Greece's last Junta era prisoner given a hero's funeral by far right.

"General Dertilis Lived as he died, on his feet" . Dertilis was convicted on the summary execution of a student in the 1970's, a photo by Teacher Dude's BBQ on Flickr.

Nikos Dertilis who served with the Greek military during the country's far right Junta was buried this week in Athens after dying at the age of 92 in jail. The ex-general was last member of The Regime of the Colonels to be held in prison following the restoration of democracy in 1974.The dictatorship ruled Greece with an iron fist from 1967 till 1974 and was widely condemned for its widespread use of torture and other abuses of human rights.

Dertilis was convicted of the murder of a student during the Polytechnic Uprising by students in Athens in 1973, however, unlike other jailed junta prisoners he refused all compromises with the country's subsequent governments and remained in prison despite repeated offers of early release.

His funeral yesterday was conducted by Greek Orthodox Bishop Amvrosios who compared the disgraced general to independence war hero, Kolokotronis and the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates. The service was attended by 200 far right supporters including six Golden Dawn MPs.

The post's headline is a translation of  today's edition of The Eleutheros Kosmos (Free World) newspaper also had free with today's issue a copy of Robert Bolton's Revolution From Above complete with Nazi designed anti-Semitic poster as its cover (see photo above).

Even more mainstream Greek media such as conservative daily, Kathimerini gave Dertilis a glowing obituary which described him as a "good officer".

www.elkosmos.gr/2011-11-29-16-11-20/politismos/ekdoseis/1...

Greek national newspaper in anti-semitism row

Greek national daily, Avriani (Tomorrow) has found itself in the centre of allegations of anti-semitism over its 4th November front page headline;

THE END OF JEWISH DOMINATION:

“Everything changes in America which we hope will become more democratic and humane”

The paper's lead story stated that Barack Obama's recent victory in the US elections was a major setback to Jewish influence over the US government. It also claimed that Arabic finance was behind Obama's success in the presidential race over the McCain - Palin ticket who were "puppets" of the Jewish lobby.

The report has produced a strong response from Greek human rights groups and Jewish community organisations. The Greek Helsinki Monitor condemned the newspaper and accused the Greek government of indirectly supporting racism as the the front page article also featured an advertisment for the state run OPAP gaming company.

In addition the Anti-Defamation League claimed the story showed that, "anti-Semitism remains alive in Greece today» and that political leaders need to take a clear stand against hate."


It should be noted that despite the existence of legislation outlawing racist speech for nearly 30 years in Greece and numerous incidences in both the printed and electronic press there has been only one successful conviction (click here).


In 2008 the far right Eletherous Kosmos (Free World) newspaper was found guilty under article 2 of law 927/79 for publishing a column by Theodoros Hatzigogos which stated,"Thank God, less than 1500 Jews have been left in Thessaloniki." Apparently referring to the fact that the vast majority of Thessaloniki's (Greece's second city) Jewish population died in Nazi death camps during the Second World War."

This story can also be seen on NowPublic.com

Thanks to Devious Diva and Abravanel for putting me onto this story