Yearbook 2008
Greece. According to
Countryaah reports, Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and several other
cities were shaken by crows during most of December. Concern
was triggered by police in the Athens district of Exarchia
on December 6 shooting a 15-year-old boy, Alexandros
Grigoropoulos, to death. Students at Athens' prestigious
Technical College became leading in violent protests against
the police and also against the government and its economic
policies. Banks and shops were looted. The country had on
several occasions earlier in the year been shaken by general
strikes in protest of the government's austerity and
privatization program. Schools, hospitals, airports, ports
and other publicly funded operations closed when several
million employees stayed home from their jobs. The protests
were aimed specifically at the plans for lower pensions and
increased retirement age. The actions continued after
Parliament voted on the pension proposal on March 20. A
strike on the same scale on October 21 was also a protest
against the government's intention to set aside € 28 billion
to rescue banks threatened by bankruptcy in connection with
the international financial crisis.
During the year, a number of reports of abuse of asylum
seekers and other violations of human rights came. In April,
the UNHCR asked the EU countries to stop sending refugees
back to G. According to the UNHCR, Greek authorities could
not guarantee the basic rights of asylum seekers, such as
legal aid and interpreters. During the summer, the medical
aid organizations Médecins du Monde and Médecins Sans
Frontières reported very difficult conditions on refugee
facilities in the Greek island world. On the island of
Patmos, for example, 140 refugees, among them many women and
children, had first lived trapped in a former disco and
then, when the authorities stopped paying the rent for the
disco, were forced out on the street. The Greek government
believed that the EU should take greater account of G: s
exposed location at the Union's southeastern border and
invest more money on the Greek refugee reception. Sweden did
not obey the UNHCR's request, but continued to refer asylum
seekers back to G. Norway, however, ended.
Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis became the first Greek
governor in almost fifty years to visit Turkey on January
23-25. In April, G. and Russia signed an agreement to build
an oil pipeline to supply G. and other EU countries with
Russian natural gas.
Two people died in an earthquake near the city of Patras
on Peloponnese on June 8.
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