There has never happened before: that police of one country fires teargas on the soil of another country. FYROM police made extensive use of teargas and sound flares against refugees and migrants who are on Greece’s soil.
The clashes started when a big crowd of refugees moved to the fence, start it to shake it and they even opened the main gate.
FYROM’s answer was prompt with a massive firing of teargas and sound flares. And not only! Eyewitness have also in picture big rubber bullets!
Björn Kietzmann FYROM Police shoots #refugeesGr now also with big rubber bullets. #Idomeni
Several people have been injured, some have fainted, the majority suffers from respiratory problems. Many were taken to Doctors Without Borders facilities.
Fist aid to children, victims of brutality, teargas and desparationFYROM.
FYROM police reportedly fires teargassing not only at the fence area but also far way inside the camp, teargassing also peaceful refugees in the tents.
The incidents started short before 12 o’ clock on Sunday, when some 500 refugees and migrants “attempted to dismantle the border fence” and cross to FYROM. A little earlier, a refugees’ representation had talked to FYROM authorities and asked them to open the borders. Their request was turned down with the argument that borders are and will remain closed.
According to media reports, leaflets in Arabic had been circulating on Saturday, they were also posted everywhere around the Idomeni camp. The leaflets were calling on refugees and migrants to “cross the border on Sunday”, while there were also rumors that FYROM would open borders today to accept 400 people.
According to sources from Idomeni, the leaflets were handwritten in Arabic and were claiming that the borders would open at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
Children everywhere…
The incidents continue with the latest information from the border saying that Refugees and migrants reply to teargas with stones.
There is apparently no intervention by Greek police, except one helicopter in low flight over the area.
UPDATE:
Dismissing claims that “FYROM police entered Greece and fired teargas and rubber bullets”, Greek Defense Ministry said that “at no point FYROM policemen entered Greek soil.” GDM speaks of “2,000-2,500 people” who tried to raid the borders.
According to Greek Police responsible for the refugees’ and migrants’ borders raid are “activists from foreign countries.” Citing police sources, Mega TV said that “these activists are not on Greek soil but that they enter occasionally.” Greek police claims that it was close to identify them.
Pictures from Twitter #Idomeni
PS well done, Europe! Teargassing children who escaped bombs!
Irresponsible to stay with children at the border and use them frontline to try break through. Fill an asylum-request and stay or don’t.
Most of them don’t need to ask for Asylum because their relatives are already in Germoney, you only need to send your Bundesreichswehr to pick them up; some officials from German migration-authorities to inform them about their families would be a nice starter.
To call it irresponsible is funny as it destroys the argument to call taking a boat the same, it’s this kind of bullshit that asks refugees to take swimming lessons.
For panics it’s also more responsible to have small people in front of a dead-end instead of getting run over in the back.
Yes, although EU law requires that asylum-seeking relatives of residents in Europe are reunited with their families, there is no legal process to enable it. Guess what? The EU governments don’t want to obey their own laws, so just make it impossible for anyone to apply. At the same time, they complain that the refugees are breaking laws…
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One can understand just from this instance how corrupted and hypocritical European politicians are. Basically, every one of them belongs in a gaol cell.
if I’m not wrong they added a delay in family reunions in EU Turkey Deal – 2 years?
Yes, and that on top of the already great difficulty in enforcing a legal right…The obvious conclusion is that the EU doesn’t want to have any refugees: they should all stay in Greece and Turkey
The obvious conclusion is you, Greeks, want them all. So what is the problem?
“Refugees welcome, tourists go home, patriots fuck off!” written on Greek walls
No, the obvious conclusion is that countries that refuse to accept the rule of law are not part of the European Union. Bye bye, Slovakia — go and join your friends in the Soviet bloc.
Firstly, that is not up to you – Greeks – to decide who accepts (and who doesnt) the rule of law. Secondly, Slovakia fullfils its humanitarian duties, each migrant reaching our territory has the right to request asylum (and to pass the asylum procedure).We only refuse to be held accountable for greek asylum mess and for greek disrespecting of Schengen and Dublin rules. Anyway, I repeat my question: Its obvious Greece wants all the immigrants. So what is the problem if they all stay in Greece? Answer!
Cool, Slovakia opens it’s embassies and consulates, refugees storm them, life saved from drowning
I would say the embassies and consulates being opened by those countries which put the Middle East into chaos. Nothing to do with us.
I read only yesterday a European Union report stating that the asylum system in Slovakia has the worst record in the EU, failing to grant asylum for obvious cases and failing generally to protect human rights. But of course, you will continue to post your lies and crap here– regardless of the facts.
Who did create that “report”? Mr. Avramopulous, Greek commissioner for migration? Well, I am not surprised at all then 🙂
No, it was from an agency of serious research reputation. Tough shit.
Couldnt agree more. These “agencies” (especcialy those with “serious research” reputation) are really “tough shit”. Anyway, let me guess: this “agency” (with reputation 🙂 ) took data from a specific Slovak NGO which has been labeled as non-professional and not non-political in its behaviour by Slovak officials. And as such as untrustworthy. Am I right? And yeah, you could add more details about who ordered that report and who financed its creation. Pretty important thigns, you know.
It’s anti-Greek hunt as you only mention his name because it’s a Greek name and so he must be not reliable, if he would have an American passport also you would scream “Soros”
I know very well which Europe-wide agencies are independent professionals and produce reliable data. i also know that you post a lot of right wing uninformed nationalistic shit. Guess which I am going to believe.
I dont need to guess. You have just answered my question without even noticing. Thank you.
@Slovak: go back to Stalinist ways. It is obvious that you cannot fit in with European standards: even when you post right wing crap it still reads like state controlled shit.
Regarding Germany this has nothing to do with the EU-Turkey deal, it’s a new German law but it’s not for people granted Asylum, it’s for people who are not counted as refugees but who can’t get deported because their life is endangered when being deported; a law for the public as not many people are affected.
The only reasons why the families are not getting united is PR and that the authorities in Germany are still busy with their so called “million”, there’s also room enough to house new arriving refugees as German hotspots are less than 50% occupied.
Austria is responsible for this mess in the Balkans, and should be held to account for it. I am sick to death of reading these ignorant right wing comments across the media, blaming the refugees for their situation. Europeans have turned into animals — no respect for human rights and no respect for the law. And by the latter, I mean international and European law — not some illegal junk passed by tinpot regimes in Hungary or “macedonian republic of hoodlums”.
No, Merkel is responsible for the mess in the Balkans. Literally, a few days right after she said she won’t put a cap on the number of migrants/refugees the camps in Jordan and Turkey emptied. News traveled fast and there was a sharp increase in people on the move. Merkel complains about them but the Balkan countries closing their borders are saving her political arse.
No government in Germany can put a cap, it’s not in their constitution
Does it explicitly forbid putting a cap? If not, they can.
That does not exclude Merkel from responsibility. The influx of people rose after she made that statement. She also violated the Dublin Regulation with that. Asylum seekers should be processed in the first country of the EU they enter and this is Greece in this case. She burdened Greece with an influx of people (that they don’t want to process but send up north asap). In fact, Merkel burdened the whole of Europe.
From the start they should have brought all the families with children out of that camp by promising them that once asylum processing in greece begins they would be the first ones to be processed.
As for the people who are trying to incite violence by spreading the false promise that once they get through the fence they might be able to go on. Im for all kinds of free speech/against any form of censorship, but once you start to incite actual violence its a case for police and prosecution.
This is criminalization-propaganda of the black scapegoat to make the sheep believe that refugees are too stupid to organize themselves.
The same Goebbels-media report that 3 refugees drawn in the border river kuz of a leaflet in an edition of 1, although the border isn’t the river and they died one day earlier and not at the in the leaflet mentioned location.
I dont care whether its refugees or helpers, its not only illegal, its moraly disgusting to fill people with false hopes and promises in order to incite violence.
You have not any idea what you’re talking about and justify the border closure by some Naziscum who shoot rubber bullets and other chemicals in their chemical warfare into the camp 500 meters away from the border and their robo-cops; you also don’t know anything about daily provocations from Fyrom side.
Leaflets like this (if they exist) can be made by journalists, all copy-shops in Kilkis and Paliokastro area were raided by cops without any results and rumours just spread as there are Austrian-Macedonkian officially numbers of some tens or some hundreds refugees per day to enter; so if one day they don’t let any through people think may be the next day or some refugee asks an Austrian helper if the number of 37.500 is already reach and if the helper says no he’s an inciter?
They are not using the kids on the frontline. Look at the pictures. Read the article. Teargas has been fired into the camp.
Also you’re very quick to judge people as “irresponsible” to stay at the border with children, but what are their options? Is it more responsible to go back to a war zone? Some people have been trying to fill asylum requests for ages, but it is next to impossible to get in touch with the office (though i heard a couple of people managed to contact them through skype recently), some people know that their asylum request will be rejected and risk their lives if deported to Turkey or to their country of origin, some people have family somewhere else in europe and want to be reunited, etc… there are hundred of reasons why people cannot or don’t want to apply for asylum in Greece, there are hundred of reasons why people want to cross that border, and you or I, as privileged people who CAN actually cross pretty much any border without any problem, are not in a position to judge their motivations.
What you are doing is victim blaming. The ones committing the violence are the police, the ones putting peoples lives at risk are the european politicians, the ones fleeing from violence and trying to save their lives are the refugees, not the other way around.
It’s the same Austrian Nazi cops this time hidden under Fyromacedonian uniforms that let Nazis hunting Greeks through the streets of Vienna in a pogrom around a Paok-Rapid Vienna soccer-match.
Breaking fences and throwing stones is not legal. Please keep children away if you do it. If you are given a notice not to demonstrate, please read and do as you are told to do. Don’t be irresponsible idiots.
Are you incapable of understanding that these are people who have fled war and torture? Have you fled a war recently? This sort of stupid comment is what we are also hearing from brain-damaged politicians — the cause of the problem.
Actually, this has happened before in history. Last year Hungary fired teargas into Serbia when migrants/refugees tried to storm the border there. There also children got hurt but they were taken along by their dad when they charged the border. In some cases people took other people’s children. Kid you not.
it is surely is an issue with the children (apart form the fact that they teargassed up to the camp). hypothetically, they were believing “by raiding the border they would cross”… would they have left their kids behind? I blame more those who incite such actions and I cannot think of anything else that create trouble & people hurt to draw attention to the refugees at the borders.
I am open to other suggestions.
I agree going after the instigators. Who are they? They put people in harm’s way. People that want to try to cross the border will of course not leave their children behind but some people also use children (or actually in the case of Hungary, other people’s children) because it gives a good photo opportunity. I don’t know how it is with Idomeni but I objected to the coverage on the crisis where in every picture you saw a child while 75% of the people that crossed into Europe last year were young males.
40% of the refugees in Idomeni are children, lots of people in Idomeni have family members already in the north of Europe. There are no instigators, the normal reactions of the political scene media and government try to blame would be the occupation of embassies responsible for this but nothing happens. The only instigator is the rumour and rumours are totally normal in a situation like this as people are desperate, who is desperate to shoot rubber-bullets and tear-gas-canisters 500 meters far hurting toddlers? Bored coppers?
Rumours were spread via pamphlets in Arabic. That means it was organized.
The comment above ended up on the wrong place for some reason.
Actually, it ended up on the right spot. KTG, please remove this and the above comment. Not enough sleep. Sorry.
sorry, which one?
The two above your response. Sorry KTG.
can you copy it here? I only see them via AdminPage – BTW: does it matter if comment stands there?
Handwritten and strict limited edition is very organized, if you can find an original flyer get rich with it on Ebay
So violent invasion is now considered lawful and even a human right. Very intresting. So the Waffes SS were poor refugees escaping from Hitler regime.Even mr. Goebbels couldn,t make thing like this up..:D
There is no such thing like a “violent invasion”, an invasion is always violent, it’s armed migration and occupation called USA, Australia or Ukraine and Russia on Crimea that belongs to Crimean Tartars and Crimean Greeks just like USA belongs the Indians; people fleeing from war for cheap heroin or climate-chaos instigated by decadent lazy arses like car-drivers is nothing like this.
Is there a war in Greece so somebody must flee from there? And why they flee instead of building up normal country ? We here in Eastren Europe did it and we think that our build country belongs to us not to somebody else and no invasion, immigration fleeing liberating or whatever any kind. So the boders remain closed.
And US and Australia was founded by white pepole. Or could you tell us the name of US president who was in charge in year first white people arrived?
One hand you claim refugees invaders, the other call it legal to found US-AUstralia just because they are whiteys and didn’t recognized former inhabitants nations and structures or even dare to learn one of their hundreds languages?
I’m coming into “your” country and found Utopia, will you please fuck off and go into an Aryan or Slav reservation camp? There you can drill oil for your cars, oh, wait before you need to slaughter some Indios in Brasilia to get cheap steel but cars you can’t build anyway and your racist mobile is driven by African blood inside, open it, you can see it, the blood is called Coltan.
Sorry for you white people, I didn’t realize that Slavs are “sub-humans” in the eyes of the Aryans.
Apparently, you in Eastern Europe do not understand the concept of the rule of law, do not intend to obey international or EU law, and think that you can do as you like.
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If that is your mentality, you can fuck off and ask to rejoin the Soviet bloc. You are not part of the European tradition of civilisation; you do not belong in Europe.
Sorry, we are the Europe and we will bring also civilization back. We don,t go anywhere but we will take down marxist regime like we did with Soviet Union. And then we go forward until we finish off marxism everywhere. Multikulti and homo marriage will go the same way kolkhoz and Gulag and other progressive forms of coexistence went. Btw marxist order are not a law. Laws to obey are not written yet…:D
Just like the pillaged word “Europe” you not even have an own written language and call this civilization, it’s all stolen from Greek and Latin, your numbers stolen from Arabia and your god is Middle-East, your are like a black man praying to a white god, like Nazis playing Rock but Rock is African as Nazis are too stupid to invent music. Just go back into your woods and try again to get civilized and start with national toilet paper. And if you believe a 4th Reich will rise don’t forget that this time the resistance will not be so peaceful like it was in some parts of the Reich; imagine the resistance like in Greece but this time even more stronger and not a naive and authoritarian commie ideology but all out anarchist war; Gulags were originally made to fight the anarchists, learn history. Never forget Nestor Machno and the real revolution slaughtered by commies, capitalistic democrazed, fascists and monarchists who all worked together, not to forget the church, far-right (police) cooperates not only with Stalinists like Putin but also supports ISIS to bomb Europe, just like Mossad founded Hamas.
You are rabid Nazis, reared in the Stalinist period. Instead of promoting human rights, you promote hatred. Yes, Nazis do not obey laws: they think that they are above law.
Actually we are not “nazis” and this is your biggest problem. Nobody can,t win a war when he,s hands are tight with some sort of
ideological dogmas. Nationalism doesn,t have a dogmas and thatswhy this is nastyest thing for evil marxist…:D
To accept and respect that a country of 80 million is allowed to win world cup over a country that is only 40 million strong and is also broke is what? Nationalism is Ideology and dogma of idiots, just like some drunken lazy monks were not capable to copy Greek properly they made Cyrillic nonsense and created their own bullshit and now think are the boss of orthodoxy, not to mention that the nationalism in Eastern Europe is lead by pan Slavic winos.
If some of these nationalists would take their nationalism serious they would go back to Mongolia and their language sounds not European either. But wait, the pan-Slavs will kill all Mongols anyway. But this I love from nationalist the most, they kill each other, so pl let’s have a war
Since 7 years I’m a frequent reader of this blog and I appreciate the efforts and work of KTG very much. But what spoils everything is the behaviour of some commentators who abuse this place as a showcase for their overblown egos. The amount of intolerance, arrogance, hatred and offense reached a level that is hardly any longer bearable. It is absolutely ok to tell some racist crackpot to fuck off, but what sense lies in insulting whole nations or ethnic groups? Europe does really deserve to fall apart if this is the future way of thinking. It is very sad, but some people here turn every discussion into an embarrassing saloon bar debate and it is disgusting to see that even a topic like this is abused in such a way.
What shall I do? I asked them to keep it short & to the point of each post… they are “anarchists”. I think I keep reading the same stuff again & again/
I wouldn’t call them “anarchists” but little men with big egos and too much time… I can absolutely understand that you get tired of repeating the same all over again. But a side effect of such Kindergarten behaviour might be that people who look for a rational discussion feel discouraged and annoyed (and I’m not talking about the obligatory racist/rightwing trolls, I guess they will rather enjoy this…). Anyway, keep on with your good work, this blog is still an excellent information source for everyone who wants to know about the reality in Greece.
thank you! I can send them on vacation on their own cost 🙂
Brilliant idea 🙂 But please send them to a place without any internet connection…
huh? that’s difficult…
Only a ravaging lunatic would be giving the “FYROM” bad names now, taking into account the state of things in the Balkans, as it is. Of course, if you strongly prefer to share a border with just another euro-somaliland-bankrupt-state in the near future, go on and keep kicking their ankles. The Albanian insurgents and jihadi volunteers will gladly take care of the rest. Good luck.
Better invade’em and teach’em democrazy, but wait the invader is Fyrom shooting 500 meters and for 4 hours into Greece, bow to Krautland, bow to Turkey and bow to Skopje.