Our fellow citizens founded a network called “Umbrella”

2023-06-15 07:18:20

They expressed their concern as active citizens for the acts of abuse that occurred on the beaches of our island, yesterday at the first joint press conference given by the members of the network of active citizens and collective bodies of Rhodes under the name ‘Umbrella’ – Network for the Defense of Public Space.
In more detail, in the interview given at the Labor Center of Rhodes, the following participated: Grigoriadis Dimitris – president of the Environmental Protection Association of Rhodes, Gryllis Iakovos – former president of TEE Dodecanese, Koukoulas Dimitris – president of AMKE – ECOMUSEUM Rhodos, Maliarakis Christos – president of RIChe.S. and Kostas Schinochoritis – president of the Association of Dodecanese Architects, while Ms. Dasakli Nektaria – president of the Association for the Preservation of the Cultural and Architectural Heritage of Rhodes was absent.
Mr. Gryllis stated the following:
“As we all know, in the last period we have been watching with great concern and concern the escalation of the arbitrary and illegal construction of public spaces, especially of the public assets of the seafront and the beach in more and more parts of our island. In fact, in many cases, flagrant abuses take place within declared archaeological sites – historical sites and/or in areas protected by environmental legislation.
These violations, apart from the fact that they create the feeling of abrogation of all legitimacy, are directed both against the rights of each and every one of us individually, and collectively against society in general”.
He himself cited recent incidents with bathers who were evicted from the NOR area while many of our fellow citizens do not find space on the beaches. “Similar phenomena exist on many other beaches of the island.
This was also the main reason that motivated us to set up a group of active citizens who have been dealing with similar issues for many years and have a specific action. It is important to have a team that acts in a coordinated manner. At the moment there is a citizens’ initiative that has got up from the sofas and the keyboard and they are taking more active action.”
The goal of the ‘Umbrella’ network is to collect signatures that will allow them to raise the issues of concern to the citizens to the Rhodes municipal council, to be discussed. As Mr. Gryllis mentioned: “We have already collected over 600 signatures from citizens who want us to coordinate our forces and actions.”
However, he made it clear that on the one hand, they are not a minority but people who are interested in their country, on the other hand they have no intention of serving party and political purposes.
The positions of the rest of the participants were on the same wavelength, with the peak point being the great publicity that the matter with the abuses received due to the publications of the newspaper ‘Kathimerini’ (to which, it should be noted, the mayor of Rhodes, Mr. Antonis Kambourakis, has responded) and exercised criticism, saying that the Municipality of Rhodes and the Decentralized Administration – which also has the authority to intervene – are limited to throwing the blame ball at each other.
Mr. Koukoulas expressed his strong concern about incidents that have taken place, saying that “mafia practices” with attacks on individuals are recorded. “Personally, I have filed a lawsuit for a murderous attack against me by ‘good guys’ in the Haraki area on August 12th. I have suffered significant head injuries, I have made the matter public to the Supreme Court’s prosecutor’s office” sounding the alarm for such behaviors.
Next steps are beyond the citizens’ network, the intervention in the local political events, the contacts with the local bodies as well as the highlighting – informing about the serious problems of the place. “It’s a matter of political will, after all. There are issues related to legality but there is also the political will…” concluded Mr. Gryllis – citing the ‘Mykonos example’ where, in addition to the imposition of fines, illegal constructions are also being demolished.