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MYTILENE
The #coup sent thryllic Christina Onassis superyacht to Lesvos, Vatera Beach waters
Saudi Arabian Prince Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud sailed into the port of Mytilene in the Aegean with two yachts, “Elegant 007” and Aristotle Onassis’ legendary yacht “Christina”.
The yachts anchored half a mile from the beach of Vatera in south Lesvos,
In the name of a #Christian Europe some raised the Fences, said @atsipras to @Pontifex, Some #Refugees might be #Angels, said @EcuPatriarch
Tsipras welcoming the Pontifex
Pontifex at the refugee camp Lesvos, ED @EASO welcoming the Pope
Lesvos holds the historical meeting , United Pray to God
Pontifex, Bartholomew, bringing Christian word closer than ever
Visit our Special Story by Greek to me !
In the name of a #Christian Europe some raised the Fences, said @atsipras to @Pontifex, Some #Refugees might be #Angels, said @EcuPatriarch
Stay with us on extensive Popes historical meeting coverage, by greek2m.org
Fusing #Culture in #Greece’s refugee bomb. What the Nomination of #Lesvos for #European Capital of Culture in 2021 revealed
…. But life kept flourishing on this blessed land always, despite the difficulties and the agony of the neighboring wars . Pain was transformed to hope in this place, loss was soothed by the solidarity of the society’s heart, and survival struggle was empowered by the inspiration the nature of this isle evokes, day and night by its unprecedented beauty, to common people, as well as artist, philosophers, religious persons and philanthropists throughout the years .
And , truly , this is what the aim of a European Capital of Culture is supposed to be .
“ Do you plan to assimilate the refugees that are going to stay in the island …..”
#NATO officers arrived in Lesvos, flotilla expected tomorrow, while #smugglers warn they won’t be stopped
#NATO officers at Mytilene Port, Lesvos, February 16, 2016 Photo by Laura Lizancos, via Information Point Volunteers Lesvos, fb
#NATO officers at Mytilene Port, Lesvos, February 16, 2016 Photo by Laura Lizancos, via Information Point Volunteers Lesvos, fb
#NATO officers at Mytilene Port, Lesvos, February 16, 2016 Photo by Laura Lizancos, via Information Point Volunteers Lesvos, fb
Smugglers: NATO won’t disrupt our networks
People smugglers in Turkey have told Sky News NATO’s warships will not be able to stem the flow of migrants and refugees heading across the Aegean Sea to Europe, or disrupt their networks.
Mohammed has been involved in the human smuggling trade for the last two years.
He said to Sky News, the gangs are too well organised and there’s too much money involved for it to be halted.
“The smuggling will not stop – as long as people want to be smuggled the smuggling networks will continue to operate,” Mohammed told Sky News.
“Turkey has tried to stop it but we the smugglers are well prepared and are always one step ahead.
“We don’t bribe the police but if one policeman or two finds out about our operations they will come to the smuggler and tell him we know what you are doing – then the smuggler will bribe him with a few hundred dollars.”
NATO says its mission will not be involved in rescuing migrants, or turning their flimsy crafts around and away from Europe.
The German supply ship Bonn, which will lead the Nato flotilla heading for the Aegean Sea Photograph: Ingo Wagner/AP
NATO ships expected to arrive on February 19th
Defence ministers from the 28 countries in the US-led military alliance agreed in principle to the mission and have asked officials to look at a variety of options for establishing patrols along the Turkish and Greek coasts and other smuggling routes. Several member states have offered to send reinforcements to the three-ship mission.
The Nato intervention is justified as an attack on human traffickers,
US defence secretary Ashton Carter explained. “There is now a criminal syndicate that is exploiting these poor people and this is an organised smuggling operation.”
The NATO ships have been ordered to the Aegean to begin the mission “without delay”, and are expected to be in place on Friday, even though the details of their role are still being filled in, said US air force general Philip Breedlove.
“This mission has literally come together in about the last 20 hours,” Breedlove told journalists. “I have been tasked now to go back and define the mission, define the rules of engagement, define all of what we call special operation instructions, all of the things that will lay out what we are going to do.”
He declined to comment on whether the Nato crews would join local coastguards in rescuing migrants whose boats had sunk or were failing.
The Bonn patrol
Nato has sent a patrol of three warships to intercept migrants trying to reach Greece by sea and send them back to Turkey, as Europe steps up efforts to contain the refugee crisis.
The Nato flotilla will be led by the German navy’s flagship, the Bonn, supported by Turkey’s frigate Barbaros and the Canadian frigate, Fredericton.
The German-led patrol will be backed by planes that can monitor the flow of people attempting illegal crossings.
Greece and Turkey have agreed that any migrants they intercept will be sent back.
“They will not be taken back to Greece. The aim of the group is to have them taken back to Turkey. That is the crucial difference,” said the British defence secretary, Michael Fallon.
“This is the first time we have seen a group tasked with returning migrants. That has not happened before. So that is quite an important development.”
The UK does not have any ships involved but is looking at how it could contribute, Fallon told journalists after a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels, where the plan was hammered out.
“It could definitely help save lives in the Aegean and it could help break the criminal gangs that are trafficking migrants from Turkey into Europe,” he added.
The NATO alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, initially denied that the ships would try to stop people from crossing into Europe. “This is not about stopping or pushing back refugee boats,” he said.
Germany’s defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, had already indicated she favoured a far more robust approach and had secured Ankara’s permission to send some refugees back to Turkey, the Deutsche Welle newspaper reported.
the smugglers network
For Turkey and its smugglers, the flow of people is big business. Each dinghy crammed full of desperate people is estimated to generate €50,000, the middleeastmonitor.com writes.
At night, when busses fill up far away from the coast in Turkey, the smugglers are let through depending on the fluctuating regulations, to make good business sense the article adds.
“The government cracks down on certain crossings, changing the flow of refugees to Lesvos; at the moment the refugees arrive on the north coast of the island. The Turkish government had a crackdown on smugglers from Izmir aiming for the south of Lesvos, an hour-long, lethal journey with faulty lifejackets and dinghies in choppy waters, so they find themselves capitalising instead on the five times longer and thus five times more dangerous route to arrive on the north coast. People have to pay €1,500 to risk their lives crossing the Aegean on a good day (many times more expensive than an official, and safe, ferry); when it is windy the charge is €500 or €700 at night, when the chance of survival decreases. This is how the smugglers capitalise on the status of extremely vulnerable people fleeing from war.”
Greece out of Schengen , not the solution
Excluding Greece from the passport-free Schengen area will not solve Europe’s migrant problem, EU Council President Donald Tusk said on Tuesday after meeting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens.
“Let me be clear, excluding Greece from Schengen solves none of our problems,” Tusk told reporters
Council President acknowledged the crisis was testing European cohesion to its limits.
“For all those talking of excluding Greece from Schengen, thinking this is a solution to the migration crisis, I say no, it is not.
Visit our Aegean Borders Special Page on greek2m.org
Aegean Borders by greek2m.org
In #Greece, the work is done, reports from #Lesvos to EU, #EDP MEP Marielle de Sarne
“I was at Lesvos, Saturday and Sunday. I saw the work of the Greek Coast Guard and the Greek border guards, I saw the Greek ships– more Greek ships than Frontex ones, by the way –, I saw the work they are doing in rescuing and welcoming the refugees.
I visited the hotspot of Lesvos, one of the main access to the EU.”
“There were 700 arrivals in January 2015, there was in January of this year already 33.000 arrivals.”
“These arrivals have been managed by the Greeks. With a little help from Frontex, of course; more would be better. Arriving refugees are controlled, they are registered, they are photographed.”
Marielle de Sarnez was in Lesvos duringhe last two days of Januar2016. She met representatives from NGOs, Greek Coast-Guards and police, as well as the mayor of Lesvos, Sypros Galinos.
The Greeks do the job, so let’s not divide us by finger-pointing this country.
This is the message she delivered to the Commission and the Commissionner for Migrations Dimitris Avramopoulos today in the European Parliament.
“I want to say to the European institutions, the Council and the Commission, that the message they gave a few days ago – a distrust message vis-à-vis Greece and a hypothetical quarantine of Greece – was not a message of good politics. It was not an inspired message.”
“Obviously as you want to keep Schengen, as we all want, let’s consider the Greece border as the European border and let’s not try to play and let’s not try to be divided.”
The work is done, so let’s really stick together and then let’s take decisions.
The first decision that I ask you to take is to require Turkey to put and end to this criminal traffic and the criminal smugglers’ activities: 3.000 euros per adult, 1.000 per child, half price for storms and, moreover, the sold life jackets are usually fake lifejackets.
“That would be already a concrete, necessary and vital action from the European Union.”
Entry IV: The Sinking of the Nameless: Recollections of a Volunteer/Journalist
You are the tireless guardians of borders, the unique example of civilization, President of #Greece told people of #Lesbos
“Your example is one of civilization and humanity. Lesbos has been the “sleepless and tireless” guardian of Greek borders at a critical time for Europe“ said Prokopis Pavlopoulos visiting the island on November 8th, 2015, on the 103rd anniversary since the island’s liberation from Ottoman Turks. ” And until Europe makes its decisions, the weight falls on your shoulders but also the praise for what you do.” the President of Greece underlined.
Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Terens Quick visiting Lesbos next to the President of Democracy Prokopis Pavlopoulos, met in Skala Sikamias village the LesvosYiayia , the emblematic figure that made headlines worldwide when she was captured by a photographer’s camera to feed a refugee baby. He twitted
@TerensQuick :
Tonight in Skala Sykamias Lesvos with grandmother Emilia who is feeding the refugee babies. The absolute soul of Greek mother
By Greece’s history, Lesvos, and the other islands that were close to the Turkish territories, were freed later from the Ottoman Empire than the territories in the continent, because of their geographical location. The island of Lesvos gained its freedom in 1912 and became officially part of Greece in 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne.
The 8th of November is celebrating the Independence of the island, along with the Christian Orthodox Name day of the Archangels, the “guardians of Archipelagos”, the Aegean, as the Archangels are considered in Greece to be. Taxiarchis, the Archangel Michael, is the patron saint and the guardian angel of Lesvos.He is celebrated every year by thousands of faithful Greeks, a whole island’s live religious celebration, where many miracles continue to occur in the Lesvian resident’s families, and families all over Greece, as well as Greek military men, and those serving on Greek Airforce of whom the Archangel is the protector.
President of Democracy Procopis Pavlopoulos and Deputy Minister to the PM Terens Quick attended the religious celremony in the Metropolis church of Mitilini, and visited the Archangel’s monastery in Madamados, at the North part of the island.
for more, go to our #Empahty@Aegean HomePage
@MartinSchulz on the epicenter: Visiting #Lesvos, the Culural Capital Canidate with @PrimeministerGR
just arrived on the shores of Mytilene refugee praises God for letting him “step” Europe, even with no legs
One month ago Alexis Tsipras witnessed and inspected Greece’s Emergency Response on the epicenter of the crisis, Mytilene, Lesvos. Some days before his trip to Turkey, he hosts the EU Parliament President on the spot and calls him to discuss the “Europe’s Borders”
Tsipras had named Mytilene the Capital of Solidarity, and, well the isle is going for Capital Candidacy. The Europen Capital of Culture of 2021 Candidacy
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