Analysis: Who killed Pavlos Fyssas?

Following the murder of the alleged anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, multiple MPs and members of the far-right Golden Dawn have been on trial, in a process which has been ongoing for nearly five years. The Greek state is out to prove the criminal responsibility of Golden Dawn in the murder. This can be interpreted in one of two ways.
The first interpretation is that those in power who presided over economic genocide and the deaths by suicide of over 20,000 Greeks and the emigration of over 500,000 more, are attempting to gain democratic credentials by prosecuting “the fascists.”
The second interpretation is that Golden Dawn was responsible for the murder and sought to gain political power via the medium of armed street protests in the dying days of the Antonis Samaras government, a regime which was rocked with political and economic instability.

What follows are three sets of documents from that period. The first is the testimony of Pavlos Fyssas’ girlfriend, who was present at the scene when Fyssas was stabbed by a man by the name of Giorgos Roupakias, paid member in good standing of Golden Dawn. The second is a transcript of a television interview given by Fyssas’ parents, and the third is an article by the far-leftist journalist Giorgos Delastik, who was fired by the Ethnos daily newspaper for writing this piece.

The context in which this murder occurred was the electoral rise and growth in popularity (as seen in public opinion polls) of Golden Dawn, at a time when the coalition government of New Democracy under Antonis Samaras and PASOK under Evangelos Venizelos was on the rocks. At around this time, it was revealed that Samaras fixer called Panagiotis (Takis) Baltakos was in negotiations with Golden Dawn for the latter to support and/or join the New Democracy-led government. Upon their refusal however, a different course of action was unleashed. This was the period when Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris released secret videos in parliament showing Baltakos conducting such negotiations on behalf of Samaras. With the killing of Pavlos Fyssas, Samaras commenced legal proceedings against Golden Dawn and started to provisionally imprison its members and MPs.

Secret recording of Baltakos:

Who was Fyssas really? From both of interviews of those closest to him, it appears he was not a political individual. The subsequent rallies in his support which were held internationally followed the pattern of the previous murder of teenager Alexis Grigoropoulos in December 2008. This time though, instead of the “evil state” it was the evil …retro-nazis (of the third reich) whilst those of the fourth reich (Merkel’s supporters, i.e. PASOK and New Democracy) remained unscathed.
After all, Samaras remained in power by utilizing junta-era laws via the court martialing of striking workers, effectively outlawing strikes. Via the murder of Fyssas and then of two young Golden Dawn members, the state managed to promote the concept of the so-called “two extremes,” meaning those of the “extreme” right and the “extreme” left, whilst the oh-so-democratic center was simply trying to… govern.
If one is to accept that the murder of Fyssas was organised by the ruling clique that runs Golden Dawn, then by implication SYRIZA or the Communist Party (KKE) organized the murder of the two Golden Dawn members which followed. To accept one without accepting the other is absurd, but then again no political murders in Greek history have occurred on the basis of any known logic. They have served the political ends of the deep state, which has at its disposal many centers of power and influence. One only needs to be reminded of the cases of George Polk, Stefanos Sarafis, and Giorgos Lambrakis to understand that murders in Greece usually serve political ends.
What follows are three documents regarding the case: the testimony of Fyssas’ girlfriend as to what transpired on the night of his murder, a transcription of the interview of Fyssas’ parents on Greek television, and the aforementioned article by journalist Giorgos Delastik which led to his dismissal.
Like all previous political murders in Greece, who actually committed the crime and who will be penalized for it are probably unrelated. In the cold war era of the 1950s it was always communists who were found guilty. In the post cold war world era, it is the retro-fascists of the 1950s. The “extreme center” always remains unscathed…
Testimony of Pavlos Fyssas’ Girlfriend
The statement:

I am the girlfriend of Pavlos Fyssas. We were together for 2.5 years. This is a statement I have not previously provided, as no one called me despite providing my phone number to a police woman. With Pavlos we visited the house of our friend at 7.30 pm of the night of 17th of September [2013]. At around 8.15 pm we wanted to see where we could sit and follow the Olympiacos football match. For no apparent reason we stopped at “Koralli” and spoke to the person in charge and we asked for a table for three people to watch the match. We then went around the area and returned to “Koralli” at 9.30 pm. At some point whilst we were watching the match I heard our friend “D” state loudly “better I had a worm as a friend instead of a Golden Dawn supporter.” I don’t know if other people heard it besides us, but none of us continued this discussion. Pavlos was focused on the match.
At the same time, a gentleman came to our direction, dark looking with a colorful outfit, and told us to leave the area as trouble was about to start. We couldn’t comprehend for what reason there would be trouble nor could we understand why the gentleman wanted us to leave the cafeteria. I did not hear him state he was a policeman. As he continuously insisted on telling us to leave, telling us these characters were Golden Dawn and were angry, we decided to take some beers to Pavlos’ house or to go to “Vlaherna” near the church and wait for the dust to settle. Our friend “D” told the owner of the shop something like “German offspring who killed our families.” I told Pavlos to get his things together as they might hear us and a real fight might occur and Pavlos told him “shut up and lets go.”
Just after the second half of the game, our friends ‘”X,” “P,” and “D” came and found us in the cafeteria plus and another lad I don’t really know, “M” and his girlfriend “N.” We all sat together. I didn’t hear anything in particular being said by the lads anyway, as our group was big and there was noise in the club and something could have been said that not all of us heard. When the match finished and we went out so as to decide what to do, the person in charge of the shop told us to not make any noise. I don’t know why he said that, but he showed us some people who had gathered in the corner of Pavlou Mela and Kefallllinias Streets opposite “Koralli.” I then saw three people. I didn’t see them very well. All I know was that they were wearing black and they were making spasmodic movements.
We started moving away from “Koralli” café towards Tsaldari street. When we reached the corner of Tsaldaris and Kefallinias, we put our friend “X” into a taxi as he didn’t feel well. At that moment, we saw four or five motorbikes of DIAS [the rapid reaction police units]. There were two officers on each one. They saw us and turned and went towards “Koralli.” Before they went there, they stopped at a group of around 15 black hooded men who were at that spot. I didn’t see if they were talking. The police had stopped fully but had not formed a circle around them. They were all there casually together as if they were a group. Some police got off their bikes and took their helmets off. At that moment the character came over to us. He seemed angry that we hadn’t already left. Pavlos told him he wants to be able to walk freely in his part of town and under all conditions, and that we have to return to collect the car of our friends which we have left there.
From the moment we saw the police we were calm and we continued walking, passing opposite the pavement of Tsaldaris Street. Then Pavlos said to take the girl who was with us and to go to the house to find us.
The other people in the group had already gone up further Tsaldaris street towards the direction of Lambraki street. They went to a kiosk to buy beers. Suddenly, in Kefallinias street, around seven or eight people who were around 35 to 40 years old appeared, wearing black clothes, some with shaven heads and some without. I didn’t see them holding something in their hands. With loud voices they started moving in our direction, towards the boys in the group. Then I turned around to see what was happening.
I realized they were moving towards the boys and I ran to the police at Kefallinias Street. I screamed at them that our friends are in danger and pleaded with them to come. I remember characteristically a policeman who was tall and very well built with a square face stating “we cant do anything, there are too many of them.” Only one policewoman came to my direction and a young policeman who came by foot towards where our friends were in danger. I also went towards the area where Pavlos was.
I don’t know what the two policemen did next, as that is when I saw Pavlos had been stabbed… whilst I was almost hysterical and pulled the police from their jackets to come and help, a well built man came very close to my face and told me “you brought your poof to my shop.” This man had a few grey hairs, was well built and was over 40. This is a man I think I had seen in a video uploaded on YouTube in conflicts that Golden Dawn had started at a market stall in Messolongi.
Now when according to what I stated everything had ended, Pavlos had been stabbed. He was standing tall, was holding his chest and stating he had been stabbed. He showed in the direction of the perpetrator. I didn’t see the murderer, I only saw a silver car. As an ambulance came and got Pavlos, a policeman came towards me, the one I had described previously, the well built one, and asked for my ID. When I asked him why he didn’t do anything alongside all the others and just watched, he pretended he just arrived at the scene and wasn’t to be found there. I can’t imagine any reason why they wanted to kill Pavlos. I think that it was a cold and unconscionable attack that happened for no reason.

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The interview of Fyssas’ parents on television

Part A:

Part B:

Part C:

At around 13:00 (Part A) both parents dispute the claim that Pavlos was “politicised” and had engaged in “intense antifascist activity.” His father said: “[m]any years ago he might have passed through the KKE or PASOK, I don’t actually know, but in recent years he didn’t even go to vote, he wasn’t involved at all…”
At 9:35 (Part B) came the following statement: “I want to see whether they will ever arrest those responsible.”
At 10:25 (Part B) Stavros Theodorakis (a former television personality who is now the leader of the Potami political party) asked if Pavlos loved the migrants. His mother replied, “[i]t hurt him to hear that they are being chased or being killed. The same when he heard migrants killed Greeks. In particular [Manolis] Kantaris, whose wife was just about to give birth and migrants killed him…”
At the start of part C, when Theodorakis asked “Who is guilty? The man who held the knife?” came the following response: “He who held the knife is an idiot. The issue is who gave him the knife? The knife is held by those who exploit people who live on the backs of others? They are dirty with bad minds…”
At 1:40 (Part C), Fyssas’ father is more concrete. When asked what he seeks from justice, he replied: “I want them to find the real guilty party. They played a game. A murder had to be committed and our child just happened to be on the streets…”
Finally, at 3:35 (Part C), Fyssas’ mother states: “My child was murdered by a professional…”

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Article by Giorgos Delastik: The EU, New Democracy and PASOK threaten democracy

Did the Golden Dawn murderer, this human scum who killed in the middle of the road the leftist antifascist Pavlos Fissas in Amfiali, act on his own behalf or was he carrying out orders? If he was carrying out orders, from which political quarters did these orders originate? Or did they come from business circles? We won’t become police detectives to answer. We will monitor – with extreme caution with regards to what the police claim is the truth – the development of the police report to formulate a final conclusion of the events.
But the crime is clearly political. We will add a few political thoughts around this. Even for the most cold, vile political crimes, the first components of any analysis start from the question: “Who benefits politically from the crime?” They who benefit aren’t always the guilty ones, as in politics the consequences of a murder can be different from what those who planned it initially judged. From a political perspective (we emphasize, from a political and not a police perspective, as events can be proven which contradict political speculation) it’s very difficult for someone to proclaim that the order for a murder was given by the leading, first rank members of the party to which the perpetrator belonged, except if these leading members were being blackmailed by other elements. Golden Dawn sustained serious political damage with the murder which was carried out. From initially appearing as a party that expressed social rage and the desperation of the politically backward right wing circles, particularly those who voted against the troika policies of both New Democracy and PASOK, after the murder and the attacks against members of the KKE and KNE [Communist youth] in Perama it now appears as a party wanting to”‘murder the left”! The reduction of the electoral approval of Golden Dawn after the murder of P. Fyssas must be considered a given.
The left in all of its permutations won’t gain anything from these events and neither will the movement. A murder always provokes fear, whether one admits to it or not. We mean fear to the people, not the leaders. It’s another matter to demonstrate and an another matter to be threatened by knife-wielding thugs. The only ones who gain from this murder are the Samaras-Venizelos government. This is exactly like what happened in the case of the [the firebombing of] Marfin Bank. Whilst the whole of Greece was on strike against the government, the murder ended up getting all the Greeks to talk about the murder carried out by the beastly Golden Dawn member. Swiftly after the murder, the current “Tsolakoglous” [referring to the quisling prime minister Giorgos Tsolakoglou of the World War II period) in New Democracy and PASOK are now promoting themselves as the guarantors of preventing the civil war between the two extremes! From a political point of view, the murder was a “golden gift” for Samaras and Venizelos! They rushed to politically exploit the murder. We must further note that the manner in which the murderer acted made a big impression on us. He carried out a murder in the center of Amfiali with dozens of witnesses without even attempting with a motorcycle helmet to hide his face. He didn’t even attempt to leave. He left the knife used to commit the murder with his own fingerprints on them, at the scene. All of this happened even though he was universally known in Amfiali, as was his political orientation.
This approach belies a man who commits a murder in order to get caught, to be sentenced to life imprisonment and to be jailed for many years. He has full knowledge that the crime will be blamed on the political grouping he belongs to, Golden Dawn. We aren’t pretending to be the police inspector Clouseau, but this stance more clearly reflects a murderer who is carrying out orders, not a brute acting on his own accord. Such actions also drastically reduce the possibility that the murderer had received his orders from business circles instead of political circles. The political positions adopted by Samaras and Venizelos following the murder of the 34 year old antifascist artist are provoking ire. What did the prime minister tell us via his close collaborator Chrysanthos Lazaridis, who wouldn’t have been able to make such statements without the permission of Samaras? That the murder demonstrates that SYRIZA remains outside the “constitutional axis”!!! This is Samaras’ position! What did Venizelos tell us? He declared on Vima FM that “the problem isn’t the theory of extremes, the problem is that inside the amalgam of the so-called “anti-memorandum axis” there exist forces that are far right, Nazi, traditionally communist, and of course newly radicalized”! In other words, because both the murderer and victim were “anti-memorandum,” the problem according to Venizelos is that the those who are “anti-memorandum” are killing each other!
These views by both Samaras and Venizelos aren’t just ridiculous. The most serious issue for us is that for now there are many doubts emerging as to whether this murderer acted on his own or if he carried out orders from other centers of power unknown to us, distinct from the leadership of Golden Dawn. We shall see…

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