The apartment block of terror

‘Ef. Syn’ entered an apartment block in Omonoia, where Golden Dawn members mark the doors of flats with the celtic cross of the nazis and Ku Klux Klan. At nights, they storm and beat without mercy those residing in the flats under the command of a female former candidate MP.

By Giannis Baskakis – Photos: Marios Valasopoulos

No matter how much Golden Dawn repudiates its nazism in order to avoid heavy sentences, its practices and the symbols it uses betray it. ‘Ef. Syn’ found itself in the ‘nest of snakes’. It entered a block of flats where a Golden Dawn candidate MP lives and presents the chilling images of what was witnessed.

Veranzerou st., next to Omonoia square. We go through the entrance. Up the stairs. Getting at the first flat, the image sends chills down the spine. On the wood door we see a ‘celtic cross’. The symbol of ‘White Terror’ and ideology of white supremacy. It reminds the one Ku Klux Klan used. It is the very same symbol that Neonazis all around the world use.

In the flat there are immigrants living. We soon perceive that it is not the only marked door. We visit more floors and see the same sign. We are reminded of the practice of the Nazis who in April 1933 proceeded to their first actiion against Jewish citizens. They would inscribe the ‘star of David’ with black and yellow paint on thousands of doors and windows of retail stores, offices and houses belonging to Jews. And then came relentless assaults against them. The Greek neonazis have the same purpose. To denote to the storm troops where they should strike.

The attack against Abdul

One of these doors bears the signs of intrusion. It shows that those living there, were recently attacked. On another floor we meet Abdul from Afghanistan. The nazi symbol was on his door too. On Saturday 7 September at 10pm he was attacked by three persons. ‘I tried to unlock the door to enter the house, when 2 pumped up men snatched me from behind my neck, said they are with the police and that I must open the door and give them my papers and my money’. ‘Then, Miss Dimopoulou’ appeared, he tells us.

Georgia Dimopoulou was candidate with Golden Dawn in the first district of Athens. By coincidence, she lives on the fifth floor. ‘She was guarding the door so that I couldn’t leave. They started hitting my head and were saying “whatever this woman tells you to do, you will do. She is the boss of this block of flats”’, Abdul adds. ‘I got dizzy from the blows. They told me “you will leave from here. If you don’t, I’ll chop your head off”. I was afraid they are going to kill me and started crying. I was scared about my children who were, thankfully, away at that time’.

Abdul stays there with his two children for the last 4 years. His wife got political asylum in Sweden, where she moved with their other four children. She is there awaiting family unification. That attack by Golden Dawn members lasted approximately 15 minutes. After they turned the flat upside down to find money, they left with a threat: ‘If you go to the police, I will send you to the hospital. The police are friends of us. There is nothing you can do’, they told him. Two days later, at noon on 9 September the story repeated: ‘I was smoking at the entrance of the block when Dimopoulou came and then two fascists. They wanted to beat me up so I run to lock myself in the flat. They shouted at me: “if you don’t leave, we will come tonight, ten of us, and we will kill your children”’ Abdul says.

The Lady with the bat

Spring 2009. The housing squat by homeless immigrants,at the old Appeals Court on Sokratous street,  as well as a building on Veranzerou street where Somalis used to live, occassioned the spread of far-rght extremist activities of groups that presented themselves as ‘indignated citizens’. Georgia Dimopoulou had a leading role in the attackes carried out back then. ‘She was after the Somalis with a bat. She was always carrying the bat and telling the pumped up guys who to attack, while she was claiming she is working with EYP (National Intelligence Service)’, a resident in the area tells us. The last time we were alarmed about her was at the trial of Kon. Mountzouris and S. Michael. She was one among other Golden Dawn members who filed the ‘multi-case’. Today she has a leading role in Golden Dawn activity in the area of Omonoia, while those who know her, decribe her as ‘dynamic’ and ‘hysteric’.

Amongst the residents – Greek and immigrants – fear and terror has taken over, even today. The storm troops carry out daily ‘patrols’, threaten immigrants, scare customers out of shops and demand that immigrants leave the country. They often physically assault them. “The smashed my shop, the windows, the cash register, they plundered and hit me. The only thing I want is to work and sleep in  peace’, a shop-owner from Bangladesh.

Bullies

Similar attacks by Golden Dawn are not reported to the police and when they do, they get burried. ‘Unfortunately many people voted for them because they naively thought they are going to…beat the established politicians and those responsible for our pathetic condition. Big mistake. The ‘bullies’ of Golden Dawn don’t take on those with power. They beat helpless immigrants, activists and eventually they killed Pavlos Fyssas. Shame and disgrace on them!’ Nikos Mpoukias, a houseowner in the area says.

Article translated from ‘Ef. Syn’ newspaper, published 7 October 2013. Available online  at: http://www.efsyn.gr/?p=127776.