Mural of murdered rapper Killah P. Photo by Natalie Nagorski

By Anna Wolcke

This post has been updated  

EXARCHIA —  Parts of the original compound of the National Technical University of Athens, one of Greece’s oldest and most prestigious institutions, are in shambles.

Polytech Athens, as it is called by Athenians, in some places is missing some common features of a university. No chairs. No tables. Few professors or students.

Instead there are empty classrooms. Burn marks. Graffiti on inner and outer walls, on staircases, doors and ceilings. “Let’s do some ‘we shouldn’t be doing this’ things,” reads graffiti in a staircase. “Kill cops,” reads another. “Be wild not correctly” (sic.) reads a third.

What used to be one of Greece’s well-preserved historic buildings has in some places become run-down. Established in the late 19th Century, the university became the site of massive demonstrations in 1973, when students started protesting the dictatorship known as the Greek Military Junta.

In November of that year, violence between protesters and the military escalated, starting with a tank entering university grounds, and ending with 40 civilians dead. The riots marked the beginnings of the end of the dictatorship, which fell a year later.

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By Jack Allen

ATHENS – With its graffiti, posters and history of activism, the area around the National Technical University declares its political fervor. It is a natural home for an organization like Solomon, a new media nonprofit that covers diversity while simultaneously training young Greeks and refugees to produce their own journalism.

“Our name comes from a Portuguese novel, The Elephant’s Journey,” explained Editor in Chief Elvira Krithari. In the tale, Solomon the Elephant is a wedding present from King Joao III of Portugal to Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Solomon makes a perilous journey from Lisbon to Vienna, tromping through a war-torn, disease-ridden land in a trek that has become a metaphor for the journey that many modern-day migrants take to reach Europe. The name lends itself well to another meaning, Krithari added: “We write about the elephant in the room, whatever that may be.”

Fanis Kollias founded the website in 2016, focusing on migration issues and investigative reporting. The site, which publishes in Greek and English, publishes two articles a week on topics that range from far-right European politics to Greece’s controversial “golden visa” scheme, which allows foreigners to obtain Schengen Zone visas in exchange for an investment or house purchase in Greece of more than 250,000 euros ($280,000).

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By Natalie Nagorski

ATHENS – Unlike the rest of the capital region, the port of Piraeus is lined with shiny office buildings and new roads. On the outskirts of a metropolitan area now known for its struggles with the financial crisis, the port of Piraeus terminal is newly renovated, with a Chinese flag flying high above its headquarters.

In 2008, the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO Group), a Chinese state-owned shipping enterprise, acquired a 35-year franchise right to operate two of Piraeus’ container terminals. Despite protests by Greek workers and pushback from the radical left Syriza political party, the enterprise bought a 67 percent stake in the port authority for $414 million, becoming the primary operator in 2016.

The investment is a key component of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, an effort by the Chinese government to build infrastructure and invest in countries and organizations around the world. Sandwiched between Europe, Asia, and Africa, the port of Piraeus has strategic value for China. President Xi raised the Greek port in his speech at the 2017 Belt and Road Forum, and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited China twice following the investment.

COSCO’s involvement at the port coincided with the European debt crisis and an unemployment rate hovering around 25 percent in Greece. Resistance towards Chinese investment in Piraeus is now largely gone, replaced instead with a sense of gratitude from Greek workers.

Tasos Paulopoulos is a port agent for Inchcape Shipping Services. He has worked in the COSCO-owned container terminal for several years. He said he is glad the Greek government handed ownership of the port over to the Chinese state-owned enterprise.

“The good thing about COSCO is that they organize the port,” Paulopoulos said. “Greeks couldn’t do that because it was under government management.”

The economic crisis made finding jobs in the shipping sector difficult for Greeks, with one in four citizens out of work. Estimates show, however, that China has invested $9.88 billion in the Greek economy over the past 10 years, with two-thirds of that amount falling within the transportation sector.

Alexis Papahelas, executive editor of the leading Greek newspaper Kathimerini and an anchor for Skai TV, supported  Chinese investment during the crisis.

“Beggars are not choosers,” Papahelas said, referring to economic support for the port. “The only people who invested during the financial crisis were Chinese.”

Yet the Chinese investment in the port of Piraeus has consequences that extend beyond the barriers of the terminal. Papahelas pointed to growing Chinese influence in the region. He said he doubts a Chinese military fleet would ever land at the port, but that China has exerted its leverage elsewhere.

At a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in 2017, shortly after the COSCO Group investment, the European Union abstained from criticizing China on human rights abuses for the first time.

Workers at the port, like Penny Christodoulopoulou, are grateful for the new dock worker positions that have been created since the Greek government handed operations at the terminal over to COSCO. Christodoulopoulou has been working at a terminal shop for five years.

“COSCO makes positions, they create jobs for people,” she said. “For Greek people, and for Chinese also.”

Panagiotis Grammatikopoulos, another port agent for Inchcape Shipping company, has lived in Piraeus for his entire life, and has worked at the port for the past decade.

“This period, the last about 10 years, it’s not like years ago,” he said. “From other countries, you see that we have new business, we have new roads, we have new trains; everything is new in Piraeus.”

A soccer goal at Schisto Camp in Athens, Greece. Photo by Tom Salotti

By Tom Salotti

ATHENS – Greece became a symbol of athletics more than 2,000 years ago, when its citizens founded the first Olympic Games.

Today, like their ancestors, Greeks enjoy a variety of sports, many outdoors in a Mediterranean climate featuring warm temperatures and clear skies. Soccer, basketball and volleyball are popular, but Greeks aren’t the only folks getting sunburned on the courts. Migrants, fleeing violence and persecution in the Middle East and Africa, now are also joining the games here.

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