The meeting with Mrs. Ganidou took place at the family’s home at Thessaloniki. A beautiful, warm and hospitable house. With a low and confident voice it narrates what tragically happened that night and stresses that we should not focus so much on whether the train was transported illegal or not – even if her child was charred and is the first to want to know – but in the reasons that caused her. “By focusing only on the fire, we forget the responsibilities of the Ministry, the politicians, the governments,” he says. The reason for her:

I’m Despina Ganidou. I was a teacher, I taught computer science, now retired. I am the mother of one of the young kids killed in the Tempe accident. The mother of George Papazoglou. My son, George, was 22 years old. He was a student at Aristotle University, in the physical department. He had completed his fourth year of study and would soon get a degree. He wanted to pursue postgraduate studies and do a doctoral thesis in particle physics and to do research. He had gone down with his girlfriend for Clean Monday’s Three Day in Athens. They traveled to the wagon number 3, somewhere on the back of the wagon. Their positions were 80 or 82 if I remember correctly. I talked to him around 11pm. At first he had sent me a message starting from Athens. I wished him a good trip. At 11:00 pm I talked to him to see if they have arrived. He was still in Larissa. He was particularly upset because they were delayed at least one hour. I wished him a good trip and asked him to send me a message when he arrived, because they would arrive too late. As the train left Larissa, my son got up from his seat and went to the canteen to get a bottle of water. Unfortunately, at the time of the conflict it was in the canteen. And he left his last breath there. Universal crushing and caring.

[…] We passed around 2 in the morning from the scene of the accident. We saw the fire still burning. They did not allow us to descend, to approach, but they sent us to a point where George’s girlfriend was waiting for us. We got it. They had given her one of these aluminum blankets, which was bleeding. The child was frozen, scared. They sent us to the University Hospital, where there was a chaotic situation. Ambulances went down one after another, first carrying injured. Soon, however, they only carried bodies.

Was there any experts to help you and support you?

There was a psychiatrist and some social workers had already come. We were all gathered in the hospital’s amphitheater and around three and a half – four announced the names of the injured. From then on we were waiting for another announcement. The next day, at 6:00 in the morning, we were told that their on -call time was over and that we should go to the General Hospital. We went around 7:00 in the Larissa State Hospital in the morning, where there was a chaotic situation, literally chaotic.

The relatives were concentrated in a small amphitheater. We stayed until 10:00 in the evening. And then we went to a hotel in Larissa, where the psychiatrist and a social worker were waiting for us again, who stayed with us until we left Larissa. We waited at the hotel for two days, Thursday and Friday, to alert us on Friday night that George was identified and we left on Saturday. His funeral took place on Tuesday, a week later.

The time that followed how the state supported you and what is the account of these two years as you and your family experienced it?

It was a very violent event that destroyed our lives, disrupted our lives, our lives were overthrown. As for support? We only had the support of the two days we stayed at the hotel in Larissa. Beyond that, however, I think the state was relentless towards us. Starting with the interrogation with all that followed, with all the problems presented, with all the concealment efforts made.

What happened in the interrogation? What do you mean?

First of all within a few days the accident space was completely altered, so that two years have passed and I do not know, we do not know what the fire came from, what my child was charred, from silicone oils or something else. Our expert says that silicone oils cannot burn. They are so designed to withstand such conditions. He just can’t determine what was the fuel that caused this fire.

Here, of course, I would like to emphasize this – especially lately – a terrible emphasis on this issue, what caused the fire and the media, so there is a disorientation I think, because the primary issue is the causes of the conflict. The fact that there was no security system. As a result, the trains are in the same line for 12 minutes, without anyone being able to detect them, even though they had been spent billions of euros. So if the trains did not collide, whatever the merchant train carried the explosion and the fire. So the primary is the conflict. The other is secondary. Although I want to know why my child was charred, they are secondary. So, focusing only on the fire, we forget about the responsibilities of the Ministry, the politicians, the governments, the downside of the railway that led to the accident.

There is a lot of talk of a cover -up business. Who wants to conceal what?

First of all, they want to protect politicians with the law on ministerial responsibility and the fact that the investigator has been investigating the case for two years now and only in December has reached the responsibility of ministry officials. And on the other hand, from what it looks like with all this jerk, the transfer of our people’s soil into a private space. They seem to want to hide something about the fire, for the explosion.

Also, there was no videos from the trading train. And suddenly, after two years three videos were found, and the hard drives were seized and were sent to special laboratories in England to recover the data. They were seized 6 months after the accident, but the re -enrollments had erased the records of 28 February. In England it was not able to recover data. After a year and a half it was found that they were given the videos from the Thessaloniki passenger station and not from the commercial, where the commercial train was loaded. And all of a sudden now two, three videos appear. After two years, which a company has received from the recycling bin and which shows that the commercial train does not carry anything. And are we waiting to see if they are genuine?

What is the imprint of the accident in your daily life and your family?

George does not leave my mind and the rest of the family. There are times when when I think it doesn’t exist, he doesn’t live, that I won’t see him again, I feel I will explode. I tried very much to manage all these emotions, sadness, pain, pain, anger for some time, but in the end it was very difficult, and to be able to balance and support the rest of the family, I resorted to antidepressants.

George was a very special child. A child who liked music, cinema very much, read a lot. He wanted to explore the world of art, painting, philosophy. He was reading a philosophy of science at this age. From a very young age he was reading mythology. He was a happy kid, optimistic. He had too many dreams about the future. He was polite and discreet.

What would you now like? What do you hope for? What are you asking for?

We call for the case to be fully clarified, the causes of the conflict, the causes of the explosion and a trial in which the culprits will be punished.

Finally, would you like to send a message? Something you especially want to hear?

Together we have to fight for a better country, for justice, for security, to leave a better future for our children.