Wildfires spark anger and racism

Dear reader,

This is our weekly round-up from Greece.

We had hoped we wouldn’t need to write another newsletter about wildfires—at least not this year. Yet, here we are, with (the other) half of Greece burning, including critical protected areas like Dadia and Parnitha Forests National Parks. Some 21 people died from the fires, and many properties were destroyed. 

Like this was not enough, there has been an orchestrated effort for the wildfires to attribute the tragedy to migrants, even if the wildfires killed them. 

Consequently, we witnessed groups of ‘vigilantes’ in the Evros region, bordering Turkey, organizing ‘headhunters’ patrols for migrants/refugees and capturing them like animals in a closed wagon. 

Aren’t the above news cornerstones of fascism?

Our heart mourns the country’s lost beauty  

 Alexandroupolis & Dadia (Evros prefecture), Kavala, Evia, Thiva, Viotia, Aspropyrgos, Fyli, and Parnitha were raged by wildfires this week - with Dadia still burning when these lines were written, and most of the rest appearing to be (finally) under control. 

The situation is so extended and chaotic that it is difficult to describe fully. The government followed its usual evacuation (Opens in a new window) tactic - they even sent an evacuation message (Opens in a new window) for the Ano Liosia area, a densely built city neighborhood of 35,000 people! Next step: evacuate Monastiraki. Houses, however, were burned, for example, in Athens (Opens in a new window).  

This year’s wildfires have burned more than 120,000 hectares (Opens in a new window) until Wednesday, with Alexandroupolis-Dadia Forest National Park being harder hit. According to the Copernicus system, the Alexandroupolis wildfires are now the largest in the EU. It had burned some 72,344 hectares (Opens in a new window) till Thursday noon. 

The Dadia Forest National Park is one of the most important protected areas (Opens in a new window) at the national, European, and international levels. Among others, it hosts three of the four vulture species of Europe (the Black Vulture, the Griffon Vulture, and the Egyptian Vulture), while it is home to the only breeding population of Black Vultures in the Balkans.