Pavlos Bakoyannis: 37 Years Since His Assassination by 17 November

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On this day in 1989, New Democracy MP and publisher Pavlos Bakoyannis was assassinated in Athens by the terrorist group Revolutionary Organization 17 November.

Pavlos Bakoyannis was born on 10 February 1935 in Velota, a small village in Evrytania in Central Greece. His father, Kostas Bakoyannis, was the village priest. The civil war years forced the family to move, and he completed his schooling in Agrinio, Thermo, Karpenisi and Patras before studying political and social sciences at Panteion University in Athens.

He continued his studies in Germany, taking degrees in political economy and political science at Munich, Tübingen and Konstanz, where he earned a doctorate in social sciences. He taught political science and journalism at the University of Munich and, from the mid-1960s, directed the Greek-language programme of Bayerischer Rundfunk. Those broadcasts, also carried by Deutsche Welle, became a reference point for Greeks living under the 1967–1974 military junta.

After the dictatorship collapsed, Bakoyannis returned to Athens in 1974 and joined the state broadcaster ERT. That December he married Theodora (Dora) Mitsotakis, daughter of New Democracy politician Konstantinos Mitsotakis. They had two children, Alexia and Kostas.

He later worked as a political commentator for To Vima and, in 1982, became publisher of the weekly magazine ENA. In the June 1989 general election he entered parliament for the first time as New Democracy MP for Evrytania and served as a parliamentary spokesman. He was widely associated with efforts at national reconciliation in a country still marked by the civil war and the junta years.

On the morning of 26 September 1989 — the same day parliament was due to debate the indictment of former prime minister Andreas Papandreou over the Koskotas scandal — Bakoyannis arrived alone at his office building at 35 Omirou Street in Kolonaki. Shortly before 8 a.m., members of Revolutionary Organization 17 November ambushed him in the entrance and shot him at close range. He was taken to Evangelismos Hospital, where he died. He was 54.

17 November later claimed the killing in a 12-page proclamation sent to Eleftherotypia, accusing Bakoyannis of involvement in the Koskotas affair. No court ever established those allegations. He was the first sitting member of parliament murdered by the group.

In December 2003 an Athens court convicted several 17 November members for the assassination. Dimitris Koufodinas, Iraklis Kostaris and Alexandros Giotopoulos received life sentences. Savvas Xiros and Vassilis Tzortzatos were also found guilty and given lengthy prison terms.

Bakoyannis’s widow, Dora Bakoyannis, later entered politics and served as mayor of Athens and foreign minister. Their son, Kostas Bakoyannis, later became mayor of Athens.

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