the Law School began, quickly condemned it as a provocative act.
Myth 2: The hundreds of deaths at the Polytechnic
In the second “myth,” she points out that there were not thousands of deaths, but 40 deaths, 24 identified and 16 that were never identified. “Here, we should mention the case of Helen, who was supposedly being searched for by her boyfriend with a photo that was eventually proven to be a model’s photo advertising shampoo,” she says.
Myth 3: The tank crushed 3-4 students
“According to the official reports, no one was killed inside the Polytechnic. No one was killed under the tracks of any tank.”
Myth 4: The whole society resisted
“The Polytechnic was a student uprising of a few hundred young students, which was fought against by the official parties and was in no way supported by thousands of people. Regardless of the fact that later, hundreds of thousands of people rushed to exploit the developments of the Polytechnic after the final fall of the Junta.”
Myth 5: The Polytechnic brought down the Junta
“This is yet another huge lie. The truth is that no Polytechnic brought down any Junta. The Junta, on Friday, sent an ultimatum: ‘Leave and vacate the Polytechnic.’ A vote followed. The extremists and the youth of PAK voted not to retreat, while the right-wing, centrists, and KKE voted to leave. From the fact that the extremists took it to the extreme, the bloody events of the Polytechnic ensued. The military law was declared by the dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, who was overthrown by a new coup on November 25, 1973, and followed by the much harsher Junta of Ioannidis, which collapsed like a house of cards when, after disastrous mistakes by the regime, half of Cyprus was lost. But that was when the calendar read July 23, 1974, eight months later.”
Myth 6: The head of Nikos Svoronos
The head that supposedly symbolizes the students’ uprising of 1973. The sculpture, which we lay flowers at every year, has nothing to do with the events of 1973, as it depicts the historian Nikos Svoronos, part of the EAM and ELAS.
