Greece: Thousands march on anniversary of student uprising

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Thousands of people have marched through central Athens, accompanied by a heavy police presence, to mark the anniversary of a 1973 student uprising that was brutally crushed by Greece’s military dictatorship at the time. The anniversary is observed each year with marches to the U.S. Embassy and have often, though not always, turned violent. Thursday’s march was peaceful. However, clashes broke out at a similar march in the northern city of Thessaloniki to the U.S. consulate, with a small group of demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at riot police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. In 1973, the military regime that had been in power since 1967 sent police and troops to crush pro-democracy protests centered in the Athens Polytechnic.