Στο θέατρο που λέμε «Ευρωεκλογές»

Η προεκλογική περίοδος εκτυλίσσεται σε ένα θέατρο με τους ηθοποιούς σε κωμικοτραγικούς ρόλους, να προσπαθούν να δείξουν τον ηρωισμό τους και τα ταλέντα τους, άλλοτε επιτυγχάνοντας και άλλοτε αποτυγχάνοντας, την ώρα που οι θεατές χειροκροτούν και κραυγάζουν ασυγχρόνιστα, χαμένοι κι αυτοί στην παράσταση, αυτή, του παραλόγου. Στη σκηνή βρίσκονται διάφοροι, μικροί και μεγάλοι, όπως επίσης και στα παρασκήνια.

Από τη μια, έχουμε έναν πρωθυπουργό με σπάνια χαρίσματα, μα περίσσεια αλαζονεία, να παριστάνει φιγούρες του παρελθόντος και να επιδεικνύει έναν πατερναλισμό που κάποτε μαχόταν, κοιτώντας τους πολίτες μοναχά ως ψηφοφόρους και την εκλογική μονομαχία ως μια ευκαιρία να δείξει την υπεροχή του. Από την άλλη, έχουμε έναν ηγέτη της αξιωματικής αντιπολίτευσης – που μόνο ηγέτης δεν είναι, δυστυχώς – να βρίσκεται σε πλεονεκτική θέση λόγω της μουτζούρας της Αριστεράς που παρουσιάζει η κυβέρνηση, μα να έχει χάσει τη γη κάτω από τα πόδια του στη θέα της πρωθυπουργικής καρέκλας.

Παραδίπλα, βλέπουμε μερικές καρικατούρες, άλλοτε τεράτων που θυμίζουν τις πλέον μελανές σελίδες της ανθρωπότητας, και κάποιες άλλες πιο αστείες, που φάσκουν και αντιφάσκουν ενόσω καταλαβαίνουν την έλλειψη λόγου ύπαρξης τους. Στις γωνιές της σκηνής, βλέπουμε κάθε καρυδιάς καρύδι: έξυπνους, χαζούς, καλοπροαίρετους και μη, ίσως και κάποιον με ένα όραμα που όμως δεν του βγαίνει. Αυτοί μάχονται για μια θέση στη σκηνή, για μια ευκαιρία να φανούν, να παίξουν κι αυτοί το κομμάτι τους – κάποιοι γιατί «πρέπει», άλλοι γιατί θεωρούν ότι αξίζουν και άλλοι απλά για λίγη δόξα και χρήμα.

Κι όλα αυτά, σε ένα τόσο δα θεατράκι που λίγο κόσμο μπορεί να μαζέψει, μια και το ‘χουν καταλάβει οι χωριανοί πως η παράσταση δεν θα τους δώσει αυτό που ποθούν. Πού και πού, πετάγονται μερικοί και λένε για την «Ευρώπη», κάποια μυθική ύπαρξη που σχεδόν κανείς δεν αντιλαμβάνεται, αλλά όλοι επικαλούνται όταν βρίσκονται σε δυσμενή θέση. Σαν τον άθεο στο ανέκδοτο που αρχίζει τις προσευχές όταν το αεροπλάνο πέφτει. Κι αυτή την Ευρώπη, ο ένας την υποβαθμίζει και τη βλέπει «δημοσκόπηση» και ο άλλος την εξυψώνει, κάνοντας και λέγοντας τα αντίθετα από αυτά που η Ευρώπη πρεσβεύει.

Και μια που πιάσαμε το θρησκευτικό, ας πούμε και ότι ο Τσίπρας αδίκως δέχεται κριτική όταν λέει πως η ιδεολογία που πρεσβεύει, έστω θεωρητικά, το κόμμα του, είναι κοντά στις αρχές του χριστιανισμού. Η αλήθεια είναι πως η Αριστερά βασίζεται στην ιδέα ότι ο άνθρωπος είναι ένα φύσει καλό όν, ότι η απληστία και η φιλαργυρία είναι κακά χαρακτηριστικά, ότι πρέπει να αγαπάς τον πλησίον σου, ανεξαρτήτα από το ποιος είναι, τι χρώμα έχει ή τι ομάδα υποστηρίζει. Δε δαιμονοποιώ τη Δεξιά, έχει κι αυτή τις αξίες της και είναι αποδεκτές – και συχνά χρήσιμες. Στο συγκεκριμένο σημείο, όμως, έχει δίκιο ο Τσίπρας, χωρίς αυτό να σημαίνει ότι ο ίδιος έχει υπηρετήσει πιστά τις αξίες της Αριστεράς – ή του χριστιανισμού.

Οι βόλτες με τα κότερα μεγαλοεφοπλιστών, δεν βοηθούν κιόλας. Σύμφωνοι, και επαγγελματική σχέση υπάρχει με την κυρία Παναγοπούλου, και διακοπές πρέπει να μπορεί να κάνει ένας άνθρωπος – ακόμα κι ο πρωθυπουργός. Αλλά όταν ο λαός σου περνάει μεγάλα ζόρια και μια εκατοστή οικογένειες θρηνούν ανθρώπους, τα κότερα δεν ενδείκνυνται – κι αφήνουν και χώρο για θεωρίες περί διαπλοκής. Όχι ότι οι άλλοι είναι καλύτεροι, αλλά από σένα περιμέναμε κάτι διαφορετικό, είναι που μας το παίζεις «παιδί του λαού».

Μα και με ποιανού παιδί είναι ο Τσίπρας, ασχοληθήκαμε πρόσφατα. Ανάξιες σχολιασμού οι ψευδείς ειδήσεις, ακόμα και να έστεκαν. Σε αυτό το επίπεδο θα λάβει χώρα ο πολιτικός διάλογος; Ο κόσμος θα ασχολείται και θα αποφασίζει με βάση το τι έκαναν και τι δεν έκαναν στη χούντα ο Παύλος Τσίπρας και ο Κωνσταντίνος Μητσοτάκης; Ή μήπως για το αν ο Πολάκης είναι αψύς ή απλώς μαλάκας; Με λίγα λόγια, η πολιτική αντιπαράθεση έχει καταντήσει ένα θέατρο με λίγους θεατές, που περισσότερο γελάνε με τους ψευτοηρωισμούς των πρωταγωνιστών παρά τους ακολουθούν προς την εκάστοτε κάθαρση.

«Και πότε δεν ήταν;», θα ρωτήσει κανείς. Δεν ξέρω, ίσως και να μην ήταν ποτέ. Ίσως κι όλα αυτά λίγα να αξίζουν. Χαζοί είναι αυτοί που δεν νοιάζονται για το θέατρο; Ίσως, όμως, κάποτε να έρθει μια μέρα που θα αποφασίσουμε όλοι ότι μας νοιάζει και είναι ευθύνη μας να φέρουμε καινούργιους θιάσους, να δούμε άλλες παραστάσεις, ποιοτικότερες και πιο ενδιαφέρουσες. Μακριά είναι, δεν γελιέμαι, μα η ελπίδα (οφείλει να) σιγοκαίει.

Colouring the map: The story of a newly born record label

Polyscope’s logo. Design by Sotiris Gkolias. All rights reserved ©.

His slim figure, his funky earrings and his shortly cut hair betray an affiliation to punk culture. Pantelis Pilavios, simply known among friends and acquaintances as P, spends most of his time with music — doing more or less everything one can do with it. He listens to it, studies it, produces it and plays it. He might look like a punk, but his musical horizons expand from Greek folk to progressive rock, touching upon jazz, hip-hop and, not surprisingly, punk. After a meal in north-west London, we had an interesting discussion on his plans with his lifelong partner: music. These days, P is setting up Polyscope, an innovative do-it-yourself (DIY) record label, with his good friend and fellow musician Giorgos Kravvaritis.

“I play music, but I don’t like to call myself a musician or an artist,” he tells me. Worried about how I should now call him, I ask him to explain to me what he does exactly. “I participate in several different projects. Some are purely musical, other are multimedia: visual art, film, even a theatrical production. Admittedly, though, I mostly work on the music of these projects.” Lately, he has been trying to discover a new role for himself: that of the businessman.

“Five or six years ago, the idea came to me to form a record label. The processing period has been, therefore, quite long. At some point last year, I was working with my good friend and co-founder of Polyscope, Giorgos Kravvaritis, who is currently based in Leeds (note: at the time of the interview; Kravvaritis now lives in the Netherlands). We decided to found our record label, Polyscope, in order to release the products of our various projects. I hope we will also manage to release other people’s work, music records or other.” This is, more or less, the raison d’être of Polyscope.

For the time being, Polyscope consists of two people: Giorgos and Pantelis. One part in Amsterdam and the other in Athens. How does this work for the founders of Polyscope? “Distance is nowadays no longer an issue. The whole time and space continuum has shrunk so much through mass interconnectivity as a result of globalisation. The Internet is a great tool that evidently eliminates the problem of living in different cities. The most important thing is to have good and honest communication between the people involved,” says P. Having worked together on several projects during the past few years, Giorgos and Pantelis seem to have this settled.

Giorgos (left) and Pantelis (right), while performing as Wellington Str. at Sonic Plunge vol. 2, Wharf Chambers, Leeds, U.K. November 2017. Photo by Daisy Petley. All rights reserved ©.

A big question for the future of Polyscope is how their community will reach out to other talented artists that will contribute to the project. “Part of our plan is to tour in different countries and meet new people to join forces with and hopefully collaborate. Ideally, this will lead to a global network of creative people who might do music, film, animation, spoken word, anything that tries to experiment with new ideas and concepts. The goal is not to “break” new ground necessarily, but most importantly to discover, to try and expand the map.”

Intrigued by his parallelism with the map, I can’t help but ask P what he is talking about. “You see, in strategy video games, you start as a small dot on a black map. As you go on exploring this map, it becomes more colourful. This is what we want to do. We want to capture these colours and add them to the map. We would like to become an outlet for creativity, tο join dots from all over the world. Polyscope shall become a virtual meeting point for people who are looking for others to collaborate with.”

Digging into the technical aspects of Polyscope, I ask P to what extent it will be a “traditional” record company. Do they have headquarters, for example? “Our project is based on DIY recordings. These days, you can record a good sounding record in many different ways. The idea, at least for now, is not to have our own headquarters. Maybe in the future, if everything works out well and we have the funds to have a working base somewhere, we could consider it. But, at this stage, it’s out of question.”

Back row: James Milligan, Will Howard, Ozzy Moysey, Joel Stedman.
Front row: Giorgos and Pantelis. Meanwood, Leeds, UK 2017. Photo by Maria Alzamora. All rights reserved ©.

Until then, what tricks do Polyscope aim to use to survive in a very difficult market, dominated by internet giants like Spotify and VEVO? To put it in different terms, is there living space for a small independent record label in the 21st century? “Polyscope’s goal is not to compete with these platforms. Our focus is on creating a network for musicians and artists to collaborate with and, if so desired, release material from. Inevitably, we will co-exist with these internet giants as you call them, in spite of different moral codes. Our goal is to bring creative minds together, this is where we aim to find our living space. How each one decides to present their work to the world is their own choice.”

According to P, commercial value has little to do with the actual value of a work — at least not when it comes to artistic expression. His view suggests that originality is much more important. He would like his record label to incarnate these ideals. “I want to work with people who do something that is their own, an honest statement of who they are at a given moment.” The name of the company aims exactly at this. “It is about experimenting and seeing new scopes, new perspectives: trying to actualize all the sounds or the images in your head in order to achieve a more holistic view of your own expression.”

I am tempted to ask about the origins of such ideas. “The DIY “ideology” of Polyscope comes mainly from the hardcore punk scene of Washington D.C. I got really inspired by Ian MacKaye of Fugazi, Henry Rollins of Black Flag, from Bad Religion, the Bad Brains and from others who do DIY recordings (as well as prints, zines, etc); actually, by everyone who just tries to do it — whatever it is — by themselves.” Punk might be dead, but P wants to see its legacy live on.

To make this happen, Polyscope has a lot of work to do. How far have they gone? “So far, we have released three albums, which you can listen to and buy on our bandcamp page.” Most recently, they released Improvised Sessions Vol.1 — Meanwood, recorded in the city of Leeds, UK. Polyscope decided to offer the proceeds that the record will generate to the people who were hurt by the deadly fires in East Attica (Greece) in late July. “This is our way of giving back to the people and to communities,” P tells me.

Another Polyscope record is called Whisky for the Astronauts, from a band that bears the same bizarre name. It was recorded and has been released in two formats: stereo and 5.1 surround. “Whisky for the Astronauts is an example of what Polyscope represents,” says P. “We want to experiment, for example, with different listening formats, like 5.1 surround or quadraphonic sound systems, different ways in which we experience music. It all comes down to the idea of putting colour on our map,” he concludes.

‘Whisky for the Astronauts’ album cover by Marion Manika and ‘0–1 στο 90’’. All rights reserved ©.

Imagining people grabbing boxes of colourful paint and throwing them on the ground, I headed to the train station. Looking outside from my wagon’s window, I saw London and the omnipresent gray clouds over it. Maybe our map needs some colour, indeed… Will Polyscope succeed in this task?

To get to know Polyscope better, you can follow their Facebook and Instagram pages, where they regularly report on their progress, events and releases. To listen to the music, you can visit their bandcamp page.

The secret ingredients that bring Athenians together

Photo by Thomas Gkazelis / Steps 2017

It’s a regular Wednesday evening and I am in the metro, on my way to Monastiraki station in the historical centre of Athens. I am going to the social centre synAthina, where the paths of many Athenians meet. Steps, in collaboration with other NGOs, offers a free meal there every Wednesday and Sunday afternoon, for anyone who needs it. The program is called One Stop. It’s a place where people of the street can stop by and take a break from their everyday struggles.

Many people are gathered around the synAthina centre. Homeless, refugees, drug addicts and passers-by chat while the volunteers cut vegetables and turn on a gigantic stove. The dish of the day is pasta with vegetables.

Photo by Thomas Gkazelis / Steps 2017

But these 50 or so people are not just waiting for a free meal. Hot beverages — coffee and tea — are served. The music playing creates a festive atmosphere. A hairdresser has come to cut people’s hair and trim their beards. The NGO Ithaca is present with their laundry van, where people can wash their clothes for free. Inside synAthina, doctors examine wounds and treat the ill. A couple of social workers are also around to give legal and administrative advice to anyone who needs it. One Stop provides a place for people in need to get some of the basic things they lack — even if this is only twice a week.

Food is central to One Stop. But it is “not our mission in itself,” says Steps coordinator Tassos Smetopoulos. He counts years of experience in social streetwork and is considered one of the sector’s veterans. “[Food] is what we use to meet these people, to bring them together,” he says.

Tasos Smetopoulos is a veteran in NGO work in Greece. Photo by Thomas Gkazelis / Steps 2017

“You don’t find people in danger of dying from hunger in Athens” he tells me. Greek society, he explains, is one that has a special relationship with nutrition. Greeks are extremely proud of their hospitality, celebrated throughout ancient history. What is more, Greek eating culture differs from that of Western Europe, as it is based on sharing. You rarely get a main course for yourself in Greece. In such an environment, those who are hungry will probably find a way to feed themselves. “But there are many people who don’t eat well. And this, along with other things, might cause pathological problems,” says Tassos.

“At One Stop, we don’t cook just to feed. We offer something with high nutritional value, using good ingredients.” At the end of the day, what Tassos and Steps try to create every Wednesday and Sunday evening is the feeling of being at home, and a sense of belonging.

Photo by Thomas Gkazelis / Steps 2017

“When you go to a friendly house, what do you do?” Tassos asks rhetorically. “You get together, you sit down, you talk. If you get hungry, you will cook and eat together. In the end, you might even take a nap,” he says. “We want to make these people feel like this place is their own, to give them the opportunity to do things they can’t do in their daily life.” And if Wednesday is just another weekday, Sunday is more significant — especially in Greece where, traditionally, it’s a day for families to gather, share a meal and talk. One Stop is trying to recreate just that for those who don’t have this luxury.

Since it launched in May 2016, One Stop has offered around 20,000 portions of food, and the project continues to evolve. Tassos envisions a bright future for One Stop: The idea is to start getting the beneficiaries more involved. First, they could serve their meal by themselves. Then, they could start participating in the cooking. “It could become the beginning of someone’s professional life. It is not unimaginable to get a job in a restaurant. It is not impossible to build a partnership with a cooking school, so that one or two people get a scholarship to take classes. If there is a kitchen, these people could cook for themselves and for others in the neighbourhood,” Tassos explains.

Photo by Thomas Gkazelis / Steps 2017

Tassos strongly believes that One Stop can change things not just for those in need, but for society at large as well: “There is a kind of trickery in all this [offering help to people in need]” he says. “The trickery is that I know that once you come to contact with it, either it will kick you out or it will keep you close. And once you’re in, you’re hooked and it changes you,” he adds. “An internal dialogue begins [inside you] — and this passes on to your environment. So, if you do something, a friend might develop an interest in what you are doing. And they might join. And then a friend of the friend might do the same. If this is multiplied, there is potential for something great,” he tells me.

In modern Athens, where austerity and the economic recession rule, glimmers of hope nevertheless persist. They come alive through something we all have in common: the need to eat. Food has the potential to act as the glue that holds a society together. Whether this is a family lunch on a Sunday afternoon or a common meal on a cold Wednesday evening, food is the only thing that can gather heterogeneous groups over a bubbling pot and put a smile on their face. It’s a small victory, but it’s a start — potentially one that can have ripple-like effects, according to Tassos. Even if it’s only twice a week.

*Special thanks to Tassos Smetopoulos for the interview and Thomas Gkazelis for his photos from One Stop.

**This article was originally published in Are We Europe’s December issue (FOOD).

The Greek Militiamen Involved in the Srebrenica Massacre

Recruited in Athens, Thessaloniki and Belgrade, about 100 Greeks fought in a “guard of volunteers” based in Vlasenica, in central Bosnia. The Greek intelligence service was in touch with the volunteers.

The Greeks and the Serbs have a lot in common — beyond just geographic proximity. The vast majority of both peoples are orthodox Christians, for whom religion plays a crucial role in everyday life. But more importantly, the two countries have repeatedly supported each other throughout modern history. The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 were an important manifestation of this alliance. Later on, during WWI, many Serbs found refuge on the island of Corfu when their country was occupied by the Central Powers. In 1941, the Wehrmacht demanded passage from Yugoslavia to occupy Greece. The Yugoslav authorities initially accepted. This decision partially led to a popular revolt that overthrew the regime.

Apart from this shared history, some Greeks may be considered to share responsibility with the Serb Bosnian army for the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995. A few weeks ago, Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general who commanded the army’s ranks in Srebrenica and Sarajevo, was sentenced to life after being convicted of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Mladic’s political supervisor — and then President of the Republika Srpska (the Serb Republic in Bosnia) — Radovan Karadzic, was found guilty of the same crimes and was sentenced in March 2016 to 40 years imprisonment.

14 Greek militiamen somewhere in former Bosnia ca 1995.

In 1993, when the Yugoslav wars were ongoing and the Serbian offensive in Bosnia and Herzegovina was advancing, the first group of Greek volunteers arrived in Bosnia. In March 1995, the Greek Volunteer Guard (GVG) was formed at the request of Ratko Mladic himself. The unit consisted of around 100 militarily trained Greeks who decided to support their Serb “orthodox brothers” — as Greeks and Serbs often call one another, in their war against the Muslim community of Bosnia. Some were mercenaries but others went to Bosnia to propagate their ideology and political agenda. Many held — and still hold — ties to Golden Dawn. In the words of GVG member Michalis Mavrogiannakis, “I, like many other Greek volunteers, belong to a political ideology and specifically to Golden Dawn — and this is why we went up there [Bosnia].”

It does not come as a surprise that most of GVG’s members are linked to Golden Dawn and the extreme right in general. Religious rhetoric in Greece often goes hand-in-hand with nationalistic ideas, xenophobia and white supremacy. The Greek Orthodox Church often mingles in the political arena. This was true in 1995 and is still true today. Their support of the Serbs (and later on to the GVG) was outspoken. Notably, Archbishop Seraphim personally invited Radovan Karadzic to Athens in 1993, with the latter expressing his gratitude for the Greeks’ support. “We have only God and the Greeks on our side,” he said.

The political world was no less supportive of the Serbs. Afraid of the Yugoslav wars expanding to Greece, Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis (New Democracy) and Andreas Papandreou (PASOK) kept close ties with Slobodan Milosevic’s regime and reportedly sent artillery and goods to Serbia and Montenegro, thus violating the 1992 UN embargo. Moreover, Greece was the only EU country to vote against NATO air strikes on Serbian positions in 1994 and refused to send Greek troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. When Milosevic visited Athens in December 1994, Papandreou expressed his support of Belgrade’s claims in Bosnia.

Akis Tsohatzopoulos (a prominent Greek politician and former minister, convicted on corruption charges), Archbishop Seraphim and Radovan Karadzic in Athens, 1993.

Naturally, the Greek media scene did not hold back in promulgating this narrative either. In a Dutch documentary, journalist Nikolas Voulelis, who was working for the Athens News Agency during the Yugoslav wars, admitted that “editorial interference was a given.” When the genocide was taking place in Srebrenica, newspaper “TO ETHNOS” (The Nation) was celebrating the Serbs’ victory, and congratulating the Greek volunteers for their participation. “The Serbian, the Greek, the Vergina and the Byzantine flags are waving next to each other,” they wrote on 13 July 1995. The newspaper of Golden Dawn, bearing the organization’s name, had published pictures of the GVG in the summer of 1995. Under one such photo, it read: “Greek patriots fight at the Bosnian front on the Serbs’ side. Among them, members of Golden Dawn.”

Vlasenica is a one-hour car ride from Srebrenica. It was there that the GVG was based from March 1995 onwards, as part of the Drina Corps. Several reports agree that 10 to 12 members of the GVG were present in the tragedy-stricken town when the massacre took place. In a telecommunication intercepted from the Bosnian Serb army, Mladic is heard ordering troops to raise a Greek flag on Srebrenica to honour “the brave Greeks fighting on our side.” One of the volunteers, Vasilis Schizas, posted a picture of himself on his Facebook account holding a pig’s head with “Sebrenica [sic] 1995” as a description. The pig’s head is regularly used as a threat to Muslims, referring to the forbidden consumption of pork in Islam. The Greek presence in Srebrenica is further proven by the commander of the Drina Corps, Zvonko Bajagic, in his testimony during Karadzic’s trial in ICTY. This testimony was never reported by Greek media.

Members of the GVG do the nazi salute in Vlasenica, spring 1995 in the Vlasenitsa area. Some of the men are wearing the Golden Dawn clothing of the Greek Voluntary Guard. The depicted me are former and active members of the Golden Dawn: Belbasa Apostolos, Mavroyannakis Michalis, Socrates Koussouvris (with the crutches), Kostas and two unidentified other men. (source: XYZ)

The members of the GVG had specifically strong relations with commander Bajagic. According to evidence that was gathered by ICTY, Bajagic was almost constantly accompanied by Greeks. Antonis Mitkos, the GVG’s commander, was apparently a close aid. On 11 July 1995, Mitkos, Bajagic and Mladic appear together in a photo taken in Srebrenica. The next day, Bajagic and Mladic were reportedly accompanied by Mitkos and another member of the GVG, Konstantinos Kaltsounis. On the first day of the massacre, Bajagic travelled from Vlasenica to Srebrenica with two members of the GVG. The Drina Corps commander was supervising the transportation of the captives to the Nova Kasaba stadium, which served as a locus of mass executions in the genocide.

According to Zvonko Bajagic’s testimony in ICTY, one of his Greek companions took pictures in Nova Kasaba on July 12. Drina Corps’ brigadier general Vujadin Popovic rushed to stop the GVG member from capturing these moments and asked for the camera to be taken away. Bajagic, however, guaranteed that these pictures “will not be seen by anyone,” and the GVG member kept the camera. When in 2003 one of the GVG’s members was arrested by the Greek police for trafficking anabolic steroids, “around 80 pictures from the massacre of non combatant Muslims in Bosnia” were found in his apartment. When he was led to court, the former GVG member held that he “was not present in the killings shown in the pictures” and this hypothesis was dismissed. Doubts have been raised, however, around whether these could be the pictures taken from the camera that Popovic tried to confiscate on 12 July 1995. It might be that these are the pictures that could serve as cogent proof for the GVG members’ involvement in the genocide.

Zvonko Bajagic, Ratko Mladic and Antonis Mitkos, Srebrenica, 11 July 1995.

Celebrated by the media, the Church, and the political world during the war, the members of the GVG had nothing to fear in the immediate aftermath of the Srebrenica genocide. However, when the International Court of Justice held in 2007 declared that “the acts committed at Srebrenica […] were committed with the specific intent to destroy in part the group of the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina as such, and accordingly […] these were acts of genocide,” things started to get more complicated for the Greek volunteers. Even though the Srebrenica massacre has not been officially recognized as a genocide as a result of Russia’s veto in the United Nations Security Council, there is almost universal consensus on the issue. Even in Greece, there is recognition of the facts, but with no admission of — even partial — responsibility from the state or the media.

As mentioned above, the Greek media were very supportive of the Serbs in Bosnia. Contrary to other Western countries’ media, Greek newspapers, television channels and radio stations almost unanimously backed the Serbs. Bosnian Muslims were seen in Greece as pro-Turkish agents that constituted a threat from the north, in addition to the existing pressure from the east. Journalists went to Bosnia to report “the heroic struggle” of the Greeks’ “orthodox brothers”.

The oldest member of the GVG holding the Greek and Serbian flags. Bosnia, 1995.

Even non-journalists participated in this. An actor, Vlassis Bonatsos, went to Bosnia with Mladic’s Greek lawyer, Alexandros Lykourezos, and president of the association for Greco-Serbian friendship, Aris Mousianis, to conduct an interview with the recently convicted general. Mladic was allowed to present the Serb positions without facing further interrogation in the form of follow-up questions. Funnily enough, the last question that Bonatsos asked him was about his zodiac sign. Moreover, when it became known that Greek citizens had voluntarily gone to Bosnia to participate in the war on the Serbs’ side, the media rushed to interview them, treating them like heroes who were fighting for a great cause. SKAI TV even sent a reporter to surprise them and bring them back to Greece to spend Christmas with their families.

Vlassis Bonatsos with Zvonko Bajagic Bosnian Serb commander of the Greek Voluntary Guard

Greek journalist Christos Zampounis with Mladic. [link]

The discussion in Greece was first initiated by journalist Takis Michas and his book “Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milosevic’s Serbia”. “At no point did the Greek justice system think about calling these people and investigating — not necessarily their own participation and crimes, but their knowledge of potential crimes so that Greece could assist the International Tribunal at the Hague,” says Michas in a 2010 interview to Al Jazeera — the first . His investigation is one of the major sources on the GVG and their role in the Srebrenica massacre.

In 2005, a question submitted to the Greek Parliament initiated by MP Andreas Andrianopoulos and supported by 200 intellectuals, journalists and politicians, asked for an investigation around the “possible involvement of Greeks in the events.” Justice Minister Anastasios Papaligouras replied that “the Greek justice system is handling the case.” In 2009, the Greek ambassador to Sarajevo sent a confidential letter to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which he recognized “the participation of a number of Greek volunteers in the Bosnian war” and renewed the call for an investigation on the volunteers’ actions. In 2011, however, the case was closed and no one was called for interrogation.

The first extensive research into the role of the Greek volunteers in Bosnia, and specifically in Srebrenica, was conducted and published by the investigative group XYZ Contagion. Their research was published in 2015 and gave way to new publications in Greek media. In particular, “TO ETHNOS” brought the issue back to surface in June 2015, republishing part of XYZ Contagion’s research. This led the Prosecutor’s Office of Athens to order a new preliminary investigation. In March 2017, the Greek Helsinki Monitor renewed the demand with a 250-page report, but the justice system did not show any interest in advancing the case.

Today, the progress any such investigation is unknown and the legal and political authorities seem to lack the willingness needed to advance the case.In a 2016 football match between Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Karaiskakis Stadium of Piraeus for the qualification round of the 2018 World Cup, a banner was raised for a few minutes with the words “wire, knife, Srebrenica” written on it in Serbo-Croatian. While it is possible that the people who raised it were not Greeks but Serbs, the event itself is representative of the guilty silence and passive stance that is dominating the public discussion in Greece around the subject.

Twenty-two years is a long time for such crimes to remain unpunished. Whether the Greek paramilitaries that joined the Serbs’ ranks in Bosnia can be considered guilty for the Srebrenica genocide is a complicated question. But it is certainly a question worth asking. Ratko Mladic was convicted in November for his actions in Bosnia. Maybe the time has come for his Greek collaborators to be called for their actions, too.

*The article is based on the research of the investigative blog XYZ Contagion. We are grateful to its team for bringing one of the darkest moments of Greece’s history to light.

**This article was originally published by Athens Live.

How “MEGA Channel”, Greece’s Largest TV-Network Died After 29 Years

It was the country’s first private TV station and changed the way Greeks entertained and informed themselves.

Photos: Panayiotis Tzamaros, Gerasimos Domenikos, Andreas Simopoulos / FOS PHOTOS

In 1989, the Greek state’s monopoly over broadcasting stations came to an end. After the decision of the short-lived Tzannetakis government (New Democracy, Coalition of the Left and Progress) to give temporary broadcasting licences to newly-formed non-state initiatives, private television entered the Greek reality. One of these initiatives was called Teletypos and was formed in May 1989 as a joint venture of a handful of prominent businessmen who were already involved in print media. Christos Lambrakis, owner of the Lambrakis Media Group (DOL); oil and shipping magnate Vardis Vardinogiannis; founder of construction company Aktor and publisher Giorgos Bobolas; shipowner and publisher Aristeidis Alafouzos; and the οwner of Eleftherotypia daily Kitsos Tegopoulos were the five shareholders of Teletypos. Each one of them controlled 20% of the company’s shares. This initiative resulted in the first private broadcasting station in Greece, MEGA CHANNEL.

Mega Channel’s last logo.

MEGA first went on air in November 1989, only to be followed by ANT1, Starand Skai, collectively forming the landscape of private television in Greece. In 1992, the Mitsotakis government (New Democracy) decided to arbitrarily provide the existing television stations with specific licences that would allow them to legally produce their programmes. However, no contest or auction was organized to decide on who would get a licence or what it would cost. In 1997, the Simitis (PASOK) government announced the organization of an auction for the broadcasting licences, but the auction was never completed, and in 2002, government officials finally declared the 1997 auction fruitless. In 2003, the government brought the issue back to the surface, but, again, no solution was implemented. When Kostas Karamanlis rose to power in 2004, one of his main priorities was to fight against the “pimps” [sic] who controlled public opinion through the media. In 2005, however, the government’s initiative to bring the issue of providing full legality to private broadcasting stations to a close failed once more.

Throughout this period, MEGA was championing their soaring viewership statistics, as they were the preferred television station of the Greek public. Also known as “the big channel”, MEGA was a pioneer in the Greek broadcast media sector. MEGA changed the way Greeks entertained and informed themselves. And while the entertainment was rather innocent, with many successful series and reality shows running on the “big channel,” the same cannot be said for the information the channel spread.

Olga Tremi (left) and Pavlos Tsimas (right) were prominent journalists at MEGA Channel. / Photo: Gerasimos Domenikos / FOS PHOTOS

A shady past

Even if PASOK was initially negative towards the establishment of private television stations, the centre-left party quickly built strong relations with the new broadcast media elite. MEGA has historically been a channel favourable to PASOK and its governments. This special power relation has been built, to a great extent, on the ties between Giorgos Bobolas and prominent PASOK politicians. His role as a publisher and media owner gave Bobolas access to the deep political establishment of Greece. Working together with governments, MEGA’s shareholder offered support to the political system through the media. As an exchange, Bobolas’ construction group Ellaktor(Aktor until 1999) would participate in public-private partnerships for major projects. To name a few, the Rio-Antirio bridge, the Olympic Stadium and the Attiki Odos (the main highway of the Attica region) were built by Ellaktor.

The Rio-Antirio bridge was built by Bobolas’ Ellaktor.

The other shareholders also maintained close ties with the political elite. Christos Lambrakis, son of Dimitris Lambrakis, had risen to fame as the most prominent media mogul of Greece. As owner of DOL, Lambrakis was the publisher of newspapers TA NEA and TO VIMA, as well as the magazine Tachidromos. This position helped Lambrakis build bridges with the centres of political power, while his media’s support of PASOK played an important role to Andreas Papandreou’s political career. In the early 1990s, however, the media group’s backing of PASOK came to an end, only to be revived with Kostas Simitis’ rise in the leadership of the social democratic party towards the end of the 20th century.

Bobolas and Lambrakis were the two shareholders of Teletypos that played the most important role in forming MEGA’s identity. Aristeidis Alafouzos left the group early on, while Tegopoulos stayed with a smaller role until his death in 2006. The Vardinogiannis family remained in Teletypos, but they also had their own broadcasting station, Star Channel. Hence, their role in MEGA was rather limited. This left Bobolas and Lambrakis as the main leaders of MEGA Channel.

Vardis Vardinogiannis was one of the founders of Teletypos. / Photo: Panayiotis Tzamaros / FOS PHOTOS

As a pioneer in, more or less, everything in Greek private television, MEGA led the way in borrowing from the banks. A system that was built on trust between its participants (banks, media moguls and the two main political parties), kept the Greek media business going for a long time. Banks would lend money to media groups and political parties, with little or no collateral in exchange. What guaranteed these loans was the preservation of the powers that be in the political system, the media and the banks. As DOL’s former CEO, Panayotis Psycharis (son of Stavros Psycharis, who succeeded Christos Lambrakis in DOL after the latter’s death in 2009) claimed in 2016 during his interrogation by the Hellenic Parliament’s inquiring committee on the massive borrowing of political parties and the media, he personally guaranteed for the repayment of a loan with “air”, as he was not asked for proper collateral.

Greek media owed a total of €246,5 million to Alpha Bank in October 2015.

In 2006, the US embassy in Athens, in a document obtained by WikiLeaks, was asking “How can all these media outlets operate profitably?” It followed: “They don‘t. They are subsidized by their owners who, while they would welcome any income from media sales, use the media primarily to exercise political and economic influence.” This was the way the Greek media establishment was surviving until the country’s economy started collapsing.

Starting in 2008, the crisis had a big impact on the media sector. The advertising business began to limit its activities and broadcasting stations therefore saw their revenues decrease. MEGA, being the most successful of them, seemed to be managing the situation, producing original programmes and continuing to play its role as one of the main information channels of the Greek people. Its political agenda, however, became clearer as the crisis deepened. The same is true for other television stations too.

A clear example of this phenomenon took place in December 2008, after the assassination of Alexandros Grigoropoulos by police officer Epameinondas Korkoneas. In their reportage of the assassination, MEGA had manipulated a video of the assassination recorded by the phone camera of a citizen from her apartment in Exarcheia. While in the original video the gunshots were heard clearly in a rather silent background, MEGA had added sound from demonstrations to the video. Later on in the crisis, MEGA — along with other private broadcasters — portrayed biased views on how the economic struggles of Greece should be dealt with as part of the station’s newscast.

Giannis Pretenteris was a central figure in MEGA’s history. / Photo: Gerasimos Domenikos / FOS PHOTOS

With the entrance of digital media in the market, Greek traditional media started seeing their public decrease. The media establishment kept on surviving, though, and so did the system that kept them going. By 2015, the debts of the country’s main media groups to banks amounted to over €800 million. From these, €451,5 million were debts of DOL, Pigasos Publishing (Bobolas’ publishing house), Teletypos and IRIS AEBE (printing house collectively owned by DOL and Pigasos Publishing). Teletypos (MEGA) owed around €70,5 million to three banks at the time and its owners were, evidently, bankrupt. The situation was not much better for other broadcasting stations, as the Alafouzos-owned SKAI group (SKAI TV and Kathimerini) owed €105 million, while the Vardinogiannis-owned Star Channel owed €56,5 million.

The media were bankrupt, so were the banks and so was the state. The burden for the survival of all three fell on Greek and European taxpayers. SYRIZA’s rhetoric against the “corrupt triangle” of the media, the political elite and the banks, suggested the party was ready to fight against the establishment to defend the people. This was one of the main reasons of SYRIZA’s rise in political influence, which finally brought them to government in January 2015. One of SYRIZA’s electoral promises was to clash with the “corrupt triangle” through the organization of an auction that would finally impose order in the broadcasting media sector. This, of course, did not come without a price for the governing party that had the media establishment against it from the very beginning. The rivalry between the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government and the media peaked in July 2015, when the referendum on austerity took place. MEGA was often pointed at by governmental politicians as the corrupt broadcasting station par exellence.

The days before the 2015 referendum were reported in a biased way by the mainstream media. Photo: Panayiotis Tzamaros

In this context, the parliament passed in February 2016 law no. 4339/2015, also known as the “Pappas law”, as it was initiated by the close aide of Alexis Tsipras, Minister Nikos Pappas. This law ordered for an auction to be held in order to distribute four broadcasting licenses to the highest bidders. Teletypos submitted a file, but it was rejected due to the financial situation of the company. The auction was held in August 2016, with Giannis Alafouzos (SKAI group), Giannis Kalogritsas (whose file was later rejected), the Kyriakou family (ANT1) and Vaggelis Marinakis (shipping magnate and owner of Olympiakos FC) receiving the four licenses. Kalogritsas was later replaced by Ivan Savvidis (Pontic Russian businessman and owner of PAOK FC), who was the fifth highest bidder. After a long political debate, however, the law was considered “unconstitutional” by the Greek supreme administrative court (StE) in October 2017, on the basis that the procedure was not carried out in a politically independent way.

Following the auction of August 2016, MEGA suspended its programme on September 7. Since that day, the station’s 420 employees are under work retention. During this time, MEGA has been showing old successful television series that remind Greeks of the recent past, when the “big channel” was championing Greek TV. The employees kept on running the station, even without an original programme, hoping that their employers will eventually pay their salaries. It was only after 17 months that the employees received an answer to their demands.

Who are the new owners of Teletypos?

In May 2017, Pontic Russian businessman Ivan Savvidis bought 19,63% of Teletypos’ shares for a sum around €5 million from the Bobolas family (Pigasos Publishing). It is said that Savvidis later passed his shares of Teletypos to Cypriot company ELENOVO (which reportedly has ties to a Russian businessman), but there has been no official announcement. In July 2017, Savvidis also bought newspapers To Ethnos, To Ethnos — Sunday edition and Imerisia from the Bobolas family for a sum of €3,58 million. In August 2017, Savvidis’ media company Dimera Media bought broadcasting station E TV, expanding his power in the Greek media sector.

Enter a captionIvan Savvidis In Thessaloniki among PAOK fans. Photo: Giannis Papanikos / FOS PHOTOS

Savvidis, however, is not the only football club owner who holds shares in Teletypos. Vaggelis Marinakis bought DOL for around €23 million through his media company Alter Ego, hence acquiring 22,11% of Teletypos. Along with DOL’s shares of Teletypos, Marinakis took control over DOL’s print media, namely To Vima and TA NEA, as well as the radio stations that belong to the powerful media group. This acquisition made Marinakis one of the most powerful actors in Greece’s changing media landscape.

Today, Teletypos is collectively owned by the Vardinogiannis family (35%), Vaggelis Marinakis (22,11%), Ivan Savvidis (19,63%), Pigasos Publishing(13,09% — pledged) and a number of minor shareholders such as businessman Dimitris Kopelouzos (4,5%). The 420 remaining employees of MEGA hoped that the changes that took place in Teletypos ownership would result in the survival of the broadcasting station, the preservation of their jobs and the reimbursement of the company’s debts to them. However, the developments were far from promising.

Vardinogiannis-Marinakis-Savvidis: Pay your employees. Photo from outside MotorOil’s headquarters.

The end

When in November 2017 the government’s renewed effort for the organization of an auction for broadcasting licences (which this time would be seven instead of four) was voted in parliament, there was increased interest in the reactions of the new media moguls. MEGA’s 420 employees put their hopes on Teletypos’ shareholders to submit an offer for a licence. It is their unpaid work, after all, that kept the company running without further losses, reducing its debts to the banks.

MEGA’s employees, demonstrating outside of Teletypos’ headquarters. / Photo credit: Panayiotis Tzamaros/ FOS PHOTOS

The deadline day for the submission of bids for the broadcasting licences was January 11. None of MEGA’s shareholders appeared to submit a file at the National Broadcasting Council (NBC), the agency responsible for issuing the licences. Finally, there were only six bidders, each of whom is going to pay €35 million to acquire one of the broadcasting licences — if their files are considered complete. The six bidders were: Giannis Alafouzos (SKAI group), Giannis Vardinogiannis (Star Channel), Dimitris Kontominas (Alpha TV), Minoas Kyriakou (ANT1), Ivan Savvidis (E TV) and Makis Giobazolias (Teleoptiki Elliniki).

The owners of Teletypos had declared that there would be no offer on their part one day before the deadline. Following this announcement, MEGA’s employees went on air the next day (11/1) to answer to Vardinogiannis, Marinakis and Savvidis. Notably, they demanded from them to pay the employees for the months that they have been working without remuneration, as well as their compensations. At the same time, MEGA’s employees called for the government, the Ministry of Labour and the NBC to “claim their responsibilities towards the families of the 420 employees.” Ever since, MEGA’s employees have been demonstrating for weeks in front ofMotorOil’s (the oil company owned by the Vardinogiannis family) headquarters, without receiving a response.

“Enough with the mockery” reads the sign outside of MotorOil’s headquarters on Kifisias Avenue in Athens. Source: ERGAZOMENOI MEGA Facebook Group

What used to be the “big channel” of Greek television now looks like a sad reminder of the past, stuck on number 4 of Greeks’ TV controllers. Rumours circulated for a while regarding MEGA’s future. Some suggested that Teletyposwould submit a bid for a thematic broadcasting licence. Others said that Vaggelis Marinakis would pay the employees’ salaries and would reform Teletypos. Finally, some believe that the broadcasting licences law will hit the wall of StE again and will be judged unconstitutional, giving the owners of Teletypos more time to reconsider their decision.

On the 5th of February, the employees’ union announced its decision to go on continuous 24-hour long strikes for an indefinite period of time. This meant that MEGA would no longer play advertisements, virtually halting the station’s financing. Three days later (8/2), the Vardinogiannis family announced their disinvolvement from Teletypos, committing to pay MEGA’s employees their salaries, according to the percentage of the company’s shares that belongs to them (35%). Marinakis’ media group committed to doing the same, while Savvidis’ side (or the company to which the Russian businessman passed the management of his shares of Teletypos) remained silent. In the announcement that the Teletypos board issued on the same day, the company put the blame on the previous owners of MEGA and the NBC, claiming that Vardinogiannis and Marinakis have done all they could to save the broadcasting station. At the same time, they asked for the cancellation of the auction for the broadcasting licences.

Outside of MotorOil’s headquarters. Source: ERGAZOMENOI MEGA Facebook Group

On their side, Teletypos’ employees proceeded to demand not only the unpaid salaries, but also the compensations for the abrupt halt of their work. In their announcement, they also called for a meticulous investigation on Teletypos’ finances since 1/1/2016, in order for all the evidence related to their payments to be transparent. Finally, the company’s employees denied Vardinogiannis’ blame game and clarified that the ones responsible for MEGA’s end are Teletypos’ owners and only them.

Popular Unity’s (LA.E) member Dimitris Stratoulis (second from the right) paid a visit to MEGA’s employees’ outside of MotorOil’s headquarters. Source: ERGAZOMENOI MEGA Facebook Group.

Who is to blame in this story that sums up Greek history of the past three decades? Is it the shady past of MEGA and the old shareholders of Teletyposwho indebted the company leading it to today’s deadlock? Is it the new shareholders that bought shares without being willing to claim their responsibilities? Is it Vardinogiannis? Is it Marinakis or is it Savvidis? Is it the government? In any case, the ones who are not at fault are the 420 employees of MEGA that struggled to keep the station alive during the past 17 months, without receiving anything in return.

On February 27, the final act of the story is expected to be played. According to the revised 4339/2015 law, this is the last day for broadcasting stations that will not participate in the auction process to legally be on air — MEGA being the main one.

 

* This article was originally published by Athens Live, as part of their partnership with Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), co-funded by the European Commission

Could nostalgia for a sinful past create a hopeful future?

Young Greeks look at their bittersweet past using humour and sarcasm as their weapons.

PASOK, CHAMPAGNE, PROSPERITY.
Image credit: Παλιό ΠΑΣΟΚ     – Το Ορθόδοξο [The Old, Orthodox PASOK]. Authorised use.

In a changing world, it is normal to look back at the past. Especially in “sick” societies wrecked by crises, this reflex becomes inescapable, and more importantly, invaluable. The courage to move forward only comes when we make peace with the past and feel supported by it. The Greek society is sick. And after seven years of being buffeted by economic and social crises, Greeks are turning to their past to find hope for the future. And perhaps this is justified.  After all, nostalgia is a Greek word – sort of…

Nostalgia (noun): a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

Etymologically, the word is a derivative of the Greek words νόστος (nostos = return journey) and άλγος (algos = pain). The French combined them and created nostalgie which was then adopted by many more languages, including Greek (νοσταλγία).

Greek history is indisputably rich. But as full of treasures as the Antiquity is, it’s also far too removed from modern Greek life to appeal to 21st century Greeks, who have instead found refuge in the 1980s. But nostalgia for the 80s is atypical and largely satirical, centered on mocking the modus operandi of that period: a mindset that led, to a greater or lesser extent, to the economic and political crisis that would hit the country 30 years later. Using social media as their weapon of choice, the Greek youth are turning against previous generations that acted irresponsibly and, according to some, mortgaged the Mediterranean country’s future. At the same time, however, this trend could be seen as the expression of a shy longing for the carefree lifestyle of that era, with all of its accompanying virtues and sins.

So, why the 80s?

The 1980s was a glorious decade for Greece – at least on the surface. Following the end of the military junta in 1974, the new Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, an emblematic figure of Greek politics, initiated the accession of Greece to the European Economic Community, the European Union’s predecessor. These developments made Greece attractive for foreign investment and kickstarted a period of unprecedented economic growth. Not everyone was benefiting from it, though; those with  lower incomes demanded a piece of the pie. They wanted, needed, change.

Konstantinos Karamanlis (on the right) was an emblematic figure during the 70s and 80s

In the elections of 1981, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), led by Andreas Papandreou, the charismatic son of a former Prime Minister (and the father of a future one), won with exactly that slogan: CHANGE. Papandreou dominated the Greek political scene for the rest of the 20th century, with a short break during the period 1989-1993 when his political opponents banded together to take him to court over his involvement in a big corruption scandal that took place during his term as Prime Minister.

Andreas, as both his friends and his enemies called him, implemented a statist model in Greece. The creation of an overpowering state, combined with a rapid increase in the flow of money gave way to extravagant consumerism and an overly luxurious way of life. New cars, champagne and other imported products became symbols of the 1980s for a part of the Greek population. Of course, not everyone got invited to this party. A fair amount of people did, though, with most of them copying what their neighbours and political leaders did.

Andreas remains a very controversial figure today, 21 years after his death. Many praise his government for giving the people purchasing power, creating jobs, restoring national unity and democratizing Greece’s political system. The social welfare state was established and the economy was on the rise. Finally, Andreas  turned the country into a powerful player on the international stage, with a multifaceted foreign policy that maintained good relations with both superpowers of the Cold War and a respected member of the ECC.

But many accuse Andreas and PASOK are of short-sighted populism purely aimed at staying in power. Not to mention a cascading series of scandals. People today often use the term “old PASOK” to describe the machiavellianism, corruption and wastefulness that defined this period’s leaders. And it is this same term that is used by the administrators of one of the most popular Greek social media pages: The Old, Orthodox PASOK (Παλιό ΠΑΣΟΚ – το Ορθόδοξο).

Andreas Papandreou in his office, smoking a cigarette.

And why now?

The differences between the 1980s and the 2010s are obvious. Irrespective of their sinful character, the 80s were a time when Greece was a strong and wealthy country. In contrast, the Greece of today is drowning in debt and has virtually no national sovereignty, as a result of the bailout agreements that the country has signed with its creditors (the EU Commission, the ECB, the ESM and the IMF).

This immense gap makes the 1980s a sort of mythical era. So mythical that many often tend to forget that it was real, possibly in an effort to avoid blame. It is in this context that the past few years have seen a rise in social media pages that mockingly glorify the days when PASOK and Papandreou dominated the landscape, “favourably” comparing the former political titans to current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his party, SYRIZA. The most prominent example is The Old, Orthodox PASOK, which has even more Facebook followers than the actual PASOK party.

Young Greeks with a PASOK flag at the Sonus Festival in Croatia, summer 2017.
Image credit: Παλιό ΠΑΣΟΚ – Το Ορθόδοξο [The Old, Orthodox PASOK]. Authorised use.

If in these pages political disillusionment has taken on a fundamentally satirical character, a feeling of nostalgia is also present, albeit unconsciously. This nostalgia, expressed with self-derogatory humour, sees the 1980s as a carefree period that the creators of these social media pages – millennials, most likely – will probably never experience, because of the country’s ongoing economic recession. This is also the subject of a new song from the Greek ska band Locomondo, titled 80s. The lyrics of the song mix popular culture and specific events of the 1980s with those of today. The song’s final verse is a dedication “to all those who lived the 80s / the witnesses of an unmerciful change / a generation that is paying its debts.”

Some find this kind of nostalgia dangerous, suggesting that reminiscing about this period will spur Greece to repeat its past mistakes – if and when the country overcomes the recession. But that concern is misplaced. It is normal for people to long for a time of their lives that was marked by prosperity and high living standards. In any case, the websites that engage with this sense of nostalgia are run by young people who take a mocking stance towards a past that has condemned today’s youth to a precarious lifestyle; the exact opposite of the extravaganza that was the 1980s.

Akis Tsochatzopoulos was a prominent member and minister of PASOK. He was convicted and imprisoned in 2013 for his participation in corruption scandals. He was released earlier this year (2017) because of being old and sick. The photo is from the time of his release.
Image credit: Παλιό ΠΑΣΟΚ – Το Ορθόδοξο [The Old, Orthodox PASOK]. Authorised use.

The new generations of Greeks have creative potential, and they show it in many different ways – one of which is, of course, through memes and political satire. The question is whether they will have the opportunity to apply this creative potential, nourished as it is by nostalgia and a self-critical approach to the country’s past, in order to create the Greece of the future. A future which can be much better and much more profound than the kitsch that characterised the 1980s. For the sake of the whole country, and of Europe too, let’s hope they make it happen.

*This article was originally published for Are We Europe‘s September issue on Nostalgia.

I was wrong about Trump

In November, a day after his election to the presidency of the United States of America, I wrote that I am smiling for Trump’s election. Even though I still see Trump’s presidency as an opportunity for the Americans to reject their system that only offers the illusion of choice, the limits have been trespassed.

The Charlottesville events are the final straw in a series of actions that have now exhausted my tolerance. Before this, we’ve had – among others – the (unsuccessful) efforts to repeal Obamacare, the plan to cut taxes for the richest few, the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement and the continuation of US intervention in Syria and Yemen. A few days ago, Trump said he was considering military action against Venezuela – and whatever one might think of Maduro, we all know what a US intervention in Latin America will turn out to be like.

The guy even threatened North Korea with a nuclear war! No, I don’t believe that he will “push the button” and start a nuclear war with his alter ego in East Asia. I think that he is actually more sensible than we sometimes think. I recently watched a video of his from 1999, when he was talking sense regarding the nuclear capacities of North Korea. But Trump of 1999 is not the same with the one in the White House. There, we’ve got the caricature that he put forward during the campaign, and which he still pulls off today. It is the image he shows to his voters – it’s his populist stunt.

This is the most dangerous part of it. The American people elected this image of Trump and, as they did, they now feel entitled to do what this caricature represents. On Saturday the 12^th of August, we saw exactly what this means. Nostalgics of slavery, KKK supporters and other far-right wingers took the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, a general of the Confederate (pro-slavery South) Army during the American Civil War. Many of them were armed. The “Unite the Right” demonstration clashed with peaceful anti-demonstrators, resulting to three dead (one anti-demonstrator and two policemen) and many injured.

This shows how the situation is going out of hand. Maybe these events have the potential to fuel reactions and result to an actual change in American political life. But the story is turning shady and I am afraid that if Trump stays in power until the end of 2020, it will be too late…

When Desperation Turns Into Art: The Athenian Streets

WD’s No Land For The Poor

Over the past seven years, the socioeconomic crisis that brought the citizens of democracy’s birthplace to their knees has attracted the global media to the Greek capital. The crisis has, however, also put Athenians (back) in touch with their walls. From INO’s murals – heavily inspired by the rich history of Greece – to Woozy’s colourful street art, Athens has become a centre for graffiti – and even modern art, as manifested from the city’s co-organisation of this year’s Documenta (14th edition) exhibition.

Κρίσις

A crisis [derived from the Ancient Greek “κρίσις”, which means (1) judgement, (2) quarrel, (3) turning point] is by definition an unpleasant and dangerous situation, but one which also includes the element of opportunity. The Greek crisis has certainly been disastrous for the social tissue, but it has offered Greeks the inspiration and opportunity to create something new.

And what is creation, if not art? And what is new, if not street art?

WD’s Capture in Exarcheia

Tourists visiting the Greek capital are often amazed by the walls of Athens. Full of spray, the Athenian walls inspire different emotions in passers-by. Rather ugly tags, sports teams’ and political parties’ slogans and symbols are one side of the coin, which certainly doesn’t offer any particular beauty to Athens. The other side of the coin is, however, equally present: beautiful murals and masterpieces of street art have become a main attraction for both Athenians and tourists.

The city’s street art – and even its ugly graffiti – depict a troubled society. In what is probably my favourite piece of street art in Athens, we see two hands that come together forming a praying gesture. The mural that decorates the side wall of hotel Vienna in Pireos Avenue, close to Omonia square in the centre of Athens, is a copy of German painter Albrecht Dürer’s piece “Praying Hands”, made in the beginning of the 16th century. However, while Dürer’s work depicts the hands looking upwards, as a believer does when praying to God (mostly in Christianity), the artists of the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASKT) rotated the piece by 180 degrees: the praying hands point towards the ground. This modification from Dürer’s original piece has been interpreted  by some as expressing the idea that instead of Greeks praying to God, the present situation has brought God to pray for Greece and its people, who seem to have lost all hope.

Praying Hands by a team of ASKT students led by Pavlos Tsakonas

INO’s murals have also drawn a lot of attention. Covering a tall building at the port of Piraeus (which, to be honest, is a different city, but is often counted as a part of Athens) is Democritus‘ head, together with that of a boy who is looking at the ancient philosopher with amazement on his face, while the bust of Solon in INO’s piece “System of a Fraud” decorates another Athenian wall. Apart from painting figures from the classical times, INO also turns to modern and post-modern times, as seen from his piece “Access control”, in which a human eye is approached by a mysterious technological device, expressing the artist’s concerns about mass surveillance and the future of society.

INO’s We Have the Power in the port of Pireaus

Another Greek artist with a dynamic presence in Athens is Vassilis Hoursoglou, also known as Woozy. Woozy’s vividly coloured art covers several Athenian walls. One of them is next to the Monastiraki metro station in central Athens, where a wall is decorated with his piece “The Colorful Warrior”. “Colorful tsunami” is also a beautiful piece, in which imaginary figures and weirdly shaped buildings are found facing the courtyard of a primary school. It offers a colourful note to the young students’ daily routine.

Finally, Athens has attracted the interest of foreign street artists. Banksy hasn’t yet declared his presence in the Greek capital, but others like WD (Wild Drawings) and Oré have offered the Athenian walls a piece of their art. Notably, we see WD’s depiction of one of the city’s symbols, the owl, in “Knowledge speaks – Wisdom listens” in downtown Athens, as well as his eye-capturing “Capture” in the largely self-managed neighborhood of Exarcheia. WD’s most powerful work on Athenian walls is probably “No Land for the Poor”, a piece dedicated to the poor and homeless of Athens and the rest of the world. French street artist Oré has also done some work in Athens, characterised by his signature open-mouthed dragons.

Woozy’s Colorful Tsunami

The above are just a few artists who have decorated Athens’ walls. There are many others – whose names I have not mentioned – who have produced  incredible pieces. There are others who have written powerful words on walls, which, despite being rather unpleasant to the eye, are worth a second look and a minute of thought at the very least. In times of crisis, art gives people a push and helps them think out of the box. It allows them to rediscover the things that matter in life. As Athens forms and transforms into a new city, I certainly hope that art will be ever-present: to remind us of the past, to counsel us for the future, to make us act today.

*This article was originally published in Are We Europe‘s issue The New City.

The Hope for a United European Left

In the past few years we have witnessed the rise of the far-right and the revival of a rhetoric that had been long forgotten. We are living at the dawn of a new political era: it is the time of populism – or, because I personally dislike that word, let’s call it “the return of ideology”. The post-Cold War era was the age of liberalism, characterized by the divergence of the centre-right and the centre-left to form what some have called the extreme centre. But this new era demands different political alliances. If we don’t want the far-right to end up in government all around the western world, the only answer is a united left.

The end of the Cold War brought with it the end of the ideological battle between the left and the right. Social democratic parties across Europe began to disavow their socialist values and opted for the so called “third way”. Tony Blair’s New Labour in the UK led the way for the conciliation of the centre-left with the centre-right. The agreement was simple: the right would follow the left with regards to social matters like minorities’ rights and immigration in exchange to the left’s complete submission to the right’s neoliberal economic model. There you have it: the extreme centre, dominating European politics since the late 90s. This resulted in governments of the centre-right and governments of the centre-left (or, sometimes, grand coalition governments) alternating in most countries of Europe, but never actually changing policy. The most impressive example was in Germany, when the – so-called – social democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder implemented his Agenda 2010, a neoliberal reform programme characterized by cuts in social welfare and deregulation of the job market. It felt like we had reached the end of history, the end of ideology, the end of politics.

But then, the crisis arrived and dethroned all but one of the governments of the strongest European Union states in the next elections. The Parti Socialiste’s François Hollande succeeded Nicolas Sarkozy in the Élysée in 2012. Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing government collapsed in 2011, passing the hot potato of Italy’s economy to a technocratic government led by Mario Monti. In the same year, Spain’s social-democratic government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was succeeded by the conservative Partido Popular and Mariano Rajoy. Finally, in the UK, the Labour Party lost the election to David Cameron’s Tories. The only government that remained stable during this tense period was that of Angela Merkel in Germany – and consequently it is this government that became the benchmark in European politics ever since.

Smaller countries witnessed political upheaval as well – especially the ones hit the hardest by the crisis: Greece, Portugal and Ireland. In Greece, again in 2011, the PASOK (social-democratic party) government, headed by George Papandreou, collapsed after passing harsh austerity measures as part of the deal concluded with the infamous “troika” (the tricycle of the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF) in exchange for a seemingly never-ending bailout. Papandreou was succeeded by the technocrat Lucas Papademos who led the country to elections in May and June 2012, when Nea Demokratia (centre-right) formed a new government under Antonis Samaras, with the participation of PASOK and the centre-left Demokratiki Aristera. The electoral free fall of PASOK in these elections (from 42.9% in October 2009 to 12.3% in June 2012) coined the term “pasokification”, used by political scientists to describe the electoral downfall of a mainstream social-democratic party, as a result of the adoption of austerity policies.

Former Predident of PASOK Evangelos Venizelos and former Greek PM Antonis Samaras (Nea Demokratia)

On the western side of Southern Europe, José Socrates’ (later convicted on corruption charges) centre-left government fell – you guessed it right, in 2011 – to be substituted by the centre-right and Pedro Passos Coelho. Further northwest, in Ireland, the liberal centre-right Fianna Fáil party witnessed its own downfall after passing austerity measures that dealt a big blow to the Irish people and was succeeded by the – also centre-right – Fine Gael. The crisis changed Europe’s political identity, destroyed mainstream parties and put a tombstone on the theory of the end of ideology.

But why did I just take you on a long journey across European politics of the past decade?

What does all the above tell us about today and how do we come to the conclusion that we need a broad, united left coalition to save Europe? With important elections approaching in the EU’s power couple (France and Germany), the stakes are high. As presented above, the marriage of the centre-left and the centre-right of the post-Cold War era is leading to a necessary divorce. In most cases, the centre-left has received the biggest blow, for the simple reason that it started implementing policies that are far from its ideological – and electoral – base.

The centre-right adopted socially liberal values rather easily, while managing to keep its conservatism at the same time. With the economy becoming the major issue due to the crisis, the centre-left was exposed: accepting to follow the neoliberal dogma and implementing austerity measures, they were abandoned by their electorate. In the end, if a country is condemned to apply neoliberal policy, why not elect a centre-right wing party that actually believes in it wholeheartedly?

SYRIZA’s left-wing government in Greece (in a bizarre coalition with an opportunistic right-wing party, the Independent Greeks) failed to reverse austerity and ended up capitulating to the creditors’ demands in July 2015 – even after a referendum in which the Greek people emphatically voted for an end to austerity. As a consequence of SYRIZA’s failure, the Spanish PODEMOS lost important ground and finished third in Spain’s general elections last year, leading to a new Rajoy government. Even though PODEMOS had united its powers with the far-left Izquierda Unida, it did not manage to reach an agreement with PSOE’s Pedro Sánchez, missing the opportunity for the left to unite and set forth a governmental proposal which could be more attractive than Rajoy’s neoliberal conservative cocktail.

Tsipras, Iglesias and Schäuble, cartoon by Tasos Anastasiou

The Portuguese, however, paved the way for the revitalized hope of a united left. After the elections of 2015 that didn’t give the centre-right, led by former Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, a governing majority, the Socialist Party formed a majority with the support of the other leftist parties of the parliament, resulting in Antonio Costa’s government. Portugal’s example is so far showing positive results, suggesting that there is a future for the European left away from the grand coalition model.

But what can we expect from the Left in the upcoming elections? In France, the situation is ambiguous. On one hand, the PS is deeply wounded after five years of government under François Hollande. During his presidential term, unemployment rose, the social welfare system witnessed unprecedented cuts and the job market was deregulated. Hollande’s presidency was a huge disappointment for the PS’ electorate. On the other hand, the election of Benoît Hamon in the PS’ primary has brought new hope for a return to left-wing politics and consequently a return of the party’s traditional voters to their base. Hamon’s agreement with EELV’s (Green party) Yannick Jadot has reinforced the ex-minister’s candidacy. However, it still seems that Hamon is far from passing to the second round of the presidential election, coming fourth in opinion polls, after the hard nationalist Marine Le Pen, the disoriented liberal Emmanuel Macron and the supporter of imaginary family business François Fillon.

The possible answer for the left’s deadlock in France is found just under Hamon in the opinion polls. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a big figure in the French left, is an explosive and charismatic orator and has by far the most detailed programme in this election. His movement, La France Insoumise, has produced the book L’Avenir en Commun, in which the proposals of Mélenchon’s candidacy are presented and analysed. Hamon and Mélenchon share a lot of ideas and proposals for the future of France. If one of them withdraws from the presidential race in support of the other, there is a strong possibility that they can be in the second round of the election, against either Le Pen or Macron. If they remain separated, this mission sounds unachievable.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise

At the moment, and though they have talked about it, a single candidacy seems to be a distant dream. The unwillingness of Hamon to show the exit door to the moderate, neoliberal faction of the PS (especially Manuel Valls and Myriam El Khomri) and their differences regarding the EU (Hamon being clearly pro-EU, while Mélenchon demands change in the EU treaties of Maastricht and Lisbon to support the European project) are so far keeping the two candidates apart. Will this change before mid-April, providing a chance for the European left?

In neighboring Germany, elections are also approaching. Pressure from the right has hurt the governing centre-right CDU, putting Europe’s “iron lady” in an uncomfortable position. Is it possible that Angela Merkel’s 12-year chancellorship is coming to an end? A few months ago, the answer seemed to be a clear no. However, Martin Schulz’s long anticipated return to German politics has reshuffled the deck, with opinion polls putting the former President of the European Parliament on equal – and sometimes even better – standing with Merkel. Schulz has been criticized by many for being a populist of the left, an accusation he doesn’t renounce. Breaking away from the path towards the centre and the grand coalition with the CDU that his predecessor Sigmar Gabriel took, Schulz is driving the SPD (social-democratic party) back to its original position on the political spectrum. In this context, we shall not exclude the possibility of Schulz forming a coalition government with Die Grünen (The Greens) and – at least – a part of Die Linke (The Left), following the example of Portugal’s alliance of the left. But from today until September, we have a long way to go.

All in all, the left needs to find its character again.

In the time of ideology’s comeback, there is no other option. After years of playing games with the right, it is time for the left to UNITE and fight for what it stands for. The friendly relations of the centre-right with the centre-left during the post-Cold War liberal age have contributed to the rise of the far-right. With the convergence of mainstream parties, conservatives have moved to the far-right, while many leftists have changed allegiances or chosen abstention. The left needs to fight against the right and vice versa. Confrontation was, is and will always be an indispensable part of politics. The time has come for the European left to put the train back on track. Some moves in this direction have already taken place. In the form of government coalitions like in Portugal, single candidacies in electoral processes, or even with pan-European political movements such as Yanis Varoufakis’ and Srećko Horvat’s DiEM25, the left needs to unite and reclaim power.

Yanis Varoufakis, leading figure of DiEM25

Time is running short for Europe. Facing the rise of the extreme-right, we need an answer. The neoliberal agenda and its destructive austerity measures did enough damage already. It is time to design an attractive alternative for the future of Europe. The Left shall finally claim its responsibility and bring about the change we want to see. To paraphrase Marx, leftists of the world, unite!

*This article was originally written and published in Are We Europe‘s online magazine on Unity (March 2017).

Let’s not dismiss democracy

Polytechnic University of Athens, 17 of November 1973. Greece is under a regime of military junta, led by Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos and backed by the U.S.A. Students in the Polytechnic University of Athens have been occupying the building for three days now, broadcasting illegally from the radio and calling civilians to rise against the dictatorship.

The pressure that the students put on the regime becomes more and more intense and some people respond to the calls for a revolution, engaging themselves in fighting against the security forces in the streets of Athens and other cities. At the same time, students inside the University continue to broadcast, always opening their programme with the following phrase: “Here is Polytechneion! People of Greece, the Polytechneion is the flag bearer of our struggle and your struggle, our common struggle against the dictatorship and for democracy!”

The military regime is in an awkward position: while it has promised reforms that will lead to a transition from the junta to a democracy, it also has to deal with these troublesome engineering and architecture students. Three tanks are moved outside of the doors of the University and negotiations begin to get the students safely out of the building. At 3 A.M of the 17^th of November, Prime Minister Spiros Markezinis, with the approval of President Papadopoulos, calls the army to act and a tank breaks down the doors of the University, causing the death of three students (historical sources are divided on that). The illegal radio channel is still broadcasting and the Greek national anthem is sung by the students in the courtyard of the University. Everyone is led outside by the police, but snipers located on tall buildings in the surrounding areas open fire against the liberated students. The final death toll from the violent repression of the uprising reaches up to 24 – historical sources agree on that minimum number. That was the beginning of the end for the 7-year long military junta, which finally fell in July 1974.

Forty-three years after the uprising, Greece is again in a not so pleasant position. Some among the students that were in the Polytechnic University in this revolutionary action, became politicians that have been linked to corruption scandals, while the whole “generation of the Polytechneion” is rightly, to an extent, accused to have brought the country to the situation it is in today. The financial bubble, corruption and bad management came with the transition to democracy and a very well protected economic and political elite was created in the years of the “Metapolitefsi” (Μεταπολίτευση) – the democratic period that started in 1974.

This fact, however, does not undermine the importance of the students’ act of bravery, contrary to what some supporters of the extreme (and not only) right claim, unsuccessfully hiding their desire for a return of a military regime in Greece. It is true that mistakes were made and democracy in Greece was indeed built on unstable ground. However, deteriorating the importance of the students’ uprising in the Polytechnic University of Athens is degrading democracy as a whole. Ceasing to celebrate the 17^th of November is an admission of defeat for the student movement. An admission that the youth’s dreams have been defeated by the adults’ harsh cynicism.

The 17^th of November is and should be a day of celebration and commemoration for all democrats in Greece, a day of gratitude to everyone in the world who has been fighting for democratic ideals and against repression. One of the students’ main chants, “ψωμί-παιδεία-ελευθερία” (bread-education-freedom) is a demand that should not be dismissed as an old-fashioned and outdated one. Seeing the way the world is going today, with inequalities rising and a neo-right/neo-fascist reactionary revival opposing the liberal hegemony of the last decades, we really need chants like this and days like the 17^th of November. To take a step back, to evaluate the situation, to go back and reflect upon the meaning of democracy. Demos (δήμος) and kratos (κράτος). The power of the community, the people. Let’s stand up and claim what is ours!