Uprising anniversary marked with marches

Thousands of people marched yesterday 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 from Athens Polytechnic university to the US Embassy and have often turned violent. Yesterday’s march was peaceful. However, clashes broke out at a similar march in the northern city of Thessaloniki to the US consulate, with a small group of demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at riot police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.