In these complex and difficult conditions that are formed concerning the developments in the Evros region and the islands, it is crucial that our people discern who the real culprit is and who is against them. These are certainly not the thousands of uprooted and downtrodden people who are exploited by the various imperialist bargains and competitions between Turkey and the EU.

This is not just a "humanitarian" ascertainment, it is a position that is consistent with the objective reality. It contradicts the logic that lets the real culprit, the one that the popular opposition must aim at, off the hook.

Anyone who is really opposed to the dangerous situation in the Evros region and the islands should not want their country's contribution to rising refugees and uprooted people waves. There is not only the fact that the interventions and wars organized by the US, NATO, the EU and other imperialist forces in many regions of the world are responsible for the refugee waves. There is also the fact that Greece, as a member of these imperialist organizations, is actively involved, and soon will even more actively support these interventions after the new Greece-US Agreement. It provides infrastructure, bases, military personnel – really, what happened to the "Patriots" in S. Arabia? –  to realize the imperialist plans, in return for the so-called geostrategic upgrade.

Anyone who is really opposed should not lose sight of the hypocrisy of the ND government.

On the one hand, the Greek government speaks of an attempt of Turkey's "invasion" in the Evros region, giving a war tone to the operations, and on the other hand, it is aglined with the US-NATO planning, which wants Turkey to be in the NATO camp at all costs, and keeps open channels for "arrangements" in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, as dictated by US-NATO interests and various business plans. It calls on Frontex and NATO to guard the borders, putting the fox guarding the henhouse.

On the one hand, it advocates nationalist rhetoric on the occasion of the events in the Evros region, and on the other hand, it refuses to denounce the Turkish intervention in Syria, that is, an attack on the sovereignty and borders of another country, which creates a dangerous precedent for border changes in the wider region.

On the one hand, it exerts its power on the downtrodden and on the other hand, it supports the continuation of the double-entrapment policy due to the EU-Turkey Agreement, which turns the Greek islands into EU-prisons. At the same time, it supports the objective of renewing this policy by a new EU-Turkey Agreement, while Germany openly expresses its support for Turkish plans for an occupation zone in northern Syria.

It cannot absolve Syriza's policy.

SYRIZA gives its consent to government policy and at the same time raises the risk of racism and far-right, while questioning neither the EU Refugee policy nor the country's involvement in imperialist plans, which of course served faithfully as a government. But is this not the ground that racism, nationalism and xenophobia develop on? Isn't this a policy that nourishes them and gives them room to grow?

In the face of these developments, the people must have their eyes and ears open. Not to be sidetracked by the hypocrisy and disorientation of both the ND government and SYRIZA. Not to accept the games played to their own and the refugees-immigrants' detriment.

The way out for the people is the struggle against US-NATO plans and Greek involvement. It is the struggle to abolish the EU-Turkey Agreement and the Dublin Regulation. To demand the extrication of refugees and facilitate their rapid transfer to the countries of their destination. To strengthen solidarity with the uprooted and the joint struggle with other peoples of the region against the system that bears war, exploitation, poverty and refugees.

This article is republished from the "Our Opinion" column of Rizospastis on Tuesday, March 10, 2020.