“Our colleagues were almost burned alive” police officers of Central Macedonia complain about the incidents that took place in Thessaloniki on February 28, 2024, on the one-year anniversary of the tragedy in Tempi and a day of nationwide strike mobilization.

In addition, they complain that the support platoon that was attacked with Molotov cocktails outside the Ministry of Macedonia – Thrace, was left uncovered and unprotected.

The police officers also refer to a video that has seen the light of day, stressing that human lives of police officers were at risk.

The announcement in detail:

Before the ink has even dried from our last announcement, unfortunately what we mentioned regarding the situation prevailing at the General Police Directorate of Thessaloniki is confirmed. While, therefore, according to the Ministerial plan, which – we repeat – has been ordered and while in Thessaloniki hundreds of police officers have left the “offices” on the “sidewalk”…, in the last episodes that broke out in the center of Thessaloniki, on the sidelines of the march for the one-year anniversary of the Tempe tragedy, our colleagues almost burned alive!!!

At this point it should be mentioned that as an Association, we have never entered into operational plans or judged the operational plans of each General Police Directorate or the competent Officers, however in this case, as can be seen in a video that saw the light of day, human lives were at risk police officers.

In particular, as shown in the said video, the colleagues of one support platoonwhich was formed by the General Police Directorate of Thessaloniki with police officers from various Services, in order to perform a Law and Order service on the said march, in such a “sensitive” point as the building where the Ministry of Macedonia & Thrace and the Prime Minister’s Office in Thessaloniki, were heavily attacked with molotovat the risk of being burned alive, as well there was no support from regular police forces (YAT or YMET squads) to deal with such situations.

The following question is rightly asked: How can a simple support platoon be left uncovered and unprotected when such a large number of police officers are now on the “streets”?

What is wrong with the aforementioned numerous police forces that cannot be synchronized??? Who, if any, can’t effectively manage the aforementioned numerous police forces??? We will repeat one more time: We absolutely do NOT want to believe that the fact that the coordination of the police forces was not achieved is due to the fact that the General Police Director of Thessaloniki, the one with the general mandate, has only been serving in Thessaloniki for the last year or so! !!

The questions there are many and they DEMAND answers, as it turns out, the physical integrity of police officers on duty is at stake!!!

– Is it true or not, that the police forces that were operating, were expecting special orders from the one with the general order, being the one in the Operations Center???
– Is it true or not, that Operational Officers of both the Directorate of Police Operations of Thessaloniki (of the YAT – YMET squads) and of the Directorate of Security of Thessaloniki communicated to the decision-makers and proposed an operational plan to isolate (safely) the people who were causing the episodes???
– Is it true or not, that “rioters”, apparently realizing the (mentioned) lack of coordination of the police forces, in the evening hours of the same day (around 10:00 p.m.) carried out a new (fierce!!!) attack by throwing (on top of ten) of Molotov cocktails, at the expense of another platoon again on Agios Dimitriou street, in close proximity to the aforementioned building (YMATH), as happened a few hours earlier???

In conclusion, addressing the Minister of Citizen Protection we would like to appeal so that what is mentioned in our present announcement is taken into serious consideration. In support of this request, we would like to emphasize the fact that our Union does not usually issue a statement for a trivial reason and occasion, but only when we are convinced, both by our members, and by elements that we realize that an existing situation needs further highlighting – intervention, in order to avoid the worst.