A Greek citizen was able to save three people after being the first to notice the fire that killed eight Turks in Germany on March 10, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Monday. “A Greek citizen saw the fire around 4:30 a.m. when it was first sparked and called the police and the fire department. He then stepped into the fire and saved three people, the grandmother and two children,” Bozdağ said. The man, Christos Kiroglou, is the manager of a nightclub located at the back of the building where the blaze occurred.
Christos Kiroglou, 52, tells Greek newspaper TA NEA: “I didn’t think at all about risking my life…. For me it makes no difference what nationality the people who were in danger had, those I saved or those got unfortunately got burned. I would help anyone in danger. It’s strange, so many [journalists] to be interested in something I did from my heart. Nevertheless, sometimes one does things out of an instinct.”
Seyfettin Soykan, the uncle of the children, said Kiroglou broke down the door and the mother was able to escape. However, she re-entered the room to save her 6-month-old baby and died of suffocation.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, a fire broke out in the apartment of the Turkish family in Backnang village near Stuttgart in southwestern Germany. The mother,40, and seven of her ten children found tragic death in the flames. The children were between 6 months and 16 years old.
Christos Kiroglou managed to save a 11-year-old boy, the grandmother of the family and a young uncle.
While there were initially suspicion on a possible xenophobic motivated arson attack, according to German media, police suspects rather a technical defects in the electricity cables of the apartment.
sources: Hurriyet Daily News , DIE ZEIT
Turkish newspaper “Turkiye” “Efharisto Hristo!” (Thank you, Christos!)
Good for him! But in my experience these kind of ‘normalizations’ are more common then politicians and xenophobes like us to believe. When I arrived from Turkey in Kavala and, tired and bit confused, ordered a Turkish coffee, the taverna owner laughed out loud and gave me an almighty pat on my shoulder. That was after I arrived in Turkey and ordered at café there a Greek coffee. The Turkish owner laughed out loud too and gave me an almighty pat on my shoulder… Common history? More likely that both peoples share more than just that and most know they do.