Blodgett News Analysis: Fed-Up Greeks Take Drastic Action Against Migrants

(News Analysis by Todd Blodgett)

Angry citizens on the Greek border island of Lesbos jeered from the pier, at the boat, overloaded with Turkish migrants hoping to disembark on Greek soil.  Those aboard were young and middle-aged adults, a pregnant woman, senior citizens and small children. Guiding them were volunteers from an inter-national refugee organization, who steer migrants to nations which might accept them.  But the hisses and contemptuous glares didn’t prevent those would-be emigres from disembarking; it was the threats, backed up by guns and knives, wielded by Greeks who’ve had all they’ll take. 200 miles north, in the city of Evros, armed farmers, unemployed factory workers, pensioners, and college students – wearing heavy boots and dark clothing – marched, briskly, along back roads as part of a night patrol.  Routinely, they apprehend migrants crossing Greece’s land border with Turkey, and force them back. Fed-up, everyday citizens are taking matters into their hands, and no one is stopping them. In many instances, local police support and assist these efforts. In border towns, irate residents have formed civilian patrols to round up migrants; roadblocks are placed, preventing the invaders from reaching refugee camps.  Many have learned, painfully, that even attempting to stop these vigilantes can be dangerous. Aid workers and reporters have been physically attacked after assisting migrants. In 2015, when the Syrians arrived, the compassion and generosity for which Greeks are renowned resulted in warm welcomes for the newcomers. But now, it’s hit its limit.

As a lady named Fotini told The New York Times: “When the Syrians started coming five years ago, we gave them clothes, we cooked for them; we bounced their babies.”  But now, she said, “we can’t take it anymore. We want our lives back.” Fotini’s patience isn’t often evidenced in places like Lesbos – where, recently, locals violently assaulted the head of a United Nations refugee agency, and a German photo-journalist and a correspondent.  The victims of those assaults left days later. Few Greeks want such transplants replicating, in their country, the decrepit conditions of the third-world nations from where they came. Many migrants won’t assimilate, and can’t, because of the fundamental incompatibility of these peoples and cultures.  Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, condemned Turkey, saying, “Turkey has become an official trafficker of migrants to the European Union; Greece doesn’t accept this situation.” In retaliation, Turkey’s Interior Minister, Syleyman Soylu, urged Turks to cross into Greece from anywhere along the border, even at unauthorized points of entry.  Big mistake: the Greeks tear-gassed, shot and killed migrants on March 2, 2020, as they illegally tried to cross.

Turkey’s response to these efforts, called “pushbacks”?  Mr. Soylu announced on March 5 that Turkey would deploy 1,000 armed special forces officers, many with Zodiac boats, to fight such pushbacks.  Mitsotakis, describing “the problem” as “an asymmetric threat and illegal invasion of thousands of people that threatens our territory”, warned that Greece has “every right to protect our borders.”  If anyone thought that the Greek Prime Minster was bluffing, they were wrong. According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), on March 17, “Greek security forces and unidentified armed men at the Greece-Turkey land border have detained, assaulted, sexually assaulted, robbed and stripped asylum seekers and migrants, then forced them back to Turkey.”  On March 6, according to Human Rights Watch, large groups of Turks were involuntarily “returned” to Turkey, “injured, and almost naked, “after Greek security forces had beaten, robbed, stripped, and deported” them.

At official detention centers, these Turks and Syrians said, Greeks confiscated their cell phones, cash and luggage, before subjecting them to electric shocks.  Then, they said, they were beaten with metal rods, and punched, kicked, and stomped.

Women and children were among the migrants who were subjected to this treatment, according to the Human Rights Watch.  In one seven-day period, 38 incidents involving over 4,000 migrants transpired, with some of the pushed-back, would-be asylum seekers having tried, multiple times, to get into Greece.  These vigilante groups are becoming increasingly common, and violent. More and more frequently, Greek soldiers and police officers, and private security personnel working with these angry, determined, armed private citizens, are taking whatever action they want, to keep out those they don’t want.

Who can blame these Greeks?  Their culture, their economy, lifestyle, heritage – their very country – is under siege.  They’re simply not going to take it anymore. Not only is their government not stopping them; the Greek government condones these actions; soldiers assist local cops and private citizens in removing those that, to the Greeks, are undesirable.  The Wall Street Journal, The London Independent, and other publications, have released video of a Greek Coast Guard craft being maneuvered capsize a rubber raft with Turkish migrants aboard. As another Greek Coast Guard boat pulls up next to the raft, Greek sailors attack the migrants with long metal poles.

International journalist Borzou Daragahi wrote, “more than 117,000 migrants have crossed into Europe – but Greece says no more than 1,000” have made it into Greece.  That’s because the Greeks, now, are conveying to the world that trying to sneak into their county can be very unhealthy.

Americans who fear similar scenarios playing out in the near future, on US soil should consider what’s happening in Greece.  Armed US citizens could easily turn back far more illegal aliens, and even more efficaciously, than the Greeks who are now doing it.  After all, in the United States, there are more privately-owned firearms than there are Americans. Will a re-elected President Trump take the same position as Greek’s Prime Minister?  Would Trump either condone such draconian actions, and direct US law enforcement to leave such Americans alone, as they push back illegals? Would anyone be shocked if he ordered the US Border Patrol to assist with such private efforts?   Regardless of who wins the 2020 presidential election, what’s now happening in Greece could easily happen here, on US soil. How will Americans deal with these invasions? To obviate, or at least mitigate, such mayhem from being replicated here, Americans should support President Trump’s efforts to deport the illegals, protect our borders and build the wall.  That’s because inevitably, one way or another, Americans – like our Greek friends – WILL push back. It’s only a matter of how it gets done and who does it. Just ask Fotini.

Todd Blodgett of Clear Lake served on President Reagan’s White House staff and on the 1988 campaign staff of Vice President George H.W. Bush.  He also worked for the Republican National Committee, and the FBI, in Washington, D.C.  His website is ToddBlodgett.us.