Greece Afire!

"Given that there have been no reports of a missing person or missing residents from the surrounding areas, the possibility is being investigated that these are people who had entered the country illegally."

Ioannis Artopios, spokesman, fire department, Avanta area

 

"When we add the fires in Canada, the United States, Africa, Asia and Australia to those in Europe, it seems that the situation is getting worse every year."

Antonello Fiore, president,  Italian Society of Environmental Geology

Helicopters fly over as wildfire rages near Alexandroupolis, northern Greece, on August 21, 2023. Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP/Getty Images

 The bodies of 18 people were discovered by firefighters scouring the area of a major wildfire in northeastern Greece, burning out of control Tuesday for a fourth day. Authorities were left to consider whether the group remains might be those of migrants who had entered Greece through its nearby border with Turkey.

Hundreds of firefighters were battling dozens of wildfires breaking out across the country, with galeforce winds fanning the flames. Two people died on Monday while two firefighters were injured in separate fires in northern and central Greece. The 18 bodies were found in the Avanta area of the city of Alexandroupolis.

The hot, dry summers of southern Europe are especially susceptible to wildfires. Across Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands, another major blaze has been burning for a week, with no injuries or home damage yet reported. Blame is being placed by European Union officials squarely on climate change to explain the increasing frequency and intensity of European wildfires.

Police activated Greece's Disaster Victim Identification Team in hopes of identifying the 18 bodies discovered close to a shack in the Avanta area. Alexandroupolis sits close to Greece's border with Turkey, along a route frequently used by people fleeing poverty and conflict in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, seeking to enter the European Union.

Many villages and settlements close by Avanta were under evacuation orders, push alerts sent to mobile phones. A massive wall of flames raced overnight through forests toward Alexandroupolis that prompted authorities to evacuation an additional eight villages along with the city's hospital. The sky over the city was flaming red and choking smoke with swirling ash flecks filled the atmosphere.

Firefighters battle flames during a wildfire near Prodromos on August 21, 2023. Spyros Bakalis/AFP/Getty Images

The city's hospital transported 65 of its over 100 patients to a ferry boat docked at the city's port; mores were taken to other hospitals in northern Greece. Another 20 patients were ferried to the port town of Kavala, to be transferred from there to yet another hospital. Speaking on Greece's Skal television the country's deputy health minister explained that the Alexandroupolis hospital moved its patients elsewhere given the smoke and ash circulating, as a threat to health toward already compromised people.

 

Patrol boats and private vessels evacuated another 40 people by sea from areas west of Alexandroupolis, ferrying them to the port. Satellite imagery showed smoke from a fire burning through forest in a protected national park, blanketing northern and western Greece. Woodland northwest of Athens and at an industrial area on the capital's western fringes were susceptible to new fires that broke through in parts of the country.

From the industrial area of Aspropyrgos, small explosions resounded as flames reached warehouses and factories, authorities shutting down a highway and ordering the evacuation of nearby villages. Greece, with its firefighting forces stretched to the limit, appealed for help from the civil protection mechanism of the European Union.

The response was five firefighting planes from Croatia, Germany and Sweden, and a helicopter, 58 firefighters and nine water tanks from the Czech Republic heading to Greece on Tuesday. Two aircraft from Cyprus arrived on Monday as did 56 Romanian firefighters. A blaze on the island of Evia was being tackled with the assistance of French firefighters. "We are mobilizing actually almost one third of the aircraft we have in the rescEU fleet", EU spokesman Balazs Ujvari recounted.

Flames burn a forest during a wildfire on Parnitha mountain near Hasia suburb, northwestern Athens, 22 August 2023.   AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Greece's Migrant State of Emergency

"Some people do not respect the country that is hosting them, and they strive to prove they are not looking for a passport to a better life."

"They will not leave [the island] because of the fire."

Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas 

 

"Under the stars, I'm going to sleep under the stars like all these people here."

"[I've] nowhere to go since everything burned so we slept outside and we'll continue here."

Leonie Raymon, refugee from Cameroon

 

"In the past few days we've been living through unprecedented situations with daily fires."

"We've reached our limits. We're anxious, we feel insecure, we're fed up, we don't know how to act anymore."

Moria's municipal community leader Yiannis Mastroyannis

 

"There is a terrible reality with these fires. Many children, women, men are in these camps in absolutely terrible conditions. We want to show solidarity with Greece that lives up to European values."

French President Emmanuel Macron 

"I recognize the difficult conditions. However, nothing can become an alibi for violent reactions to health checks. And, much more, for riots of this magnitude."

"The situation in Moria cannot continue because it is a matter of public health, humanity and national security at the same time."

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Migrants flee from the Moria refugee camp during second a fire, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

During a huge migration wave that swamped Europe in 2015-16, with migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia who left the nearby Turkish coast with the intention of entering Europe by way of Greece and Italy, the camp at Moria on the Greek Island of Lesbos was set up to accommodate several thousand people. It ended up with many more than it was intended to service, becoming a sprawling squalid camp, condemned by human rights groups. For those who flooded into Greece, the intention was to move on to wealthier European countries.

Some, like Germany, the destination of many of the migrants who knew of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's willing absorption of a million migrants was their target, but the state, under growing pressure from alarmed German citizens along with violent incidents emanating from a proportion of the migrants, reversed its earlier stance. Countries of the European Union mandated to accept a share of the migrants to relieve the burden on Italy and Greece, finally felt they had reached the limits of their absorption capacity and balked at accepting additional migrants.

 

Now, in the wake of a massive fire in the largest migrant camp for asylum seekers in Europe, 12,500 migrants formerly placed under coronavirus quarantine are without shelter. Authorities were faced with a humanitarian crisis that eclipsed the one that existed prior to the fire. At the same time Greek investigators are trying to figure out whether a connection existed between the conflagration and anger on the part of the migrants over an erupting camp outbreak of coronavirus.

 

Smoke rises at the burnt camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos on Wednesday the morning after a major fire broke out.

 

According to three eyewitnesses the fire began as a protest against mandatory new quarantine measures. The blaze broke out after migrants who tested positive for the virus or were exposed, refused to go into isolation, according to a semi-official Greek news agency. Arson is being investigated as a possible cause of the blaze. Overnight, people fled the camp, as tents and shipping containers became engulfed in flames. There were no injuries or deaths reported. But police surrounded the camp attempting to ensure that the migrants remained within the vicinity of the camp.

Moria had been a site where protests, fatal fires and chronic sickness took place, filled well beyond capacity, cited by international aid groups as being unsafe and inhumane. It remained in operation not because Greece wanted to continue hosting the migrants, but because there was simply nowhere else for them to go. They kept arriving because the previous waves had succeeded in distributing themselves around Europe. And more latterly, Turkey used them as a threat to coerce Europe to fund its own refugee camps.

 

"Events in Moria last night are unthinkable but, tragically, predictable as the dire situation on the islands has gone on for far too long", the Greece country director for the International Rescue Committee -- Dimitra Kalogeropoulou noted of the residents that had fled from the fire, but are "now left with nothing". 

Refugees and migrants with their children gather on a bridge on Wednesday after the fire at the camp.

Last week officials visiting the camp had identified the first three positive cornavirus case and a testing campaign that followed detected another 35 positive cases, leading to the camp being placed under lockdown. The new Greek government devised a blueprint to close Moria and other island centres to create more permanent structures, in the face of local resistance where the new permanent structures might be placed.

 

Some asylum seekers have been gradually transferred to the mainland. Other European Union countries have agreed to accept some of the most vulnerable among the migrants, unaccompanied minors in particular, to rescue them from a camp that ended up holding ten times the number of people it was originally designed to house.

People grasp for food on Thursday, September 10 after fires destroyed the Moria migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos

 

Bearing the Brunt of the Middle East's Dysfunction

"Lots of people have come [as migrant refugees to Europe through Greece]. I have been here [on Samos] the longest."
"I've lost hope that they [authorities] will say my name [to be interviewed and allowed to enter the mainland to declare refugee status]."
Ashaq Hossein, 25, Afghani migrant

"[There are two ways to curb migration to the islands]: First, more efficient guarding of our borders and, second, the immediate return of those who don't deserve international protection."
Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarakis

Feelings are running high on the five Aegean islands, which are home to more than 41,000 migrants

"Here it's like a prison. The migrants aren't allowed to leave the island. They aren't free to go where they like."  
"In Samos town there are more of them than us. They are different. They change our culture."
"Samos town was full of tourists before. Many people I know, from England too, they say they won't come to the town."
Georgios, Greek bartender

"I saved people in the past and if necessary, I would do it again now. When human lives are in danger, we have to protect them."
"But we want the refugees and the immigrants to go to another place, to Greece or other parts of the EU. More people are coming and just staying on our islands. They live in tents in inhuman conditions."
Mayor Giorgos Stantzos, East Samos

Protesters in Lesbos stand in front of a Greek flag and a banner that reads: "We want our islands back, we want our lives back." Reuters

The island of Samos, a place of ancient ruins, fishing villages, muscat wine, the birthplace of the goddess Hera and the philosopher Epicurus is now host to migrant camps and a tent city. The island has a population of about 6,200 locals, and on that fabled island Greek citizens involuntarily now share their island home with 6,800 foreign migrants who live in desperate conditions. Greece did not invite these visitors; they took it upon themselves to escape their own ancestral towns and villages where violence  and oppression reign, in favour of seeking refuge in Europe.

The influx of refugees has been unstoppable since 2015, flooding Europe with millions escaping conflict, poverty and the dysfunction of their mostly Islamic homelands. They arrive with the baggage of Islam and a culture that fails to lend itself to integration with that of the indigenous heritage and culture, a jarring entry of imposition angering residents who, while not averse to aiding small numbers of refugees, are aghast at the need to somehow cope with uninvited guests whose huge presence is beyond troubling.

Migrants live in tents at the camp on the Greek island of Samos

The Greek government is under immense stress, beyond its ability to cope in the face of the European Union's lack of sympathy for their plight; one echoed in varying measure across Europe. Ongoing dysfunctional chaos and conflict in the Middle East and Turkey's malign manipulative relations with Europe has seen to it that desperate people leave their homes, their countries of birth, hoping that gambling with their lives through dangerous migrant routes will somehow offer them a link to a better future for themselves and their families. But the flood they represent is suffocating Europe.

And so they wait for permission to leave the islands of Lesbos. Chios, Leros, Kos and Samos for the Greek mainland where their hopes of assuming new lives in Europe sustain them under desperate living conditions. Where, living in crowded camps or in insubstantial tents they take to looting summer cottages of household goods to sustain themselves; mattresses, blankets, pots, windows, doors, even walls and roofs to help construct something more substantial to shield themselves from the weather.

Two young men cover their shelter with plastic sheets at a makeshift camp in Moria, Lesbos    Getty Images

Town residents are not without sympathy for the plight of the migrants. Georgios Stantzos had volunteered to rescue asylum seekers, to recover bodies when the migrant crisis was at its 2015 height, but even he finds himself drained of empathy, lashing out at the presence of migrants loitering the main square of his town. His pleas toward the government for assistance as riots took place in the camp came to nothing. Police fired tear gas on migrants protesting their living conditions.

Built initially to hold 648 people, the camp now holds over 3,000. There is no medical care available, and people live in primitive conditions. Even so, those in the camp live in conditions superior to those living in tents. Refugees from Syria are given preferential treatment to the extent that their opportunities to be allowed to travel to the mainland and declare refugee status is favoured; others languish, ignored. If one group is given priority, the others wait in vain.

Among the migrants are close to 2,000 children, 351 of them unaccompanied minors and 580 infants and toddlers. Mayor Stantzos pleaded with the Greek authorities, and they promised the camp would close and with that promise he gave his support for the establishment of a temporary new camp meant to hold 1,500 migrants five kilometers inland from town. Later, he heard the camp would be built to accommodate 7,000. "I feel betrayed", he said, speculating that the real number would be 15,000.

A number of migrants arrived on the Greek mainland recently from Lesbos   Reuters

The Unstoppable Force of the Migrant Tide

Moroccan migrants are seen on a dinghy as they cross the Strait of Gibraltar sailing from the coast of Morocco before disembarking at 'Del Canuelo' beach in Tarifa on Friday

"The Spanish government’s actions when it came to the Aquarius were good given all that’s happening in the Mediterranean right now."
"You can’t let people die and that’s why we needed that symbolic act of humanity and solidarity from the government. But the Aquarius also showed us what needs to be done in terms of intervention and reception. And that isn’t happening here."
"If they’d had the foresight to build a centre in all the years that have gone by, we wouldn’t have men, women and children – including babies – sleeping on the floors of sports centres in different cities, in the waiting room at Algeciras port or in police stations. This is a really awful situation.”
"I’ve seen what the wire [razor wire topping border fences at Melilla and Ceuta] does to people: it doesn’t cut you; it rips you."
“I’ve served as a chaplain at the CIEs [foreign internment centres] and it broke my heart every week when I went. They should not exist. Migrants who arrive have committed an administrative offence by arriving in Spain without the necessary documentation but they’re being locked up in a place that’s guarded by police and which, in many cases, has bars. They’re being detained."
Father Gabriel Delgado, Cádiz, Spain

"We’re taking them in on a daily basis [migrants off ships]. They’re just not called the Aquarius and they’re little boats. It may not be as striking as a boat drifting in the Mediterranean, but it’s the reality of what we’re seeing on the coasts of southern Spain on, sadly, a daily basis."
"[The maritime rescue service and NGOs are doing an extraordinary job]. Where we need help is with economic resources to improve and widen these capacities."
"But what’s fundamental is the need to come up with measures on development, dialogue, cooperation and improving things in the countries of origin and countries of transit."
Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez

Spain's humanitarian dedication to welcoming migrants from Africa to its shores is now placing it in the position that Greece and Italy were mired in for years. When Italy's new government decided that enough was more than enough and refused to accept the Aquarius with its latest invasion of migrants to Italy, Spain stepped up and offered to take them in. That kind of selfless compassion has its cost; word spreads and Spain has become the latest easy entry point for those seeking to improve their prospects by leaving their failed countries of origin.

The first migrants from the Aquarius, a ship that was turned away by Italy and Malta sparking a major migration row in Europe, disembarked at the Spanish port of Valencia on June 17, 2018. (PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images)

Europe is drowning in refugees and economic migrants; its generous impulse to share the advances it has made in providing a decent life for its populations suddenly in high demand by the world's less fortunate. There are, needless to say, official entry points where applications for asylum or immigration are formally made and considered by authorities of the host countries. But none of the tens of thousands of 'refugees' and asylum seekers have any interest in law and order and fairness, in acknowledging that there is an existing waiting list that their impulsive demands are complicating.

Spain's coast guard union is "overwhelmed", in their words, by the steep and never-ending rise in migrant crossings. A human tide requiring rescue from the flimsy rafts floating them over the Strait of Gibraltar, others coming overland in a violent spree of breaching borders. And in the last day, Spanish beachgoers were suddenly jerked out of their complacent enjoyment of a summer day when their beach was suddenly a little more crowded when a flimsy boat arrived to unload fifty Africans who speedily ran off after asking the beachgoers for food.

The Maritime Rescue agency urgently calls on aid so it can continue to cope with the "massive arrival of immigrants" on Spain's unprepared shores. More crew required to save lives afloat in an unfriendly sea. "An absolute overflow of work" for maritime resource centers has resulted from the "extraordinary upturn" in arrivals, cries out for more help for crews already operating with "insufficient" crew levels went the plea.

On Friday morning alone 35 rafts bursting with 627 people came in off the Strait of Gibraltar, raising the number that arrived in this week alone to 2,000. Spain is now considered to be the gateway of choice for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to access Europe. Over 20,000 such individuals breached Spanish shores this year, figures reached by the International Organization for Migration. Italy no longer can boast or groan, that it takes in larger numbers, and, in fact, no longer will agree to.

Thursday's violence at Ceuta, the outpost in Morocco, where over 600 migrants forced entry into Spain stands out for the vicious event it was, when once across the breached fence, migrants attacked the Guardia Civil stationed there with weapons and chemicals and fire. Despite which the attackers were not turned back, not arrested but ushered toward an migrant intake station to make their claims for haven, even while their forced entry was described by security forces as "unprecedented violence".

Reception centres in Spain are beyond saturated, and Spain now blames Italy's refusal to accept any longer those leaving Libya to cross the Mediterranean, where the new government has barred the docking of rescue ships. And while Spain mulls over the necessity of helping the countries that are bleeding citizens to transform them into places where their nationals will want to stay and aid in the building of nations where opportunities to flourish and human rights are respected, in Africa and the Middle East, the concerned nations themselves remain oblivious to any need to transform themselves.

Spanish beachgoers amazed at the sight of migrants spilling out of a boat and sprinting off.

The Overwhelming Tragedy

"Crossing in those conditions would be very tough."
"They [smugglers] are  criminals. They took their money [of the refugees], put them on boats, and sent them to their death."
Manolis Galanakis, local fisherman, Lesbos, Greece

"We can't have a situation continuing with dead children in the sea every day."
"Thousands are coming every day, escaping war. We have handled the situation with dignity, but the truth is that we can't even meet their basic needs."
Giorgos Pallis, Greek member of Parliament representing Lesbos

"The Greek Coast Guard is severely under-resourced. The EU has to get the rescue boats in the water right now."
"Leaders have pledged to increase the Frontex [EU's border protection agency] presence in the Aegean. It's shocking that so many people had to die before we heard that pledge, and there's no more time for delays."
Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch

A refugee family weeps after arriving on Lesbos, as the weather continued to deteriorate for those trying to cross from Turkey. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

And where will they go? Most have no desire to remain in Greece, whose economy is in ruins, a country which cannot afford to offer the migrants and refugees a promising future of advancing their ambitions to live a better life than many of them have been able to enjoy, until the last several years of chaotic, brutal turmoil owing to sectarian violence in their countries of origin.

The countries of eastern Europe are adamant that they will take no part in the EU's hapless and desperate scheme to apportion refugee numbers to all its members; a handful have gone so far as to erect fences to stem the flow from adjoining countries. Even Austria, which beside Germany and Denmark promised to take in as many refugees as could manage to make their way to their borders, has begun to build a fence.

All of Europe is alarmed, their populations restive with apprehension over the unending tide of refugees streaming into their borders, needy and helpless, expecting that the countries they enter will be prepared to take them in, comfort them with lodging, food, medicine, and promise of a future, or at the least expedite them to other countries which can provide all of that.

Refugees and migrants arrive on a dinghy at Lesbos, Greece, on 23 October. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Germany stands out, alongside Denmark as the showpieces of empathetic humanity, prepared to welcome those fleeing instability and conflict. But their resources are finite and their enthusiasm is beginning to lag, as problems surface in insufficient places to put the refugees and haven seekers, in surfacing anger from the indigenous populations and from the refugees themselves, disappointed in the paltry offerings of their reception.

Incidents of brutality between the refugees, including the plight of Christian refugees assailed by Muslims, the rape of women, the vulnerability of children in unstable situations, has increased the concerns of the receiving countries. The reality is that the tragedy is boundless. The flight of those in fear of their lives, having lost all their possessions, victimized by geography and fate and the simmering hatreds of tribal, sectarian dysfunction continues to overwhelm Europe.

Small, unseaworthy boats continue to leave Turkey to reach the first portion of their long, arduous journey to a destination the refugees are uncertain of, crossing the cold and stormy waters of the Mediterranean which swallows the lives of hundreds of children. Lesbos is finding itself with burial space for dead migrants diminishing day by day.

Greece In Distress : Migrants Desperate

"This needs to be addressed on a European level. It cannot be stopped. Now they also come during the day, in the afternoon when people are swimming."
"We have made it worse because our system is relaxed."
George Danil, politician, Chios, Greek island

"We give them water and some food but there is not much we can do. Now it's summer, so they can be outside. What happens when it's winter?"
"We are on our own tackling this [influx of foreign migrants]."
Stephanos Voyatzisk mayor, Oinoussa, Greek Island

"How many illegal immigrants can Kos cope with? How many can Greece cope with?"
"[The situation of illegal immigrants is] out of control [with a real risk of bloodshed]."
Giorgios Kyritsis, mayor, Kos, Greek Island

"They come into the town and the port authority doesn't help. I'm sorry, can you not see this person in the sun?"
"They must have sold their life's belongings [Syrians with large cash sums]. But most [of the migrants] have nothing."
Lauretta and Thomas Spiril, residents, Greek holiday island of Kos

Migrants and refugees are pushed as riot police try to maintain an orderly line during a registration procedure at the national stadium. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

It has been estimated that 98,000 refugees from Africa and the Middle East have arrived in Italy this year alone. This is the result of the 'Arab Spring' turning into the 'Arab Winter'. And while Italy has long been considered the primary point of entry for refugees attempting to reach Europe, Greece has more latterly been targeted as an entry point. The United Nations refugee agency [UNHCR] has stated that Greek islands have seen 124,000 migrants land on their shores, this year.

This summer, the Greek holiday island of Kos has seen over 7,000 illegal immigrants arriving, sailing from Turkey (itself holding over a million Syrian refugees in camps), and invading the island of 30,000 residents. Migrants were taken to a sports stadium for identification in a registration process that swiftly turned into chaos Migrants began chanting "We want our papers", leading police to force the crowd back by spraying white foam, for order.

The mayor of Kos, fearing violence, demanded of the central Greek government that it send ferries from Athens to collect and move the migrants off the island. He insisted that riot police were required to be present to give aid in the island policing. The arrivals of between 600 to 800 migrants daily is more than the island authorities can cope with. The mostly Syrian and Afghan refugees have been arriving all summer, and their presence has strained capacity and patience.

An island close to Kos, Oinoussa, with a population of around 500 of its own, has seen the arrival of 150 people daily. The arrivals have been sheltered in the island's football stadium, within a naval school, and in the church. Some of the migrants have come prepared to establish themselves as they move further on into Europe, and they carry with them large cash sums, of up to $40,000 and more. They are finding their stay on Kos less than ideal.

Syrian refugees pack the stands of the national stadium

Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

About a thousand people locked in a sports stadium had no access to water in the tropical heat. Médecins sans Frontières was providing medical care at the stadium: "We have unconscious people coming out of the playground area, being carried by their friends and family, every 15 minutes. It is absolutely out of control. Nobody understands the sense behind it, or if there is any [sense] at all", said Constance Theisen, a MSF team leader, adding that one of the migrants suffered an epileptic seizure.

Migrants and refugees are pushed as riot police try to maintain an orderly line during a registration procedure at the national stadium. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

At one point within the stadium during the registration process, police used a sonic explosion to attempt to maintain order, leading the MSF team to withdraw for safety reasons. "It was becoming a bit uncontrollable, the situation, and there was a complete lack of coordination. It was just the police there, no UNHCR [the UN’s refugee agency], and no security for [our] team", said Julia Kourafa, a spokeswoman for MSF at the stadium.

The next morning, MSF workers returned to provide medical assistance, but the refugees remained locked within the stadium with supplies of food or water overlooked by Greek authorities. Refugees continued to faint. "This is the first time we’ve seen this in Greece – people locked in a stadium and controlled by riot police. We’re talking about mothers with children and elderly people. They’ve been locked in there after many hours in the sun", protested MSF's Julia Kourafa.

Greeks Laughing and Crying

"I'm finished with all of them because I am tired of hearing this every day. Basically, we're being told to sign everything. Whether we agree or not, I only know that I will be paying for this today, tomorrow and for many years."
"I don't know whether to laugh or cry"
Panagiotis Georgakarakos, Athens, Greece

"People really didn't understand what they voted for or against in the referendum, but we all know that we were voting on something that was better than what we have now been left with. Nobody understands this at all."
"You don't stop going to a restaurant you like because you don't like one of the waiters [so the rest of Europe must accept the authority to bargain invested in Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras]."
Ekaterina Yannakopoulos, Athens, Greece 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, left, speaks with, from left, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, French President Francois Hollande and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel during a meeting of eurozone heads of state at the EU Council building in Brussels on Sunday, July 12, 2015. (AP/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Greeks are moody and upset. They are, after all, accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and it is exceedingly difficult to tear oneself away from that mode of living because of the recalcitrance of other countries' citizens in supporting beautiful Greece and its social values. Squeezing Greek banks, refusing to lend them their life-blood so Greek retirees can be enabled to continue living their lives out in their Paradisaical existence. It's all so unfair.

Germans in particular, a tight-lipped breed who suffer anguish at the very thought of a citizenry complacently living off the largess of their own country's patience which has finally run its course as Germany and much of the European Union finally understand that bankruptcy and an unwillingness/inability to pay back what is owed is a ploy, that their trust has been misplaced, despite which they are expected to relent and trust again.

"There's not going to be an agreement at any cost and not unity at any price", stated the mirthless Angela Merkel. She is opposed, as Chancellor of Germany, to forgiving Greece's lavish spending on the backs of her own citizens. Just as well, since her own citizens will not submit to any further such improvidence. The eurozone is suffering a breakage in communal agreement, with the north, on the hook for much of the debt that Greece would appreciate being forgiven, countering the generosity of the south which would like to forgive Greece with someone else's funding.

Mostly because some of those countries in the south may soon again find themselves in a position once again similar to that of Greece. And what may turn out to be good for Greece, should the EU finally relent, would turn out beneficial to their like condition as well. But there it is, Germany digging in its heels And if Germany has its way, and it certainly should on this account, pensions will be reduced and taxes increased for starters; the lavish Greek spending habit reduced.

That is, before any consideration could be given on extending credit yet again. To allow cash-strapped banks in Greece to reopen. To permit people to withdraw their money so that they can buy things so some of the VAT can trickle up to the government. To re-engineer the economy and produce more jobs and employment for Greeks. An advance that would please the European Union greatly and validate Chancellor Merkel's uncompromising stance -- after being too accommodating too long.

Finland and Slovakia are lined up with Germany, with Poland and the Netherlands uncertain, and Italy Spain and France bleeding compassion for Greece. The coalition is crumbling, polarized in opinion and attitude even as Greece dissembles and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras beams contentedly; his party's disowning his capitulation is of no concern, since the opposition can always make up the difference in support.

Greeks voted themselves a pig in a poke.

That Workers' Paradise

"There is no such thing as temporary Grexit, there is only a Grexit or no Grexit. There is Greece in the euro zone or Greece not in the euro zone. But in that case it's Europe that retreats and no longer progresses and I don't want that."
French President Francois Hollande

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, speaks with French President Francois Hollande, center, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during a meeting of eurozone heads of state at the EU Council building in Brussels on Sunday, July 12, 2015. Skeptical European creditors raced Sunday to narrow differences both among themselves and with Athens, aiming to come up with a tentative agreement to stave off an immediate financial collapse in Greece that would reverberate across the continent. (AP Photo)

"The most important currency has been lost and that is trust. That means that we will have tough discussions and there will be no agreement at any price."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel 

"How can they demand all these measures at the last minute without securing a lifeline to see us through till next week?"
Greek government official  

Greek President Alexis Tsipras, after seeking Greek public opinion and vowing not to submit to the European Union's unfair demands on poor cash-strapped, high-unemployment Greece that deserves much better, is now facing the prospect of the inevitable come to pass. He has a suggested German option for a "time-out" from the euro zone if he thinks the drachma's return can boost Greece's plight, or he can bring before his parliament a draft proposal with its measures on tax and pension reforms.

In a classic scenario of having one's cake and eating it as well, Greece has long lived beyond its means, the state incapable of raising enough wherewithal to fund its extraordinarily generous benefits  for the Greek population; benefits paid for through loans that haven't been repaid and for which Greece would appreciate the generosity of forgiveness by taxpayers of other EU countries who don't aspire to such benefits for themselves.

"This is a beautiful place (Zakynthos, Greece) and people come from all over to admire it, but every village has its donkeys. I don't feel guilty. Every country has its own mentality and it has never been the same as that here. What we have is the mentality that rules are made to be broken", said Spartakos Delianis, a retired mathematics professor, now restaurateur. "In Greece the fish stinks from the head."

"I don't see anything that I can do about this. It was a common secret here [that many people claimed to be blind on the island, to qualify for a special government compensatory grant of $477 monthly], but this is not the only place in Greece where this kind of thing goes on. This is a beautiful island where some people tried to earn money too easily. Just look at the voters lists. Of 200 names on the list 20 of them are dead and some of them died a long time ago", Anastasia Pomoni added.

Retired Greeks receive quite munificent pensions valued at 96 percent of their earnings pre-retirement. Government workers comprise 20 percent of the total workforce and they are given retirement bonuses of up to 100,000 euros. There are over 600 worker categories permitted to retire at age 50 for women and 55 for men; people for example who work as steam bath attendants, wind instrument musicians and television presenters.

The honour system in effect in Greece for its public transit loses 410 million euros annually, with the national railway recording losses of 600 million euros a year. Dry since 1930, the institute for the Protection of Kopais Lake nonetheless has over 1,700 workers on its books. For every official car, the EU discovered there were 50 drivers in Greece; 45 gardeners worked in a small plot at one local hospital. Sounds like a workers' Eden.

Well, why after all, blame the ordinary Greek for cushioning their feather-nest. The Greek government admitted to the EU in 2004 that it had intentionally cooked its books to underestimate their deficit to make certain the country would present as eligible to join the eurozone. So when for years about 40,000 unmarried daughters of deceased public service workers were given 550 million euros per year, that generosity simply reflected the country's estimable values. 

Camouflage-print tarps were seen as a solution to tax assessors discovering the number of pools to be roughly 20,000 when homeworkers in a posh Athens neighbourhood were required to pay a luxury tax for their pools. After using Google Earth to scan backyards to determine whether the 300 that did report they owned swimming pools represented the correct number, the tarp-brilliant scheme was cooked. 

Tourism Gone Awry

"My brother told them, 'Sorry, you're on my bike, and I want to go home."
"They said, 'OK'. But when my brother went to his bike and leaned in, they attacked him from behind."
"After the first hit, he fell on the ground. Then they started kicking him in the head. All the witnesses saw it, but they are afraid for their lives."
Unnamed sister of Hells Angels victim, Greece

Greek man allegedly attacked by 3 Canadian Hells Angels

On June 27, a Greek man was removed from life support and died, a victim of a vicious beating by three members of the Hells Angels who had travelled from Alberta, Canada, to Greece to take part in an annual international motorcycle meet. Originally, after the event of the beating, the three Canadians were charged with attempted murder reflecting the severe beating imposed in Corfu on the Greek man, on June 7. But the man, taken to hospital in hopes he might recover, never did.

And the charges against Dustin Swanson of the Edmonton-based Westridge chapter has been changed to intentional homicide. With another Westridge member, Nick Dragich and Brent Koziak of the Red Deer, Alberta Nomads Hells Angels chapter charged with "collaboration" homicide for their part in assisting Swanson in the beating.

Top left is Hells Angel Nick Dragich, now charged in Greece. He was photographed with then Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in 2013 at a football game

The sister of the dead man fears retaliation, and asked for anonymity. She spoke of her brother having been to a friend's restaurant to "grab a bite". He had gone to the village where his recently widowed mother lives, to visit with her. When he emerged from the restaurant one of the charged bikers was seated on his motorcycle. Beside him stood his companions, the other two Hells Angels motorcyclists.

The bereaved and grieving family has been doubly devastated. First the death of the father, and now they are coping with the loss of the woman's 41-year-old brother, the only remaining male member of the family.

After the three Alberta bikers had finished demonstrating to a Greek man how much they admired his country and their appreciation for the opportunity to visit, they left him for dead. They were arrested shortly afterward, covered with his blood.

A Chaos, A Panic

"Everyone there was trampling on each other to get onto the helicopter."
"First children, then women and then men. But the men, they started hitting us so they could get on first. They didn't take into consideration the women or the children, nothing."
"[The rescue scene was] a chaos, a panic [with passengers feet burning from the fire underneath] And from the feet up we were soaked."
Christos Perlis, Greek truck driver

"The jungle law prevailed."
"There was no queue or order. No respect was shown for children."
Irene Varsioti, Greek passenger from the Italian ferry Norman Atlantic

"As an old seaman, I offer my deferential salute to the ship captain for having done his job with great dignity and competence."
"He was last off, as a captain should be."
Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi

"There was no alarm -- this was the absolute tragedy. They didn't knock. They didn't advise us. We woke from smoke that entered in the room."
Dimitra Theodossiou, Greek soprano, ferry passenger

"We were soaked from the water they doused to extinguish the fire. Our feet froze. People were forced to move closer to the fire to keep warm. We waited outside for hours."
Aylin Akamac, Turkish ferry passenger

The Greek Coast Guard released dramatic footage of a burning car ferry, the Norman Atlantic, during a 36-hour rescue operation.

It wasn't quite the wretched catastrophe of the wreck of the Costa Concordia in 2012 when Captain Francesco Schettino abandoned both his ship and the passengers aboard it as it sank, leading to the death of 32 people, but the way in which this event unfurled shone no light of heroic action on those whose responsibility as captain and crew were the almost 500 passengers aboard the ferry Norman Atlantic.

Did the required drills for fire and evacuation never take place to ensure that the ship authority would have both under control in the unlikely event that a fire did happen and such a large contingent of people needed emergency evacuation? Order and calm above all, and the assurance that those held to be in control of the ship would have been of immense value to the desperate and fearful passengers, living a nightmare between Arctic chill and the fires of hell.

It was, in the event, the Italian military that appears to have distinguished itself for a difficult rescue mission in dreadful environmental conditions. They succeeded against high winds and surging seas, asphyxiating smoke from the fire, and the dark Adriatic night to airlift over four hundred people off the ferry decks while the fire blazed on. Their timely response saved many from death, including two dogs in an expression of wider humanity.

Some of the passengers, lifted into helicopter baskets were suffering from hypothermia, from carbon monoxide poisoning, exhaustion and trauma. The ferry captain, Argilio Glacomazzi did his duty in remaining with the ship until all but the 9 crew left to guide the ferry back to shore were evacuated. Which is very nice, but back again to preparedness to act swiftly, efficiently and calmly to guide passengers in such an event; it was absent, and was that not one of his responsibilities?

There were 427 people rescued, but the passenger manifest was incomplete. So much so that it is estimated after the fact that though 13 people are now acknowledged to have lost their lives in the event of the fire and the circumstances that followed, up to 40 are yet unaccounted for. he roster of the dead may yet be larger than that of the Costa Concordia. Not to mention the 80 rescued whose names did not appear on the manifest.

Had he done his duty, the captain would have in retrospect something to be proud of. The pushing and shoving, the passengers desperately and furiously thrusting at one another over slots on lifeboats and helicopter baskets needn't have occurred. The Italian and Greek helicopter rescue crews did their jobs well, to their credit in the evacuation of the survivors. Some 427 rescued, but a ship's manifest of 478; quite the disparity.

Some of those not registered on the manifest held to be migrants fleeing war in Afghanistan and Libya and elsewhere in the dysfunctional Middle East. The mostly Italian crew seemed incapable of rising to the occasion. Had bribes been taken for the covert placement of desperate migrants looking for haven in Europe? No practical aid was given the passengers by the crew; passengers were alerted to the situation by other passengers waking them from sleep, banging on their doors.

"When we got out on deck the flames were huge and all the cars were on fire", said Nick Channing-Williams, describing the scene that confronted him. Passengers eventually received an order to obtain life vests and come to the upper decks. "The fire was basically cooking everybody's feet ... People just panicked. When the flames are licking up the side of the boat and there's no sign of help ... you do feel somewhat helpless", said Mr. Channing-Williams in classic British understatement.

More will be learned eventually, as an investigation into the cause of the fire delves a little deeper into the suspicion that it was deliberately set....

Smoke billows from the Norman Atlantic in the Adriatic Sea on Sunday, December 28, In this image released by the Italian Navy.

Why is Greece the most anti-Semitic country in Europe?

By Gavin Rabinowitz  May 20, 2014 JTA, The Global Jewish News Source

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of Greece speaking at a synagogue in Thessaloniki, the first visit by a sitting prime minister to a Greek shul in more than a century, March 2013. (Gavin Rabinowitz)

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — When the Anti-Defamation League published its global anti-Semitism survey last week, Greece, the cradle of democracy, captured the ignominious title of most anti-Semitic country in Europe.


With 69 percent of Greeks espousing anti-Semitic views, according to the survey, Greece was on par with Saudi Arabia, more anti-Semitic than Iran (56 percent) and nearly twice as anti-Semitic as Europe’s second-most anti-Semitic country, France (37 percent).

On its surface, the poll suggests that anti-Semitism is running rampant in Greece. Much of the blame goes to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which has found fertile ground for its extreme-right ideology in the ruins of Greece’s economic crisis. In elections held Sunday for Athens mayor, for example, 16 percent of the vote went to Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, a man notorious for beating a female political opponent during a television interview and for the large swastika tattooed on his shoulder.

But both the ADL and Greece’s small Jewish community caution that the reality is more nuanced than the poll numbers suggest.

“There is a danger of sensationalizing it, a danger of overplaying the psychological impact of the poll,” Michael Salberg, ADL’s director of international affairs, told JTA. “There needs to be real hard internal look at the data and examining what are the forces at play.”

For their part, Greek Jewish leaders took pains to point out that despite widespread bigotry, Greece hasn’t seen the sort of anti-Jewish violence that has cropped up in some other European countries, such as France.

“Despite the poll showing high levels of anti-Semitism, it must be noted that in Greece over the last four years we have not had any anti-Semitic violence against people or Jewish institutions,” said Victor Eliezer, the secretary general of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece.

“This is not a poll about violence, but rather a survey on stereotypes, and yes, there are a lot of stereotypes among the Greek public,” he said.

The poll gauged anti-Semitism based on whether respondents agreed with a majority of 11 statements on Jewish power, loyalty, money and behavior that the ADL says suggest bias. They include such statements as Jews talk too much about what happened to them during the Holocaust; Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the countries they live in; Jews think they are better than other people; Jews have too much power in the business world; and Jews have too much control over global affairs.
Critics have suggested that the survey is deeply flawed because the statements are not fair indicators of real anti-Jewish bias.

RELATED: ADL survey: More than a quarter of the world is anti-Semitic
Of the 579 Greeks polled, 85 percent said Jews had too much power in the business world, 82 percent said Jews have too much power in the financial markets and 74 percent said Jews have too much influence over global affairs. The margin of error for Greece was plus or minus 4.4 percent.

In Greece, anti-Semitic viewpoints are aired frequently, particularly the notions that Jews control the global economy and politics. In 2012, when the Golden Dawn’s Kasidiaris read in Parliament from the anti-Semitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the reading drew no condemnation from the other lawmakers present.

Nor was there public condemnation when Golden Dawn slammed the recent visit by the American Jewish Committee’s executive director, David Harris, as a trip to ensure further “Jewish influence over Greek political issues” and safeguard the interests of “international loan sharks.”
Golden Dawn hasn’t been alone in expressing such sentiments.

Earlier this year, the left-wing Syriza party’s candidate for regional governor accused Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of heading a Jewish conspiracy to visit “a new Hanukkah against the Greeks.” Syriza reluctantly dropped the candidate, Theodoros Karypidis.

At the heart of Karypidis’ theory was a move last year by Samaras to shut the allegedly corrupt Hellenic Broadcasting Authority and replace it with New Hellenic Radio and Television, known by its Greek acronym NERIT. According to Karypidis, NERIT is derived from the Hebrew word for candle, “ner,” which he links to Hanukkah.

Even the mainstream political parties have long histories of using anti-Semitic tropes.
“Greeks are fond of conspiracy theories, as they are steeped in conspiracy on a personal level,” Euthymios Tsiliopoulos, a journalist and political commentator, wrote on the popular current affairs website The Times of Change in the wake of the Karypidis scandal.

“As so many things are conducted through under-the-table, backroom deals, most naturally assume that the whole world is run in this manner,” he wrote. “As such, there is willingness to believe that the hardships the country and its inhabitants have undergone throughout the centuries is due to the machinations of foreigners. After all, it’s easier to believe this than to fix the perennial ills plaguing Greek society.”
Still, there are some signs of improvement.

Samaras and his government have moved to condemn anti-Semitic expressions and launched a crackdown on Golden Dawn, jailing many of its leaders. The government also has acted against Holocaust denial and runs school education programs together with the Jewish community.

“From the results of the poll, what is clear is that these stereotypes are very prevalent in Greek society,” Eliezer said. “How do you combat these stereotypes? Only through education.”

The ADL’s Salberg hopes the results of the poll will motivate others to act, too.
“Perhaps,” he said, “these very sobering numbers will raise questions within civil society among religious and civic leaders who don’t hold those views.”

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/05/20/news-opinion/world/why-is-greece-the-most-anti-semitic-country-in-europe-2#ixzz32TUlKz4h

Turkey ordered to pay 90m euros over Cyprus invasion

BBC News online -- 12 May 2014

The Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 led to the island's partition

Turkey must pay 90m euros (£73m; $123m) in damages over its 1974 invasion of Cyprus, according to a decision by the European Court of Human Rights.

The judgement is one of the largest ever ordered by the court.

It said the damages were compensation for losses endured during the invasion and in the subsequent partition.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north in response to a military coup on the island which was backed by the government of Greece.

Since then, the northern third has been mainly inhabited by Turkish Cypriots and the southern two-thirds by Greek Cypriots.

In Monday's ruling, the European Court of Human Rights found that Turkey was still liable for damages, despite the passage of time.

The court ruled that Turkey should pay 30m euros for the suffering endured by relatives of people who had gone missing during the invasion.

It ordered Turkey to pay a further 60m euros for the suffering of Greek Cypriots who live in the Karpas peninsula - an enclave within northern Cyprus.

Turkey has not always complied with previous rulings by the body, Europe's top court of human rights.

Turkey still has around 30,000 troops stationed on the island, and it is the only country that recognises northern Cyprus as a separate entity.

UN peacekeeping forces estimate that 165,000 Greek Cypriots fled or were expelled from the north, and 45,000 Turkish Cypriots from the south, although the parties to the conflict say the figures are higher.

Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders are engaged in a new round of talks aimed at reconciling differences and reuniting the island