NEWS

Open letter to Greeks from terror victims’ relatives

Below is the text of the letter written by the group of relatives of victims of Greek terrorist organizations. The group, which held its first demonstration last night – a candlelight vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside Parliament, is called Os Edo (No More), in a clear reference to the Spanish movement against Basque terrorism called Basta Ya. Observance of the Constitution is entrusted to the patriotism of the Greeks who shall have the right and the duty to resist by all possible means against anyone who attempts the violent abolition of the Constitution. Constitution of Greece, Article 120.4 We, the relatives of the victims of terrorism, who are victims ourselves of their acts, are today forming an informal group which is independent of ideologies and party affiliations, in order to stand by each other but also to create a social alliance against terrorism. In a few days, it will be 26 years since the first murder committed by terrorists. Every ideological excuse that these anti-social groups of perverted murderers devised has collapsed. The fossilized slogans, stolen from the past, do not disguise their actions. But even though the time when they could abuse myths and sponge off ideologies to present themselves as fake Robin Hoods is past, the prevailing, well-known lack of action does not facilitate the expression of public horror and disgust at these acts by the cowardly murderers. But today, even the last advocates of the terrorists – the self-deluding people who try to enforce prevailing views and moral codes – are forced to accept that the terrorists have nothing to declare but a complete disregard and lack of respect for human life. The aims of the terrorists have been revealed in their entirety. But our society still keeps silent. And we provide a platform to the murderers to pollute ideas and historical achievements won with struggle and sacrifice. We allow the terrorists to attempt to tailor our society’s opinions according to their perversion. We allow them to insult their victims in public and to enjoy the completion of their perversion by attracting public curiosity for their crimes. They provoke us but we do not rise to the bait. They hurt us but we do not respond. The terrorists turn our silence into an excuse. In this way, they continue their terrorist activity, without any substantial hindrance. The truth is that the merciless killers have managed to harm not only us but the country as well. Often we forget that were it not for their terrorist actions, today there would be no issue of foreign police forces being here, there would be no anti-terrorism law, no damage to our country’s image, among many other things. Today, after 26 years, 42 murders and hundreds of injuries, we express our exasperation. We have watched as one government after the other, irrespective of party, has failed. Not even one terrorist organization has been eliminated. Not even one terrorist has been convicted. Those who killed our people walk free among us. They remain unpunished and provocative. One of the main reasons for this is that the Greek political system refuses to accept that terrorism is a problem for Greece. The terrorists kill defenseless victims, playing at being self-proclaimed judges who are above democratic institutions and depriving people of the self-evident right to life. They have left orphaned children, widows, mothers, fathers and brothers and sisters to mourn in silence. That is who we are. And we are here. We are present to break the silence, to honor our dead, to isolate the killers, so that terrorism can be stamped out, to help as much as we can those who are subjected to violence. The letter is signed by the families of: Richard Welch, Nikos Veloutsos, Giorgos Athanassiades, Nikos Momferatos, Panayiotis Roussetis, Giorgos Theofanopoulos, Giorgos Dougenis, Giorgos Giorgou, Vassilis Bouras, Dimitris Angelopoulos, Alexandros Athanassiades, Anastasios Vernardos, Pavlos Bakoyiannis, Marios Maratos, Michalis Vranopoulos, Costis Peratikos, Virginia Constantinou, Stephen Saunders.

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