Unhindered by the other side
Friday, February 28, was the eve of the Greek Carnival season. The Kastanies customs checkpoint was operating as usual and cafés, bars and tavernas in the town of Orestiada were getting ready to welcome the usual influx of secular Turks from neighboring Edirne, looking for a good night out.
Harelas showed up for work at 5.30 a.m. at the Didymoteicho police precinct, when the officer he was relieving from duty reported that thermal cameras had picked up some unusual activity on the other side of the border, near the Kastanies crossing. Two hours later, he got a telephone call ordering him to lock up the police station and rush over to Kastanies as fast as he could.
“The first wave from the Turkish side was already attempting to cross the area in front of the guard post, which was being defended by about a dozen colleagues and as many soldiers who had parked a bus at the entrance to stem the flow,” says Harelas. It was an uneven battle in terms of numbers, he adds, remembering how many of the younger migrants tried to get through via the dense forest which just four or five people were able to patrol.
“At around 9 a.m., quite a large number of young men appeared in the ‘dead zone’ and moved toward us. The Turkish guards did nothing to stop them and they came, cool and nonchalant, as though they were out for a stroll. A senior Turkish officer told them that they could not cross into a foreign country without legal papers and asked them to leave. Not only did they ignore him, but more people started appearing… and then even more, until there were several hundred,” explains Derventlis.
“That’s when the clashes started – and they were fierce. Man-to-man fighting, hails of stones. There was violence from both sides, but we held out as long as needed, until backup could arrive,” he adds.
“It is true that we were taken by surprise at first, almost caught napping, and about 30 of them managed to get in through the woods, but most were later arrested by patrols. But we reacted fast, and at some point during a brief hiatus, the guys from the military guard were able to lay out razor wire so our defense was significantly strengthened.
The second big push came at around 3 p.m. by more than a thousand young men who, having the cameras of Turkish and foreign news agencies looking on, attacked with particular violence. The Turks obviously allowed the cameras ahead of the push so they could broadcast the fall of the Greek border,” comments Harelas.
‘The Turks obviously allowed the cameras ahead of the push so they could broadcast the fall of the Greek border’