On Saturday, July 2, a demonstration against border violence and more specifically, against the systematic and strategic deployment of pushbacks by the Greek State in coordination with the Greek Coast Guard, took place in the centre of Mytilene. The hostile attitude of the local authorities towards an organised demonstration against pushbacks was made clear from the beginning. By the time we started gathering at Sappho Square (the central square of Mitilini), the undercover police officers approached us and cautioned us against marching through the central market road, as we were planning to do.
The reason, they said, was not to disturb the normal functioning of the local market and also, that we had to conform to the rules of the new law on public assemblies. Although we never asked permission from the municipality in order to demonstrate in the first place, as we never do. At the same time, we were suddenly encircled by several riot police units and undercover cops, with some of the former blocking the alleys between the square and the market street.
Despite all odd circumstances, the body of the demonstration, around 50 people, decided to move along the central seafront road and reach the Coast Guard’s headquarters, while on the way shouting slogans such as: “Cops, tv, port officers, all bastards kill together”, “Concentration camps, pushbacks and Manolada, if you are an immigrant this is Greece”, etc. From the beginning of the protest, until its very end, all around us, on both sides of the people marching, as well as at the end of the demonstration, cordons of riot police units were following us at arm’s length; the cops followed us even until the Mpinio squat, which was the final destination of the demonstration, all while a drone, also, flew over our heads, to salute us.
While we faced overwhelming pressure from the police throughout the whole demonstration, our comrades of migrant background noted: ‘In comparison with the other people who take part in the demonstrations we do risk so much more, even though we hold a paper issued by the government, the police and the government can do whatever they want with us. In the past, we suffered great violence at the hands of the police, and this is why we are afraid to face them again. We know that even if we are not doing anything illegal by taking part in a protest, the police can exercise their power over us, for example by accusing us falsely and sending us to prison, slowing down our asylum process, or blocking it completely. Thus, we find ourselves looking at the demonstration from the outside, and hearing people scream “Azadi azadi”, but we cannot join them. We are even scared of clapping our hands for them’.
On that topic, there is the last thing that we should point out about our demonstration. A person that is more or less accustomed to participating in demonstrations organised in Mitilini, could easily observe that such an attitude against 50 people was surely unjustifiable and, clearly, exaggerated. After all, even a passerby could easily notice a peaceful bunch of people with a “STOP THE PUSHBACKS” banner in the front, surrounded by the police. It was an unusual spectacle, we would admit.
To say it in a few words, we know, that underneath all the legal excuses about protesting, that underneath all the police mobilisation on the ground, there is a huge fear. We know it very well, we even heard it in the nervous voice of the undercover police chief officer speaking on the radio; we know that at the very North-East Aegean borders of Greece, all you have to do is to say the magic words: “Stop the pushbacks”, and the roads will flood with the riot police. They are in fear. In their clumsiness they don’t understand that by encircling us, they are not reducing our visibility, but they are clearly making visible their guilt, their continuous attempt to cover up the murders in the open sea of Aegean – “fear death by water” as someone said in the past. They are, obviously, afraid that the racial boundaries between the immigrant and the citizen will fade away into a common ground, and that’s the reason they try to maintain that division, by spreading and imposing the very same fear onto us. So, from our side, let’s say it one more time, and hope it will resonate throughout Greece:
Stop the pushbacks