As today, in 1964, the official celebration of Gorgopotamos is drowned in the blood



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In the government, there was the union of the center with Prime Minister George Papandreou. The political climate was heavy with the resignation of Deputy Minister of Coordination Andreas Papandreou a few days earlier. The pro-government newspaper "Eleftheria", adjacent to the Minister of Finance, Costas Mitsotakis, accused him of yielding to charitable projects for the benefit of his friendly people ("Scandalos Skiadares") . its policy of honesty. "

The Gorgopotamos ceremony went off smoothly, to the point that many people started demonstrating because the resistance groups were not allowed to lay wreaths. Then the crowd, mainly from the left, denounced the government delegation headed by the Minister of National Defense, Michalis Papakonstantinou. There was a pandemonium, stopping the ceremony and leaving the officials.

It was 1:22 pm, when a big explosion was heard in the crowd, causing panic and death. Someone created an antipersonnel mine, resulting in the loss of 13 people (Georgios Giannakoulis, Nikolaos Dasopoulos, Konstantinos Kaniouras, Christos Kestinis, Lembessis Konstantinos, Konstantinos Tsarouchas, Chintikidis municipality) and more than 45 wounded.

At first, confusion was created and part of the crowd felt like being shot. They turned savagely against the men of the gendarmerie, thinking they were shot. Finally, she triumphed wisely and avoided the worst.

The tragic incident was immediately attributed by the left to a far-right sabotage or to a company run by US services. In the days that followed, he had a lot of tension. The official findings of subsequent investigations adopted the accident version of an old mine that had been installed there in 1947 and that had not been circumscribed when the area had been cleaned ten years later. The result was questioned by the left, who preferred to lower the tones so as not to aggravate the situation.

Of the police episodes that followed the blast, 18 people were arrested, including General Avgeropoulos of ELAS and General Kosinas of EDES. Several of the defendants were detained until the beginning of the trial which opened in Lamia on May 26, 1965. The court issued their verdict on June 17 and sentenced them to three years' imprisonment. imprisonment and six acquittals. The convicted person appealed and was released.

Source: sansimera.gr

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