Category Archives: Greece

Cyprus needs two-state solution, claims head of Turkish-occupied north

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Ersin Tatar, president of unrecognised Turkish republic, says north will otherwise become more dependent on Turkey

Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus will become ever more dependent on Turkey, and the hydrocarbon reserves surrounding Cyprus could be left unexploited, unless a solution to the 50-year dispute over the partitioned island is reached soon, Ersin Tatar, the president of the unrecognised “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, has said.

Speaking from his presidential palace in the divided city of Nicosia, right by the UN-policed green line with Greek Cyprus, Tatar is trying to find ways to persuade others to “think out[side] the box” and join him in advocating for a two-state solution for the island.

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Greek PM survives confidence vote but phone-tapping scandal rumbles on

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Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras describes Kyriakos Mitsotakis as mastermind of ‘a criminal network’

Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has survived a no-confidence vote over a phone-tapping scandal that has shocked the nation and sparked mounting concern in the EU.

After three days of rancorous debate, the censure motion was defeated on Friday by 156 votes to 143 in the 300-seat chamber of deputies. With passions animated by disclosures of wiretaps being placed on politicians, army top brass and journalists, the debate had run into the wee hours before the vote.

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Opposition file motion of no confidence over Greek ‘Watergate’ scandal

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Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused of orchestrating mass wiretaps of political allies and foes

The leader of Greece’s main opposition party has tabled a motion of no confidence against the government, accusing the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, of orchestrating mass wiretaps of political allies and foes.

“For the past six months, Greek society has been witness to disclosures of an inconceivable number of phone taps, the deepest deviation from rule of law that the country has seen in its modern history,” said Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the leftist Syriza party, as he submitted the motion. “We have a historic duty to act.”

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Funeral of Greece’s last king, Constantine II, takes place in Athens

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Royal who reigned for barely three years before being exiled is laid to rest six days after death was announced

He was a king without a crown, a monarch without a kingdom, for longer than most can remember. But for a few hours in Athens on Monday, Constantine II, the royal who reigned for barely three years before being forced into exile was king of the Hellenes again – or at least of thousands of his former subjects.

From a little before dawn, six days after his death was announced at the age of 82, Greek monarchists young and old, rich and poor, lined up patiently to pay their last respects.

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Long-awaited trial of 24 aid workers accused of espionage starts in Lesbos

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Trial of Sarah Mardini and fellow defendants lifts lid on ‘farcical’ treatment of humanitarians, say campaigners

Sarah Mardini, the refugee immortalised in the recent Netflix movie, The Swimmers, was the talk of Lesbos this week as the long-awaited trial of 24 aid workers accused of espionage, got underway on the island.

Eight years after the Syrian and her younger sister, Yusra, saved 18 fellow passengers from a sinking dinghy off the isle, it was Mardini’s name that stood out as appeals court judge, Styliani Spyridonidou, conducted a roll call of defendants at the start of a hearing that has fuelled widespread human rights concerns. But,although Mardini’s story hogged the Greek headlines, the 27-year-old student, accused of spying after returning to the island to assist refugees, was not present.

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Last king of Greece, Constantine II, dies aged 82

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Constantine was forced into exile in 1967 after clashing with military rulers, who later abolished monarchy

Greece’s former King Constantine II, whose nine-year reign coincided with one of the most turbulent periods in the country’s political history, has died at a private hospital in Athens, his doctors announced late on Tuesday. He was 82.

Constantine, a cousin of British monarch King Charles III, died “of a stroke”. He was admitted to an Athens hospital last week with breathing problems, Greek media reported.

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Stephen Fry calls for return of Parthenon marbles to Athens

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Removing sculptures from Greece was like ‘removing Eiffel Tower from Paris’, says actor

The removal of the Parthenon sculptures from Athens was akin to removing the Eiffel Tower from Paris or Stonehenge from Salisbury, Stephen Fry has said, as he called for the return of the classic Greek sculptures to their country of origin.

The actor and writer, who has been advocating for the return of the sculptures held at the British Museum in London, said there was a “win-win” solution to the centuries-old debate over ownership of the Parthenon marbles. He called for a cultural partnership under which other incredible Greek artefacts would be exhibited in the UK for the first time.

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Greek MEP Eva Kaili to stay in custody after corruption charges, says court

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Kaili is one of four charged with corruption and money laundering in relation to Qatar and will go on trial in Belgium

Eva Kaili, the Greek member of the European parliament at the centre of a cash for influence scandal implicating Qatar, will remain in jail pending trial, a Belgian court has decided.

“In its order this morning, the pre-council chamber extended the pre-trial detention of EK by one month,” said a statement from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. If Kaili chooses to appeal against the decision within 24 hours, she will appear before a chamber at the Brussels court of appeal within 15 days.

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Pope Francis orders Parthenon marbles held by Vatican be returned to Greece

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Three 2,500-year-old pieces will be ‘donated’ to Greece’s Archbishop Ieronymos II amid wider conversation about future of Parthenon marbles held by Britain

Pope Francis has decided to return to Greece three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon that have been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for two centuries.

The Vatican said in a brief statement that the pope was giving them to Archbishop Ieronymos II, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church and Greece’s spiritual leader, as a “donation” and “a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth”.

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European parliament may ban Qatari officials from premises

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President Roberta Metsola promises wide-ranging reforms aimed at tackling ‘cash for influence’ scandal

The European parliament will consider banning Qatari officials from its premises in response to a “cash for influence” investigation that has become the biggest scandal in the institution’s history.

The parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, said the assembly’s senior leaders would discuss a possible ban and that a “wide-ranging reform” package would be implemented in response to a Belgian police investigation that has led to four people being charged with money laundering and corruption, including a serving MEP.

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Greek MEP at centre of Qatar corruption inquiry has hearing postponed

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Eva Kaili awaits bail decision as lawyer says prison strike stopped her attending court

The Greek MEP at the centre of a corruption scandal engulfing the European parliament will have to wait in prison until next week to find out whether she will be released on bail pending a trial.

The Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili is one of four suspects arrested last week in connection with a major police investigation into cash for influence involving Qatar’s government.

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Greece: thousands march after death of Roma boy shot in police chase

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The 16-year-old was shot in the head after reportedly driving from service station without paying for 20 euros of petrol

Thousands of protesters have marched through Thessaloniki and Athens, as Roma community leaders appealed for calm after the death of a teenager shot in the head last week during a police chase.

The 16-year-old boy, who has not been officially named, died on Tuesday, eight days after he was shot by a police motorcyclist after reportedly driving away from a service station without paying for 20 euros of petrol.

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Greek MEP stripped of EU vice-president role amid Qatar scandal

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MEPs vote to remove role from Eva Kaili, one of four charged in corruption and bribery investigation

The European parliament has voted to strip a Greek MEP implicated in a bribery and corruption scandal of her role as one of the body’s vice-presidents.

MEPs voted by 625 votes to one, with two abstentions, to remove Eva Kaili as one of the parliament’s 14 vice-presidents, following a decision in favour of the move by the assembly’s senior leaders.

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Police search European parliament offices as bribery inquiry grows

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Belgian prosecutors say 20 searches conducted since Friday, prompting warning that EU’s credibility at stake

Belgian police have searched European parliament offices as part of a growing investigation into alleged bribery and corruption, as senior EU leaders warned the credibility of the bloc was at stake.

Belgium’s federal prosecutor announced on Monday it had carried out 20 searches since Friday, including 19 at private homes and one at the European parliament offices.

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Greece passes intelligence bill banning the sale of spyware

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Vote comes as government tries to mitigate impact of a phone-tapping scandal involving Pasok party leader

Greece’s parliament has passed a bill overhauling the country’s intelligence service (EYP) and banning the sale of spyware, as the government tries to mitigate the impact of a phone-tapping scandal still under investigation.

The case has turned up the heat on the conservative government, which faces elections in 2023. It emerged in August when Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the socialist Pasok party, Greece’s third-largest, claimed the EYP listened to his conversations in 2021.

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Migrants face ‘unprecedented rise in violence’ in EU borders, report finds

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Asylum seekers beaten and sexually assaulted before being illegally removed, says Border Violence Monitoring Network

Thousands of migrants and asylum seekers are facing “an unprecedented rise in violence” at the EU’s border, including beatings, forced undressing and sexual assaults, according to a report exposing thousands of alleged illegal expulsions in harrowing detail.

Activists interviewed 733 individuals trying to reach Europe in 2021 and 2022, who provided grim testimony of group pushbacks that affected more than 16,000 others. The work updates the 2020 edition of The Black Book of Pushbacks, offering a total compilation of 1,633 individuals telling of illegal expulsions affecting nearly 25,000 people since 2017.

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Romany leaders appeal for calm after second day of protest violence in Greece

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Outrage continues over police shooting of teenage boy, with clashes erupting in major urban centres

Romany leaders in Greece have appealed for calm following a second day of violent protests triggered by the police shooting of a teenage boy, who is in intensive care.

Outrage over the incident, which took place in Thessaloniki when the 16-year-old reportedly sped out of a petrol station without paying a €20 fuel bill, has resulted in thousands spilling on to the streets and clashes erupting in major urban centres.

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Thousands take to streets in Greece in protest over 2008 shooting of teenager

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Police tactics again in spotlight after shooting of Romany boy on eve of annual march for Alexis Grigoropoulos

Thousands of people have joined protests in Athens, Thessaloniki and other Greek cities to commemorate the fatal police shooting of a teenager, hours after violence erupted over a similar incident in the north of the country.

Police estimated more than 11,000 protesters had joined protests on Tuesday amid fears of renewed clashes as a Romany boy, shot in the head by an officer, fought for his life.

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Violent protests in Greece after Romany boy shot by police

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About 1,500 people take part in protest march in Thessaloniki with teenager in critical condition

Violent protests have broken out in Greece’s second-largest city over the police shooting of a Romany teenager after he allegedly filled his vehicle at a fuel station and drove off without paying.

The 16-year-old boy was being treated at a Thessaloniki hospital where he was in critical condition. The officer who allegedly shot him in the head was arrested and suspended from duty, police in the northern city said.

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No 10 rules out law change for return of Parthenon marbles

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No plans to amend legislation that could stop removal back to Greece, after secret talks held over their future

Rishi Sunak has ruled out changing a law that could prevent the British Museum from handing the Parthenon marbles back to Greece, after it emerged that trustees have held secret talks with the Greek prime minister about the future of the artefacts.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said there were no plans to amend legislation under which a museum can dispose of objects within its collection only in very limited circumstances. However, it could decide to lend part of the collection to Greece.

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