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New Democracy MP George Koumoutsakos was attacked and hit during a protest demonstration organized by the associations of Pontic Greeks in Syntagma Square in front of the Greek Parliament on Thursday evening. Thus they expressed their discontent at the statements of Minister of Education Nikos Filis, who in a television interview determined the massacre of their ancestors by the movement of Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire as "bloody ethnic cleansing," not as genocide.

The MP became the victim of the attack when, upon arriving in the square to participate in the demonstration, he faced a group of people who started to throw water bottles at him, shouting "resign" and "traitor," aggressively approaching him at the same time.

A video of the attack clearly shows a young man dressed in a tracksuit, wearing a baseball cap, punching George Koumoutsakos in the face. Meanwhile, a second man is beginning to kick him, while a third one is trying to pursue him, pulling his clothes.

Immediately after the attack, the MP is setting off to the policemen in charge of the security of the demonstration, standing behind them, however the group of attackers is not giving up but trying to break the police cordon and hit Koumoutsakos again.

Subsequently, he entered the parliament building, the president of the Pontic Federation of Greece being there at the same too, to deliver a manifesto against the statements of the Minister of Education. He condemned the attack and defined it as a "shameful picture," stressing that the attackers were not connected with the federation at all.

The Athens prosecutor's office has ordered an urgent investigation into the attack on George Koumoutsakos in order to establish the identity of the perpetrators. The main suspect is a former candidate of Golden Dawn for a counsellor in Athens. According to the police sources cited by the newspaper Kathimerini, the authorities have already managed to recognize both him and another member of the group of extremists.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection Nikolaos Toskas has stated that the members of Golden Dawn are already under investigation and that the police have already apprehended several suspects but arrested no one yet. According to sources, five people have been taken to the central police station of Attica and their involvement in the attack is under investigation too.

"The investigation is conducted among the members of Golden Dawn, because the evidence is taking us there," said Toskas, adding that the police had clear footage of the time of the beating, which would help them apprehend the perpetrators. He pointed out that their arrest was a matter of time. Police sources say that the authorities have apprehended eight persons on charges of involvement in the attack.

With a comment on his Twitter profile George Koumoutsakos demanded the arrest of the perpetrators of the attack and defined it as "fascist".

"Like every democratic citizen, I insist that the democratic authorities immediately arrest the perpetrators of last night's fascist attack."

For its part, New Democracy made open attacks against Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and relevant Minister Nikolaos Toskas.

"Let the Deputy Minister of Citizen Protection understand that he is directly responsible for the delayed arrest of the attackers, whose identity has been known from the first moment, as he himself has stated," reads the party communiqué.

The "blue" party urged the Minister "to stop talking but to give explanations for the insufficient security guards during last night's demonstration of Pontic Greeks, which allowed extreme elements to attack a member of the Greek parliament."