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Holidays in Greece: Announcement for the tourists visiting Greece this summer!

Acratos Tourist Agency | 26.07.2004 15:35 | Analysis | Globalisation

Do you want to spend your holidays in a sunny Mediterranean country? Do you want to combine your holidays with this year's Olympic Games? Have you finally chosen to visit Greece this summer?






















Do you want to spend your holidays in a sunny Mediterranean country? Do you want to combine your holidays with this year's Olympic Games? Have you finally chosen to visit Greece this summer?

Then you have to reconsider because of the situation in Greece. For example would you ever decide to spend your holidays in a war zone? Of course not, vacations means entertainment not living under a constant threat.

Some advertisements of the Olympic Games around the world are misleading tourists like you by not telling the whole truth. Athens, Thessaloniki, Iraklion, Patra and Volos (all the cities were Olympic events are taking place) are militarised zones! Do you want to spend your holidays surrounded by thousands of troops and armed to the teeth police?

All police officers are carrying guns in Greece. In the last five years there more than 100 confirmed -unarmed- persons, both Greeks and foreign citizens, shot "accidentally" by Greek police. The last one was a 22-year-old person in Iraclion of Crete shot because he didn't stop at a police blockade. The police officers opened fire with submachine guns.

Greece furthermore is the country with the most fatal car accidents in the EU.

We had already advised all our customers to avoid visiting Greece this year, as we cannot guarantee their safe vacations.

We advise you to choose among a big range of Mediterranean destinations but we strongly encourage you to avoid Greece.

*all photographs are very recent... keep in mind that visiting Greece will encounter at least once per week such a situation as shown in the photographs

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Acratos Travel Agency Inc

Acratos Tourist Agency

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Common now...

26.07.2004 20:58

Why would you publish such caustic opinion based on blatantly false information? Are you having trouble competing with other agencies in Greece?

There have not been 100 shootings by police in the last 2 years. In fact Greece has the lowest crime rate in Europe. Athens is not a war zone. It is host to the Olympic games, an event celebrating global peace and brotherhood.

Sure there will be cops around, but not as many as you would see in “other peaceful Mediterranean locations”. Have you been to Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Cyprus? I have. Many times. Though I have enjoyed my self in all, do you know how many shabby security people trot around Istanbul and Cairo with AK 47s? I won’t even mention Tel Aviv Hahahaha

Perhaps you should send your clients to Algeria…. Spain? Have they had any terrorist problems lately? No – perhaps Italy, but their beaches suck, the wine is as over-rated as their soccer team and they have troops in Iraq.

I consider my self fairly proficient geographically, so tell me what is left?

The name of your agency sounds Greek. I hope this is a coincidence. Many people have a complex about their background. Not surprisingly, this is less common among Greeks than it is for say, Britons, but there is always an exception. What I don’t understand, is that if you are one of those pathetically few self-hating Greeks (like the ones that cooperated with the Nazis), why would you chose to be servile to a culture as crass and uninspiring as the British.

Nicholas Ktorides
mail e-mail: ncktorid@fca-usa.com


athens 2004

26.07.2004 21:00

Utter rubbish. Greece is one of the safest places in Europe to live and raise ur kids in - and that's not because of any police or militaries toting guns. Posting pictures from the Olympics security drills to cause a feeling of threat is exquisitely nasty work from a twisted mind, bravo! Hope you got paid well for this.

Claudia


HOW MUCH DID THEY PAY YOU ?

27.07.2004 00:04

ok who paid you to write this article ?i was in Athens and some of their islands and had cool times ,i wish i could say the same about the brits ,i found the brits cold detached and slightly obnoxious,just a step above the turks who are still in primitive stages with horrid human rights especially towards women ,i checked to see who you are and your agency is not listed anywhere,so whos paying you?

Geraldine


Probable sources for this article

27.07.2004 03:39

This is what I call the lowest of the low. The publishers of this article prove their desperation for business with utter disregard to basic human values.
One thing to consider.
A search on ACRATOS in Google shows two web sites mentioning the word.
One is a Turkish travel agency

 http://www.gata.com.tr/ing/aboutturkey/mythology/zeugma.asp

and the other some anarchist site.

 http://endehors.org/news/4891.shtml

Draw your own conclusions.

Mitsous


Nation state Mentallity

27.07.2004 09:38

Hi Claudia
Rather racist aren't we? 'Primitive Turks' and 'cold Brits. But then, you are thinking in terms on nation states. It never ceases to amaze me, the tunnel vision logic of the 'patriot' ( sounds like a missile ). The person who is proud to be where from where they are born as if they had a hand in their own creation and has the selective memory of 'their'(sic) nation's history and of their personal history. Nation states are relatively new and nation state violence in general in the case of violence against 'their own people' ( sic ) and the construction of otherness and destruction of others is common and also lazy.
But we live in times of the greedy, lazy ignorant few, deciding ( or shopping ) the fate of the many who they have never met. This is called democracy apparently. In reality it is something quite different. So the Olympic Games is about 'brotherhood' and not about business, the tourist industry, the construction industry, the corporate hospitality sector etc. Don't make me laugh. I have known a few people whose health has been fucked up by being in Olympic teams - from an early age pushed to be 'the best' no matter how crippling - these people and their painful future are 'exnominated' from the mainstream media as are the dead construction workers and the sterilised animals, and the people forcebly moved and the quwestionable activities of the corporates who rely on the spin from these events. Oh, and the money does not 'trickle down' as the fuckers would have you believe when applying to host Olympics with their expensive bids....

Twilight of The Idols


patriot?

27.07.2004 10:33

Uhm. I don't recall using generalising terms such as 'primitive Turks' and 'cold Brits', neither am i responding as a redneck patriot, since i am not Greek. I have been living in Greece for many many years though, and i think the "Avoid Greece" post is a piece of malevolent misinformation.

Claudia


No to Bosses, No to Olympics

27.07.2004 10:45

Boycott the Olympics! Don't holiday in a policestate! This is democracy enforced by rifle and bomb, the games are for the benefit of economic interests only, a show of 'unity' that is sickeningly false.

Solidarity to Greek Anarchists


state terrorism

27.07.2004 12:18

it seems that this travel agency is a bit more informed than we previously thought...
take a look here:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/07/295386.html

I will agree that the Greeks are very nice people... but unfortunately the greek authorities and state are f**ked up! Three years ago I was in Paros for holidays and I was stopped by policemen (whose english was reaching the level of "my - name - is ..."), searched and they found a joint on me... Then I was being kicked a bit around and they confiscated the joint !!!

alexis


please dont come we dont need you!!

27.07.2004 17:55

FIRST OF ALL WE DONT NEED TOURISTS THAT THEY ARE COMING HERE TO CRITISIZE THE EFFORT AND THE EXPENSES WHICH WE HAVE DONE BECAUSE OF THEIR GOVERMENTS POLICIES!!!
IF THIS SO CALLED TRAVEL AGENCY DONT WANT TO SEND TOURISTS IN OUR COUNTRY ITS ALLHIS OWN PROBLEM!
GO TO TURKEY 3 STRIKES THIS YEAR!
GO TO ITALY POSSIBLE TARGET BECAUSE OF BERLUSCONI'S POLICY
GO TO FRANCE VERY CHEAP AND VERY PICTURESQUE!
GO TO SPAIN ALREADY COUNTS 200 DEADS!!
GO TO MOROCCO ALREADY 2 STRIKES !
GO TO ALGERIA WITH THE FUNDAMENTALIST IN YOUR NECK
GO TO TUNISIA VERY NICE VERY CHEAP!!
GO TO LIBYA WITH ANNOUAR HE IS VERY CLOSED FRIEND OF BLAIR
GO TO EGYPT HOW MANY DEADS SO FAR
THE BEST DESTINATION ISRAEL NO PROBLEM JUST LOOK AROUND FOR THE NEXT BOMB
LEBANON THE SAME AS ABOVE
SYRIA WHO'S NEXT!!

SO AS YOU SEE ALL MED IS FORBITTEN SO GO IN NORTHEN IRELAND!! MOSTLY SUNNY

SO LEAVE US ALONE WE DONT WANT SUCH TOURISTS!


NOW IF YOU WANT THE MOST CLEAR SEA IN MED THE MOST MODERN CAPITAL CITY THE MOST SECURE PLACE ON EARTH ALONG WITH THE FAMOUS GREEK HOSPITALITY AND THE MOST MARVELOUS OLYMPIC GAMES EVER COME AND VISIT US YOU ARE MOST WELCOME!!


KISSES THE CHOICE IS YOURS

PS WHY YOU POST SUCH AN ARTICLE IS THAT CONCRETE AND SOUND JOURNALISM OR CHAOTIC AND NIHILISTIC ORDERED JOURNALISM!!

Demetrios
mail e-mail: brexians@yahoo.gr


well spoken for a ruffian

27.07.2004 18:59

The people of Greece always welcome tourists... but unfortunately some things said by this travel agency are true! just take a look on how many reports from diferent sources exist on the newswire...

Now as about demetrios that's the usual nationalist type of person you gonna meet in greece. It's one of the types of persons that he likes to be f***ed and robbed by the state... he is the kind of person who says tha Instabul is Greek and we should kill 10.000.000 people in order to take it back... traitors like him were cooperating with the military Junta and the US agencies back in the 60s and 70s.

Why are you writting in capital letters demetris? You feel angry that some people are speaking the truth about the situation in Greece?

Mixalis


friendly greek coppers

05.08.2004 07:56

journos kidnapped and beaten by greek coast police:

 http://sport.guardian.co.uk/athens2004/story/0,14529,1276004,00.html

this travel agency was well informed after all...

lol