Wednesday the 12th February saw a rocket attack against a Mercedes Benz office in Athens. The rocket missed the complex and detonated harmlessly in waste ground, but this is the second violent incident involving German institutions in recent months, the other being shots fired at the German ambassadors residence in December. Is it just anger – a letting off of steam by a few ‘hot heads’ – or is there something more sinister occurring? Greece has had a history of terrorism for decades. November 17 (N17) – the most notorious – is a left wing revolutionary group, that came into existence in the 1970s at a time when Germanys Red Army Faction, and Italy’s Red Brigades were causing havoc in Europe. N17s attacks then, were against British, US, Turkish and Greek targets with a reported 23 assassinations being carried out. The groups constant – yet not prolific – domestic actions did not give them international notoriety, and they were believed to be disbanded in the early 2000s. But although N17 and other groups like it might not exist in Greece today, the ideology would still remain, a similar scenario to what is currently being seen with Al Qaeda.
The target of disgruntled Greek citizens is currently German centric – their attempts of terrorism amateurish compared to what is seen on the international stage. However with austerity continuing and social unrest building we could see an escalation, the target switching to the Greek government itself or other international organisations.