Opposition MPs slam deputy minister over 1973 uprising remarks

Opposition MPs were up in arms on Thursday over remarks by Deputy Education Minister Angelos Syrigos that Greece’s military dictatorship did not fall in 1974 due to the student uprising at Athens Polytechnic in 1973 but because of Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus and the junta’s own mistakes. 

The Polytechnic uprising was the “only serious event of mass resistance against the dictatorship,” but its “myth,” he said, was created in the post-independence years.

SYRIZA MP Panos Skourletis said Syrigos’ remarks were “insulting” while PASOK’s Nadia Giannakopoulou said “no one can question the struggles of the people and the student movement against the junta.”

Communist KKE’s Thanasis Paphilis said Syrigos should be ashamed of himself.