It was "Polytechneio Day"

November 17, Monday was "Polytechneio Day" in Greece, which is considered as one of the historically significant events of the country. 

The Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973 was a massive demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. The uprising had began on November 14, 1973 by left-wing students of Polytechnic University in Athens - which has been considered as the best technical university in the country, like Middle East Technical University (ODTU) or Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in Turkey - escalated to an open anti-junta revolt and ended in bloodshed in the early morning of November 17 after a series of events starting with a tank crashing through the gates of the Polytechnic. 

According to an official investigation undertaken after the fall of junta, no students from Athens Polytechneio were killed. Total recorded casualties were 24 civilians outside the campus, including high-school students and a five-year old boy. The records of the trials held following the collapse of the Junta document the circumstances of the deaths of many civilians during the uprising, and although the number of dead has not been contested by historical research, it remains a subject of political controversy. In addition, hundereds of civilians were injured during the events. 

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens_Polytechnic_uprising ) 

Therefore, I have also witnessed the annual commemorative events of Polytechneio Day. During the weekend, many Athenians visited Athens Polytechnic and left flowers to the monument of those who killed in 1973. Also, not just in Athens, in many cities of the country the event and those who were killed were commemorated. On Monday, there occured also the annual protest march in central Athens, especially in front of the US embassy, which is close to my house. According to news, some 8000 policemen were on duty and because of the fact that the headquarters of Athens police center is just the next street of my place, I could be able to watch those huge amount of full equipped policemen while walking towards the crowd in march. The problem, in other words the fear was that self-styled anarchists of Greece, who often cause trouble during such kind of days and events to voice up and express their demands, This time they were trying to express solidarity with thousands of prisioners entering their second week of a hunger strike over detention conditions. As you see, they have their own reasons to have their free-style anarchist acts and also, I have to admit that it is the first time in my life that I have seen such kind of anarchists movements in an EU state. For example, it is so often that they can burn out a car or can not allow police to enter until a certain amount of distance close to themselves or their occupied area, especially in Exarchia neighbourhood of Athens, which is so central. Suprisingly, when you ask Greek people about these anarchists and their unusual (actually in Athens usual) protests, they seem so got used to and even some of them do not give any attention to them. Apart from anarchist movements, here, in Athens almost everyday, at least twice in a week there are strikes, protests, marches, demonstrations of several groups ranging from public servants, to Olympic Airlines workers, from Communists - Communists and Communist Party are still active in politics in Greece - to main opposition party supporters... For example, as I have read recently, there is going to be a strike tomorrow too and metro service is not going to work all day...walk Damlaki walk...

All these are really interesting for someone who is from Turkey, who was born in Istanbul of 1980s as the first generation of post-1980 period, had missed all student/youth demonstrations, protests, marches of 1970s and today who is, in a sense, even s/he wants or not, the part of this politically suppressed, passive youth of Turkey.