University squat cleared after 34 years
A big basement area at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, was vacated by police on Friday after 34 years of serving as a squat and hideout for self-styled anarchists.
The police operation, which started early on Friday morning and took several hours to complete, turned up dozens of wooden poles and cloths such as those used to make banners for protest marches, a homemade sledgehammer, a bag of rocks and an undisclosed amount of cash.
It came after some 30 hooded youths earlier this month barged into the university’s administrative offices and spray-painted slogans in defense of the squat, as well as messages threatening academic authorities if they moved ahead with plans to reclaim the room.
The university plans to use the vacated area to create a 1.3-million-euro library for the Faculty of Sciences that will serve 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 350 members of the teaching staff.
