Thursday , February 6 2025
Home / News / Politics / Turkey-GR / Greek Easter: They burned dummies of Erdogan instead of Judas (pictures)

Greek Easter: They burned dummies of Erdogan instead of Judas (pictures)

Every year, just minutes after Jesus Resurrection on Saturday, the local custom in several villages on the island of Crete is to burn the dummy of Judas Iscariot for having betrayed Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins. However, this year, in several villages mostly of Western Crete, decided to put the dummy of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on fire instead the one of Judas.

A dummy of Erdogan was also set on fire on the remote island of Fournoi, on Easter Sunday. Also dummies of Greek politicians did not escape the fire.

Some dummies had a sign with Erdogan’s name on it, some just his picture and some had both. A dummy resembled the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Dummy in Agia Roumeli

In Sternes, Akrotiri, in Vryses, Apokpronas, in Agia  Roumeli, Sfakia, in Kavousi of Lasithi and in some other areas, Erdogan was the person in… honor of this Easter.

In Sternes, Erdogan’s dummy left the church bell house with a wire and landed on the fire.

Reason to replace Judas’s dummy  with Erdogan’s  is reportedly his provocative statements against Hellenism and Greece, the Turkish threats against Greece as well as the arrest of the two Greek soldiers.

This year’s trend in Crete set the Greek Foreign Ministry on “fire” already before Erdogan’s dummies were burned. Concerned about the diplomatic impact of the custom, “some in Athens rushed to ask for clarification” on the original Cretan custom, local media report.

Locals explained that they have also burned the dummy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, especially in the first years of the bailout agreements.

In Loutro, Sfakia, they burned Erdogan’s dummy that had a sign reading “Erdogan – The Aegean is ours.” The pictures were submitted to  enikos.gr by a website reader.

In Kalamitsi Amygdalou in Apokoronas, together with the Turkish president’s dummy they also burned a Turkish flag.

However, Cretans did not send just the Turkish president to the fire.

In Galatas, Nea Kydonia, they also burned a dummy of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in order to express their solidarity with the two Greek soldiers still in Turkish custody.

On some island far away from Crete, local set on fire politicians from both countries.

On Easter Sunday, outside the church of Agios Nikolaos,  the residents of the remote island of Fournoi set on fire not only Erdogan’s dummy but also the one of former Syriza Labor Minister Giorgos Katrougalos also known as “Scissorhands” for the dramatic pensions cuts.

So far, there has been no reaction by Ankara.

The official Turkey will most probably demand the arrest of all those who burned Erdogan’s dummy, I suppose.

Check Also

“The Lausanne Treaty refers to a Muslim Minority,” Athens tells Turkey

“The Treaty of Lausanne is clear and not open to misinterpretation. It refers to a …

2 comments

  1. To burn dummies of the hypocrite Merkel is to insult dummies worldwide. Not even the most trashy dummy would want to have her face attached to it.

  2. On a purely religious level I’m not OK with burning effigies of politicians at Easter, even if the politicians in question are universally hated. A celebration of Christ’s triumph is being turned into an opportunity for crude expressions of political hate. Not good.