Revolutionary Organization 17 November

Revolutionary Organization 17 November (, Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri), also known as 17N or the 17 November Group, was a Greek Marxist–Leninist urban guerrilla organization. It is named after the Athens Polytechnic uprising. Formed in 1975 and led by Alexandros Giotopoulos, 17N conducted an extensive urban guerrilla campaign of left-wing violence against the Greek state, banks, and businesses. The organization committed 103 known armed robberies, assassinations, and bombing attacks, during which 23 people were killed.http://www.ahistoryofgreece.com/press/november17terrorists.htm 17 November Terrorist Organization Chronology of Attacks

The organization is known for targeting American, British and other foreign diplomats and military personnel, particularly in retribution against the United States for its support of the coup d'état and the dictatorship known as the Regime of the Colonels. Their demands have included the removal of American military bases in Greece, the removal of Turkish military forces from Northern Cyprus and the withdrawal of Greece from NATO and the European Union. The Encyclopedia of Terrorism describes them as "a durable, lethal and successful group" who evaded authorities for over 25 years. According to a 2026 documentary by Alexis Papachelas for SKAI TV, FBI officials described 17N as the most successful and effective guerrilla group in the West during the 1990s.

Attacks 17N's first attack, on 23 December 1975, was against the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Athens, Richard Welch. Welch was gunned down outside his residence by three assailants, in front of his wife and driver. 17N's repeated claims of responsibility were ignored until 25 December 1976, when it subsequently murdered the former Intelligence Chief of the Greek security police, Evangelos Mallios, convicted of torturing political prisoners during the dictatorship, and left "scattered leaflets" at the scene claiming responsibility for the 1975 Welch murder."Athens Reports Slaying Of Ex-Police Official", The New York Times, 16 December 1976, p. 7 17N used two M1911 pistols in these killings.Trademark Colt pistol is identified (), Kathimerini, 18 July 2002.

After their first attack against the CIA station chief, the group tried to get mainstream newspapers to publish their manifesto. Their first proclamation, claiming the murder of Richard Welch, was first sent to Libération in Paris, France. It was given to the publisher of Libération via the offices of Jean-Paul Sartre.Giotopoulos the son of renowned Greek Trotskyite (), Cyprus Mail, 20 July 2002.

One of their demands was the removal of US military bases from Greece. When the Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou renewed the US base agreement, 17N responded to the perceived betrayal by attempting to assassinate US Master Sergeant Robert Judd, firing five rounds at him while his car was stopped in traffic. They issued a communique after the attack: "American Imperialists, The people do not want you! Take your bases and go!"

Police suspected the group of using a stolen anti-armor rocket to attack a downtown branch of the American Citibank in April 1998. The attack caused damage but no injuries, as the warhead did not explode. The rocket was fired by remote control from a private car parked outside the bank on Drossopoulou Street in the downtown district of Kypseli.

A British defence attaché, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, was shot and killed on 8 June 2000 by two men on motorbikes as he drove to work in Kifissia, Athens.

Victims 17N's known murdered (23) and injured victims include:

Name Date Profession Notes Richard Welch 23 December 1975 CIA station chief in Athens. shot dead outside his residence Evangelos Mallios 14 December 1976 Police officer who was accused of torturing political prisoners during the period of military junta. shot dead Pantelis Petrou 16 January 1980 Deputy commander of the Greek police Riot Control Unit M.A.T shot dead in his car Sotiris Stamoulis 16 January 1980 driver of Pantelis Petrou George Tsantes 15 November 1983 US Navy Captain, High level executive of JUSMAGG(Joint US Military Advisory Group) shot dead in his car Nikos Veloutsos 15 November 1983 driver of George Tsantes Robert H. Judd 3 April 1984 US army Master Sergeant. Postal officer for JUSMAGG in Greece wounded in an assassination attempt. Christos Matis 24 December 1984 police guard shot dead during a bank robbery. Nikos Momferatos 21 February 1985 publisher of the Apogevmatini right-wing newspaper shot dead in his car Georgios Roussetis 21 February 1985 driver of Nikos Momferatos shot dead in his car Nikolaos Georgakopoulos 26 November 1985 Riot police officer killed in bus bombing. Dimitrios Aggelopoulos 8 April 1986 President of the board of Halyvourgiki S.A. shot dead while walking Zacharias Kapsalakis 4 February 1987 doctor and clinic owner shot in the legs. Alexander Athanasiadis 1 March 1988 industrialist shot dead in his car. William Nordeen 28 June 1988 US Navy captain killed by a car bomb. Constantinos Androulidakis 10 January 1989 public prosecutor shot in both legs and died of complications. Panayiotis Tarasouleas 18 January 1989 public prosecutor shot in both legs. Giorgos Petsos 8 May 1989 PASOK MP and Minister injured in his car by a car bomb. Pavlos Bakoyannis 26 September 1989 New Democracy MP shot and killed outside his office over alleged links to George Koskotas. Ronald O. Stewart 13 March 1991 US Air Force Staff Sergeant killed by a bomb planted near his apartment. Deniz Bölükbaşı 16 June 1991 Turkish Chargé d'Affaires injured by a car bomb. Çetin Görgü 7 October 1991 Turkish Press attaché shot dead. Yiannis Varis 2 November 1991 police officer killed in a missile and hand grenade attack against a riot squad bus Athanasios Axarlian 14 June 1992 student killed by shrapnel during a rocket attack targeting the limousine of Finance Minister Ioannis Palaiokrassas. Eleftherios Papadimitriou 21 December 1992 New Democracy party deputy and MP shot in both legs. Michael Vranopoulos 24 January 1994 former governor of the National Bank of Greece. shot dead outside his office Ömer Haluk Sipahioğlu 4 July 1994 counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Athens. shot dead outside his apartment building. Kostis Peraticos 28 May 1997 owner of Eleusis Shipyards. Shot by three masked individuals whilst leaving his company offices in Piraeus. Stephen Saunders 8 June 2000 military attaché of the British Embassy in Athens. Shot dead in his car by two assassins on a motorbike whilst on the way to work.

Trial The trial of 19 individuals suspected of involvement with 17N commenced in Athens on 3 March 2003, with Christos Lambrou serving as the lead prosecutor for the Greek state.Nov17 trial begins , Kathimerini, 3 March 2003. Because of the 20-year statute of limitations, crimes committed before 1984 (such as the killing of the CIA station chief) could not be tried by the court. On 8 December, fifteen of the accused, including Giotopoulos and Koufontinas, were found guilty; another four defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence. The convicted members were sentenced on 17 December 2003.Deadly 17 November to end its life in prison , Kathimerini, 18 December 2003. All those convicted defendants appealed.No TV in 17N trial , Athens News Agency, 9 December 2005. On 3 May 2007, the convictions were upheld.

Prison In January 2014, Christodoulos Xiros, one of the imprisoned leaders of the organization, escaped from prison. On 6 January, he failed to report to the police after leaving prison under the condition to report to the police every day, which he did six times in 18 months. He was taken into custody while riding a bicycle in the southern suburb of Anavyssos in January 2015.

In 2018 the group's alleged hitman, Dimitris Koufontinas, was moved from Korydallos Prison to a low security agricultural facility after the prison council approved his parole request, citing exemplary behaviour.

2021 hunger strike On 8 January 2021, at 63 years of age, Koufontinas entered a hunger strike with the demand of transfer to Korydallos Prison after being sent to a high security prison in Domokos. On 22 February whilst in intensive care at Lamia Hospital Koufontinas started to reject water and medical care, forcibly removing a catheter from his arm before the courts issued an order to force feed the prisoner a few days later, a practice condemned by many, including a Greek union of doctors, as torture. It was reported that on 5 March, Koufontinas had to be resuscitated due to kidney failure. Koufontinas ended his hunger strike on 14 March after 65 days, despite his demands not being met.

Street demonstrations were held in multiple cities across Greece as well as attacks against property has been claimed in support of Koufontinas, including a demonstration outside of president Katerina Sakellaropoulou's home and vandalism of buildings belonging to Action 24 TV station and the office of Education Minister Niki Kerameus with paint and projectiles by multiple groups of protesters. Other left-wing activists have shown support for Koufontinas, including Miguel Urbán, a co-founder of Podemos, and political filmmaker Costa-Gavras.

Release of Giotopoulos On 21 May 2026, Alexandros Giotopoulos, by then 82 years old, was released on parole.

Theories Some Greek officials considered Revolutionary Struggle (EA), the group that fired a Chinese-made RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy in Athens in January 2007, to be a spin-off of 17N. However, three self-admitted EA members arrested in April 2010 claimed that they were anarchists—a designation 17N rejected in its proclamations.Letter from P. Roupa, N. Maziotis, K. Gournas , Athens.Indymedia.org, 29 April 2010.

For many years, leading politicians of the right-wing New Democracy party, CIA and FBI agents, as well as the conservative press, falsely claimed that Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was the mastermind behind 17N. American officials also consistently promoted false narratives linking 17N to PASOK, implying that the party was unwilling to investigate the organisation because of its alleged ties to it. Virginia Tsouderou, who became Deputy Foreign Minister in the Konstantinos Mitsotakis government, and journalist Georgios Karatzaferis (later the founder and leader of a right-wing party, LAOS) claimed that "terrorism in Greece was controlled by Papandreou-affiliated officers of Hellenic National Intelligence Service" (the Greek security and intelligence service), and falsely named Kostas Tsimas (then head of the Intelligent Service) and Colonel Ioannis Sotiris Alexakis as two of the supposed controllers of 17N.Eleftheros Tipos, 13 December 1989

After the arrest of 17N members, the only connection identified between the organisation and PASOK was that Dimitris Koufontinas had been a member of PAMK (Panellinia Agonistiki Mathitiki Kinisi, Panhellenic Militant Pupil's Movement), PASOK's militant high school student organisation, and had admired Andreas Papandreou in his late teens.