19-year-old murdered in Thessaloniki: Three views on the endless cycle of fan violence
Three academics write in “K” about a phenomenon that chronicles and feeds the blood cycle.
As they emphasize, violent extremism, in its various forms, is the greatest danger that threatens European democracies, while they speak of hypocrisy in the rhetoric of pure violence.
Many questions, as well as responsibilities.
Rose Karatrantos
The spread of violence
For many years we have been talking about a dystopian environment as it was presented through fiction. In recent years, however, this dystopia has become part of everyday life in Western societies. The crises have created a prolonged scenario of polarization and division. Populism and authoritarian policies have cultivated an intolerant background where violence has become part of the political controversy. Violent extremism, in its various forms, is the greatest threat to European democracies.
But violence has unfortunately left even this context and tends to be different in our society. We can observe three main dynamics. The first is violence as a process of resolving personal disputes. We have seen incidents in recent years that escalated and even led to killings, which started with a confrontation. A progressive turn reminiscent of violence as an integral part of resolving disputes of the first rural societies of modern Greece.
The second dynamic is violence as a means of gaining identity. The flatulence of many young people, especially minors, has led to a prolonged identity crisis. Joining organizations or groups that glorify and support violence works as a simplistic way out of belonging. The latest murder case in Thessaloniki is added to other cases that have two main dimensions: a) Violence between groups of minors and b) fan violence. In some cases these two violent groupings coincide, as the average age of hooligans has dropped significantly.
The third dynamic concerns the culture and iconology of violence. Homicide, domestic violence and racist attacks highlight violence as a dimension of a culture of “superiority”. Finally, the worst is the iconology of violence associated with either the use of deadly means, such as the scythe, or the use of the Internet to promote bloodshed.
Mr. Triantaphyllos Karatrantos is a doctor of Security and New Threats and a scientific collaborator of ELIAMEP.
Stratos Stylianidis
Our debt to young people
Our Alkis. Our first-year student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, who was murdered in the early hours of Tuesday in the area of Charilaou in Thessaloniki. The university and the city. We are all shocked by the murderous attack on our own Elk. This sad incident is added to the number of cases of violence recorded in the country’s stadiums.
And there are many questions. For the responsibilities of all of us in dealing with a one-time phenomenon, which the existing sports bills are unable to eliminate. Questions about wild violence instincts cultivated in young children. To the children of a generation that, in search of a collective identity, turned fanaticism into hooliganism, counting more and more human losses. A generation that went from violent “spontaneous” episodes inside competitive countries to intentional fan violence, ambushes and off-field attacks like yesterday.
The state, society, sports institutions, we academic teachers, are all the debts and the responsibility to protect the physical integrity of young children. And this must be done in every way. With brave decisions. With a modern, realistic institutional framework for the protection of fans, but also a relentless attitude by the state in all incidents of violence without exception. Combating violence inside and outside sports facilities. Administration of justice.
And most importantly, we need to invest more and more in education. Education is the only means that can change the fate of people. To consolidate the crop. To develop social skills. To form honest, moral personalities, with high values for life, with a sense of responsibility towards others, with instincts of brotherhood, humanity, solidarity, respect.
And we ourselves are the ones who must not allow these criminal acts to be perpetuated to the detriment of our children. Violence is not tolerated in any form. Not in the university, not in the stadiums, not in the city streets. That’s enough.
Mr. Stratos Stylianidis is Vice Rector for Research and Lifelong Learning at AUTh.
Nikos Marantzidis
A masculine, ruthless world
The murder of a 19-year-old is shocking for many reasons. Especially when you hear the phrase “it was made for fan differences”, or something like that. How can one kill a man for fan differences, I wonder.
Then spontaneous events are recalled from my memory. I go to the stadium, from the age of twelve, and I was trained in the “temple” where the raw, beastly times “manliness” is glorified: men who swear and gesture with their genitals and swear words where sex is the equivalent of humiliation and pain. . Men spitting, throwing bottles and objects causing pain, men threatening, men attacking, punching, men, violent men…
How many times have I been scared for my life going to a football match? Several; Probably yes. I remember once in Athens I went to see PAOK, and fans of the opposing team outside the stadium after the end of the match, all the men of course, asked urgently and threateningly to see IDs from anyone who seemed “suspicious”. How people chose, I did not understand. They shouted at my neighbor “identity re”, I walked silently, stooped. What would happen if he saw in the ID: “place of birth: Thessaloniki, Toumpa police station”? Fortunately I did not find out.
Modern football hypocritically claims to have cleared up the violence. How much hypocrisy. Making football an expensive hobby, in Europe mainly, banning the movement of fans, in Greece mainly, maybe they took the violence out of the stands and carried it to the streets. Only in Thessaloniki in recent years there are two dead and several injured by stabbings and “fan” shootings.
As we do not laugh, the discussion on “fan violence” covers not to say “washes away” the deeper taboo issue. The world of patriarchy is a world that constantly transmits violence – a world full of blind narcissistic and selfish violence: the child who was another group, the woman who “contradicted”. Sometimes this cruel male world becomes not only violent but also ruthless.
* Mr. Nikos Marantzidis is a professor of Political Science at the University of Macedonia.