{"id":10528,"date":"2026-06-13T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10528"},"modified":"2026-06-13T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T09:32:00","slug":"bakoyannis-and-chrysochoidis-paid-tribute-to-christos-matis-violence-is-the-enemy-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10528","title":{"rendered":"Bakoyannis and Chrysochoidis paid tribute to Christos Matis \u2013 Violence is the enemy of democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emotional moments unfolded in Thesprotiko, Preveza<\/strong>, where an event was held to honor and commemorate police officer Christos Matis<\/strong>, 42 years after his murder by the terrorist organization 17 November<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The event took place in an emotionally charged atmosphere, with relatives of terrorism victims, local residents, and political figures in attendance to send a message against violence and oblivion. <\/p>\n

In attendance were the mother of Thanos Axarlian, Stavroula Axarlian<\/strong>, Kostas Bakoyannis<\/strong>, as well as the Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis, who is associated with the dismantling of 17N in 2002. <\/p>\n

The event began at the village cemetery, where a memorial service was conducted by the Metropolitan of Nikopolis and Preveza Chrysostomos<\/strong>. Present there were the brothers of the slain police officer, relatives, and local residents. <\/p>\n

Following this, the road leading to the village school was named in his honor, and a commemorative marble plaque dedicated to Christos Matis was unveiled. <\/p>\n

Georgia Drakou<\/strong>, a member of the Cultural Association that organized the event, stated: \u201cToday, we are fulfilling a promise we made first and foremost to ourselves. <\/p>\n

Because this place hurts when it is wronged. And it hurts even more when it wrongs its own people. Its heroes. Those who gave their lives in the line of duty and were in danger of being forgotten by the collective memory. <\/p>\n

We, as a Cultural Association, could not allow this injustice to continue.\u201d <\/p>\n

And he added: \u201cFor 42 years, Christos Matis was lost in the silence of oblivion. He was invisible to local authorities and the Greek state, and as painful as that is, it is the reality. <\/p>\n

Today, however, he is being honored. Today, he is vindicated. Today he is honored as he deserves.\u201d <\/p>\n

The murder of Christos Matis by 17N <\/h2>\n

The police officer Christos Matis was born in 1956 in Thesprotia and was serving in the police force when he was murdered at the age of 28. <\/p>\n

It was Christmas Eve 1984 when terrorists from 17 November<\/strong> stormed the National Bank in Petralona. The young police officer tried to intervene and was executed while on duty. <\/p>\n

His sister, Anthousa Mati<\/strong>, recalled that they had spoken the previous night about the holidays and the family\u2019s Christmas plans. <\/p>\n

As she said: \u201cMy father was the first to find out because the bad news came from a fellow villager who had a shop in Athens, across from the bank. He found out in the square, went crazy, and ran off to the mountains; he didn\u2019t go home. <\/p>\n

My mother found out after noon, from a phone call she answered\u2026 She was pulling her hair out from the unbearable pain.\u201d <\/p>\n

The presence of the police officer\u2019s nephew, who bears his name, was also deeply moving. He was born just three days before his uncle\u2019s murder. <\/p>\n

It is worth noting that Christos Matis\u2019s service weapon was found in 2002 inside the bag of Savvas Xiros<\/strong> after his arrest. <\/p>\n

Messages from Chrysochoidis and Bakoyannis <\/h2>\n

Michalis Chrysochoidis<\/strong> focused particularly on the issue of violence and terrorism, saying: \u201cViolence is a scourge, a worm, a microbe that ultimately ravages democracy. <\/p>\n

Violence harms democracy; it harms society. Violence, whenever it occurs\u2014even in its simplest forms, up to and including murderous violence\u2014is our enemy.\u201d <\/p>\n

The minister also noted that Greek society has definitively condemned terrorism and described Greece today as a safer country following the dismantling of 17N. <\/p>\n

For his part, Kostas Bakoyannis<\/strong> emphasized that the entire Greek Police Force is honored in the person of Christos Matis. <\/p>\n

At the same time, he sent a message of political and social unity: \u201cIn the graveyards, we are all equal. Yes, obviously we have political differences, but what unites us is far greater than what divides us.\u201d <\/p>\n

The event was supported by the Municipality of Ziros<\/strong>, the Region of Epirus<\/strong>, and the Thesprotikos Cultural Association, which took the initiative to honor the police officer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n Emotional moments unfolded in Thesprotiko, Preveza, where a ceremony was held to honor and remember police officer Christos Matis, 42 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greece"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}