FROM EXCEPTION TO EXTRA-LEGAL NORMALITY: PUSHBACKS AND RACIST STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST PEOPLE CROSSING THE GREEK–TURKISH LAND BORDER Lena Karamanidou and Bernd Kasparek Abstract: The Greek–Turkish land border became the site of a border spectacle in March 2020, following the “opening” of the border by the Turkish government and its simultaneous closure by the Greek government. The ensuing violence was legitimated by narratives of exception and racist discourses hinging on the notions of “invasion” and “asymmetrical threats.” Yet, the spectacular and highly mediatized nature of the events of March 2020 hid the embeddedness and longevity of border violence in Evros, the area named after the river that constitutes the land border between Greece and Turkey. Drawing on qualitative research including fieldwork, interviews and document analysis, we focus on the practice of pushbacks as an enduring feature of the local border regime. We argue that pushbacks and other forms of violence should not be conceived merely as human rights violations and therefore aberrations to the laws and values of Europe and its states, but as normalized technologies of border management embedded in the racialized, violent border regimes of liberal states, exemplifying the inherent and unavoidable violence of borders. Keywords: border management; border violence; Greek–Turkish border; pushbacks; racist state violence Introduction On 28 February 2020, the Turkish government announced its decision to “open” its land border with Greece. The Greek government responded to the hundreds of people attempting—and sometimes succeeding—to cross the Greek–Turkish border with violence: the mobilization of police and army, the use of tear gas, stun grenades, plastic bullets and even live ammunition, resulting in at least two deaths and many injured persons (Amnesty International [AI] 2020; 2021). People were Lena Karamanidou, Independent Researcher Bernd Kasparek, Institute for European Ethnology & Berlin Institute for Empirical Migration Research, Humboldt-University Berlin State Crime 11.1 2022 DOI:10.13169/statecrime.11.1.0012