Masked protesters in Athens have nothing to do with ordinary citizens – Kerob Ekizyan

A few days ago, mass protests took place in the central Syntagma Square in Athens to mark the second anniversary of a rail accident that killed 57 people. The accident occurred in 2023, when a high-speed Athens-Thessaloniki passenger train collided with a freight train in the village of Tempi. The accident killed 57 people, most of whom were students, 81 people were seriously injured, and 99 were slightly injured.

To disperse the demonstrations, the police used tear gas, which was also preceded by the explosion of stun grenades. After the use of tear gas, a group of demonstrators began to choke and leave the area. However, some of the protesters remained in place, some of them threw various objects at the police. The protesters demanded justice and a full investigation into the causes of the tragedy.

Alpha News spoke with Kerob Ekizyan, the editor-in-chief of the “Azat Or” newspaper, on this topic.

Many Armenians also went to the demonstrations and expressed their support. We are citizens of this country and we have the same rights and obligations as Greek citizens. These clashes that we witnessed have nothing to do with the demonstrators. Unfortunately, there are different groups that are not new, which include hundreds of masked people who suddenly appear holding petrol bombs and rocks and start throwing them into the crowd. At such moments, police units must resist, and the people, seeing all this, begin to retreat,” he said.

According to him, these clashes were a great shame for Greece.

“Those people who were there with good intentions began to retreat not to be harmed by bombs and rocks. The clashes continued for several hours, causing serious damage to the center of Athens. These clashes were deliberately provoked to disrupt the nature of the demonstration,” Kerob Ekizyan concluded.