Socrates Giolias of Troktiko.
Less than a week after the assassination of Socrates Giolias, journalist and administrator of controversial Greek blog Troktiko, the site has announced that it’s closing down.
The final post – titled “Goodnight, Greece” – displays a photo of its slain administrator Socrates Giolias and issues the following statement:
“Final post for Troktiko – Goodnight, Greece. The country that gave birth to Democracy has killed freedom of expression. Have a safe journey, Socrates; keep an eye on us from the heavens.”
The assassination of Socrates Giolias, a low-profile research journalist and radio station CEO, came as a shock to the media world in Greece. Both Socrates Giolias and Troktiko – posting from Troktiko.Blogspot.com – have been hounding corrupt politicians and business people with daily announcements about scandals and financial discrepancies.
Traffic skyrocketed since the assassination of Troktiko administrator, Socrates Giolias.
Troktiko – which means “The Rodent” in Greek – became the 5th most visited Internet destination in Greece, surpassing even Yahoo and only trailing large international sites such as Blogger, YouTube, Google and Facebook. According to Alexa, the Troktiko worldwide ranking reached almost 500 since the incident of the assassination of Socrates Giolias.
According to police ballistics investigation, the Sect of Revolutionaries, an alleged Greek terrorist group implicated in the murder of a Greek police officer and a shooting at the headquarters of Greek TV station Alter TV, is linked to the murder of Socrates Giolias.
After the Alter TV station attack, the terrorist group released a statement in which they warned, “Journalists, this time we came to your door, but next time you will find us in your homes.”
Let’s hope they find the killers and punish them!!
Sad to see a beautiful country like Greece turning into a banana republic.
Every nite before I go to bed I say a prayer—thank you God I am In USA
Every morning when I see myself in the mirror and can smell my dick breath, I say Thank you God for my good health.
God Bless America!!!!
Dear friends,
Your comments gave me ”food for thought” on how people out of Greece, saw the troktiko issue.
My answer to the posts above is that, even if they find them, another terrorist group will appear, specially now while things here in Greece getting worse every day, and a lot of anger grows in our hearts. (for Nordi)
Of course NOBODY has the right to kill somebody else that’s why we blame all the time the US, for the kills around the world. We are ready to give our lives so that we can express ourselves with no restriction, not only for my opinion but also your opinion that’s the meaning of Democracy, that was the idea of troktiko (for Bulls).
Greece is for sure transforming in to a new Banana Republic, but through this, a resistance will grow and bring a revolution and through dialog we can transform it again to something beautiful and innocent (for George).
Sorry for my English, and sorry if I’ve been mistaken by someone, I’ll be happy to reply.
Christos – thank you for your comments. The term “banana republic” can be used for countries like Venezuela or Cuba.
Greece is far from being a banana republic – it’s a frappe paradise 😀
Lucius – the term “banana republic” refers to countries that have been controlled through US agencies, like Colombia. For Greece countries like Venezuela or Cuba are friendly. Venezouela provide some municipulities of Greece with cheap oil, Cuba is a country that we admire for the resistance against the “capital”. We’ve been a “banana republic” CIA was controlling Greece in 1967-1974, and the same thing is happening through IMF, because of the dept tha was created from our politicians. So except a frappe paradise, which is a reaction not get miserous, we can hope not be a “banana republic” again, but actions like closing troktiko blog, it’s not helpfull to achieve our purpose.
So Goodnight Greece Democracy is still, alive.
Christos – in order for Greece to become financially independent and not a slave to the IMF there needs to be a change of attitude. Simply put, there can be no clinging to old-school politics of the early 20th century (communism/socialism). Capitalism is a working option when there is industrial production, provision of the state to increase entrepreneurship and adoption of established western principles by the population. One cannot work few hours a week, go on strike every month and retire at 55 and expect the benefits of high salaries and quality of life. Politicians did not create the Greek debt; it was created by the overall practice of every single Greek who accepted the lifestyle of a corrupt citizen: bribing, stalling, postponing, not working, even destroying the plans of their employer. Again, production is the key: production of tangible items versus intangible (tourism is an intangible service that cannot sustain an entire economy) leads to healthy consumer practices and ethics. Let’s not forget the average Greek borrowed thousands of euro from banks as consumer loans, subsequently failing to repay them and thus creating a black hole in the economy. Overall, the Greeks need to understand that when someone points a finger blaming someone else for the financial situation, four fingers point back at him.
Lucius – You are totally right, and I think you know Greece’s problem quite well.
First to put the blame is for sure every single Greek, which EU helped them to grow their facilities and took the money to buy Mercedes, which retire even at the age of 45 (military), which they get loans that cannot afford and then ask from government to help them, etc. There has to be a change and control, but not demolishing everything, cutting off the salaries of 1000 euros by 10%, raise the taxes 3%, stopping investments in every section, and forget the great scandals of past times (Siemens, Vatopedi, military equipment, etc)
I believe also that being ”really” productive is the key to solve all the financial problems. The great problem is that most of people don’t work in industries, 2 mil. work for state in a population of 11m.
I’m a chemist, I worked in plastic industry for about 2 years, but although we were going really good in production,I was working every day for 10 hours, the false practices of the company were so wrong that they couldn’t buy materials, the production reduced and in the end they didn’t pay us in time, and now that I left they owe me 4 salaries, that’s why I was on strike that time. Strike is not the solution but what else can you do, you feel so weak. I don’t agree with some strikes, these that bring big problems to the rest.
The politicians, we vote them, and we blame them for everything, and most of them are corrupted, we don’t want communism or capitalism, we just want a status that we have production, meritocracy, free health care for everybody, educational for all.
Troktiko was a blog that all these thoughts could be expressed, I’m 28 years old, and I’m anxious for my future, it’s going to be in mortgage.
Lucius you’ve got a great speech, but as we cannot see light in the end of the tunnel, your words unite with ours, but cannot be heard from the rest.