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Xrisi Aygi, also Hrisi Avgi, (Greek Χρυσή Αυγή, "Golden Dawn") was a Greek neo-Nazi party (or rather movement despite contest in Greek national and regional elections), with an anti-Semitic, islamophobic and anti-Immigrant philosophy.
In December 1, 2005 according to the leader of the party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the organization has ceased to exist, due to clashes with anti-fascists. Its members, though, have been instructed to continue activity in the Patriotiki Symmachia party. **
Hrisi Avgi described itself as "The Popular National Movement" with the ideology of Έθνος-Φυλή "Nation-Race" central to its platform. The party claimed to be comprised of "young people, workers, students, professionals, farmers, day-laborers and the unemployed," - in effect claiming to be broader in terms of appeal to more mainstream political parties and movements.
The organization, among other things, was involved in the 2000 Monastirioton synagogue desecration in Thessaloniki, and a 2004 series of riots targeting Albanian immigrants who were celebrating their national football team's victory over Greece.
Hrisi Avgi has been lumped in with various right-wing, nationalist groups by its left-wing opponents, citing the fact that members of the group ran as candidates under the Popular Orthodox Rally flag in several elections. However, unlike the Hellenic Front (which is more like the French Front National) and other tradionalist, nationalist and religious conservative movements, Hrisi Avgi openly espoused Nazi-like symbols and ideology and putsch-style methods and advocated much more radical solutions to immigration, irridenta and border issues.
The party's symbol was a red flag bearing a black meander pattern ("greek key") with white trim. An image on its website features a burning cross.
From 1998 to September 14, 2005, when he willingly surrendered himself to the authorities, Antonis Androutsopoulos, a member of Hrisi Avgi better known under his alias Periandros, was on the run for the attempted murder of leftist student Dimitris Kousouris. *." target="_blank" >The failure of the authorities to bring Periandros to justice for such a long period of time (7 years) has raised several serious questions. While it had been rumored that Periandros had fled the country and escaped to Venezuela, [http://ta-nea.dolnet.gr/data/D2004/D0417/1el23c.gif A Greek police investigation established that Periandros remained in Greece and evaded arrest owing to his connections with the police. In a 2004 interview, the former Minister of Public Order, Michalis Chrysochoidis, claimed that there was not enough evidence to support this and blamed rather the inefficiency of the Greek Police.
External links
"Hrisi Avgi"