Anastasiadis: A northern threat
«There are many possible answers to the question of why Thessaloniki became the site of political murders. All of them, however, all have a common factor: the specific historic identity of the city that occupies a privileged, key position in its broader historic region,» said Professor Giorgos Anastasiadis of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. «The transformations and deformations of multicultural Thessaloniki, its development into a ‘refugee capital,’ its Greek introversion and – following the tumultuous 1940s that were lethal for the Jewish population of the city – the catalyst of the infamous ‘danger from the north’ exaggerated by the anti-communist civil war nationalist polemic, cloaked the ‘terrorized’ city with fear, fanaticism and bigotry. And, regardless of the extent to which all that paved the way for an accumulation of political crimes, it did however create the ideal context, a favorable climate for abnormal situation, unfettered action and the ‘excessive zeal’ of the authorities and others. «On the tortured ‘body’ of the city where, even today, there are many foreign and local agents, representatives of the state and the parastate (traditional and postmodern), perpetrators and victims are mixed up in a tangle that has yet to be unraveled, in a tricky ‘game’ which far transcends the ‘players’ and figures of local history.»
