A 77-year old Greek pensioner, retired pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas, wen down to Syntagma square in Athens and committed suicide on Wednesday, April 4, leaving a note explaining his reasons.
The note speaks for itself:
“The occupation government of Tsolakoglou literally annihilated any possibility for my survival that was depended on a decent pension which only I personally paid for 35 years (without any state support).
Because my age does not give me the possibility for a dynamic reaction (without meaning that if a Greek would grab the kalashnikov, I wouldn’t be the second one [to grab one], I see no other solution than the decent end before I start searching in the garbage for food.
I believe that one day the youth without future will take the arms and hang upside down at Syntagma Square the national traitors as the Italians did with Mussolini in 1945 Piazza Loreto in Milan”
Tolakoglou was a Greek military officer who became the first Prime Minister of the Greek collaborationist government during the Axis Occupation in 1941-1942.
Christoulas had run a local chemist shop in central Athens until 1994, when he retired. He was an active member of the "won't pay" movement.
Since the beginning of 2010, pensions have been cut by 15% on average, with those over 1,200 euro being cut by 20%, as part of the brutal austerity measures imposed on the Greek people in order to pay back the banks and capitalist investors.
The messages which were pinned to the trees next to where he killed himself were sharp and clear: "Austerity kills", "It was murder, not suicide."
There were protests across Greece and in Athens Syntagma Square yesterday, which were met with brutal repression by riot police. Two journalists were beaten up despite having identified themselves as such.
According to figures from the Ministry of Labour, the number of suicides has gone up by 40% since the crisis started, mainly involving ruined middle class people, small business owners, etc.
(With material from the Keep Talking Greece blog)