Roma have lived there for generations, side by side with other inhabitants. They went to school with them, worked with them, were friends with them. Now many Roma dare not cross the bridge to the town centre, for fear of being beaten up by them.
Some say it began with a broken economy. As Greece’s financial misfortunes plunged in 2010, fear and suspicion grew. Racist attacks and intolerance increased throughout Greece. In June 2012, the Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party, took nearly 7 per cent of the national vote.
Together these developments turned the lives of Etoliko’s Roma upside down. For Paraskevi Kokoni, aged 35 and a mother of seven, it was the end of everything she knew.
In August 2012, hundreds of people, many believed to be linked to Golden Dawn, descended on her neighbourhood, lobbing Molotov cocktails at Romani houses. “They were shouting that they were going to kill people,” she recalls.
The police did nothing to repel the hostile crowd. It was the first of a series of violent attacks against Etoliko’s Roma.
Beaten with logs
In October 2012, Paraskevi was out shopping in Etoliko’s town centre with her son and 23-year-old nephew Kostas, when they were ambushed by a gang of locals.
“Two of the men went for me and the rest were punching and kicking Kostas,” she says. “I was calling for help but nobody came.”
She escaped and ran with her son to the local police station, but the officer there said he was too afraid to intervene. Paraskevi’s husband later found Kostas unconscious in the street. Both Paraskevi and Kostas were hospitalized because of their injuries.
While the house was empty, intruders broke in. “They broke the windows. They broke the china,” she says. “We came in the house and didn’t find a single glass to drink some water. We didn’t find a single plate. They had broken everything.”
Paraskevi took her family and left Etoliko for good. “The police did not protect us,” she says. “We… moved to Patra. We left our own home. My children don’t want to return to the house. They are afraid.”
Three of the men involved in the October attack were charged in November 2013 with serious bodily harm. Their case is still pending.
As for Paraskevi, she now lives in a rented flat. After years of owning her own house, she struggles to pay the rent. She has lost her home, her neighbours, her community.