Twenty five comrades in Athens and fifteen in Thessalonika took part in protests – one outside the Cyprus embassy in Athens and the other at the Cyprus consulate in Thessalonika.
Kurdish refugee asylum campaign
International protests. Report from Greece – Athens and Thessalonica
Protest delegations received in embassy and consulate!
In both cases a delegation was admitted to meet and discuss with representatives of the embassy and the consulate!
Our delegation in Athens included representatives of the Greek TUC (General Confederation of Greek Workers) the Greek Social Forum, Synaspismos (Democratic Left Alliance Party) and “Lawyers for the rights of refugees and migrants”. Quite clearly our delegation made a strong impression on the embassy as they were visibly puzzled and embarrassed!
The fact that 10 November would be a day of protests outside Cypriot embassies internationally had already become known to the mass media in Cyprus in the last couple of days before. When the Minister of Foreign Affairs was questioned about this by a journalist, he replied that these protests were all organised by “marginal groups of Kurds who have nothing to do with the Kurdish people”!
The representative of the embassy in Athens insisted that there is “no policy against the Kurds by the Cyprus government” and that it was “not necessary to organise a demo outside the embassy in order to convey our demands”. He also said we were “always very welcome to visit the embassy and raise our points” and that “the Minister of Foreign Affairs statement was the result of wrong information”. Furthermore, he said he would “convey everything in relation to our visit to his government” and “will inform us about the outcome of this contact later”. However, we will not take these sweet guarantees for granted!
On the other hand, it was again clear that our visit had caused some confusion to the Cyprus embassy. This is because it is the first time ever that there have been demonstrations outside Cyprus embassies on such a sensitive issue, for the Cyprus government, as refugees and national oppression. It shows that this campaign can be won!
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