Greece

[Stewart Meadows]

Police smash ring smuggling migrants from Turkey to Italy in yachts


Reuters
January 21, 2022



ATHENS, Jan 21 (Reuters) - European police have dismantled a criminal network that made hundreds of millions of euros smuggling migrants from Turkey to Italy mainly on yachts, Greek police said.

Greece and Italy have been on the frontline of Europe's migration crisis since it began in 2015. While most migrants and refugees typically cross from Turkey to nearby Greek islands, a growing number of people have reached Italy from Turkey by sea since 2020, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Twenty-nine people were arrested in raids in Albania, Greece and Italy on Jan. 19, Greek police said late on Thursday. It said the network was active in all three countries, as well as a Turkey, since early 2020.

Europol, the European police organization which backed the operation, said at least 1,100 migrants have been smuggled by the network of about 80 people which is thought to have made "hundreds of millions of euros".

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ts-2022-01-21/

[Stewart Meadows]

Greek PM survives censure motion tabled over snowstorm


By Karolina Tagaris
January 30, 2022

ATHENS, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday won a confidence vote called by the main opposition over his government's handling of a snowstorm last week that stranded thousands of people on a motorway and drew public outrage.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...rm-2022-01-30/

[Stewart Meadows]

FEBRUARY 14, 2022 10:57 AM UPDATED 13 HOURS AGO

Greece says two expatriates killed in eastern Ukraine, urges all Greeks to leave 'immediately'


By Reuters Staff

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s foreign ministry said on Monday two Greek expatriates were killed and another two seriously injured in an incident involving Ukrainian soldiers in the country’s east near the front line of the conflict with pro-Russian separatist forces.

Earlier, Greece issued an advisory urging its nationals to avoid travelling to Ukraine and calling on any Greeks there to leave “immediately” in the face of fears that Russia, which has massed forces near Ukraine’s borders, could soon invade.

Moscow has denied any invasion plans and has accused the West of hysteria, but made clear that it sees Ukraine’s quest for closer ties with the West, notably over NATO, as a threat and has demanded a series of security concessions.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN2KJ0RB

[Stewart Meadows]

Greece Launches Official Protest to Turkey Over Aegean Islands Provocation


By Tasos Kokkinidis
February 17, 2022



Greece issued on Thursday a diplomatic protest, or demarche, to Turkey over the continued provocations of Turkish officials, including President Erdogan, who have even been questioning the sovereignty of the Aegean islands.

The protest was handed over by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Turkish Ambassador in Athens.

Greece underlined its strong displeasure following the recent statements of Turkish officials who questioned Greek sovereignty over its Aegean islands.

https://greekreporter.com/2022/02/17...s-provocation/

[Stewart Meadows]

Greece is to send Ukraine ‘defense equipment’ and humanitarian aid: PM


Published: 27 February, 2022: 02:23 PM GST
Updated: 27 February, 2022: 02:34 PM GST

Greece is to send Ukraine “defense equipment” and humanitarian aid, the prime minister’s office said Sunday, after Athens accused Russia of killing 10 ethnic Greeks during its invasion of Ukraine.

Two military transport planes were to depart for Poland on Sunday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ office said in a statement, without adding further details about what equipment they would be carrying.

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/w...itarian-aid-PM

[Stewart Meadows]

.
Greece, like so many other countries, is on the wrong side of history.

Greece Backs Sanctions Against Russia, Sides with Ukraine, Says PM


By Tasos Kokkinidis
March 1, 2022



Greece, the birthplace of democracy, backs EU sanctions against Russia after its unlawful invasion of Ukraine and stands ready to host Ukraine refugees, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Parliament on Tuesday.

“Greece was always on the right side of history and we are doing the same today. For Greece there are no dilemmas, we are on the side of Ukraine, freedom and democracy,” he said.

The Russian president, “through the use of force, is questioning the territorial integrity of a country with which Russia has close ties, causing deaths – including those of Greeks in Mariupol – and forcing hundreds of thousands of citizens into migration,” he added.

https://greekreporter.com/2022/03/01...-with-ukraine/

[Stewart Meadows]

In Greece, Russia Sympathies Die Hard Despite Ukraine War


March 12, 2022 0:20 AM
Agence France-Presse



ATHENS, GREECE — When Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took the floor in a parliament debate on Ukraine this month, there was no doubt which side his government was taking in the conflict.

"There can be no equal distances. You are either with peace and international law, or against them," he told lawmakers, after announcing a shipment of medicine and lethal aid to Ukraine.

"We were always on the right side of history, and we are doing the same now," the PM said.

But for many Greeks, after centuries of existential, religious and cultural ties with Russia, the choice is not as evident.

"Greek public opinion has a Russophile dimension, friendly feelings linked to history, a common culture based on Orthodoxy and for some, mistrust towards the West," notes Nikos Marantzidis, professor of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia.

A post-invasion poll in February showed 20% of Greeks are "closer" to Russia while 45% support Ukraine.

Just 8% said they would boycott Russian products, and 2% said they would avoid contact with Russians.

About 75% of respondents condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's stance, but more than 60% were also critical of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Kappa Research poll showed.
(...)
Marantzidis also notes residual anti-Western feelings in Greece over a near-decade of austerity cuts imposed by Germany and other EU states in return for debt rescue bailouts.

And memories of NATO's bombing of fellow Orthodox Serbians in 1999 during the Kosovo war are still raw, he adds.

Russians are also a prized demographic for Greece's tourism industry, with hundreds of thousands visiting annually.

Just a year ago, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was among the guests of honor in Athens’ celebrations of the bicentenary of the Greek 1821 revolution.

Twelve months later, relations with Moscow are frosty and thousands of Greeks have joined anti-war protests alongside Ukrainians living in Greece.

https://www.voanews.com/a/in-greece-...-/6481936.html

[Stewart Meadows]

Greek PM tells Zelenskiy EU sanctions will help pressure Russia


Reuters
March 14, 2022

ATHENS, March 14 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday the full implementation of sanctions by European Union countries would help put pressure on Russia to stop attacks.

The two leaders discussed the impact of Russia's invasion by phone, the Greek premier's office said.

"The (Greek) prime minister stressed ... that the full implementation of sanctions by all member states and allies will help increase pressure on Russia to stop the attacks," Mitsotakis' office said.

Mitsotakis assured Zelenskiy that the Greek government fully supports Ukraine. Greece was sending aid and was ready to host refugees.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ia-2022-03-14/

[Stewart Meadows]

U.S., French Naval Forces in Massive Show of Force Off Greece


By Tasos Kokkinidis
March 17, 2022



US and French naval forces, led by two aircraft carriers, are conducting drills in the Aegean Sea off Greece in the midst of the military conflict in Ukraine.

The presence of the aircraft carriers off Greece is intended to monitor Russian naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean and conduct reconnaissance missions on behalf of NATO allies in the Balkans.

The USS Harry Truman has been conducting exercises in the northern Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea since the beginning of March and is expected to dock at Souda Bay in Crete by March 25, while the French ship Charles de Gaulle is currently south of Crete and is expected to moor at the port of Piraeus, south of Athens.

https://greekreporter.com/2022/03/17...f-greece-nato/

[Stewart Meadows]

Greek farmers on tractors protest 'unbearable' fuel, fertilizer costs


Reuters
March 18, 2022

ATHENS, March 18 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Greek farmers, some on tractors, protested in Athens on Friday, demanding more tax cuts and subsidies to combat high fuel and fertilizer prices which have soared since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The farmers, who staged weeks of protests over high energy prices earlier this year, say their costs are so high they will be forced to produce less and also raise prices for consumers.

The government has so far spent about 3.7 billion euros ($4.08 billion) since September to alleviate pain from soaring energy and fuel costs for farmers, households and businesses.
(...)
Farmers from across Greece joined the rally. Some protesters hung black flags on shepherd's crooks or sticks.

"The situation has become unbearable," said another farmer, Diamanto Kritikou.

"We can't work our fields, we can't cultivate, we can't put gas in our vehicles, and (we can't buy) seeds, fertilizers... there will be a problem with food supply in the country," she said.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ts-2022-03-18/

[Stewart Meadows]

Greek foreign minister wants to lead humanitarian aid mission to Mariupol


Reuters
March 22, 2022

ATHENS, March 22 (Reuters) - Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday that he wants to lead a humanitarian mission into the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukraine where thousands of ethnic Greeks live.

Ukraine appealed to Russia on Tuesday to allow humanitarian supplies into Mariupol and to let civilians out of the city, which President Volodymr Zelenskiy said had been devastated by Russian bombardments.

Russia denies targeting civilians and blames Ukraine for the repeated failure to establish safe passage for civilians out of Mariupol. Ukraine defied an ultimatum for the city to surrender by dawn on Monday as a condition for Russian forces to let civilians leave safely.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ol-2022-03-22/

[Stewart Meadows]

Ukraine war speeds Greece’s transition to EU energy gateway


As Europe attempts to abandon Russian energy supplies, Greece is becoming a gateway for LNG because it is surrounded by sea.



Greece is set to finish building a pipeline to Bulgaria that will end Russia's gas monopoly there and in southeast Europe [Nikolay Doychinov/AFP]

By John Psaropoulos
10 May 2022

Athens, Greece – In about a month, Greece will finish building a pipeline to Bulgaria that will end Russia’s gas monopoly there and in southeast Europe.

Russia has supplied 90 percent of Bulgaria’s gas until now, but on April 27, it cut Bulgaria off after Sofia said it would not renew its contract with Russian gas giant Gazprom at the end of the year.

Poland said the same, and suffered the same fate.

“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin didn’t want it to seem as though he’d lost clients, so he threw them out early,” said Mike Myrianthis, an oil industry veteran and analyst.

Bulgaria is now looking to the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, as the new pipeline is called, to supply it with gas from Azerbaijan, which Greece receives via the Trans-Anatolian pipeline that traverses the Caucasus and Turkey.

“Since a few days ago, Bulgaria is already out of the [Russian] pipeline system and fully dependent on Greece [for gas]. That has never happened before. Greece has never been responsible for securing another country’s energy security,” said Michalis Mathioulakis, who heads the Greek Energy Forum, a think-tank.

What gives the IGB strategic importance, however, is that it could soon become the means for supplanting Russian gas throughout the Balkans with liquefied natural gas from the US, Qatar, Egypt and elsewhere.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2...energy-gateway

[Stewart Meadows]

July 6, 2022 7:53 PM GMT+2 Last Updated 13 hours ago

Greece to allow pension increases from 2023, first since debt crisis- PM


Reuters

ATHENS, July 6 (Reuters) - Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised pension increases for the first time in more than a decade next year, saying Greece had definitively turned a page from the financial chaos which required three international bailouts.

During its decade-long financial crisis that broke out in 2009, Greece was forced by its international lenders to slash pensions more than 10 times to reduce state spending and meet its fiscal targets.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...pm-2022-07-06/

[alex revision]

Greek Jews petition for Holocaust monument in Thessaloniki

15/07/2022

Calls from the Greek Jewish Community have been made to make Thessaloniki Liberty Square a place of remembrance in honour of “Black Saturday” in 1942, where Jewish men were deported for forced labour in the German Army.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities pleaded their case by reflecting on the humiliation and abuse of 2000 men that occurred in Liberty Square on July 11 of that year.

“Eleftherias Square marks the place where the Nazis began to strip the humanity of people born Jewish,” the Board said.

“It is the beginning of the ‘ultimate evil’ that led to the Holocaust of 6,000,000 Jews, including 60,000 Greek Jews, many of whom defended their homeland and fought against the Italian and German occupiers and breathed their last breath in the concentration camps with Greece deeply rooted in their souls.”

The Board went on to appeal to the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Konstantinos Zervas, in the hopes that the square will get the recognition as a historical character and a place of remembrance for the thousands of Jews who were tortured by Nazis.

“It is the responsibility of all of us to make Liberty Square a place of remembrance again,” said the Board.

“The citizens and visitors of the city see the place of martyrdom, remember and learn how easily a society can be led down the path of barbarism if oblivion prevails.”

https://greekherald.com.au/news/gree...-thessaloniki/

Some Testimonies from Thessaloniki

by Panagiotis Heliotis

Published: 2017-12-08

Abstract

Oral Testimonies of the Jews from Thessaloniki about the Holocaust. What’s this you ask? This is the book we are going to focus on this time. As survivor testimonies are very important for the official storyline, it’s clear that the more of them we examine, the closer we get to the truth. Testimonies are also a big hurdle for many people to even consider taking a look at Holocaust revisionism, as they tend to think that so many survivors cannot possibly be lying. They can’t be blamed for that, and indeed, most of the survivors are certainly not lying. The problem is that very few people have actually read a single testimony, and those that have done so, did not do it carefully. So, let’s get down to it.

https://codoh.com/library/document/s...essaloniki/en/

Some More Testimonies from Greece

by Panagiotis Heliotis

Published: 2017-12-13

Abstract

Continuing from the previous article, we will examine some more Greek testimonies, this time from the book The Holocaust in the Testimonies of the Greek Jews (To olokautoma stis martyries ton ellinon evraion). This book contains excerpts from published testimonies as well as oral ones. We will examine the most important concerning the extermination claims.

https://codoh.com/library/document/s...rom-greece/en/

Memories of a Thessalonian Jewess

by Panagiotis Heliotis

Published: 2018-01-30

Erika Kounio was the editor of the book Oral Testimonies of the Jews from Thessaloniki about the Holocaust examined in an earlier article. As she was also a Holocaust survivor, we will now have a look at her own memoir, 50 Years Later: Memories of a Thessalonian Jewess.

https://codoh.com/library/document/m...ian-jewess/en/

[Stewart Meadows]

July 18, 2022 4:52 PM GMT+2

Greece protests to Serbia, Ukraine over cargo plane crash, sources say


Reuters

ATHENS, July 18 (Reuters) - Greece has protested to Serbia and Ukraine for not being timely informed about the munitions cargo on board a Ukrainian aircraft which crashed near the northern city of Kavala on Saturday night, Greek diplomatic sources said on Monday.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ay-2022-07-18/

[Stewart Meadows]

July 25, 2022 3:43 PM GMT+2 Last Updated 10 hours ago

Turkey says Greece pushed migrant boat back into Turkish waters


Reuters

ISTANBUL, July 25 (Reuters) - Turkey on Monday accused Greece of pushing a boat carrying migrants out of Greek territorial waters and back into Turkish ones.

The defence ministry in Ankara said the incident occurred on Sunday near Rhodes, and posted drone footage on social media that it said showed the coast guard pulling the boat into Turkish waters near the southwestern resort of Marmaris.

The Greek coast guard had no immediate comment.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle...rs-2022-07-25/

[James Radov]

Talking with my Greek friend last month.

He tells me this story since we both support/assoc. with Golden Dawn.

they had relatives from the the U.S visiting.. so going to pick them up at hotel, and sitting having coffee, early in the day still theres 3 fat Kwans there as well, whiteskins, middle aged..
one loser guy , 2 wymens..
they hear the fat old man say about Athens "there's No diversity here".

That pile of shit goes to GREECE and complains there are TOO MANY GREEKS..

kwans actually use and believe that jewspunk tehy have been swallowing their entire useless, short lived history.

I would so happily have killed all 3 of them on the spot!
maybe they ran into some dudes from Golden Dawn and starterd promoting nigger need..
but such an example of just how fucking horrible kwans are..

the kwa deserves MUCH more nigger everything until the last yt-shitbag is gone.

[Stewart Meadows]

September 10, 2022 10:07 PM GMT+2

Greek PM says pensions to rise for first time in more than a decade


By Angeliki Koutantou and Renee Maltezou

ATHENS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday the minimum wage would rise again next year and pensions would increase for the first time since the financial crisis erupted more than a decade ago.

The euro zone's most indebted country received more than 260 billion euros of international loans between 2010 and 2015 in return for tough austerity, which included a series of pension and wage cuts.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ce-2022-09-10/

[alex revision]

Greece: Anti-racism commission praises Greece’s national action plans, but concerns remain

22.09.2022

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has welcomed Greece’s anti-racism action plan, developments in LGBTI equality, changes to the migration code to help third party nationals and moves by national broadcasters to stop hate speech.

But concerns remain, say ECRI in their latest country report. These include limits to the Greek ombudsmen’s ability to represent victims in court, continued discrimination to LGBTI pupils in schools, the frequent use of hate speech in public life and restrictions to how NGOs can assist migrants. It also points to serious misgivings about low housing standards and forced evictions of Roma and allegations of racist and LGBTI-phobic police abuse.

https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/...oncerns-remain

[alex revision]

Albanian History Professor: "The 12 Gods of Olympus were Albanian"

Sep 29, 2022

An Albanian who introduces himself as a... historian, known for his anti-Hellenic sentiments and for his cooperation with the Albanian police in the persecution of Greeks in Northern Epirus, who are living in their ancestral homes, published in English the book Arvanites: The Founders of Modern Greece (Myths of the Greek Histiography).

This is Arben Llalla, who lives permanently in Tetovo in North Macedonia and belongs to the category of Albanian historians who could very well make a career out of writing science fiction.

This book only had 500 copies published in the English language and was financed by the North Macedonia Ministry of Culture, the country which essentially has a doctorate in the falsification of history.

The book shows in a propagandistic mood that the establishment of the Greek state was possible thanks to the Arvanites, which he defines as Albanian. The author's nationalist position goes to the extremes and enables the reader to question much of what is written as arbitrariness.

Specifically, he notes that all the Twelve Gods of Olympus were... Albanians, trying to show that the roots of the Albanians were from the prehistoric times in Greece.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/09/2...ory-professor/