Sappho Square: Geo-trauma or a place of resistance and creation of commons? Contested habitus in the heart of Mytilene. No2

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 Indeed, in an unpublished survey conducted by students of the Urban Analysis course through mental maps in June 2019, the square appeared as the place with the most signs of fear of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.