ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st January, 2020) The Greek Foreign Ministry released a statement on Thursday in which it condemned the actions of Ioannis Lagos, a member of the European Parliament from Greece, who ripped apart a paper version of the Turkish flag when delivering a speech from the legislature's rostrum.
The incident happened earlier in the day during an EU parliamentary session on migration when Lagos delivered a damning speech in which he accused Turkey of deliberately sending migrants to Europe, of which Greece is one of the key entry locations, in violations of its inked commitments.
"Greece categorically condemns any action that desecrates a national symbol - in this case the national symbol of Turkey," the statement read.
The foreign ministry described the incident as "unacceptable actions of representatives of neo-Nazism [that] deviate from Greek and European tradition." Behind it, Athens said it saw an attempt by the far-right nationalist Greek party, Golden Dawn, to promote itself, despite Lagos having dropped his membership last July after being elected to the EU Parliament on a party list.
Athens chose to dissociate itself from the Greek lawmaker by saying that "Neo-Nazis represent only themselves."
The Golden Dawn is a party with far-right neo-Nazi ideology, currently under indictment over violence and criminal activities. The national and European elections in 2019 saw it lose all seats in the Greek parliament but keep two seats in the EU legislature, which came down to one after Lagos abandoned the party.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu responded to the incident by putting it in a religious context as an attack against the Muslim faith.
"These racist minds know better than anybody how we crash and kick out to the sea those who dare attack our glorious flag. Europe's spoiled and racist children should know their place. Europe must put an end to racism and animosity against islam," he said on Twitter.
In a follow-up tweet, he called upon the EU legislative body to hold Lagos accountable by saying "Nobody should doubt that our flag will continue to wave proudly forever! Expecting European Parliament to take necessary measures against this clown."
In 2016, the EU and Turkey signed an agreement, under which the latter was supposed to curb the flow of illegal migrants who tried to transit Turkey in a bid to proceed further into the European continent. The package came with a whooping financial component of 6 billion Euros ($6.6 million) to be payed to Turkey.
