The achievements of armed resistance are almost impossible to be disputed by any honest researcher of the turbulent decade of the '40s, but the same does not apply to the social and -especially- the economic background of the same phenomenon.

We realized this once again during the conference that took place in Koropi (8/10/2016), focusing on the occupation experience of the wider area of Mesogeia and Lavreotiki.

A conference that was a great success, with the auditorium of the municipality overflowing with the (mostly local) audience.

The reactions of the latter made it obvious that, seven and a half decades after the events, the local collective memory remains strongly divided.

With the thorny issue of the identity of the armed individuals who on October 9, 1944, three days before the Liberation of Athens, drowned Koropi in blood by murdering 47 people, looting and burning hundreds of houses, while simultaneously ensuring the complete destruction of the mortgage registry office along with all the local notary offices.

However, simple truth is bothersome.

Through the announcements made during the conference, the dual occupation function of Mesogeia became clear, from the very first years of the Occupation: (a) As an agricultural hinterland that produced food for the black market of Athens and (b) as a transit center for imported food items from other regions. However, a third dimension also became apparent: During the last three months and shortly before the Liberation, Mesogeia served as a strategic location for receiving weapons from the nationalist groups of Spiliotopoulos.

Tasos Kostopoulos
("Efimerida ton Syntakton" 22-23/10/2016)