Following a murder, a rally against hatred
RETHYMNON – Max Frisch once said of his native Switzerland that it had «called for workers, and has been given human beings,» a saying that could also apply to Greece. One only has to consider the tragic case of 17-year-old Edion Yahai, who was stabbed 17 times on New Year’s Day in Rethymnon, on the island of Crete, simply because he was an Albanian. There has been an unprecedented rise in the level of racism and xenophobia in Greece, as well as ultra-nationalist ideologies and practices. It is no coincidence that these phenomena are usually at the expense of groups that are on the fringes of society – economic immigrants, the foreign workers employed in the construction industry or on farms, all comprise the lowest rung of society’s ladder. They usually face some form of overt or covert hostility, which sometimes results in tragedies like that on New Year’s Day. For most people in Rethymnon, and in Crete generally, this was just another ordinary crime. However, it appears that the perpetrators had something else on their minds, although local officials later tried to play it down. Giorgos Nikolaidis, head of the Rethymnon Labor Center, told Kathimerini that the incident had been «anything but racist.» «It could have been done by a Greek to a Greek,» he said. However, an announcement he himself signed along with representatives of 36 other Rethymnon organizations indicates that this is not the case. «Unfortunately, this incident was not an isolated one but the natural outcome of the behavior of certain groups and individuals that in recent years have been trying to impose a climate of intolerance and xenophobia in our town – let us not forget the attack against an immigrant club, attacks on anti-racist students, the despicable attack by the Rethymnon Nationalist Organization at the Institute of Mediterranean Studies during an event on the town’s Ottoman monuments. These incidents are the work of a specific minority which has to be isolated. Apart from anything else, it is foreign to Rethymnon’s democratic tradition. Such situations can be prevented from occurring… if everyone, irrespective of his origins, recognizes the rights of others, the benefits to be gained by peaceful coexistence and cooperation on the part of everyone in the same place. Rethymnon has the capacity to transcend the effects of such unacceptable acts because it has always been a society characterized by moderation and tolerance for foreigners, for ‘others’.» This does seem to be the case, judging from a peaceful rally held by Greeks and Albanians (the latter number over 6,000 in the entire prefecture of Rethymnon). «It is something we had never done in previous years,» said Liliana Salia, representative of the Albanian Forum, who is working her way through a political science degree at the University of Crete. «That is, send the local people a strong message in favor of the two communities’ peaceful coexistence and cohabitation.» As it appears, all those involved bear an enormous responsibility, but no one wants to bear the cost. Perhaps the situation serves the purposes of certain quarters. «It suits the immigrants of other nationalities who attribute every crime to Albanians and so they themselves remain within the pale,» said Professor Skevos Papaioannou, head of the Sociology Department at the University of Crete. The feelings of the Albanians could be summed up in this statement by Luan Patjani. «It is just as much a crime to say that the Cretans are crooks as it is to say that Albanians are. We are all brothers; that is why the rally was not against Cretans, but against racism.»
