The fire that devastated the Dadiá National Park and much of the Evros region of Greece, marking two weeks of activity this Friday, was caused by lightning caused by a thunderstorm. This was confirmed by the fire department, this was observed by local authorities and this was reported by local media. No one He questioned it until three far-right vigilantes, residents of the area, kidnapped 25 migrants near the Turkish border, locked them in a caravan, recorded their performance and shared it on social networks. They said they had arrested the perpetrators of the incident, which is already the most serious ever recorded in the European Union. This happened on August 22, four days after the devastating fire broke out. Now the government seems to accept this theory. “It is almost certain that the origin was human and it is absolutely certain that these flames arose on routes of illegal immigrants,” said conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis this Thursday.
At least 19 asylum seekers have died in Evros, a region in northeastern Greece on the border with Turkey and Bulgaria. Some sources put the number at 27. Mitsotakis has blamed NGOs for the presence of these foreigners in the forest, but without providing any specific information. “Those who were in Dadia should not have been there. “You received an SMS from number 112 in two languages, Greek and English, with evacuation orders for everyone,” he said from the podium, concluding that once the outbreaks are contained, the government will hire both forest guards and border officials.
The left-wing opposition played only a very minor role in the parliamentary session. The Syriza party, following the resignation of its leader Alexis Tsipras, is focusing more on the process of renewing its positions, which will culminate in an extraordinary congress this Saturday with the election of a new general secretary. The Communist Party was also not without its leader Dimitris Kutsumbas, who is recovering at home from a respiratory illness that required him to be hospitalized this week. This has reduced the debate to a dispute between the government and the three far-right parties vying to see who can deliver the harshest anti-immigration speech.
The road in Dadiá National Park is completely covered in ash and smoke this Friday, September 1st. Hibai Arbide Aza
People who hunt militias
The various factions of the Hellenic far right enthusiastically welcomed the actions of the three Evros vigilante groups and have since reactivated calls to form militias to hunt migrants at the border. It’s not a new idea: in 2020, the same groups tried their first attempt, with a tolerant stance from the government. Paris Papadakis, far-right Greek Solution Party MP for Evros province, has released an inflammatory speech in which he accused the migrants of “hindering the work of firefighters” and setting the fire.
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Papadakis and his group are not minor characters in this whole mess. The parliamentarian assured that he was present when the vigilante group launched their “hunt” for the police. That is, when they handed over the 25 illegally detained migrants.
The leader of the Greek Solution and spokesman for the national formation, Kyriakos Velopoulos, was among the first to spread the video of the kidnapping. He ensured that the recording, which was initially distributed to a group of just 240 members, gained international fame. Velopoulos, who explained that the perpetrators of the illegal detention were defending “the forests, their property and their land,” called for securing the border by all means, including by planting anti-personnel mines.
Meanwhile, the three authors of the video went to prison this Friday. The Alexandroupolis High Court has thus upheld an appeal by the public prosecutor’s office. Now the defendant has to wait in prison until the hearing because the court has ruled out bail. Thirteen Syrians, who were among the 25 people abducted by the vigilante group, were questioned by the judge on duty but released as investigators found no evidence linking them to the fire.
The conspiracy against refugees goes back a long way. It is common for the far right to blame migrants, whom they view as “enemies of Greece,” for the fires that ravage the country every summer. But these are increasing and the discourse is taking on unprecedented proportions. Until August of this year, it was limited to social networks or fringe figures on the extreme right; Now Evros has led MPs, party leaders and even the prime minister to assume a link between natural disasters and migration routes.
A man covers his face to protect himself from the smoke as he is carried to safety by firefighters along with other migrants rescued from the flames in Evros, Greece, this Friday. ALEXANDROS AVRAMIDIS (Portal)
Alberto Conejero, playwright and expert on the history of Greece, regrets that this type of “paranoia” is part of “the founding stories of the Greek nation-state,” although he clarifies that Greece is a highly polarized country where not everything is equal in the world shares ultranationalist arguments. As an example, the author cites the fires of Thessaloniki in 1917, when the second largest city in Greece – then the most populous – was destroyed. The worst part was borne by the Jewish quarters, the largest minority in the then multicultural city. This did not stop the authorities from deliberately harming the Jews themselves and thus delaying reconstruction. “They blamed the Allied troops, then said it started in the houses of some refugees. “All to hide the disastrous management,” explains Conejero. “The incident was exploited [el primer ministro Eleftherios] Venizelos in his campaign of ethnic homogenization,” concludes the playwright.
Detained migrants
The Evros fire remains out of control, but migration movements have not stopped. Despite the enormous danger of crossing a burning forest, dozens of migrants continue to use this route, according to various witnesses. This Friday, firefighters rescued a group of 25 people of Syrian, Iraqi and Lebanese nationalities who were surrounded by fire. They were found during an operation between the towns of Yanuli and Dadiá and taken to a safe place, said Yannis Artopias, spokesman for the firefighters, to the Portal agency.
The public television ERT published that the group was relocated to the municipality of Dadiá, which appeared like a ghost town this Friday. From the church, located at the highest point of the city, one could see the flames spreading across the entire horizon until they were lost in infinity. There were hardly any cars on the streets. And the only neighbors who could be seen were sitting on a terrace at the square with several firefighters. They assured EL PAÍS that those rescued were not there but at the Suflí police station. In this city, police officers would not confirm the migrants’ presence, but their belongings – backpacks full of clothes and food for the journey – still hang on the cell doors.
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