Latest news with #SimosDaniilidis
Boston Globe
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Greece's dark past is uncovered after 33 bodies are found in a civil war-era mass grave
It's common to find ancient remains or objects in Greece. But hulking Yedi Kule castle was a prison where Communist sympathizers were tortured and executed during Greece's 1946–49 Civil War. Tens of thousands died in the early Cold War-era battles between Western-backed government forces and left-wing insurgents, a brutal conflict with assassination squads, child abductions and mass displacements. Greece's archaeological service cleared the site for development because the bones are less than 100 years old. But authorities in Neapolis-Sykies, a suburb of the coastal city of Thessaloniki, pressed on with excavation, saying the chance find has 'great historical and national importance.' Advertisement Descendants have been coming to the site in recent weeks, leaving flowers and asking authorities to conduct DNA testing 'so they can retrieve the remains of their grandfather, great-grandfather or uncle,' said Simos Daniilidis, who has served as Neapolis-Sykies' mayor since 1994. As many as 400 Yedi Kule prisoners were executed, according to historians and the Greek Communist Party. Items found with the bodies — a woman's shoe, a handbag, a ring — offer glimpses into the lives cut short. Advertisement Wartime legacy For the families of slain pro-Communist Greeks, the find in the Park of National Resistance is reviving a wartime legacy kept dormant to avoid reigniting old animosities. The small site has become Greece's first Civil War mass grave to be exhumed. Government forces executed 19-year-old Agapios Sachinis after he refused to sign a declaration renouncing his political beliefs. 'These are not simple matters,' his namesake nephew said during a recent visit to the site. 'It's about carrying inside you not just courage, but values and dignity you won't compromise — not even to save your own life,' said Agapios Sachinis, 78. A retired Communist city council member, Sachinis was imprisoned in the 1960s for his political activity during the dictatorship. Today, Greece's Communist Party belongs to the political mainstream, largely thanks to its role in the country's WWII resistance. If Sachinis' uncle's remains are identified, he said, he will cremate them and keep the ashes at his home. 'I want Agapios close to me, at least while I'm alive,' he said. Cold War playbook Greece's Civil War began in the wake of World War II. Coming after continent-wide destruction, it quickly lost international attention but the conflict marked a turning point: U.S. President Harry Truman's policy of anti-communist intervention — the Truman Doctrine — was presented to Congress in 1947 as a means to direct funds and military support to Greece. Etched on the newly excavated bones in Thessaloniki, then, is a playbook that went on to produce decades of repression, societal divisions and more unmarked graves in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Governments later addressing the Cold War-era abuses and atrocities faced a painful choice: To unearth the past — as attempted with investigative commissions in Eastern Europe and many Latin American countries — or suppress it for fear of fresh division. Advertisement Greek emergency laws were gradually lifted and only fully abolished in 1989. Records of summary trials and executions were never made public. No political force pushed for the excavation of suspected burial sites. Politicians still use highly cautious language when addressing the past and the Thessaloniki discovery was met with a subdued public reaction. The find has not been directly addressed by the country's center-right government – a reminder that many Greeks still find it easier to walk past the country's ghosts than confront them. Decades ago, the neighborhood park in Thessaloniki — a densely populated port city of a million with ruins from the ancient Greek, Roman and Ottoman eras, with historically strong Balkan and Jewish influences — was a field on the outskirts of the city. Today, it's frequented by retirees and ringed by apartment buildings filled with middle-class families. During construction, residents whispered that bones had been discovered when foundations were laid, but no inquiry was conducted. 'Flowers of their generation' Executions by army firing squads extended into the 1950s and were publicly announced, but graves were unmarked and secret. Author and historian Spyros Kouzinopoulos, a Thessaloniki native, spent decades researching the executions at Yedi Kule, including the indignities endured by prisoners in their final hours. After a military tribunal issued a death sentence, the chief guard would take the condemned prisoner to solitary confinement in tiny cells barely big enough to stand. Many would use their last hours to write letters to their families. At dawn, the chief guard and two others would retrieve the prisoner and hand them over to the firing squad. Most were loaded onto trucks to avoid attracting public attention. Sometimes they were led to their death on foot. Advertisement Most of the victims were barely adults — youth Kouzinopoulos called 'flowers of their generation.' Two 17-year-old schoolgirls, Efpraxia Nikolaidou and Eva Kourouzidou, were executed while wearing their uniforms, he said. 'It shook me to the core,' Kouzinopoulos said. DNA testing City officials are taking steps to conduct DNA testing on the remains, and urging families of the missing to submit genetic material. That way, the bodies can be identified and returned to relatives. Agapios Sachinis, the septuagenarian whose uncle was executed, is among those eager to provide DNA. Mayor Daniilidis has ordered an expansion of the dig to other parts of the park in coming weeks. 'We must send a message,' he said. 'Never again.' AP journalist Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Construction work unearths remains of 33 skeletons, woman's shoe
Construction work near one of Greece's most notorious prisons in Thessaloniki has unearthed the remains of dozens of people executed during the Greek Civil War era, relatives and officials said Wednesday. The grisly find included the discovery of footwear, including the remnants of a woman's shoe. So far, 33 skeletons have been found near Eptapyrgio prison northeast of the city, a former Byzantine-era fortress later known as Yedi Kule under Ottoman rule, city officials said in a statement. The Greek civil war lasted from 1946 to 1949 but executions of political prisoners held for alleged affiliation to the Greek communist party (KKE) continued for years thereafter. It is estimated that over 150,000 people lost their lives during the conflict, while around 800,000 people were displaced. CBS News journalist George Polk, who had depicted the right-wing Greek government as corrupt, was among those killed during the war. "We are here today with very mixed feelings. We are happy because, even after 80 years of delay, we found the skeletons of the people who lost their lives for their ideas and for the country," said the local mayor of Sykies municipality, Simos Daniilidis. But he added that they were "saddened, embittered, and angry" because of the killings, which he termed "inhumane, horrific, inconceivable things for today's Greek civilization." One of the victims is believed to be a woman "after traces of a woman's shoe were found," officials said. Several shoes worn by young adults were also unearthed, said the officials, who posted images of the footwear. The first remains were discovered in December during work on a city park. At the time, local officials ruled that the skeletons were of no archaeological interest, but Daniilidis, "believing that there is enormous historical and political interest," requested that archaeologists excavate the wider area of the park. "In the dark years of the civil war, the area was used for the execution of political prisoners, or the relocation of their bodies, as it was very near the prison and was uninhabited at the time," Sykies municipality said in a statement. "We don't know where he is buried" Many of the victims are believed to have been killed for links with the KKE. A party delegation was present Wednesday to lay flowers at the site. With assistance from archaeologists, the excavation has uncovered clothes, jewelry and bullets. "Thirty-three skeletons were discovered in four clusters. The skeletons are not in very good condition due to the soil and conditions. They are very fragile," said archaeologist Stavroula Tsevrini. The findings have been handed over to the police and efforts have already begun to identify the skeletons through DNA tests. The municipality has put out a call for relatives and descendants of civil war victims to step forward to speed up the identification process. The KKE party is compiling a list of executed political prisoners for publication. "During the civil war in this region, approximately 400 people held in Yedi Kule as political prisoners were executed," said Spyros Kouzinopoulos, a journalist who has written a book on the issue, drawing on police archives. "The executed were buried in mass graves without their relatives knowing where each one was buried. Here the area is full of remains," he told AFP. Miltiadis Parathyras said his uncle Rigas was executed at the location in March 1951. "He was a captain in the (communist) Democratic Army, arrested in 1949 and held in prison for about two years. He was executed at the age of 24 along with five others in March 1951," he said. "We don't know where he is buried. Where did they throw him?" In a statement, the city said efforts to find other mass graves would continue "so that all the skeletons of the people who lost their lives in this way during the dark years of the Civil War and were not given the honors traditionally attributed to the dead are found." Sneak peek: The Puzzling Death of Susann Sills Inside Trump's call with Vladimir Putin 100 years since deadliest tornado in U.S. history
CBS News
19-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Construction work unearths skeletons of dozens of people executed in Greece during the 1940s
Construction work near one of Greece's most notorious prisons in Thessaloniki has unearthed the remains of dozens of people executed during the Greek Civil War era, relatives and officials said Wednesday. The grisly find included the discovery of footwear, including the remnants of a woman's shoe. So far, 33 skeletons have been found near Eptapyrgio prison northeast of the city, a former Byzantine-era fortress later known as Yedi Kule under Ottoman rule, city officials said in a statement . The Greek civil war lasted from 1946 to 1949 but executions of political prisoners held for alleged affiliation to the Greek communist party (KKE) continued for years thereafter. It is estimated that over 150,000 people lost their lives during the conflict, while around 800,000 people were displaced. CBS News journalist George Polk , who had depicted the right-wing Greek government as corrupt, was among those killed during the war. "We are here today with very mixed feelings. We are happy because, even after 80 years of delay, we found the skeletons of the people who lost their lives for their ideas and for the country," said the local mayor of Sykies municipality, Simos Daniilidis. But he added that they were "saddened, embittered, and angry" because of the killings, which he termed "inhumane, horrific, inconceivable things for today's Greek civilization." One of the victims is believed to be a woman "after traces of a woman's shoe were found," officials said. Several shoes worn by young adults were also unearthed, said the officials, who posted images of the footwear. The first remains were discovered in December during work on a city park. At the time, local officials ruled that the skeletons were of no archaeological interest, but Daniilidis, "believing that there is enormous historical and political interest," requested that archaeologists excavate the wider area of the park. "In the dark years of the civil war, the area was used for the execution of political prisoners, or the relocation of their bodies, as it was very near the prison and was uninhabited at the time," Sykies municipality said in a statement. Many of the victims are believed to have been killed for links with the KKE. A party delegation was present Wednesday to lay flowers at the site. With assistance from archaeologists, the excavation has uncovered clothes, jewelry and bullets. "Thirty-three skeletons were discovered in four clusters. The skeletons are not in very good condition due to the soil and conditions. They are very fragile," said archaeologist Stavroula Tsevrini. The findings have been handed over to the police and efforts have already begun to identify the skeletons through DNA tests. The municipality has put out a call for relatives and descendants of civil war victims to step forward to speed up the identification process. The KKE party is compiling a list of executed political prisoners for publication. "During the civil war in this region, approximately 400 people held in Yedi Kule as political prisoners were executed," said Spyros Kouzinopoulos, a journalist who has written a book on the issue, drawing on police archives. "The executed were buried in mass graves without their relatives knowing where each one was buried. Here the area is full of remains," he told AFP. Miltiadis Parathyras said his uncle Rigas was executed at the location in March 1951. "He was a captain in the (communist) Democratic Army, arrested in 1949 and held in prison for about two years. He was executed at the age of 24 along with five others in March 1951," he said. "We don't know where he is buried. Where did they throw him?" In a statement , the city said efforts to find other mass graves would continue "so that all the skeletons of the people who lost their lives in this way during the dark years of the Civil War and were not given the honors traditionally attributed to the dead are found."
