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Greek Speaker Reminds MPs No Guns in Govt
20 May 2013
Ekathimerini (Greece)
Parliamentary speaker Evangelos Meimarakis has spoken to the representatives of all parties to remind them that no MPs should carry guns in the House, it emerged on Monday.
Meimarakis acted after receiving a letter of complaint from New Democracy MP Fotini Pipili, who said that some lawmakers are armed when they enter Parliament.
There have been reports in the past of Golden Dawn MPs being stopped for carrying guns into the House and an Eleftherotypia report on Monday... (GunPolicy.org)
Greek MP Wants Firearms Crackdown, MPs Requesting More Gun Permits
14 December 2012
Guardian (UK)
An independent MP has called for a crackdown on firearms in Greece amid allegations that a growing number of politicians are carrying weapons.
Reports of pistol-carrying deputies entering parliament have added to the febrile mood in a 300-member chamber in which hardcore Marxists sit with fascists, eurocommunists, rightwing populists, conservatives, socialists and an array of independent dissidents.
The MP, Nikos Nikolopoulos, told the Guardian he was "deeply worried"... (GunPolicy.org)
Greeks Buy Weapons to Fight Crime During Economic Austerity
16 August 2012
BBC News
Greece's faltering economy has put many people out of work and cut support for illegal immigrants. Now Greeks are facing a rise in crime their police seem unable to stop.
It probably never occurred to Niki Yanakopoulou that she might be in danger as she let herself into her central Athens apartment building in the middle of the day.
The 75-year-old had just been to the bank and police say the man who followed her home most likely chose her at random, hoping she would... (GunPolicy.org)
Bosnia & Herzegovina,Croatia,Eastern Europe,Romania,Greece,Bulgaria,Moldova,Macedonia,Serbia
Balkan Countries Loaded With Illegal Firearms
8 August 2012
Southeast European Times
Southeast Europe's are heavily armed – according to the South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, people in the region legally own 3 million firearms and another 4 million illegal weapons.
Serbia leads the region in weapons, according to Ivan Cvijovic, police inspector at the public order sector of the Belgrade police department. The rate of registered firearms per 100 people is 15.81.
Montenegro has 14.36... (GunPolicy.org)
Greek Police Charge Alleged Smugglers Running Guns from US to Crete
30 June 2012
Athens News (Greece)
An arms-smuggling ring bringing weapons from the United States to Greece, with Crete as their main destination, was caught in a joint operation set up by the Attica police Organised Crime department and the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement service.
The three men arrested during the operation in Greece were led before a Zakynthos first-instance court prosecutor on Saturday to face criminal charges.
The three suspects were arrested on Friday during coordinated... (GunPolicy.org)
Redundant Man Turns Hunting Rifle on His Former Employer in Greece
5 March 2012
Gulf News (Dubai) / Reuters
KOMOTINI - After more than 30 years as a factory worker, Dimitris Manikas was dreaming of retirement and planned to get married for the third time when a redundancy notice blew his hopes away.
Laid off from his job at a trash can factory in this northern Greek town, the 52-year-old father of two called off his wedding. Without any income, he feared his house would be next to go.
Driven to despair, Manikas on Thursday barged into the factory whose name he had tattooed... (GunPolicy.org)
Greece,Colombia,Sri Lanka,Syria,Chad,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa
The Arms Trade Treaty and Human Rights - Amnesty's Report [Francais]
25 January 2012
Amnesty International
[Translated summary: While international negotiations on the adoption of an International Arms Trade Treaty are at a crucial time, Amnesty International published a report illustrating through the situation in 5 countries (Chad, Syria, Sri Lanka, Colombia, and Greece) the necessity of such an instrument to prevent deadly and irresponsible arms transfers.]
A l'heure où les négociations internationales en vue de l'adoption d'un traité international sur le commerce des... (GunPolicy.org)
Russian Accused of Gun-Running Beats Extradition and Leaves Greece
1 October 2011
RIA Novosti (Russia)
ATHENS - Vladimir Gavrilov, a Russian accused of gun-running to Colombia's FARC rebels in the 1990's has been released from custody in Greece, where he had been detained for a month on an extradition request from Peru, his lawyer Georgy Gurovanidis told RIA Novosti.
Gavrilov returned to Moscow on Saturday morning after his release.
Vladimir Gavrilov had spent a month in detention in Salonika, Greece, after being detained at the end of August on an international arrest... (GunPolicy.org)
Greek Police Seize Machine Guns, Assault Weapons, Explosive Cache
5 December 2010
Bloomberg (USA)
Greek police confiscated explosives and weapons including hand grenades and sub-machine guns in overnight raids on houses in Athens.
Operations by counter-terrorist police yielded four hand- grenades, 50 kilos of industrial-grade ANFO, an explosive mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, 200 grams of TNT, seven handguns, three Kalashnikov assault rifles, three sub- machine guns and ammunition, the police said by text message.
Police spokesman Athanasios Kokkalakis... (GunPolicy.org)
Greek Gun Hideouts 'Probed For Extremist Links' as Machine Guns Seized
4 December 2010
Agence France Presse
ATHENS — Nine people have been arrested in Greece after police found a large haul of guns and explosives in hideouts in the capital and sought to determine links to extremist activity, officials said on Sunday.
Most of the suspects were arrested on Saturday after officers caught two armed men outside a garage in the Athens suburb of Nea Smyrni and subsequently found the arms and explosives cache inside, the police said.
As anti-terrorist police fanned out across the... (GunPolicy.org)
Bulgarians in Greece Accused of Trafficking Assault Weapons, Drugs
23 June 2009
Sofia Echo
The four Bulgarian citizens apprehended by the Greek coastguard on June 22 were charged with weapons and drug trafficking, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has said.
The Bulgarians were caught ferrying four sidearms equipped with suppressors, an AK47 assault rifle, 1.4kg of TNT and 5.4kg ammonium nitrate, which is used to make improvised explosive devices. The Bulgarians also had in their possession an undisclosed amount of cocaine.
According to several different Greek... (GunPolicy.org)
Student Armed with 2 Handguns Shoots 3 in Greek College, Kills Himself
10 April 2009
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — A teenage gunman who wounded three people at a college in Greece and killed himself had warned of the attack hours earlier on an Internet posting that included photographs of him posing with weapons, police said.
The 19-year-old man, armed with two handguns and a knife, opened fire at the vocational training college in western Athens and then shot himself in the head, authorities said. He died in hospital several hours later.
One student was shot... (GunPolicy.org)
Surge in Untraceable Pistols, Assault Weapons Worries Greek Police
21 February 2009
Kathimerini (Greece)
The alarming frequency with which guns have been used in both criminal and terrorist activity in Greece over the last few months is the result of the work of a complex network of smugglers, which has made the police's work considerably more difficult as the same firearms are rarely used more than once.
Sources in the police forensics department told Kathimerini that it has become easy for criminals to get hold of a "clean" weapon — in other words, one that has not... (GunPolicy.org)
Family Party of Five Greek Hunters Shot Dead in Sniper Killing
26 November 2006
BBC News
Police have begun a murder inquiry after five members of one family were shot dead on a hunting trip in Greece.
The bodies of the five young men — two brothers and three cousins — were found in woodland in the Kalyvia region about 280km (175 miles) north-west of Athens.
One victim had tried to raise the alarm by phoning his father but the call was cut off, police said. The father began searching and found the bodies.
Police said the men, aged 17 to 33, had... (GunPolicy.org)
Albania Arrests Smugglers Running Guns Through Greece to Turkish Rebels
14 October 2006
Xinhua
The seven arms smugglers arrested in Albania a few days ago had been smuggling weapons to Turkish rebels group — the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), local media reported on Friday.
The Albanian Public Prosecution Office in Tirana found that the six Albanians and one Greek had smuggled arms from Albania into Greece, whose destination was the Kurdish populated areas in Turkey.
The six Albanians admitted that they had bought Kalashnikov automatic rifles for about 200... (GunPolicy.org)
Seven Gun Runners Arrested from Albanian-Greek Arms Trafficking Network
12 October 2006
BBC Worldwide Monitoring / Shekulli, Transcript
The police have broke up an arms trafficking network with Greece. Seven people, including the Greek person who placed the order [for the weapons] ended up in handcuffs. The operation, codenamed "Olive Fruit", was carried out in the early hours of the morning, when the police stopped a car with foreign licence plates transporting arms in the direction of Salonika.
Following the arrest of the seven people, Deputy Interior Minister Gjergj Lezhja told a news conference... (GunPolicy.org)
Government Aims New Law at 1.5m Illegal Weapons
18 August 2005
Kathimerini (Athens)
With more than a million-and-a-half illegal guns in the country, the Public Order Ministry is working on a draft bill that will update local gun laws and help flush unlawful weapons out of the system, government sources said.
Of the 1.5 million weapons that have not been declared, authorities estimate that about 800,000 are hunting rifles. Most of these guns, some 600,000, are said to be on the island of Crete.
There are additionally about one million legal hunting... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun-happy Cretans Soon to Face Restrictions
25 November 2004
Kathimerini (Greece)
Greece's top living composer, a leading light of the pro-democracy movement against the 1967-74 military dictatorship, has agreed to the ultimate challenge — to persuade his fellow Cretans to abandon their rampant gun culture.
Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis — a Cretan himself — announced yesterday that Mikis Theodorakis, 79, has accepted his invitation to lead an anti-gun campaign on the notoriously trigger-happy island.
Voulgarakis made the... (GunPolicy.org)
Countries Can Bring Their Own Unarmed Guards to Olympics
16 September 2003
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — Overseas security forces will be unarmed when they escort athletes at next year's Olympics.
The government last week cleared the way for national teams to bring their own protection, but Public Order Minister Giorgos Floridis said Monday firearms would be banned.
"Every delegation can have as many escorts as they like, but under no circumstances can they carry weapons," Floridis told private Flash radio. "Under no circumstances can they become... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun-Happy Cypriots Force Count of Rifles
3 September 2003
Kathimerini (Greece)
The Cypriot Defense Ministry said yesterday it had decided to take stock of weapons issued to army reservists, following reports that Turkish-Cypriot officials have confiscated several assault rifles found in the cars of Cypriots visiting the Turkish-occupied north.
Defense Minister Koulis Mavronikolas confirmed that an investigation was under way, and called on reservists who may have had their standard National Guard G-3 rifles seized in the north but were ashamed to... (GunPolicy.org)
