In whose name is Greece fighting against migrants? "What remains hidden is greater than what is seen"

We are watching reports that Greece, contrary to the international conventions to which it has long been a party, pushes back most of the migrants who set foot on its territory, treats them inhumanely, sends them back to Türkiye, and even sends them to their deaths by sinking their boats in the blue waters of the Mediterranean.

The real question, without doubt, is whether these inhumane practices against migrants are Greece's own policy, or whether Greece is carrying them out by proxy on behalf of all of Europe. For very few of the migrants who set foot in Greece stay here; almost all of them find a way to pass on to other countries of Europe.

Greece is not an attractive place for migrants, because its economy is very bad, and since it can stand only with EU support, it has no appeal to promise migrants. In this situation, there is no serious danger to Greece itself that would require it to risk such grave human rights violations and to act contrary to the conventions to which it is a party. It is therefore necessary to accept that Greece is committing these violations on behalf of the whole of Europe.

The criticisms that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan directed at Greece over these violations in his speech at this year's UN General Assembly were, in fact, in the vein of "I am telling you, Greece, so that you, EU, may hear." In his speech Erdoğan said that the refugee crisis cannot be solved by sinking the boats of innocents who set out in search of a better future for themselves and leaving them to die, by building walls on borders, or by cramming people into concentration camps, and that the solution to this crisis lies in efforts that place the human being and human life at the center.

President Erdoğan also drew attention to the fact that, "this being the case, Greece's cruelty toward migrants in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean is steadily increasing," and then, showing a photograph of children who drowned and lost their lives when their boats were sunk in the Aegean, said the following:

"While we in Türkiye struggle so that the bodies of new baby Aylans do not wash up on the shores, Greece, with its lawless, reckless pushbacks, is turning the Aegean into a refugee graveyard. Last week, 9-month-old baby Asım and 4-year-old Abdülvahap died together with their families when the Greek coast guard sank their boats. The time has long since come for the EU and UN institutions to say 'Stop' to this cruelty, which constitutes a crime against humanity."

These words of Erdoğan were carried to the headlines by the Greek press and described as baseless propaganda made to attack Greece.

The documentary broadcast on Aljazeera in recent days showed, for the first time, Greece's violations so openly to the whole world.

The "Ma khafiya a'zam" ("What is hidden is greater") program, one of the most influential programs of the Aljazeera broadcasting organization, which has so far produced very successful documentaries on very critical events, has put together a very valuable documentary, having obtained very serious photographs and footage about Greece's violations and about the connections, dimensions and details of these violations. By asking the Greek official authorities about the events and images, it also included their answers and reactions in the documentary.

In the documentary, details are documented of certain special units, which until now had been regarded as rumor, used by the Greek authorities with what is almost a war logic against migrants. These masked units, formed for this purpose and named the "Shadow Army," beat and torture the migrants they catch, steal all their belongings, and push them toward Türkiye. Of course, here the migrants subjected to this cruelty are still counted as somewhat lucky; the puncturing and sinking of the boats on which migrants travel in the Mediterranean, and leaving migrants to die by drowning, have also become routine in the struggle against migrants.

The documentary tried to make the hidden evident, but its claim is not to make all that is hidden evident, but to give an idea about what remains hidden. For example, the Greek government has so far not acknowledged the existence of masked units or of an army. Yet the footage reveals that the masked units harass refugees before the eyes of European security services. The documentary shows that people of Arab origin also serve in this "shadow army," which works in a rather professional and trained manner.

The documentary's successful producer, Tamir al-Mishal, also held a comprehensive interview on the subject with our Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

According to data shared by the Ministry of Interior, Greece has since 2020 sent back to Türkiye by these means 61 thousand 737 migrants, 14 thousand 987 of them from the land border. In the process, 152 migrants subjected to pushbacks have died and 200 have been injured, but these are the figures that have been established; it can be estimated that those that remain hidden are far greater.

That the concept of struggle against irregular migrants is gradually coming to be tolerated in our world normalizes, almost, the violence and the rights violations committed in the name of this struggle. In fact this is the biggest problem. Without producing a responsibility, in the name of humanity, toward the conditions that create migration, and even with an attitude that feeds this problem further, our world is looking for a way to easily escape the responsibility of facing the consequences of its own irresponsibility.

It seems that it is precisely this ground that emboldens Greece in violations that would place it in the position of a criminal against humanity before international conventions and law. Because it is waging its struggle against migrants not on its own behalf, but on behalf of Europe, that is, of the powers that have the capacity to enforce international conventions and law.