at the border station of Kastanies by nighttime. Hellenic authorities shut down the station and announced the closure of the borders, while heavy police and military forces assembled at the border. On February 29th, the number of those gathered at the border rοse to approximately 1.500, while the Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff, the Minister of Citizen Protection and the Minister of National Defense visited the area, supporting the reinforcement of the police and military forces on the spot. Following the crowd's attempt to forcefully cross the border, violent incidents occurred, involving the use of chemical substances and tear gas. According to the Hellenic authorities, on March 1st the number of persons gathered in the area was estimated at around 5.000, while 77 arrests along the borderline were announced. On March 2nd, those gathered at the border point of Kastanies gradually began to withdraw, following the information claims that they are driven towards the southern part of the prefecture, specifically the Evros Delta, where they attempted to cross into the Greek side. At that point, it was estimated that 13.000 individuals were present at the borderline, while 3.000 remained at Kastanies. Violent illegal pushbacks of individuals who managed to cross the border were constantly reported. On March 3rd , the site was visited by the Prime Minister along with the EU institutions leaders in Evros; the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, and the Vice-President of European Commission- commanding officer for the promotion of the European way of life, Margaritis Schinas. Undoubtedly, all these years Turkey has been using migration flows as a point of leverage to demand more political and financial concessions from the EU, and this leverage was once again activated. The Greek government was not wrong to call this move an “asymmetric threat”; but it was wrong to provide a response of “symmetric” use of force and violence. After announcing promises for more financial help but avoiding any tangible commitment for political action or burden sharing policies, EU leaders left Greece once more alone to do the dirty job; supporting Greece with more financial resources, but also threatening through the competent European bodies (Committees and Courts) on the violations of human and refugee rights’, inter alia, postponement of the access to asylum, extensive use of chemicals, reports of shootings, and illegal pushbacks performed out in the open. 8|Page