Citizens (?) wearing military uniforms have occupied the premises where the Mosque is planned to be built in Votanikos district of Athens. The group of so-called “citizens opposing the Mosque construction” reportedly consist of some twenty people who voluntarily “work there” and have established a kind of make-shift shelter for Greek homeless.
“This is a hot spot for Greeks only,” members of the group told reporters of news website NewsIt.gr
In charge of the ‘shelter’ is Yannis Ioannidis the group members refer to as “the general”. They say that they guard the premises in shifts in order to hinder “the armed” Muslims from the accommodation center Elaionas nearby to come close.
The area belonged to the Greek Navy and the neighboring buildings are been guarded by regular soldiers.
The occupiers call themselves “Movement of Greek reservists citizen-soldiers” and have occupied the area of the former naval base on July 11th 2016, just after the decision for the Mosque construction was published in the Official Gazette.
“Here, there are 16 acres of free Greece. It is a hot spot for Greeks only,” Ioannides told NewsIt.gr and spoke of “the risk of islamization of the society if the mosque will be built. He stressed that he and his team will deter even with violence if necessary the begin of mosque construction works in Votanikos.
“If they bring bulldozers to build the mosque, I will remove the driver and will use them to make a basketball court. Let them fire as much teargas as they want. They should bring also bags for the corpses afterwards. Here is the Thermopylae for us,” the man said.
The members of the group are the ones who had appealed to the Council of State asking for the Mosque construction to be cancelled. the CoS had rejected their appeal.
The General Secretary for Transparency and Human Rights, Kostis Papaioannou, expressed his deepest concern about the “Homeless shelter – Hot Spot for Greeks only”. In statement published by the Ministry of Justice, he stressed that “the activity of these groups remind of past hate activities and endangers the public order and security.”
Papaioannou has already addressed all official sectors and institutions involved asking for their intervention.
What is weird is that the occupation has been going on since the middle of July, that is more than 3 months, and that authorities needed press reports to be aware of the situation.
The premises now officially belong to the Municipality of Athens.
PS as for the rhetoric of this paramilitary group.. well… the association with certain patriotic movements is more than obvious.
PS as for the rhetoric of this paramilitary group.. well… the association with certain patriotic movements is more than obvious???
Objective journalism obviously