was invited to talk about the event – retired colonel Antonis Mylonakis, responsible for defence issues on behalf of LAOS, the far-right political party led by
Georgios Karatzaferis, and currently a journalist in a daily EXTRA3 TV show
very favourable to the ultra-right. Needless to say, Mylonakis fully supported
the exercise.85 It is also noteworthy that during the youth revolt of December
2008, the units of all three branches of the military around the country were
put in a state of “yellow alarm”, implementing heightened measures of security
“out of fear of rioting during the pupils’ mobilization”, as reported back then
in a leading newspaper86. According to the same newspaper, these measures
were activated following two consecutive orders by the then chief of the general staf, Dimitrios Grapsas, and included, among other things, increasing the
military personnel of the Emergency Intervention Squads inside military camps
and giving them more live-ire ammunition. Finally, according to a denunciation
published by the “Spartacus” Free Soldiers’ Network, soldiers at the Nafplion
Training Centre were ordered to line up in order to protect the gate of their
camp during a peaceful workers’ rally organized in the context of the general
strike declared by the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the
Civil Servants’ Confederation (ADEDY).87
4/
THE ULTRA-RIGHT AND THE MILITARY:
INSIDE, OUTSIDE AND IN PARALLEL
On the ground deined by State strategy, the intrusion of ultra-right elements
into the military, the creation of paramilitary networks, and the attempt by
the ultra-right to establish relations of political representation with parts
and persons of the military are not peculiar to Greece. In Greece, however,
the incidents that reveal activities by ultra-right clusters within the military,
as well as the formation of paramilitary networks, have been multiplied in
the last few years.
A | FROM THE PERIPHERY TO THE CENTRE: CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION
The main reference of these clusters today is the website Defensenet.gr,
which appears as a popular news and aggregator portal well-known even
to children. According to Alexa.com, which tracks macroscopic international
trends on the Web, as of 8 August 2013 Defencenet was the 30th most popular
website in Greece and indexed by 2,395 other Web pages. Defensenet.gr
appears to be favourable to Golden Dawn and oten publishes communiqués
by the organization, even in matters of national defence. Just a few hours
ater the murder of anti-fascist musician Pavlos Fyssas by a member of
85.
86.
87.
Ibid.
Cf. “Yellow alarm in military camps out of fear of rioting due to the mobilizations”, in.gr,
12 December 2008.
Ibid.
MAPPING ULTRA-RIGHT EXTREMISM, XENOPHOBIA AND RACISM WITHIN THE GREEK STATE APPARATUS
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