Greece

By using the police, judiciary and the threat of imprisonment to silence internal opposition, Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is seeking to revive the 'Ottoman fantasy' and to reinvent, bit by bit, the Turkish state established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In this, Erdoğan, the leader of the country's Justice and Development Party (AKP), has the unconditional backing of both Turkish nationalists and Islamists. The aims of this new regime are clear: to re-establish the historic power of ...
read more "Erdoğan’s fantasy of a Turkish nationalist, Islamist empire poses a serious risk for the world"
The Turkish-Greek tensions at the edge of the AegeanIn a televised speech on 30 August 2020 in the presence of senior figures from the country's military, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared: "We will not run away from combat, nor will we shrink from it when we have to mourn martyrs. But are those squaring up to us in the Mediterranean and the disputed zones ready to make the same sacrifices?" This was widely seen as a threat of war, whether realistic or not – a threshold had been crossed. A few days later, it was ...
read more "A gas dispute or an attempt to shake up the regional order?"

From Transit Hub to Dead End

Marianthi Anastasiadou, Athanasios Marvakis, Panagiota Mezidou, Marc Speer
A Chronicle of IdomeniIn spring 2016, after the formalized corridor across the Balkans was closed entirely, the informal refugee camp in Idomeni (at the border between the Greece and the Republic of Macedonia) was captured in the media glare for months. The story of Idomeni is, however, much more than the spectacle of a few months of human suffering and humanitarian aid. It started long before and continues until today. In the first chapter, it is described, how, and why, Idomeni became an important site of transit migration, with a growing number of migrants using ...
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Golden Dawn on Trial

Dimitris Psarras
After many years of bloody action on the streets, the leaders and officials of Golden Dawn are in the dock facing charges of directing and participating in a criminal organisation. No special legislation or political intervention was required. All that was needed was the state’s decision to allow the criminal code to be applied and the combining of dozens of case files on the activities of Golden Dawn’s hit squads. The representatives of the Nazi organisation like to talk about a “conspiracy” and “political persecution”. They deny any relationship with national ...
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On 20 April started the trial against members of the nazi party Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi). As presently one of the most important trials in Greece, it receives significant attention, not only in Greece but also worldwide. The trial represents a societal and juridical milestone in the handling of neo-Nazism and regards all of us.The liaison office of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung in Athens supports the initiative Golden Dawn Watch, an observatory that monitors the trial against Golden Dawn. At the end of each day a summary report in English and Greek ...
read more "Golden Dawn Watch – Keep your eyes open!"

Energy Democracy in Greece

Sean Sweeney, January 2015
SYRIZA’s Program and the Transition to Renewable PowerJanuary 25, 2015 was a historic day: the people of Greece chose to break with austerity policies. They elected SYRIZA—the Coalition of the Radical Left—as the largest party in parliament, Alexis Tsipras will become prime minister. The importance of this victory for the left in Greece, Europe, and indeed the world should not be underestimated.But now the hard work of actually governing begins. SYRIZA is entering government facing enormous economic, social, and environmental challenges. In addition, the party ...
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As a member of the Greek SYRIZA Party Yiannis Milios explains how the debt crisis affects Greece and presents his thoughts on possible alternatives. This interview was made at the conference "Alternative Solutions to the Debt Crisis", 6-8 March 2014.
Edited and with an introduction by Dimitris Christopoulos. Authors: Dimitris Christopoulos, Dimitris Kousouris, Dimosthenis Papadatos-Anagnostopoulos, Clio Papapantoleon, Alexandros SakelariouThis study does not cover ultra-right political culture in Greece in a general way, nor even Golden Dawn per se, but poses a simpler question: How is to be explained that Golden Dawn is being treated by the State as another organization in the mould of the “17 November” group, despite the obvious fact that the latter,...
read more "Mapping Ultra-Right Extremism, Xenophobia and Racism within the Greek State Apparatus"

The rise of the neo-Nazi party ‘Golden Dawn’ in Greece

Dimitris Psarras, September 2013 - September 2014
Neo-Nazi mobilization in the wake of the crisisOne of the most significant repercussions of the economic, social and political crisis in Greece is the emergence of the openly National Socialist group Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) on the Greek political scene. The organization arose only a few years after the Greek military junta (1967-1974), but until 2009 it existed only at the right-wing fringes of society, going mostly unnoticed by the general public. Since the official establishment of Chrysi Avgi in 1980 – and regardless of its’ so...
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Media activist Andrea Plöger from Timecode e.V. reports in the German Journal "Analyse und Kritik" on the right of asylum in Greece, the situation of migrants and on the attacs by members of the neofascist political party "Golden Dawn". She abords the same topic in a video. Andrea participated in December 2012 in a joint seminar of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels and the Liaison office in Athens on European and Greek migration policy.>>Article in German in ak 597, January 18th, 2013>>Seminar on European and Greek ...
read more "Greece serves as a test arena for the abolishment of the right of asylum"