Thessaloniki, Greece, is a city rich with ancient and modern historical significance. Walking through the streets of the city reveals Roman and Byzantine era ruins and monuments, and statues of historical figures such as Alexander the Great. While these monuments provide a glimpse into the past, many of the walls of other buildings in Thessaloniki provide a view of modern day politics. These walls are covered in graffiti and posters, most of which are related to leftist activism and anti-fascist movements. While some of the graffiti may consist of well known images there is also much graffiti that is not as easily recognizable to individuals living outside of Thessaloniki or Europe. One such element of graffiti I encountered on my walk of the city was a symbol of a circle with a lightning bolt-shaped upward arrow drawn through it. It was present on numerous printed posters depicting police in riot gear, and on a banner located near the base of the Arch of Galerius. The meaning was unclear from the posters and banner alone, which were written in Greek. However, given its appearance in two different locations, I was curious as to what this symbol could possibly represent. I therefore made it my goal to find an effective way to analyze and tell me more about the graffiti I observed.
I first started with Google searches, typing in phrases such as “ circular political symbol with lightning bolt arrow,” and “circular political symbol with upwards facing arrow” into the search bar. The results that were returned suggested that the symbol represented either the British Union of Fascists, or that of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. However, neither symbol of these parties actually matched what was on the poster and banner.
I considered if there was another tool that could be used to identify the unknown graffiti found in Thessaloniki. The potential resource that came to mind was Artificial Intelligence (AI). Last semester I took a Microbiology class in which we used AI to help us find and summarize research articles about a relevant microbiology related topic. More specifically, we practiced writing effective AI prompts, which is in the information provided to AI for it to return a specific response. I was curious if I could apply the same principles of prompt engineering I learned from that course to a social sciences context and the identification of the symbol.
I began this process by uploading the images of the poster and the banner to ChatGPT, a free AI platform. I asked ChatGPT in my first prompt to describe what was depicted in the poster and banner. In response, ChatGPT provided me with translations of the poster and banner. The poster read “We will take everything back…Cops, TV University Administration…All of the Bastards work together…Open Assembly for the Defense of the Natural Sciences Department.” The word choice of the banner was less clear, but seemed to express solidarity for individuals arrested at a Law School. ChatGPT told me that the circular symbol present on both the poster and the banner was an anarchist symbol of some type and believed it to be combined with the Mars symbol, which is the circle and arrow symbol used to denote the male sex. However, I knew from viewing the symbol that this was not correct, as the Mars symbol has a straight, not zig-zag arrow. Using the context that ChatGPT had provided me about the leftist nature of the image, I was able to craft a prompt that told the platform it was incorrect, but that the symbol was associated with leftist movements and the phrase “we will take it all back.” This allowed me to provide more focus to ChatGPT to help avoid unrelated answers, and the platform suggested that the symbol was the international squatter’s symbol.
I quickly searched for this on my own to confirm the identity, and found both a Reddit post and a page from the digital library JSTOR with images of the international squatting symbol that matched that of the poster and banner. Squatting, which refers to the action of living or occupying an abandoned building that an individual does not have legal permission to reside in, is often associated with anarchist movements. According to Chat GPT, the symbol has been used by squatters and activist groups worldwide since the 1970s, when it originated in Amsterdam.
I then was able to use ChatGPT to help find research articles and reports about squatting in Thessaloniki, which has been a topic of national interest since the year 2015. In this year, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 1 million refugees from Middle Eastern countries traveled to the Mediterranean region. Idomeni, a small village located in Greece near the country's border with North Macedonia, acted as a makeshift camp and passing point for many of these migrants, as they made their way to Western Europe. However, in late 2015, North Macedonia closed its borders to migrants, causing them to be trapped in Idomeni. This resulted in a humanitarian crisis, where the thousands of migrants stuck in the camp had little access to shelter and basic necessities.
In the summer of 2015, the Greek government cleared out the Idomeni camp, and relocated migrants to government run Temporary Accommodation Centers, many of which were located in Thessaloniki. These centers however, were placed away from the center of the city with few available transportation options, excluding the refugees from public life. In addition, the location of the camps were in places with significant environmental hazards, presenting a health risk for the migrants.
In the period of late 2015 to 2016, squats began to be organized by anarchist groups to provide solidarity and shelter to migrants looking to escape the harsh conditions of Idomeni and the accommodation centers. The most prominent of these squats, called Orfanofotrio, occurred in an abandoned orphanage in Thessaloniki. Unlike the accommodation centers, the squats occurred close to the city center, allowing migrants to integrate themselves into public life. In July 2016, three of these migrant squats in Thessaloniki, including Orfanofotrio, were evicted, and refugees and activists living in the facilities were arrested. According to ChatGPT gathered information from anarchist webpages and magazines, at least three more refugee squats in Thessaloniki have been evicted by police in the period of 2020-2022.
Due to this history of eviction of squats by police, it is likely that the poster depicting riot police, the squatter’s symbol, and the phrase “We will take it all back,” refers to the determination of activists to retain control of these squatting locations. While the banner contains a more ambiguous reference to arrests, the presence of the squatter’s symbol suggests at least some form of solidarity or association with this movement.
The identification of this symbol using ChatGPT not only shines light on the complex political situation that exists in Greece involving refugees, squatting, and leftist movements, but also on the use AI can be to travelers. By designing prompts that guide AI, these tools can be useful for both tourists and students to identify unfamiliar posters, signs, and symbols they encounter on their travels, and allow them to engage with aspects of their environment they might not have otherwise been able to understand.
References:
Karaliotas, L., & Kapsali, M. (2021). Equals in Solidarity: Orfanotrofio’s Housing Squat as a Site for Political Subjectification Across Differences Amid the “Greek Crisis.” Antipode, 53(2), 399–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12653
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (GPT-4o) [Large Language Model]. https://chatgpt.com/
Squatting symbol. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.15101119
Tsavdaroglou, C., Giannopoulou, C., Petropoulou, C., Pistikoa, I. (2019). Acts for refugees’ right to the city and commoning practices of care-tizenship in Athens, Mytilene and Thessaloniki. Social Inclusion, 7(4), 119-130. 10.17645/si.v7i4.2332.
UNHCR (2019). Refugees/Migrants Emergency Response Mediterranean. http://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean
[vophie]. (2023, May 26). What is this symbol. [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/13sb0w4/what_is_this_symbol/.