Greece's New Generation of Terrorists: The Revolutionary Struggle

Abstract

In the pages of this journal in 2005, the author argued that the dismantling of the Revolutionary Organization 17N did not equate to the final elimination of terrorism in Greece. European experience, it was further argued, had shown that when a major terrorist organization is broken up, after a period of time a new generation of terrorists emerges that tends to lack the operational capabilities and scope of the group they attempt to imitate, but this does not render them less dangerous. Tellingly, the Revolutionary Struggle (RS) picked up the baton of violence from 17N before the latter's trial had even come to an end. This article examines RS's campaign of violence, explains its selection of targets and compares the group's ideological physiognomy and operational development with that of the group it aspired to emulate.