Elderly mayor beaten up in Greece
Suspected members of a far-right group have attacked the elderly mayor of Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki.
Mayor Yiannis Boutaris,75, was hospitalized early Sunday after being attacked at an event commemorating the massacre of Black Sea Greeks in Turkey during and after World War I.
Footage from the event shows Boutaris initially being heckled before members of the crowd begin to turn violent. As he decides to leave, some people start throwing objects at him and he falls to the ground.
Reports said some of the attackers even attempted to break the windows of his car as it sped off.
“They were hitting me everywhere. Kicks, punches, the lot,” Boutaris told state agency ANA Sunday. “It was a despicable attack, but I am well.”
The office of Socialist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras described the attackers as “far-right thugs.”
Boutaris has previously angered members of nationalist and far-right-groups in Greece with remarks regarding Macedonia and Turkey.
Comments related to Turkey, in particular, are sensitive as the two countries have fought four major wars.
Boutaris has in the past described the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, as a “great leader.”
Greco-Turkish relations have also been strained over Cyprus, where competing views have held the island country split for decades.
Boutaris’ family is originally from the Ottoman town of Krusevo, now in the Republic of Macedonia.
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