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Dear reader,
This is our weekly round-up from Greece. It’s Labour Day this Saturday, and keeping the memory alive couldn’t be more relevant, as labor rights are ferociously attacked worldwide - and very much so in Greece. This Sunday, Greeks celebrate Easter - and Easter always reminds us that life can thrive over death and light over darkness. We cannot however omit to bow our heads for the over 10,000 people the pandemic has killed in Greece. We cannot omit to register the escalation in the refugee drama in the country, a drama reminiscent of Jesus’ Procession to Calvary. We can also not omit developments regarding freedom of the Press in Greece, as Free Press greatly contributes to a world of justice.
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What we did this week.
Cities For Rent - Investigating Corporate Landlords across Europe.
A cross-border collaborative project, coordinated by Arena for Journalism in Europe.
New data investigation! Who owns our cities? Who owns Athens? For over 7 months, AthensLive founding member Sotiris Sideris and a team of 25 reporters, data journalists, and dataviz experts have been investigating corporate landlords in 16 European cities. Read what they found.
Plus, watch our documentary TIED at SEEFest / 28 April - 5 May.
This is if you live in the US, as TIED is competing in the SEEfest2021 feature-length category. You can buy tickets here.
It’s official: Greece has lost a whole “town” from the pandemic.
Deaths are piling up in grim numbers in Greece. Last Sunday, the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic superseded 10,000 - and this could well have been the population of a small town.
While deaths, intubations, and new cases continue to be high, the Greek government ridicules, even more, its own “anti-Covid19” measures. So, while the catering sector is opening on 3 May, just after Greek Easter, they announced in the Live Briefing on Wednesday that people will still have to take movement permission via SMS to go to a restaurant. What is more, citizens are supposed to text Code 6, which was till now reserved for “physical exercise”. Maybe they would also be interested in time our eating out and fine us if we are slow eaters. On top of that, they announced no music will be allowed in restaurants.
State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis stated on Thursday that “to retain the SMS for a few more days as well as the night curfew is symbolic and of pedagogical value.” That is, Gerapetritis indirectly yet clearly admitted that the government aspires to undertake the role of the “great father” of the nation. History has taught us there is a very specific type of regime where the leader presents himself as “the father of the nation” - and this is the fascist regime. Is that what you meant, Minister? We remind you Gerapetritis had also claimed that if we had more ICUs, we would have more deaths.
But maybe the most unthinkable statement came from Experts Committee member Children Infectious Diseases Professor Vana Papaevangelou. Papaevangelou claimed on 23 April that one out of four now hospitalized in ICUs are older than 75 and that “despite the fact they had the chance to be vaccinated, they didn’t do it, and today they are at risk of dying or they die due to coronavirus.” We have never before heard a scientist so shamelessly putting the blame on the victims and lying straight forward. Vaccinations are very slow in Greece, many government officials have taken other people’s turn to be vaccinated first, plus mortality is much higher for those intubated as many of them are hospitalized outside ICUs due to government conscious contempt for the NHS. According to Papaevangelou, “only a small number die outside ICUs, that is 20% I think,” as she had also shamelessly stated on 27 March.
However, dear reader, we shall inform you that movement SMS serves its “anti-Covid19” purpose only until the tourists come. Because as of 15 May, when tourism will officially open, the SMS will be abolished. Along with movement among prefectures. Nevertheless, they allowed us to move among municipalities before the tourists’ arrival, that is from 28 April. I guess we should be grateful.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Greece disagrees with the European Commission’s proposal that the epidemiological data and vaccination status of each country should be criteria for the approval of travel from third countries to European Union member-states and vice versa. Specifically, Greece proposes that the individual travelers’ profiles (vaccination, negative diagnostic test, or recent recovery from illness) should be the criteria for letting people travel in EU countries. The latter is actually what European lawmakers propose for traveling across the EU. They said on Thursday that Covid-19 vaccination certificates should be enough to move freely this summer - and that EU governments should not impose quarantines, tests, or self-isolation measures on certificate holders. It remains to be seen if this proposal will be accepted by member-states.
Putting aside that tourism has to take place under strict health prerequisites, who would come to a country that has lost control of the pandemic and where if one needs a bed at a hospital is very much doubt he/she will find one?
Walls and mass surveillance in Greece’s refugee camps under EU blessings.
Compassion certainly does not characterize the ND government, despite the fact you will see them now at Easter posing as “good Christians.”
There was a chain of horrid refugee-related news this week. On Monday, it was revealed that the NGO Legal Centre Lesvos filed a lawsuit against the Greek state at the European court of human rights accusing Athens of a shocking level of violence in sophisticated inter-agency operations that form part of an illegal pushback strategy to stop the arrival of refugees and migrants. According to the Guardian, the lawsuit centers on an incident in October last year in which a fishing boat set off from Marmaris in Turkey for Italy carrying about 200 people, including 40 children and a pregnant woman. The boat ran into difficulty in a storm off the south coast of Crete, leading the captain to radio for assistance. “The legal case claims that in an operation of unprecedented size and sophistication, instead of helping the stranded people onboard, a Greek search and rescue vessel and two small patrol boats stalled the smuggler’s boat for five hours until speed boats carrying masked commandos arrived. Several passengers claim they were beaten in the ensuing incident,” the Guardian reported. Refugees claim they were also searched by men wearing balaclavas and had their belongings confiscated before they were pushed back to Turkish waters “and abandoned at sea without food, water, life jackets or any means to call for help.”
In addition, an independent investigation in Greece said authorities have failed to adequately respond to multiple allegations of summary deportations of migrants at the Greek-Turkish border. In a report released Thursday, the Greek Ombudsman called on the government to respond to detailed allegations of so-called pushbacks that deny migrants their right to apply for international protection. The Ombudsman said it didn't have the resources to investigate the claims directly, but said a consistent pattern of accounts had emerged from testimonies mostly made to international and local human rights groups.
Moreover, as Are You Syrious reported this week, people in Ritsona, Polykastro, and Diavata refugee camps on the mainland have reported that construction is beginning on fencing around the camps - and that it includes concrete walls. “Previously, the government had promised that fencing would pop up only at the borders and around island camps,” AYS reports. “However, it is clear now that camps on the mainland will also become enclosed. By building these walls, the message is clear: people are supposed to feel like prisoners and they will be treated as such. Never mind that the camps are not even detention centers but open accommodation structures that are supposed to provide housing for people on the move.” They emphasize that IOM is complicit with this development. “In fact, they were the ones that sent out an invitation to bid on the construction of perimeter fencing in Malakasa, Ritsona, Polykastro, and Diavata camps, all the way back in January. While initially the construction was supposed to be a three-meter-high wire fence, the plans have clearly evolved to include concrete walls,” they report.
Finally, on Wednesday, watchdog Algorithm Watch published an extensive reportage entitled “Greek camps for asylum seekers to introduce partly automated surveillance systems.” “An EU-funded surveillance system for “reception and identification centers” on five Greek islands raises questions about asylum seekers’ privacy and well-being. Despite assurances from European authorities, the Centaur system suggests that mass control, and no shelter, is the priority,” the reportage concludes.
The reportage verifies that there might be ambiguity as to the type of new camps, with the EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson insisting they will not be closed, but with the Greek government persistently describing them as “closed and controlled.” According to the document Algorithm Watch has obtained, “the new camps will have a double, military-grade fence. Their residents will only be allowed to enter and exit the facility at certain hours of the day and will be monitored by Centaur.”
The “Centaur” surveillance system, which is expected to cost circa 33 million euros, will be implemented in five reception centers on Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos. The project will include “a CCTV system and video monitors, drone flights over the facilities to detect incidents, perimeter violation alarms with cameras, control gates with metal detectors and x-ray devices and an automated system for public announcements, broadcast from loudspeakers. A control center will be located at the ministry’s headquarters.” Experts quoted in the report stated that this project aims to normalize surveillance in these places and to make them as “prison-like” as possible.
Interestingly enough, the project will be entirely funded by the European Union.
Based on European humanitarian values, we take it.
And there is more to this authoritarian downturn of Greece. Interior Minister Makis Voridis, who had in the past served as youth wing head of dictatorship nostalgic party EPEN where he succeeded now jailed Golden Dawn leader Michaloliakos, has decided to make it almost impossible for foreigners to be granted the Greek nationality. Thus, the relevant ministerial decision provides now that the candidate should have a stable income of circa 8,000 euros for three to seven years (extremely difficult in Greece’s ridden economy, more so for migrants). The decision is to be applied also to foreigners who have already applied for nationality paying up to 700 euros for bureaucratic expenses.
This is Voridis’ second defining intervention to the matter. With an amendment passed with an irrelevant bill on 14 April, the minister abolished the clause which provided those applying for nationality who have successfully attended three years of Greek High School or have a University degree will be excluded from written exams (a prerequisite to be granted nationality). Now the minister requires that they have attended at least six years of Greek schooling. Keep in mind these exams are considered to be so difficult that many Greeks would not pass them.
This is certainly not fair. But the minister does not care about fairness. He is apparently still inspired by the EPEN ideas.
International mobilization for the journalist who revealed info on death contract.
Since “Documento” newspaper editor Kostas Vaxevanis published he had info on a death contract against him, developments have been rapid. The head of the Prosecutor‘s Office in Athens ordered a preliminary examination. The Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis announced additional protection measures would be taken for Vaxevanis. The Greek Journalists Union ESIEA urged police and judicial authorities to immediately investigate the issue and protect the journalist. ESIEA added that it will brief the European Journalists’ Federation on the matter.
Controversial TV presenter Menios Fourthiotis, who Vaxevanis claimed was implicated in the death contract against him, was remanded and appeared before an Athens prosecutor on Tuesday. Fourthiotis, who has been a dubious “celebrity” is now accused of faking an armed attack on his own house. Earlier this month, it was revealed he had been given police detail as supposedly his life was in danger. The police protection had been taken away and a prosecutor is now investigating the case.
The amazing thing is that the Minister of Citizen Protection had actually justified Fourthiotis being given police detail on 9 April, while Fourthiotis’s websites were appearing to have been granted 5,000 euros of the non transparently distributed government media support back in July 2020, money that finally did not appear in the official list after public outcry. Fourthiotis was also publishing a newspaper lately, favorable to the government up until the point they took away his police protection.
The International Press Institute issued a press release on Vaxevanis’s case, urging a thorough investigation into allegations of a murder plot against him. “The shocking murder of Greek crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz in Athens earlier this month was a tragic reminder of the grave dangers that journalists face while carrying out their work and an urgent illustration of why those responsible for such attacks must face justice. The situation in Greece is becoming more and more worrying. IPI will continue to closely monitor this situation in the coming weeks and hopes that any serious risk to Vaxevanis’ life can be quickly established and acted upon,” IPI states.
On Thursday, the Reporters Without Borders also issued a press release, emphasizing that the Greek police “must show journalists can trust it with their protection after one was murdered and another is threatened.” “Despite the Greek prime minister’s promise of a “swift investigation” into Karaivaz’s murder, the authorities have so far simply established that it was linked to the organized crime circles about which he reportedly had sensitive information,” they say. “They have also identified the person who threatened him but has not linked that person to the murder.” Additionally, a recent increase in journalists’ mistrust of the Greek police “has been fuelled not only by corruption suspicions but also by the police violence and arbitrary arrests to which reporters have been subjected while covering protests or stories linked to migrants,” they added. “The citizen protection minister’s adoption of new national guidelines for policing the streets has also fuelled a widespread feeling that press freedom is under threat.”
Read.
Golden Dawn MEP Ioannis Lagos arrested in Brussels: Former leader of the neo-Nazi party convicted in absentia to 13 years in prison in 2020 faces extradition to Athens. Lagos was arrested just hours after he was stripped of his immunity as MEP, seven long months after his conviction. Belgian authorities and police proved very well organized and determined not to allow him to flee the country, as rumors had it. That is, unlike the Greek authorities and police, which still have not managed to locate and arrest convicted Golden Dawn Nr 2 Christos Pappas, who is still in hiding. Moments after his arrest, Lagos tweeted: “I am in a Belgian police van. The thieves, atheists, and anti-Greeks are taking me to prison. I remain faithful to Christ and Greece.” Bye, bye, Nazi.
Illiberal Conservatism Comes to Greece: Undercover the pandemic, Greece’s right-wing government has passed a slew of new measures to benefit the wealthy at the expense of workers, while massively expanding police powers. On the back of a decade of austerity, the latest laws are set to transform the country into a client state and playground for foreign tourists.
The Greek Supreme Administrative Court (StE) overruled with a close majority civil society organizations appeals, which were seeking for the great “Byzantine Pompei” found in the Thessaloniki metro excavation to remain in situ. What will follow is the “chopping up” and removal of the antiquities to continue with the metro, which then they are supposed to be “glued back” together. We remind you that there has been an international outcry for the “Legoland” government plans, including a call by Europa Nostra.
The Nursing Home of Horror: Prosecutor investigates the death of 68 elderly in Chania.
The Greek “Lord of the Rings” Eleftherios Petrounias won the gold medal in European Championships for the fifth time in a row. The golden medalist of Olympics 2016, posted on his social media account: “I am back to make all of you proud!” However, the great athlete stated (in front of Deputy Sports Minister Avgenakis who had come to welcome him at the airport) that the athletes have no support whatsoever from the Greek state, despite the fact they eye some of the glory. “We have not been paid for seven months,” Petrounias stated. “If I can keep doing gymnastics, I owe it to my sponsors. The athletes here, beside me, are in the same situation, only they do not have sponsors.”
“Museums must aim higher than economic profitability”: 487 International Academic Community members with an open letter (scroll down for the English version) call on the Greek PM to retain major public museums as an integral part of the Greek Archaeological Service and not make them Legal Entities governed by Public Law, as he plans. “The transformation of public museums into Legal Entities governed by Public Law would run completely counter to their long history and tradition as public assets, fatally change their character and compromise their key role in society,” they conclude.
Dendias says ‘no common ground’ on Cyprus in Geneva talks.
Unique archaeological finding in Kozani: Deceased woman on a wooden bed.
“Greece’s Next Top Model” fined for a shoot in NATURA protected Elafonisos dunes.
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