Greek PM honours victims of terrorism, vows more cops

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended a special event in honor of the country’s victims of terrorism at the War Museum in Athens on Monday.

During his address, the Prime Minister said the 1989 assassination of Pavlos Bakoyannis by the November 17 terrorist organization "marked everyone in his family.” The late Bakoyannis was the husband of Kyriakos Mitsotakis' younger sister Dora Bakoyannis and father of Athens' current mayor Kostas Bakoyannis.

Mitsotakis referred to the government's counter-criminal policy and emphasized how the Greek police are being upgraded by means of both new staff and officers and resources.

"Three months from now the country will have a National Strategy Against Terrorism and Violent Extremism," the Prime Minister said, based on estimates of the Citizen Protection minister. He described the strategy as "an institutional yet strategic text that fills a policy gap which has for years cast a shadow on Greece's image in the way it is seen by international organizations."

He also said that a Department of Prevention of Violence is being set up at the Citizen Protection Ministry, along with a campaign to dismantle any elements that nurture violent ideas.

"Because," Mitsotakis concluded, "nothing positive can be achieved without activating ordinary citizens."

In a related development, Prime Minister Mitsotakis announced the strengthening of Athens' police force with some 1,500 police officers, in a post on social media on Monday evening.

These officers "are now active in the streets, in aid of citizens," Mitsotakis said and he underlined how this decision was "the realization of our commitment to do this."