Demonstrators and students symbolically carry a blood-stained Greek flag with red flowers, during a march towards the US embassy in Athens on November 17, 2023, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1973 students' uprising against a US-backed junta. (Photo by Theophile Bloudanis / AFP)
Athens: Hundreds demonstrated in Greece's capital on Friday for the 50th anniversary of a deadly crackdown on a 1973 student revolt against a military junta.
More than 5,000 police were deployed for the annual march by leftists students and groups which they said drew more than 2,000 people.
The Israel-Hamas war dominated the rally with a large Palestinian flag carried a? the head of the march. "Freedom to Palestine," students chanted.
Held annually, the protests mark the day in 1973 when at least 24 people were killed at Athens Polytechnic after the US-backed junta sent troops and police against a pro-democracy student uprising.
The bloodstained Greek flag that flew over the Polytechnic's iron gate on the night of 16-17 November 1973 is carried at the head of the demonstration each year.
The crackdown shocked Europe, and is generally considered to have broken the dictatorship's grip on power. Democracy was restored just months later.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the uprising "a catalyst of our modern history ... a beacon lighting the way to a more open and democratic society."
The demonstrations normally culminate at the US embassy, to protest against Washington's support for the Greek military dictatorship during the Cold War.
A study commissioned by the non-profit institute Eteron this week indicated that 15.7 percent of Greeks believe dictatorships are "in some cases" preferable to democracy.
In national elections held in June, far-right and nationalist parties won 34 seats in the 300-member parliament.
Lawmakers from the far-right Spartans party on Friday boycotted a special session in parliament for the victims of the junta crackdown.
