Downtown Athens in a snarl of rallies on Thursday

Traffic jams formed in and around the city center on Thursday morning as a result of three protest rallies in downtown Athens, while motorists and commuters don’t look likely to catch a break in the afternoon either.

Disgruntled municipal workers got the action going on Thursday morning, followed at noon by university students protesting the lifting of a ban on police at campuses.

At the Turkish Embassy behind the National Gardens near Syntagma Square, meanwhile, another group of protesters rallied against Ankara’s military operations in Syria at 10.30 a.m.

The Turkish incursion is also the subject of two rallies organized on Thursday afternoon in downtown Athens. The first is by Kurds living in Greece and is due to start at 5.30 p.m., while university student groups will also march in protest at the operations an hour later.