In supporting Greece’s treatment of refugees as invaders, the European Union is doing Greece and itself untold harm.
As a journalist writing mainly about refugees for the biggest Greek daily TA NEA, I used to receive many letters from and about refugees and migrants.
Some of them were funny and others painful, some spoke of moving stories of hospitality and others about racism. Now that a major refugee crisis is escalating on the Greek-Turkish borders, I recall one particular letter.
It told a story about undocumented immigrants who had illegally crossed the border between Greece and Turkey.
After being detained in jail on the Greek side for weeks, they embarked on small boats, 80-90 men, women and children in each boat. Under the cover of night, they were shoved secretly towards Turkey, on the Evros River which separates the two countries.
None of them knew what awaited them on the other side. Maybe they’d end up in jail on the Turkish side or fall prey to violent smugglers.
This was in 2006. Looking back, it seems like a happy era of order and predictability, as the world today seems to flirt with the abyss: economic insecurity, the epidemic of coronavirus and the biggest refugee crisis of the century.
Furthermore, we live in an era of fanaticism where it has become difficult to even talk about certain topics. Migration is one of them.
Especially if you step into social media and post something related to refugees, you often get the impression of entering into a Temple of Hatred. A huge wave of conspiracy theories and hatred might fall upon you.
I’m a survivor of communist totalitarianism in Albania and an immigrant who has lived on two continents so far. I can’t remember another period after the fall of the Berlin Wall where human hearts harboured so much hatred and fear towards other human beings, especially towards migrants and refugees.
In recent days, I experienced another massive dose of hatred and fear navigating the world of Greek social and mainstream media.
A perfect storm
I know Greece pretty well. I know the good sides and the dark sides of the country. But now that a major refugee crisis is taking place on the Greek-Turkish borders, I see something I’ve never seen before.
Many Greeks do really believe that their nation might disappear and their state might collapse and that it’s all a well-prepared plan, hatched by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, against them.
Many factors are mobilizing in the current crisis: traditional hostility between Greece and Turkey (manifesting itself today louder than ever; whoever has not lived in Greece has a hard time understanding the “Turkish neurosis” prevailing in the country, where huge amounts of money are spent to prepare for a probable clash in the future with Turkey); an economic crisis that has humiliated a very proud nation of Greeks (with huge egos) and has brought them to their knees; traditional xenophobia and a daily propaganda for the chosen nation surrounded by enemies; the current, xenophobic Greek government and endless cynicism of the Erdogan regime which is intentionally pushing refugees towards the Greek borders; blatant disinformation and conspiracy theories spread by the mainstream Greek media; failure of the EU to deal with the refugee crisis which has left Greece alone in the corner to deal with a European and global problem; tragic mismanagement of billions in funds given to Greece by the EU to face the refugee flows and failure or unwillingness of all Greek governments to seriously deal with the refugee crisis (without extreme populism); collapse of the asylum system worldwide and rise of racism and moral cynicism globally (which actually started in Australia years ago with the tactic “be cruel to refugees so that others will be deterred from coming to our shores”).
When people believe that their country runs the risk of disappearing or that it is under deadly attack from a traditional enemy, as a majority of Greeks seem to believe now, they become capable of destroying others and themselves.
Refugees treated as invaders
The ongoing tragedy of Syrian refugees took a turn this week that will haunt Europeans not for months, but perhaps for decades.
It seems that for the last four years, the EU responded to the biggest refugee crisis of the 21st century with a kind of wishful thinking: that it will miraculously evaporate or that it was all a Turkish affair.
The EU responded to the brute cynicism of Erdogan and his threats of inundating Europe with refugees almost as someone who was awoken from a fragile, beautiful dream by a terrible earthquake.
When the current Greek government, a mixture of moderate conservatives and extreme right agitators, saw the refugees heading to its borders from Turkey, it decided to treat them as a terrorist threat.
The Greek authorities saw the “Turkish invader” on the faces of the refugees, which triggered not only the sealing of the Greek border but also a collective panic.
Crucial international Conventions and laws regarding refugees were suspended. The dinghies with refugees were systematically pushed back by the Greek coast guard.
Refugees coming back to Turkey from Greece denounced violent treatment at the hands of the Greek security forces at the borders.
Groups of vigilantes as well as Greek and foreign neo-Nazis started beating up not only refugees but also curious journalists and NGO activists. Refugee centres were set on fire on the island of Lesvos.
Meanwhile, the Greek media vented into a campaign of conspiracy theories and ultra-nationalism: in this atmosphere, every expression of solidarity with the refugees at the border is labeled as “Turkish propaganda”.
And, the straw that broke the camel’s back – the Greek government announced that it is suspending any financial assistance to already-recognised refugees in Greece.
When the Greek Minister of Immigration Policy, Reception and Asylum was asked why, Notis Mitarachi bluntly answered that his government wants to prevent other refugees from arriving in the country (and, of course, send the message to those in the country that they have to leave).
“An entire society is being trained in cruelty these days,” wrote Xenia Kounalaki, a distinguished Greek journalist.
EU’s dirty work
The political elite of the European Union seem to be happy with the “spectacle.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, praised the Greek government for turning the closed Greek borders into the “shield” of Europe – a symbol which, following the story of Leonidas in Thermopyles, is often used in Greek extreme right discourse about the upcoming clash of races and civilisations.
But who cares about these petty details in the EU today? For those Greeks who are resisting the ultra-nationalist and racist paranoia in their country, von der Leyen had no words.
The European political elite felt happy that the Greeks will do the dirty job of keeping the refugees away from their countries, treating them as invaders and smearing Greece unfairly in the eyes of the world as inhuman, a country that more than any other in Europe has carried the heavy burden of the refugee crisis during these last ten years.
The Greek government, in turn, seems keen to transform the major global refugee crisis into a Greek-Turkish standoff that might drive both countries into a dangerous conflict.
What Greece really needs is urgent help in order to face an extraordinary humanitarian disaster on its borders.
It needs Europe to play its role as a crucial geopolitical player in a region plunged into tragic turmoil. It needs the other European countries to show solidarity by sharing the burden of refugees already in the country.
Instead, Greece embraced a statement from the EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell supposedly directed to refugees – that the border between Turkey and Greece is sealed.
No doubt, the European elite can sleep calmly wishing that millions of hungry and desperate refugees of a ten-year long civil war in Syria, and other refugees from Afghanistan, who live under extremely precarious conditions in Turkey, will behave like law-abiding tourists who, once informed that their flight has been canceled, will book another flight back home.
Unfortunately for them, though, there is no home to go back to. Not for these refugees and not for millions of others who are amassing on the Turkish border.
For the moment, perhaps the sealed borders of Greece succeeded in mitigating the fears of the xenophobes in Europe while making them feel that the European elite and the mob, for the first time after WWII, agree in considering refugees to be invaders.
But that feeling of relief at temporarily keeping the refugees away comes at a huge cost: the complete destruction of the respectability of the European Union in the eyes of the world and of its own citizens.
Long ago, Hannah Arendt warned us what happens when the elite delights watching the mob destroy respectability and human rights…