Turkish Kurd asylum seeker abducted in Athens and handed over to Turkish authorities

Source

Posted by @IrateGreek

The Movement "Expel Racism" reported yesterday (01 June 2013) that, according to information given by the Turkish police to his lawyers and relatives, Bulut Yayla , a Turkish Kurd asylum seeker in Greece, is now in police custody in Turkey [Update: Lawyers for Refugees and Migrants' Rights report that he was handed over to the police in Edirne. He is now held by the antiterrorism unit in Istanbul after being handed by his Greek-speaking kidnappers to another team that spoke both Greek and Turkish, and then to another that spoke Turkish and English.]. He was abducted in downtown Athens in the evening of 30 May by five men who dragged him in a car and had been unheard from since.

An urgent press release dated 31 May and co-signed by the Greek Council for Refugees, the Social Support Network for Refugees and Migrants, the Team of Lawyers for Refugee and Migrant Rights and the Solidarity Committee for Political Prisoners in Turkey and Kurdistan describe events surrounding his disappearance as follows:

Arbitrary detention of a professional photojournalist in Thessaloniki

Posted by @IrateGreek

A photojournalist denounces the police for detaining him while he was doing his job

Dear colleagues,

With this letter I wish to report an incident that happened to me on May 17th, around 2:20pm on Tsimiski street, near Aristotelous square (Thessaloniki).

As an Associated Press photojournalist in Thessaloniki, I was informed by a colleague that a homeless man was sleeping on a bench in Tsimiski street with a guitar  by his side (just outside the "Folli Follie" shop). Luckily I was at a nearby cafe so I got there in a few minutes.

Initiative against the detention hellholes of Piraeus

Source: Anti-Nazi Initiative of Piraeus

Posted by @csyllas, translated from Greek by @anarresti


After the petition below was approved by the 16 May 2013 plenary of the Council of  Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) in the framework of a discussion on the subject of human rights,  it was decided to set up a team of European lawyers which will visit the  police departments where immigrants and refugees are being held under appalling conditions.

The petition, which was drafted by a group of lawyers and citizens from Piraeus and approved by the Board of Directors of the Piraeus Bar Association, is yet another enlightening testimony on the State's arbitrary treatment of foreign immigrants.

#rbnews international show 18 May 2013: The letter, spirit and (lack of) enforcement of laws against racism in Greece

In this week's edition of the #rbnews international show, we continued our series about fascism and antifascism in Greece with an interview with @Chiguire79. @Chiguire79 is a lawyer and friend of radiobubble, and he explained to us the existing legal framework against racism and its shortcomings but also what we can expect from the new proposed bill against racism, which was finally brought to parliament yesterday.

You can read more about the proposed bill here. You can also find the rest of the shows in this series under the tag fascism and antifascism series.

And of course, you can listen to the podcast after the jump.

Update on the teachers' strike and civil mobilization - 15 May 2013

Posted by @IrateGreek

Flyer prepared by the Petroupoli Parents'
Union, demanding free public education for all

Regional teachers' unions (ELME) voted yesterday on the proposal to strike put forward by the Federation of Secondary Education Public School Teachers (OLME) to stage a strike on the first day of the national university entry examinations on 17 May and then to continue with a five-day strike on 20-24 May. The Communist-affiliated labour union PAME came up with a counter-proposal to hold a strike on 16-17 May only.

Participation was very high nationwide in the ELME assemblies, which voted massively in favour of the strike proposed by OLME, despite an order for civil mobilization of teachers issued preemptively by the government that came in effect today at noon. Under the terms of civil mobilization, teachers who actually go on strike face the risk of losing their jobs, or worse. It remains to be seen if the strike will actually take place or if the vote was merely a gesture of defiance by teachers towards the government.

The demonstration held on Monday evening in Athens against civil mobilization and the vote of the ELME assemblies did however not deter the government, which proceeded today with commandeering all school buildings and asking the police to guard them in order to avoid occupations of school buildings to prevent the exams from taking place. In a statement released today, Amnesty International says that "the use of special government measures to thwart a proposed teachers’ strike in Greece violates the country’s international human rights obligations" and calls the measures "disproportionate and unnecessary."

A timeline of fascist activity in Greece over the past year

On the occasion of the anniversary of the May 2012 elections, in which Greece's neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn entered parliament with 7% of the vote, @galaxyarchis prepared a timeline of the most important events related to the rise of fascism in modern Greece.

6 May 2012 - 6 May 2013: one year from the Greek general elections of May 2012

By @galaxyarchis, translated from Greek by @anarresti, corrections by @IrateGreek

By Spyros Derveniotis
Translation: "Dirty immigrants, dying
where the Greeks eat!

Greece recently had two very important political anniversaries. More specifically, May 6th, 2013, marked three years since the adoption of the Memorandum which caused the greatest political rearrangements in the country's recent history, and one year since the 2012 general elections, when those dramatic changes were first expressed through the ballot box. Greek society is living in a period where political time is condensed to such a degree, that the changes occurring every month and every week can hardly be conceived by its collective consciousness. Since the May 2012 elections, which did not lead to the formation of a new government but to repeat elections a month later, the country's image and its political landscape kept changing at a rapid pace until today. In light of a greater tribute to the one year anniversary since last June's elections, when today's three-party coalition government came to power, we take a look at the facts and data which changed in this past year, starting from last May's elections.

The Kallipoli police station: A little Guantanamo and its little people

Posted by @csyllas, translated/adapted from Greek by @IrateGreek


The following is an eyewitness account from Giorgos Karystinos after a visit to the Kallipoli police station in Piraeus on 03 May 2013

#rbnews weekly bulletin 27 April - 3 May 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek

There was no #rbnews international show this week due to the orthodox Easter holiday, but the show's text companion is online anyway. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international weekly bulletin 19-25 January 2013

The text companion of the #rbnews international show of 26 January 2013 is online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international show - 27 October 2012

Our guest on the #rbnews international weekly show today was Aris Chatzistefanou (@xstefanou), of Debtocracy and Catastroika fame. We discussed Golden Dawn, its links with the Greek police force, the many failures of Greek media to handle these issues and the publication of the Lagarde list" in Hot Doc magazine. The weekly news section is a little longer than usual, as there were many things to report this week.
You can listen to the podcast after the jump.

#rbnews international show - 20 October 2012

On the #rbnews international weekly show on 20 October 2012, @IrateGreek and @tsimitakis discussed the news of the week with SYRIZA's chief economist Yiannis Milios. Topics include the Israeli boarding of the Estelle, which was sailing to Gaza, the 18 October general strike and EU summit, and the links between Golden Dawn and the police,which were exposed in international media. You can listen to the podcast after the jump.

#rbnews international show - 13 October 2012

In the third #rbnews international show of this season, we discussed Angela Merkel's visit to Greece and the police operation it entailed, Golden Dawn's antics in parliament and in front of the Chytirio theatre (see more here and here) and the publication of the IMF report detailing the shortcomings of austerity policies on the day it was made official that unemployment in Greece is above 25%.
Our guest this week was the editor-in-chief of the English-language version of Kathimerini newspaper, Nikos Konstantaras. You can follow Nikos on Twitter @nkonstan.
The podcast is available after the jump.

Human Rights Group rings alarm bell for HIV Positive women held in prison

By @zoemavroudi

“Their lives are in danger.” Human Rights Group rings alarm bell for HIV Positive women held in prison for alleged threat to public health

On April 29 2012, shortly before the Greek May 6 election, dozens of women allegedly working illegally as sex workers were rounded up and taken into custody by Greek police in Athens. Rapid HIV testing was performed on them by Greek authorities at police stations where they were told they were being led for identification purposes. They were subsequently diagnosed HIV positive and were charged with “the intention of causing heavy bodily harm” while photographs of 17 of them at first, were published on the official Greek police website.

The case has caused uproar both in Greece and internationally for what human rights groups have called a clear violation of international laws for the protection from the deprivation of one’s freedom, right to consent to medical testing and medical confidentiality.