Epsilon Faction (Fascist Entity, Greece)

• Local Name: Ομάδα Έψιλον
• Transliteration: Omáda Epsilon
• Alternatives: Epsilon Faction of Greek Fighters
• Status: 2009 – 2015 (Defeated)
• Conflicts: Nationalist Militancy in Greece

The Epsilon Faction [OE; Omadá Epsilon] was a Hellenist revivalist militant group based in Greece. It had about half a dozen core members. These elements worshipped Zeus.¹ They rejected Christianity, denounced the legacy of the Byzantine Empire and opposed Greek government institutions.² OE members protested the economic plight of Greece and attributed the country’s problems to Jewish and Masonic plots.³ The OE rejected the fascist Golden Dawn Party [CA; Chrysí Avgí]; rejecting its devotion to national-socialism and paganism.⁴

The OE first emerged in 2009 when Kalamata-based Dimitrios Sofianos launched a website devoted to the reintroduction of Hellenist culture in Greek society.⁵ The obscure site gained a small, but devoted following among Greek nationalists.⁶ Through social media, Sofianos recruited several men from the northeastern city of Drama.⁷ Following the September 2015 Greek elections, Sofianos and his associates decided to launch militant operations.⁸

On Oct. 23, 2015, OE operatives launched two minor bomb attacks. The first blast targeted a bank in the city of Kalamata.⁹ Hours later another bomb went off next to a statue of Byzantine emperor Constantine Palaiologos in the nearby town of Mystras, damaging the sculpture.¹⁰ No one was hurt in the blasts. The attackers paint-sprayed a Delphic E on walls at the site of the attacks.¹¹

Security forces apprehended five OE members at their camping spot in the mountains.¹² Police also seized weapons, ammunition and explosive devices during raids on the homes of the militants.¹³ At the time of their arrest, OE operatives were planning to launch four simultaneous bomb attacks against government institutions in Kalamata.¹⁴ The militants later apologized for their actions, while also minimizing their activities and denouncing their ‘unjust treatment’ by the Greek authorities.¹⁵

In September 2018, a court in Kalamata sentenced the five captured OE members to lengthy prison terms. Sofianos was sentenced to more than fourteen years in prison. The other militants were ordered to be incarcerated for more than twelve years.¹⁶