Fighters of Azov regiment in Ukraine
Greece’s anti-Russia policies could lead to permanent disconnect from Mariupol’s Greeks.
Written by Paul Antonopoulos, independent geopolitical analyst
The surrender of the Azovstal Plant in Mariupol on May 20 was a major victory for Russian forces as they not only gained control of a major port city, but symbolically drove away the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion from their base. Although consumers of Western mainstream media were bombarded with allegations of war crimes perpetrated by Russian soldiers, such as the Mariupol Drama Theatre (in which local residents warned of a Ukrainian false flag operation days earlier), they had completely ignored the crimes and persecutions faced by non-Ukrainian speakers, including ethnic Greeks.
Mariupol and its surrounding villages are home to 100,000-120,000 ethnic Greeks, who are native Russian-speakers. Only a small number are currently proficient in either Crimean-Mariupolitan Greek or Modern Standard Greek. Mariupol is a city founded in 1778 by Crimean Greeks on the invitation of Catherine the Great to resettle lands that had been conquered from the Ottoman Turks and to escape persecution in the then Muslim-dominated Crimea. A second wave of Greek migrants arrived in the Azov region from Pontos to escape the Ottoman Turkish perpetrated genocide in 1913-1923.
Yet, despite Greeks having first colonized Crimea in the 7th century BC, more than a millennium and a half before the Slavs arrived in the mid-10th century after the peninsula was conquered by Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev, Ukrainian authorities refuses to recognize the Greeks as an indigenous group to Ukraine. Although the reality is that Crimea is now a part of Russia, Kiev continues to recognize it as occupied territory, and in turn the designation of Greeks as non-indigenous means that they could not access the same resources as other ethnic groups which have been labelled indigenous. This makes preserving language, culture and identity all the more difficult.
The fact that Mariupol Greeks are native Russian speakers and their villages voted in their majority to join the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic in 2014, saw them persecuted by the Ukrainian state and their Azov Battalion enforcers. It is recalled that on February 14, only 10 days before the Ukraine War began, one Greek was killed and another wounded in a shooting by the Azov Battalion because they were speaking Russian amongst themselves in the village of Granitne. Before the Russian operation began, this was the line of contact between Ukrainian and Russian forces, and like many of the other Greek villages, had voted to join the DPR.
One woman from the Greek-majority town of Sartana, 17 kilometers northeast of Mariupol, told American journalist Patrick Lancaster that they were forced to endure Ukrainization and could not speak Russian in public unless they wanted to risk a fine.
Between the non-recognition as an indigenous minority, forced Ukrainization and even murder, the Greeks of Mariupol have suffered immensely under the Azov Battalion, yet Western media has remained near silent, or at the maximum they are non-critical of the racist policies of Kiev. Although Western audiences were bombarded with scenes from the battle of Mariupol, including the Greek government’s unverified claims that the Russian air force bombed Greek villages, there has been near silence now about the current situation in the port city and its surrounds.
As the overwhelming majority of Greeks are now in territory controlled by Russian forces, life has resumed as normal as possible for those living close to a warzone. Schools in Sartana are operating again and people are trying to resume business as normal. What is for certain though is that racist killings just for speaking Russian or any other language other than Ukrainian has come to an end.
With the Greeks of Mariupol now a part of the DPR, the Greek government finds itself in a conundrum as they promised to never abandon the autocephalous community but at the same time has agreed to nearly every anti-Russia sanction and demand made by Washington and Brussels. This makes the reopening of the Greek Consulate in Mariupol dependent on the goodwill of the DPR administration.
Only on May 31 it was announced that Greece’s East Germany-made ΒΜΡ-1 infantry fighting vehicles would be sent to Ukraine so Berlin can replace Greece’s fleet with German-made Marder armoured vehicles. As Athens continues its hostile policy, it lessens the chance of any Russian goodwill so that the Greek community can remain connected to the Greek State via the consulate.
The plan to transfer BMP-1’s to Ukraine once again created outrage in Greece as the announcement was not made by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his joint statement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but rather by the German leader himself. Greeks lambasted the cowardliness of Mitsotakis of not having made the announcement himself – keeping in mind that over 70% of Greeks in a poll want Athens to have a neutral policy towards the war.
Despite the persecution of Greeks since 2014 whilst living under Kiev’s authority and the Azov Battalion, the Greek government has been near silent on this, only releasing periodical statements that hint towards Ukraine needing to improve minority rights and nowhere near to the same degree of their criticism of Russia.
Greece in the months leading up to the war was making strong attempts to have soft power influence in Mariupol, something that could have continued if there was an acceptance that the entirety of Donetsk was going to be under full Russian control. The harsh reality for Athens is that although the Greeks of Mariupol will be disconnected from Greece, they will live in a far safer environment and with respect to their identity and language, just as the Greeks in Russia’s Crimea, Stavropol Krai and Krasnodar Krai experience.
“Greeks” Lol. Whut?
It is a shame the the Greek government is supporting NATO war on Russia and even supplying weapons to kill Russians. Greeks are ungrateful backstabbers.
It’s a shame that the greek government is supplying weapons to the nazis, but blaming the greeks in general is a step too far. Keep in mind that the greek government had abandoned the greek community. And all of that because of possible personal gains of the prime minister of greece Mitsotakis, who wants to replace Stoltenberg in NATO as the rumors saying. You can blame governments, but blaming people is wrong and the poll mentioned in the article above proves it
Small countries with no will to resist. All Balkan states are the same in this matter except Serbia. But you words still unfair to those greeks who tries to blockade weapon shipment to ukronazis.
So the greeks have big problems with the azov thugs, but they continue to send weapons to the nazi ukro regime and fight Russia on behalf of the wallstreet nazis.
Wtf is wrong with the western sheeple?
Greek govt doesn’t care about it’s own people within Greece, they care about those outside even less, which means not at all. Also, I wouldn’t call Greeks to be westerners.
no I would call Athens the foundation of Western Civilization that honor goes to Kiev
Isn’t Kyiv the city that Nostradamus foresaw as the accidental destroyer of western civilization?
Corrupt leadership that does not represent the citizens. This is the norm in the world.
Greek leaders are all in on the NWO. This new world order doesn’t pay homage to the old world order.
You mean there WERE 120000 Greeks in mariupol cause the russians kicked them all out…just like they did at abhazia and ossetia in Georgia some years ago….the Russians are methodically kicking all the Greeks out of the black sea…stop your propanda and you have a Greek name (Paul Antonopoulos) what a shame… i am telling you that as a Greek myself
Ok Alex tsiprad
Heard enough of Western propaganda? Listen to what the Greeks from the village of Sartana near Mariupol say. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHw83IYN5sI
just a bunch of idiots i guess without even watching
” i am telling you that as a Greek myself”
A brainwashed Greek. I think what you indulge in is called transference. Too embarrassed to admit how Greeks are treated as political cannon fodder by Brussels, you have to resort to making such salving nonsense up.
The euro has kept the Greek economy in perpetual crisis. Had they retained the drachma, they’d have deflated their currency into export salvation long ago.
what does that had to do with the russians kickin 5 million greeks out of their houses in georgia and ukraine? idiot russo trolls
Prove it. Cite an article or sans that, 5 interviews with real Greeks in Mariupol and not some fake interview with a Golden Dawn member, and I don’t mean an article in the Kyiv Post or the Daily Pigly Beast or one of their clones. I mean something from a REAL journalist.
In the meanwhile, I’ll safely assume that you’re full of shit.
Isn’t he a Golden Dawn member himself?
You need an IQ above room temperature in F. to understand his post.
I’ve never come across a neo-nazi with an IQ above room temp in celcius myself.
You must be the stepbrother of Bidenopolis. Must be, as he totally brags about you being related.
Don’t worry about greek BMP-1 send to ukraine. On the contrary, you should be glad that Germany sends its Marder to Greece and not to Ukraine.
Greeks are treacherous backstabbers and supplying weapons to the Uki puppet regime.
Tayyip is that you ?
Russians are the treacherous backstabbers.. they gave turkey s400…now it payback time u lapdogs
Yep, just what I figured. Golden Dawn member.
yes , less wrecked euro trash to be scrapped from the battlefield, thx for saving time. 30 yr old junk
Dear Russia, Greece is in enslavement to the EU and to the banksters. All over the entire world, we need a currency that does not belong to the devil and satanists. THIS will free us. China and Russia CAN give us a currency, an international currency to use. Then, at a later date, we can create local currencies and peg them to the international one. Instead of the $, we can all share an international currency and Trade with that but use our own internally. This gives us more flexibility. Well China and Russia and possibly India too, we need currency which is FREE from the satanic filthy scum of our world. HELP, the currencies we have our enslaving us with debts and corruption. Recall how Greece was not allowed to withdraw E from the banks in Greece?
Just be patient… but it will get a lot worse before it gets better. Get a bottle of champagne or whatever’s your taste .
greeks are a colony of nazis !!! Unicorniuns parzitiuns jubileuns monkeys !!!
cry more you butthurt faschist
Να υποθέσω εσείς παιδιά ζείτε στην Αμερική, για να έχουμε καλό ερώτημα?
Forced labour and destroyed city. From Russia with love.
OK, time to cut with the niceties. Only sort of love Ukraine’s neo-nazi scumbuckets deserve.
Ever wondered why they clean the streets with antiseptic in the Donbass after Azov POWs march through? To kill off the germs they leave in their wake.
That’s why the brown plague of nazism must be destroyed one more time with ukrainization project, ukrainizm is plague.