Call for help and solidarity in support of refugees in northern Greece

Dear friends,

 we would like to inform you about the refugee situation in Greece and specifically in the city of Thessaloniki and the surrounding Macedonia region in the hope you can help us con tend with the growing crisis.

As more and more conflict arises in Syria and the surrounding areas, more people are fleeing, leaving their homes behind to seek refuge in Europe.

There has been a considerably large incoming wave of refugees during the past four months, as a result of the recent strikes. The vast majority of the refugees arriving are families with underaged children and elders, as well as individuals.

In Thessaloniki, there are a few tens to a few hundreds of arrivals per day. Only very few of the hospitality centers set up by the government in the past two years are still working and they are certainly not enough to host all the arriving refugees. The three centers around Thessaloniki are about 50 to 70 km away from the city and can only offer housing to the newly arrived.

But since these facilities are already overcrowded, a lot of people have to stay in the streets. In many places in Thessaloniki, families are forced to sleep on the sidewalks, without any support from the state.

We, the people of the Ecological Movement of Thessaloniki and Oikopolis, consider it our duty to support these people during their rough journey towards safety and we collaborate closely with all the organizations and volunteer groups that are engaged in our city.

In order to help these people we constantly try to:

• Cook and distribute hot meals and fruits - vegetables for people that don’t have any access to cooked food.
• Provide them with raw materials for cooking in their houses or in the camps.
• Supply them with personal hygiene products for adults and children as well
• Offer baby milk as well as the possibility to prepare it in our place
• Support them with their medical expenses
• Collect and distribute clothes , shoes, sleeping bags, tents and anything else that will help them if they are homeless.
• Have free English and Greek language lessons

We are gathering all available supplies and we would be grateful if anyone would like to contribute any of the following:

Baby formula and baby food

Baby diapers and wet wipes

Strollers and baby carriers

Personal hygiene and care goods, soaps etc.

Rice and pasta

Legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils etc.)

Flour, Oil (sunflower oil, olive oil)

Fruit and vegetables

Men’s clothes and shoes

Children’s clothes and shoes

Socks and underwear

Backpacks

Sleeping bags

Any financial contribution will also be highly appreciated!

You can contact us at:

Tel: 0030 2310222503 - email: oikopolis.social.center@gmail.com

Visit us at:

ΟΙΚΟΠΟΛΙΣ/ΕCOPOLIS, Ptolemeon 29a, 5th floor, Thessaloniki

Visit our pages:

https://www.facebook.com/oikopolis.social.center/

https://www.facebook.com/SupportRefugeesInGreece/

Make a donation at the following account:

ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΑ / NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE

IBAN GR2301102170000021729602652

Swift code: ETHNGRAAXXX

ΟΙΚΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΚΙΝΗΣΗ Ν. ΘΕΣ/ΝΙΚΗΣ

ECOLOGICAL MOVEMENT OF THESSALONIKI

How Cyprus can call the EU's bluff.

As you are probably aware Cyprus is now in the middle of negotiations with EU leaders over a 17 billion euro bailout needed to save the country from bankruptcy. The original plan which involved the taxing of bank deposits at up to 10% has proved unworkable and has been voted down by the Cypriot parliament. However, there is another plan that would allow Nicosia to secure a loan and not have to implement painful spending cuts (and risk becoming the new Greece/Spain/Portugal) nor impose a bank levy that would annoy foreign depositors, especially the Russians.

When Cyprus achieved independence from Great Britain in 1960 large swathes of the island were handed over to the British armed forces to be used as bases in the strategically important eastern Mediterranean. The Sovereign Bases Area are still important given their proximity to Middle Eastern hot spots and the fact they lie so close to vital shipping routes through which so much of the world's oil comes via the Suez Canal.

So here is the deal. The Cypriot parliament turns down present Eurogroup proposals and instead announces that a) they are considering re-negotiating The Sovereign  Base Area deal with a view to inviting other nations to tender bids for a long term lease or b) they say that they will allow other nations to build naval facilities on the country's territory, thus giving them a similar deal . The cost in either case to be approximately the same as the money being used by EU to blackmail (the Cypriot PM's words, not mine) Nicosia into agreement.

Now this is where things get really interesting. Given the poor shape the Assad regime is in, Russia must be wondering if its naval base in Syria will survive a regime change and therefore an alternative offer would be welcome. That it comes from a country with such close ties with USA and UK makes the idea an even more delicious irony, given NATO's encroachment on countries close to the Russian border has been so unrelenting. The fact that huge volumes of natural gas may be flowing through this part of the world soon also adds to the attraction.

Even the suggestion of such an offer to the Russians will set alarm bells ringing in London, Washington and possibly Paris and combined these countries will be able to bring a huge amount of pressure to bear in Brussels and Berlin. Does the EU really want to change the balance of power in such a sensitive region for a paltry 7 billion euros? Given the geo-political ramifications and the fact that the European nations have already pumped 1.7 trillion euros into propping up the continent's ailing banking system, a few billion more may be considered a price worth paying.

In either case, Cyprus comes out on top, it doesn't have to tax depositors, large or small, it's banking sector comes out of hiding this week intact (more or less) and it gets the money it needs to avoid bankruptcy. 

Free Abdul Rahman Shaghouri

Syrian Human Rights Committee campaigns to release a sixteen-month detainee for surfing the net. Sixteen months has already elapsed since Mr. Abdul Rahman Shaghouri was arrested for surfing sites with special interests to Syrian current affairs, downloading and distributing some news to friends.

Their contact information is here.