By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
In 1865, six young men from good families in a rural town in America founded an organisation to defend the purity of their race. Hiding behind white hoods, they killed people, burned property, raped men and women, and spread terror, finding millions of supporters. The defeat of the South in the Civil War, the economic depression and the new slave policy provided an ideal socio-economic and political environment to target groups of people. Later, in his memoirs, one of the protagonists wrote: “We thirsted for only one thing, the possibility of having fun in some way.” Violence, then, was and is, for some sick people, entertainment. From rural southern America two centuries ago to the glamorous Limassol of 2024.
Within a week there have been four attacks on foreigners working to deliver food and drinks. The so-called deliverymen, who come and go on the streets in a hurry to bring to our home our souvlakia, our pizza, our coffee, our dessert, whatever we crave. A service we want, but that very few locals are willing to do under the working conditions that exist. So while we want the service, just like we want someone to walk the dog, clean the house, pick the potatoes, clean the restaurant kitchens, to care for and even clean up our elderly, we don’t want them. They should leave and we’ll do all this ourselves.
Bunches of young people gather in public places with the sole purpose of attacking any foreigner who has the misfortune to pass them by. Or they place an order via a platform, waiting for their victim, whom they beat, swear at and rob. The frequency of these attacks, some reported and some not, does not allow us to speak of isolated incidents. Nor can we be complacent. We have hatched racists and fascists. We are concerned about the existence of foreigners among us, but we should be more concerned about the actions of locals against foreigners, against homosexuals, against anyone who they don’t like or don’t agree with their way of life.
And to return to history: The Ku Klux Klan was disbanded (though decades later it was reconstituted by others) when the governor of the state where it was operating brought the militia and the military out, made arrests and imposed punishments. On our end, the police are watching.
