The Guardian

Violence hits Greece’s party island over bid to preserve ancient heritage

Assault thought to be linked to developers’ ‘out-of-control’ clamour to exploit the island

Helena Smith Athens

Under the cover of darkness in an Athens side street earlier this month, Manolis Psarros, an archaeologist, was attacked as he walked towards his car. It was 8.30pm, later than usual for the state employee to return home from his office in a neoclassical culture ministry building beneath the Acropolis.

“There was a general strike the next day and I needed to get through my files on Mykonos,” said Psarros, who oversees development on the Cycladic island. “I can remember approaching the car but after that it’s a blur,” he told the Observer. “All I know is that I was struck on the head from behind with such force I lost consciousness.”

When he came round in a hospital bed on 8 March he had broken ribs, a broken nose and his eyes were so severely bruised his vision remains impaired. It bore all the hallmarks of a professional attack. The 52-year-old was lucky to be alive.

As police intensify their investigation, the focus of inquiry has fallen firmly on Europe’s famous party island, where a building frenzy has put the archaeological service, entrusted with protecting Mykonos’s rich cultural heritage, on a war footing. For the past decade Psarros has headed the division that issues construction permits on the island.

“Everything about this attack is indicative of how out of control the situation in Mykonos has become,” said Despoina Koutsoumba of the Association of Greek Archaeologists. “It’s clear, as there are no other motives, that this was a mafiosi-style hit executed by people who followed Manolis from work. It’s about huge business interests and was aimed at striking fear into archaeologists.”

For years Mykonos has been an international trailblazer as a playground for the rich: its bars, restaurants and beaches have returned increasingly spectacular profits. But the brutal attack on Psarros has also exposed a darker side – of an island hijacked by interests that seem to be beyond the reach of central government and the law.

On Wednesday, as the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis convened a meeting of senior cabinet ministers to discuss the affair, officials were openly describing Mykonos as a “state within a state”. Mitsotakis warned that public order measures would be enforced. In the coming days the first of 100 extra security personnel, including police officers, financial crime investigators, and environment and building inspectors are expected to be flown in. A crackdown on illegal construction in rural areas, on Mykonos and on neighbouring islands in the Aegean archipelago, will also intensify.

“There is no such thing as an island where some people think they are above the law,” said Mitsotakis. “This is a situation that will be faced decisively.”

Greece’s 1,000 or so archaeologists are the custodians of the nation’s extraordinary historical legacy. For many the hardy band of dedicated excavators and researchers are the last bulwark against depredations increasingly associated with tourism.

But with the industry accounting for 25% of GDP it is a delicate balancing act, one that ensures acknowledging the need for visitors but also preserving the natural beauty that lures them to the country.

The dramatic comeback of tourism after the pandemic has not helped. With Greece slated for another record season – last year it was the third most-visited place on Earth – the concerns of archaeologists matter little to investors.

Fines slapped on offenders for building villas, hotels and beach bars close to, or on, ancient sites, “are nothing” compared with profits to be made, say locals, who also lament the unruly development of an island that has left many people unable to enjoy or afford it.

In recent years investors from the Middle East have also moved in, announcing controversial plans to construct a tourist village with a port where superyachts can moor.

“We want the state to be an ally to protect our island,” Mykonos’s mayor, Konstantinos Koukas, said last week. “We want mechanisms of control to be bolstered and of course we decry any threat against state employees. Today it is archaeologists. Tomorrow it will be us.”

Psarros also wants to return to work as soon as he recovers “because to do otherwise, or if I were to be removed from the post, would send the wrong message to my assailants”.

Time, said Koutsoumba, was of the essence: last week a female colleague on Mykonos received threatening text messages. “If the government means what it says it will have to start demolishing illegal buildings,” she said. She will participate in a protest rally outside Koukas’s town hall office on Tuesday.

“Right now it’s Mykonos but later it will be some other island. The time has come for action and that means bulldozers being sent in. It’s the only language anyone will understand. An example needs to be set, and it needs to be set now.”

‘It’s clear that this was a mafiosi-style hit aimed at striking fear into archaeologists’

Despoina Koutsoumba

‘There’s a totally different atmosphere and support than there was in the dark days of the past’ Kevin Miles, fans’ representative

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2023-03-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

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