In front of the eyes of stunned members of the European Parliament, Greek Neo-Nazi and former den Dawn MEP Giannis Lagos teared apart a Turkish flag printed on a A4-size paper. His action triggered the anger not only of Turkey but also of Greece.
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“This soaked… blood-sk… blood-soaked flag has no place here,” Lagos stuttered the simple sentence in Greek as he ripped the Turkish flag in one move. He was infuriated about the migration situation in Greece and about Turkey sending them, he said.
“On the one hand, there is Turkey, which is doing whatever it wants to do,” Lagos said ripping the piece of paper and saying that it needs to put an end to the migrant flow.
Lagos served as MP of racist Golden Dawn from 2014 to 2019, he split from the party once elected in European Parliament.
The first reaction to Lagos’ action came by Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who called on the European Parliament to take measures and described Lagos as “a clown.”
Nobody should doubt that our flag will continue to wave proudly forever! Expecting European Parliament to take necessary measures against this clown.
— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) January 30, 2020
The Greek Foreign Ministry was also quick to issue a statement in which it condemned Lagos.
“Greece condemns in the most categorical manner any act of insulting a national symbol and in this case the national symbol of Turkey.
The unacceptable actions of the neo-Nazis are away from the Greek and European traditions and are an attempt to self-publicize the subversive Golden Dawn, which Greek society has put out of parliament,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said.
“The neo-Nazis represent only themselves,” the statement concluded.
