A 19-year-old Iraqi immigrant died in the hospital after he was stabbed with knives by five unknown assailants riding on motorcycles. The attack took place late Saturday night in the centre of Athens. The assailants had earlier targeted two other foreigners, one from Romania and one from Morocco who managed to escape.
Greek police is looking for five people riding four motorcycles. The testimonies of the Romanian and the Moroccan, who were attacked in the same area, could not give clues about the assailants.
Attacks on immigrants by assailants on motorcycles revived last week, after a Pakistani was arrested for having severely injured and sexually abused a 15-year-old girl on the island of Paros at the end of July.
Attacks against Immigrants – August 7-13/2012:
- A bloody incident occurred in Heraklion, Crete. A group of young men attacked a group of Pakistanis. Police detained a Greek on charges he had hit an illegal immigrants with an iron stick.
- A man from Bangaldesh complained to police that two people on motorcycles had hurled smoke bombs at his home yard, in Heraklion.
- Four unknown assailants attacked a group of immigrants from India waiting at a bus stop. The incident occurred in Rethymnon, Crete.
- Two Pakistanis were attacked and injured in the home they were living in Vonitsa/Preveza.
- A group of 15-20 people attacked a place of worship in Piraeus where 20 Pakistanis were praying. The attackers threw smoke bombs and attempted to harm the foreigners. The Pakistanis blamed extreme-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) for the attack, but the party dismissed such claims on its official website.
However, on the following day, GD-MP Ilias Kasidiaris told state broadcaster NET, that the Constitution allows only Greeks to participate in open gatherings and expressed his party opposition that stadiums are given to immigrants in order to pray.
According to Association of Migrant Workers, more than 500 immigrants have been injured and taken to the hospitals after been attacked with iron-bars, ironfists and knives during the last six months.
The arrest of the Pakistani assaulter from Paros on August 2nd was followed by a broad-scale police operation in the centre of Athens with the aim to remove illegal immigrants from the downtown of the Greek capital and crack down illegal immigration. Within ten days the police had detained 6,690 and arrested 1,555 illegal immigrants. They were taken to several immigrants camps and some have been already deported to their home countries.
The police operation ordered by the Ministry of Citizen Protection could be seen as an action to symbolically prevent retaliation by racists groups after the arrest of the Pakistani.
Xenios Zeus: Police squads welcome illegal immigrants (Any similarity with WWII pictures is pure coincidence)
During the last years the centre of Athens was ‘delivered’ to criminals, junkies and illegal immigrants with the effect that many Athenians – residents and shop owners – had abandoned the area unable to cope with the lack of security and increasing crime. With the peak of the economic crisis voices were getting louder and louder for a sweeping action in the city centre. Nevertheless, it was the exactly the lack of security and the high influx of immigrants that took Chrysi Avgi to the Greek parliament.
Heraklion/Crete: Immigrants protests racist attacks and speak of “pogroms” against them.
As the government considers that the sweeping action is enough to control the flow of immigrants, it blames extremists wanting to undermine the governments’ efforts to deal with illegal immigration. “It was natural, that since the government changed the agenda with the sweeping operation, that some extremists try to cancel it with invasions of hate”, a government official told daily TA NEA.
Minister of Citizen Protection Nikos Dendias announced that “the state will be ruthless to all perpetrators of criminal acts”, and ordered the police to find the assailants of the young Iraqi.
“The state will be relentless toward all those who commit crimes, regardless of their pretext,» said the minister, adding that the authorities will launch an investigation in order to bring the culprits to justice as soon as possible.
Whether the sweeping operation was on ground to prevent retaliation attacks by extremists or not, fact is that the political will to take illegal immigration under control had to have an innocent victim: a teenager girl, still in coma after more than two weeks after the attack in Paros.
Video by Greek police: Aug 9/2012 Athens Train station Stathmos Larissis – Train arriving from north-eastern borders full with illegla immigrants
embedded by Embedded Video
YouTube Direkt
The government has called the sweeping operation “Xenios Zeus” (Philoxenos/Hospites Zeus) maybe in an unprecedented mind-blowing inspiration. The ancient father of all gods, Zeus was the patron of hospitality and guests, ready to avenge any wrong done to a stranger.
Human rights groups have called on Greece to stop the Xenios Zeus operation, arguing that its stop-and-search policy is discriminatory and that it will fuel further attacks on migrants.
However Grek police is satisfied with the results of Xenios Zeus.
“Authorities said the number of migrants entering Greece via the country’s Evros border with Turkey has fallen dramatically. According to figures released by the police, 447 undocumented migrants were caught crossing into Greece illegally on August 2, before the Xenios Zeus operation began, but on Wednesday and Thursday this week that figure had fallen to 12 and 15 respectively.” (kathimerini)
On the other hand, it looks as if not all aspiring immigrants or human traffickers got notice of the decisiveness of the Greek government. Or exactly the opposite , on a second reading:
In the early morning hours of Monday, a FRONTEX marine unit located a boat carrying 58 illegal immigrants and the two Greek boat owners. The boat was located in the Ionian Sea, south of Paxoi island. Most likely the immigrants were leaving Greece for Italy.
there are 11 million people in Greece who, thorugh their silence, agree with these crimnes being committed in their name. How much longer are they going to stay silent?
case solved ….the attackers were also illegal imigrants !!
I guess from America. BTW: As your leader is in fear of Greeks being like the extinguished American Indians do you take all the Greeks back that invaded America? C’mon, let’s have a Pussy Riot in the Hagia Sophia.
Greeks didn’t “invade” America. The applied legally to immigrate rather than disrespectfully break the law by sneaking across the US border.
Actually you should read your history Dimitri. Greeks in the USA were limited to only 100 a year due to the crimes they were committing and in 1924 the 100 Greeks maximum rule was the only country with such a low quota. Google Omaha Greeks and read the story that most Greeks don’t know anything about. The early Greeks to America who built the railroads and cleaned homes in the USA were perceived just as shifty as any illegal immigrant perceived to be in Greece today. This is why sometimes I don’t understand why Greeks can be so mean to immigrants when they themselves were the immigrants in the USA and other western countries. Short memory I suppose.
At any rate, this is one of the many articles you can find on what America thought about Greek immigrants and the crimes the Greeks did in the USA during the early 1900s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Town_Riot
Like in Australia and South Africa respectful would have been not to ask the illegal US but get Visa in some reserve-ghetto. Most people “sneaking” the Mexican Border are Red Indians and it’s a crime that they are not allowed to travel the land of their forefathers. Beside that most European immigrants were invited and settled like the Anatolian Turks on Cyprus.
Interesting is also that some thousands of unlucky Greeks seem to have money to “migrate” to Australia or America while some “rich” Europeans will never get this chance.
And of course, the Greeks heading for the USA are at least as clever as the Irish. You don’t need to sneak over any borders.
You simply go on a “visitors” visa, and as soon as you’re there the “good old boys” network takes over and before you know it you have a job, a social security number, health insurance, the works. And you become “undocumented” instead of “illegal”, your local friendly Irish/Greek American congressman starts lobbying on your behalf, and bingo, before you know it you are legally living and working.
I would think there are as many “illegal” Greeks in the USA as there are Irish, and that means a lot of them…
I don’t condone violence like that but I can also understand the frustration of my fellow Greeks. It is an invasion and in the words of Michael Savage “Borders, language and culture!” If the Greeks do not stop this invasion then they will become a minority in their own land. Most of these illegal alien invaders are Muslims and history and current events show what happens when Muslim come into a area in large numbers. Example: the Coptic Christians in Egypt, The Iraq Christians, the Christian Palestinian, Also in history the Zoroastrians in the former Persian Empire. India suffered a lot from Islamic invasions and the list can go on and on. The Greek have a right to defend their borders, language and culture and throw the invaders out but with some compassion and not in a violent manner.
The Inquisition, the Crusades, the annihilation of South America by the conquistadores, I suppose they are prime examples of what good christianity brought to the world as opposed to the evils of “the Muslims”?
If you want to find fault, you always will. It is however a falacy, and a common one, to blame “the Muslims”, or “The Christians”, or “The Jews”, or come out with crap like “All priests are child molesters”.
“Borders, Language and Culture”. Great quote.
Borders, as you are probably aware off, are man made and the biggest cause of conflict and war ever, so why have them?
Language, in case it had escaped you, is a means of communicating, of enrichment, of expanding narrow minds.
Culture is an interaction of ideas, art, points of view, philosophies and traditions. Refuse the interaction, and you kill the culture you so want to keep alive. Embrace it, and your culture will thrive like never before.
All the above are irrelevant to these measures.
the crisis has made alot of already-poor people, poorer. These happen to be immigrants on the edge of desperation to a point of crime and killing the elderly and attacking small-bodied women for a penny.
When you have someone in your family slaughtered for 20 euros, then i’ll ask you to step up and stop the movement of pushing out of the country illegal immigrants.
Bullshit. When you have somebody in your family slaugthered for 20€, you go after the one how did the slaugthering, not his extended family or ethnic group. Going by your insane reasoning, it clearly follows if tomorrow a Greek commits murder for 20€, then all the Greeks are responisble and somehow need severe punishing, maybe expelling from their own the country?
The country I used to live in was hit with a famine around 1850, a famine which one way or the other reduced the population from over 10 million to less than 1 million in 5 years time.
The history of the area I used to live in relates a story of a young boy, aged 11, who went on to the landowner’s estate to snare rabbits so that he could bring home food for his starving family.
He was caught by the sherriffs and the child, his entire family and 20 “volunteers” from the village were executed to show those left behind what happens to “thieves”. That is the net result of what you are advocating. Is that really what you call “justice”? Or is it more a case of blind, insane revenge? Engage brain before opening mouth might be a good idea.
There is big difference to a citizen and an illegal alien . You cannot equal those two categories . And yes illegal immigrants are criminals since the fact they arrive ILLEGALLY and for one purpose and this is MONEY . And they will try to get it by all cost .
This means selling things in black market , sell drugs , prostitution even to enter hard criminal gangs who move around with AK-47s and murder ppl in their attempt to rob them .
Noone really knows WHO they are and what is their past in their countries of origin . So very easily can be imported murderers , thieves , rapists and in the best case just fanatics of sharia since noone really knows their past and have a recorded file . That is why Greek society faces all those barbaric acts and very high crime rates . It is called in few words imported crime .
Well said, Mike. I totally agree.
I fully support Mike too
Mike is racist! Plain and simple. This idiot is small minded and uneducated. I hope you fall in a pool of flesh eating worms along with the rest of the racists in your country.
As a Greek I don’t agree with extremists like Golden Dawn. I also support immigrant rights that apply trough legal channels.
That said, illegals violated Greek law by sneaking across borders and are thus should be treated as criminals and deported as soon as possible. Trying to disingenuously hide that fact under the guise of “racism” is racism towards Greek. Every country in the world expects its sovereignty to be respected. Manipulatively singling out Greeks is bigotry.
I want to inform you guys that at least some of those “rasistic” stories are far from truth as police reports have revealed . First the Iraqi one was murder in Athens was a drugs dealer and killed by a junky , probably in an attempt to take the drugs . Also the Pakistani in Herakleion who was beaten by the locals , he tried to steal an old woman who was shopping from an open market and after that he STABBED with a knife a guy who tried to stop him . After that locals hunted the group of Pakistanis who tried to help their copatriot escape from been captured and arrested until police arrived . Thats the truth IF anyone cares around here .
just because you say this doesn’t make it true. Where is the link to a story about this? Hearsay is hearsay Paris.
@KTG here is the youtube link about the Pakistani who stabbed the Greek man trying to escape from been arrested . The witnesses speak on camera , it isnt a “hearsay” as you claim . Because the local captured him this came out as “racist attack” from specific propagandists .
. About the Iraqi who was murdered in Athens , as i said in my first comment , just go and read the police reports , they are revealing .
Cheers
you miss a basic point in the whole discussion here: to check additional options than just to adopt propaganda without further questioning. and I am referring to both sides.
@keeptalkinggreece KTG asked me to provide a link with the story so i did it to prove my words are not just “hear-sayings ” , thought , you deleted the link from my comment …. if you believe that ppl here should check additional options than just adopt propaganda ,how can this happen if everyone here cannot equally be heard ? You have deleted one more time my comment . Thats not good for freedom of speech you know .
there was almost no sound to be heard on the video. And I am KTG 🙂
BTW: those comments were no comments but “tsyrigmata”.
So , it was YOU who asked for a link (probably thinking i couldnt find one , right ?) and when i gave it you just blocked it ! LoL , I am sure the image of the video was too blur for you too (are you having ostrich syndrome or what ) L.O.L.
My comments were (T)syriza since i realised how “unfriendly” you were , even if i was very polite and just mentioning facts . I understand how bad you must have felt after i destroyed your propaganda , well my friend as the Greeks say , drink Ksidi .
Also you deleted one link i put as an answer to Ephilant who used the same usual stile of syriza members When they have been beaten by others in an open to the public debate , SINCE they cannot answer back with logical arguments and cannot support their ideas any more , they start the use of mockery as a method of last defence … Well there is no cure for such situations , but i really enjoyed it watching you like that . Byee
I do not sign as KTG here, so you probably confuse me with a commentator using the nickname “KTG fan”.
If you consider as comment to write down 10 times “Tsyriza”, well… I advice a writing course or something like that.
We are not obliged to ‘approve’ any nonsense readers post as comment.
No Pasaran (right?) lol . This conversation is leading nowhere . I rest my case .
clever to recognize where the limits are.
Wonderful that Paris has decided to end this. I was getting bored by this too. And it was me who replied to Paris. Maybe Paris should spend more time analyzing the posts instead of preparing rhetoric for rebuttal, I’m just saying…
BTW: maybe change your nick? I also get slowly confused when commentators here refer to KTG (fan?).
How’s that KTG? Will that confuse anyone (LOL). 🙂
LOL! blog fan or block fan would go too lol
One Iraqi was killed. My condolences to his, or her family. Just one thing – how about the other million Iraqis? No tears? No media article? How about the Palestinians? No tears? No media article? How about the Greeks who died during WW2, without giving offense? No tears? No tv article? How about the 100+ tons of gold stolen from Greece by the Germans? No tears, no tv article? How about a little perspective, people. We’re Greeks. Logic and rationale rule. Oh wait, no they don’t – the rest of you are contaminated, or stupid.
George, you are comparing apples and oranges. And for starters, the one million Iraqis have been thought about. Why do you think they tore down the Sadaam Hussein Statue the first day they could, and they executed Sadaam Hussein in that country did you forget? So much violence and death caused by Sadaam against his own people, and certainly no one has forgotten it.
Now, there are plenty of articles and TV programs about the victims of WWII. Just search and you’ll find it, don’t be narrow minded about this.
Actually George has a point about constant over the top anti-Greek rhetoric and no discussion of both the persecution Greeks have also suffered to foreigners and even the current persecution.
Consider the case of FYROM. For years FYROM apologists patronizingly mocked us when we suggested not to call FYROM macedonians because they would try to usurp our identity and insinuate our country is “Greek occupied Macedonia”. FYROM’s own government used to assure them they would not do this. Today as FYROM have suddenly become direct descendents of ancient Macedonians and constantly insinuate our homeland is occupied…these same smug anti-Hellenic bigots (including some that self-righteously claim to speak for human rights) dishonestly pretend not to notice?
Demetri, the US considers FYROM “Macedonia” like most countries in the world. I think Greece should move on. If this was important I am sure the US would reconsider but since the US foreign policy is to call it Macedonia then it must be more important to do so. Since the US has ruled on this issue, as with any court, it is just silly to fight city hall. Just trying to be realistic, much more important things in life than arguing about a silly name.
KTG, looks like Guardian linked to you today. Great job!!! This story was linked in the Guardian’s article today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/04/greece-golden-dawn-not-political-party
huh! thanks 🙂
Yes, see the part where it says, “allow immigrants to be brutally beaten and stabbed in our streets every day.” Click on the part in the article that says “Brutally beaten and stabbed” and it’s an embedded link to this KTG article.
yes, I checked it, thanks a lot!