For many years, gangs have been operating in the Athens district of Zografou, which use the dormitory of the Polytechnic University as a base for living, storing stolen goods and drug trafficking.
Chaos, lawlessness, lack of control – this is how you can characterize the situation on the Polytechnic campus. For decades, the NTUA student residence was the center of crime in Zografu, before September 27 it was held large-scale operation of the Greek police (EL.AS) on gang eliminationengaged in robbery, drug trafficking, weapons and student racketeering.
“Students say life there is just hell,” a NTUA student told the publication. And this despite the fact that the police station is just a few meters away. According to journalists, the leadership of NTUA informed the Ministry of Citizens’ Protection and the National Police about what was happening inside the student dormitory. The last complaint was filed two months ago, and in 2020 another EL.AS operation was carried out.
Control over the situation in the dormitory of the Polytechnic Institute was lost long ago, when students – regardless of whether they are associated with the anarchist movement or not – entrenched themselves in the dormitory with the connivance of student factions and the rector’s power, which caused factional phenomena. Photo by Nikos Kokkalias.
The picture of decline
The depiction of the NTUA student residence building – both inside and out – suggests its decline and what usually accompanies the deterioration of public buildings in Greece. It was built in 1975 and bears the signatures of the architects Konstantinos Fine and Konstantinos Papaioannou, exponents of Greek modernism in the field of public buildings. However, “besides the shabby appearance that we are used to seeing dirty public buildings with graffiti, the hostel is in a deplorable state: elevators, radiators, plumbing…
The dormitory has a capacity of 500 beds,” an NTUA employee told reporters. Only government services can be blamed for the current situation, which was sometimes responsible for the security and maintenance of the building, now it is the Youth and Continuing Education Foundation (YLF). However, the deterioration of the building is the result of at least least of the 20-year regime of lawlessness that reigned in student dormitories under the responsibility of the relevant authorities of the NTUA and the National Police.
“Students say life there is a living hell,” says K., a professor at the National Technical University of Athens.
In particular, control was lost in the dormitory of the Polytechnic Institute, when students – regardless of whether they are connected with the anarchists or not – entrenched themselves in the dormitory with the connivance of student factions and the rector’s power. Thus, the phenomena of factionalism were observed. In the main, party students provided beds for friends and acquaintances, and in other cases they allocated rooms either to like-minded people or rented them out for a fee.
This context of exploitation and (dis)organization of the hostel allowed criminals to take control of the building. In addition, as a university employee noted, “we are seeing the activity of drug dealers around the dormitories, but this does not mean that drug trafficking has reached students. All this can be expected in the absence of control. Everyone heard, more or less knew, but no one touched the problem.”
In recent years, the situation has completely spiraled out of control. Dormitory beds are available for students from the University of Western Attica and Panteion, who do not have enough student accommodation, and to a lesser extent for NTUA students who live in the two newer dormitories.
The selection of students is carried out by the commission of the university on the basis of financial criteria. As INEDIBIM President Konstantinos Dervos emphasized, the administrative operation of the hostels, the security and control of those entering the hostel is the responsibility of the institution, which, in this case, entrusted this task to the security company, while the hostel has a responsible person who is an administrative employee of NTUA and inform the management of the institution.
The hostel had stopped accepting new students for a year now, at least those it could accept in unoccupied rooms, as it had to be renovated. According to NTUA Rector Andreas Buntuvis, thanks to a donation from the Onassis Foundation, a study was carried out on the reconstruction of the building, and the next step will be to put the project up for tender. According to experts, the hostel will work until December, and then it will be closed until the renovation is completed.
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