Category: Geotrauma

In April 2015, the port of Mytilene welcomed hundreds of refugees who fled the wars in Syria and Afghanistan. At first, the collectives in solidarity managed to open the abandoned swimming pool. Despite having serious problems with leakage during bad weather conditions, the pool hosted more than 300 Syrians and Afghans whoshared, without discriminations the food and tea, that local residents and shopkeepers offered them. In the following days, therefugees were quickly registered and, then, they left for Pireaus and other European countries. The refugees who passed through the port during this period remember it in the best light: “Since I left my house, which was being destroyed by bombings, we haven’t experienced such a reception anywhere,” said a former resident of Aleppo (Syria) in 2015.

Immediately after, and until September, the port turned into a harbour of agony, since it was flooded by thousands of refugees who waited to be registered in order to leave with the few liner ships (more than 500,000 passed through in 2015). The refugee registration service was set up there and — amid a fluid political situation in Greece (transition from a right-wing to a left-wing government) — was attempting to speed up the  entry registration procedures, as the majority  of refugees wanted to seek asylum in western and northern European countries.

The EU-Turkey Agreement, signed in March 2016, radically changed everyone’s relationship to the port. In the following years, the painted eyes (see post:  the eyes of the port and their transformations) saw  many refugees making desperate attempts to illegally escape the island, and, more than a few, violent deportations to Turkey; as well as arrests and returns to, the now closed, reception and detention centre in Moria.

Sappho: “..What is the ultimate beauty?”

Some the cavalry, some the infantry,

some the navy

they define it as the most beautiful thing on black earth.

But I, the one that each of us falls in love with “…”[1]

In the place where Sappho dared to question the value of such an important issue for the time of the (Trojan) war, for centuries now there are disputed six, recurring habits.

The square is empty. The measures of “social distancing” due to COVID19 contributed to this. The square is full of birds. A gentleman, who escaped wars and attacks, and now lives trapped on the island, shares with them the dream of freedom. He stands next to the statue of Sappho. He holds dozens of pigeons in his fingers. It is December 7, 2020, one day after the silent anniversary of the student uprising – memory of Alexis Grigoropoulos, in conditions of pandemic and biopolitical capitalism. A few days after the occupation of the square by the special police force unit, on November 17, and after a team of doctors stopped banners from being hung up in it [the square]. Is anything changing in the square?

The square is full. It is full of children playing, seniors talking, immigrants, students waiting, meeting, exchanging knowledge, arguing, laughing, and learning. The square is being rediscovered[2], when, in pandemic conditions, it becomes a target for silencing the residents of the island. It is May 21, 2020. A day when the actors of its history awaken[3]. At the same time, the square reminds us that it is this patriarchy that is behind the genocide of Erato (1 year later)[4]. What bothered the authors of the proposal to ban demonstrations in the square?

From March 2015 onwards, Sappho Square has been marked by many events.[1] From a meeting place – a refuge for refugees to find temporary shelter in tents and a place of solidarity action (food, music) it becomes a place of permanent repression. In particular, immediately after the uprising of the residents against the creation of a large detention center on the Island (February and March 2020) in the Square, hundreds of women from Moria came to protest the miserable living conditions and the delay in issuing their asylum decisions where they were under attack by police and paramilitaries. For the next 3 days, the police were asking passers-by to leave in order to clean the Square by throwing tear gas. “From whom will you clean the square, from me?” asked a student. During the covid19 pandemic, the police checks for exit notes in the square were multiplied. The square is empty during the day, and at night, as soon as the shops close, it is full of young people and puppies …

Sappho Square is very popular in all tourist guides, in all the references to the city of Mytilene. But in recent years it seems that something has begun to change. Indeed, in an unpublished survey conducted by students of the Urban Analysis course through mental maps in June 2019, the square appeared as the place with the most signs of fear of being approached at night by first-year students. Qualitative research showed that fear is socially constructed and is due in large part to what they have heard about the square before coming to Lesvos rather than to what they themselves have experienced. In the area around the square, some incidents of violence against young girls were reported, which makes many female students avoid approaching her [the square]. In the same area, the constant checks and persecutions of refugees have led many, many of them, in search of other routes to return to their place of temporary residence. In, previously, published surveys the square was a landmark and was surrounded by a sense of security and common space. What has changed? The most popular posts on the internet talk about pogroms.