Golden Dawn asks why Turkish warship did not fly Greek flag

Turkish frigate 'Gediz' is seen at the Gölcük Naval Base in Turkey.

Greece's neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party presented its first Parliamentary question, asking why a Turkish warship did not fly the Greek flag during a visit to the port of Piraeus.

Golden Dawn deputies Nikolaus Kuzilos and Yiannis Lagos presented the question to Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, Yorgo Kırbaki of daily Hürriyet reported today.

The deputies asked why the Turkish frigate "Gediz" did not fly the Greek flag when it made a port call at Piraeus during a NATO visit on July 10. "Two warships – one French and one German – which were part of the NATO force, both flew the Greek flag when they docked at Piraeus. The Turkish frigate did not follow suit," the question presented by Golden Dawn stated.

Golden Dawn claimed that the incident was covered up to prevent a diplomatic confrontation with Turkey and asked what the Greek Foreign Ministry had done to counter the "provocation" by the Turkish warship. The party also asked "what plans the Greek foreign ministry had prepared to prevent a similar incident from taking place again."

Submariners World has learned that Greece and Turkey share the practice of not flying each others' flags when their warships visit a port belonging to the other country.

Greek police ignore rising attacks on migrants: uman Rights Watch

Immigrants claiming they was attacked by members of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, are seen at United Against Racism and Fascist Violence Movement office during a press conference in Athens.

Gangs of Greeks are regularly attacking immigrants with impunity across the country and authorities are ignoring or discouraging victims from filing complaints, advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a report on Tuesday.

Greece is a major gateway into the European Union for undocumented migrants from Asia and Africa, and illegal immigration has become a hot-button issue as the country struggles through its worst economic crisis since World War Two.

A fifth straight year of recession and unemployment at a record high has helped fuel anti-immigrant sentiment, with migrants blamed for rising crime levels and accused of eating into a shrinking pot of subsidised services from the state.

"Migrants and asylum seekers spoke to Human Rights Watch of virtual no-go areas in Athens after dark because of fear of attacks by often black-clad groups of Greeks intent on violence," the report said.

"While tourists are welcome, migrants and asylum seekers face a hostile environment, where they may be subject to detention in inhuman and degrading conditions, risk destitution and xenophobic violence."

Human Rights Watch said the true extent of xenophobic violence in Greece was not clear given many victims do not report the crime and since government statistics are unreliable.

The group said it interviewed 59 people who suffered or escaped a racist incident between August 2009 and May this year. That included 51 serious attacks and two of the victims were pregnant women.

Most of the attacks take place at night in or near town squares and are committed by groups of attackers in dark clothing, their faces obscured with cloth or helmets, Human Rights Watch said. The perpetrators have been known to wield clubs or beer bottles or just their bare fists, it said.

The victims consistently told the group that police discouraged them from filing complaints and that some were even warned they would be detained if they insisted on an investigation.

Many victims gave up after being told an investigation would be pointless if they could not identify the attackers or being told either to accept an apology or fight back, the group said.

Human Rights Watch also said there was evidence to suggest the perpetrators were members or associated with local vigilante groups and Golden Dawn, an extreme-right party elected to parliament this year - the first such development since the fall of a military junta in 1974.

The group said it had found no evidence that violent attacks are directed by the party, which denies it is neo-Nazi, but that Golden Dawn members have been implicated in specific attacks.

It quoted residents and a police officer saying party members were involved in beatings of migrants, and noted allegations of collusion between police and Golden Dawn members.

Golden Dawn, which campaigned on a pledge to rid Greece of all immigrants, denies carrying out attacks.

Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn providing free food to ‘true Greeks’

Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden party has begun operating a market that provides free food packages to needy people provided they have “Greek blood,” CNNTürk reported today.

"This market is open to people who come from Greek blood. There are many people who have Greek citizenship [but do not have Greek blood]," a party official said. "You do not have to be a Golden Dawn member. If you are ethnically Greek, you can come to us and we will help you."

The reason for the country’s unemployment is immigration to the country, according to Ilias Panagiotaros, a deputy from the Golden Dawn.

"Some 1.5 million Greeks are jobless," Panagiotaros said. "Immigrants who have come from third-world countries are working instead of them.”

Several food companies in Greece are now providing food aid to people who cannot afford groceries due to the heavy economic crisis.