More bodies of executed civil war-era prisoners uncovered under Greek city park

Local officials accidental different bid of unmarked graves — this 1 containing 14 individuals — has been dug up successful a parkland successful the suburb of Neapolis-Sykies, adjacent the bluish Greek metropolis of Thessaloniki

THESSALONIKI, Greece -- Another bid of unmarked graves — this 1 containing 14 individuals from Greece's civilian warfare epoch — person been dug up successful a parkland successful a suburb adjacent the bluish Greek metropolis of Thessaloniki, section officials said Saturday.

As successful the erstwhile choky clump of unmarked burial pits excavated earlier this year successful Neapolis-Sykies, the bodies beryllium to prisoners who were held successful a adjacent Byzantine fortress. The prisoners, alleged communists and sympathizers, were executed betwixt 1946 and 1953, according to historians.

The Yedi Kule castle, besides known by its Greek sanction Eptapyrgio (“seven towers”) was a situation wherever communist sympathizers were tortured and executed during Greece’s 1946-49 Civil War and instantly afterward.

The burial pits were uncovered connected the tract of a municipal parkland undergoing renovation, including the installation of caller benches. The graves were not acold beneath the surface, Haris Charismiadis, the supervising technologist of the parkland project, told The Associated Press.

The renovation task is not presently a precedence for section politician Simos Daniilidis. “We insisted connected continuing the digging for the graves,” helium said. Charismiadis, who said astir of the existent batch of bodies were recovered during the past week, is definite determination are much radical buried nearby, including, probably, nether the tarmac of streets adjacent to the park. An archaeologist is assisting successful the digging.

In opposition with the 33 bodies recovered earlier this year, which were lying broadside by side, the precocious recovered bodies are jumbled, arsenic if thrown randomly, and hastily, successful a heap. Torsos and heads are separated.

When Yedi Kule prisoners were executed, their families were often not notified and they didn’t get to retrieve their bodies. Some recovered retired astir the destiny of their loved ones from newspapers — 1 household happened upon the quality portion connected the autobus they had taken to the situation to bring their comparative a caller alteration of clothes.

Relatives of the executed person clamored for DNA tests to beryllium done to ascertain the individuality of the recovered bodies. Testing has not begun yet.

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