They are a new group, with a fancy ancient Greece related name, but both their debut “action” and their threats against migrants appear strangely familiar.
Crypteia have claimed the stone attack against 11-year-old Afghan student Amir’s house last Friday and their anti-migrant rhetoric is not much different than the one used by the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party accused for criminal offenses against immigrants.
The suspected Golden Dawn breakaway faction says it is recruiting anti-migrant hit squads, and has vowed to drive all migrants and refugees out of Greece.
The group, naming itself Crypteia, after a vigilante band of ancient Spartans who terrorized slaves, told a Greek news outlet: “We will fight until the last immigrant leaves. And to that end, we will use force and violence, mercilessly.”
How serious a threat Crypteia poses is the subject of debate within Greek political and police circles with some saying that invoking the ancient Spartan band is nothing more than cover for a bunch of crude thugs. Others are not so sure.
Stavros Theodorakis, leader of the centrist To Potami party, claims that Greece is seeing a rise of serious political gang violence across the ideological spectrum, warning, “every day there is a new target. Gangs intimidate with impunity.”
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