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Victoria Mindova

Athenian retailers will seek compensation from the state after the defeat and devastation following the successive riots around Syntagma Square during the 48-hour strike of the Greek unions. The Athens Chamber of Commerce estimated that the damage reached at least 500,000 euros, and the retailers’ association in the capital is making a detailed description of the damage to calculate the exact number of the broken shops and theirs losses resulting from the last urban warfare.

GRReporter contacted the President of the Hellenic Chamber of Commerce Vassilis Korkidis, who drew the initial picture of the volume of the damage to the trade in the capital and to the tourist image after the defeat around the Parliament this week. "The centre of Athens has become a punching bag for social unrest," said Korkidis who did not hide his indignation for the lack of control over the Greek protests in recent years.

According to the existing regulations and the law passed after the arson in Athens in late 2008, the owners of shops and other commercial sites in the damaged areas are entitled to compensations after describing the damages. This, however, can not cover the catastrophic consequences of the constant meetings, protests and clashes in the capital, traders say. There is a significant drop in the visits to the centre of Athens, Vassilis Korkidis notes.

"We support the resentment, but we can not support the blind violence that destroys the labour and property, whether big or small, built with sweat," says the trader. He explained that many commercial sites that are most affected will not be able to recover. Whatever the amount of compensation, it is much less than the money invested in the business. Besides the broken windows, the damaged and destroyed equipment and goods, the commercial sites suffer losses for the days and in some cases the weeks, during which they are closed for repairs or lack of money to finish them.

"Seasonal discounts are after about 10 days. Some are already underway - all this is meaningless. Furthermore, citizens are scared and deliberately avoid the downtown even when there are no active protests. Purchasing power of tourists is completely lost. They are now afraid to come to Greece, let alone come to shop. No compensation can cover these losses."

The problems of retailers and citizens in the centre of Athens are not new. Crime in the historical centre has been only deepening in recent decades and many people think it has been out of control in the past four years. Moreover, the new economic conditions brought many organized protests and unrest that made the centre of Athens and its retailers hostage to public outrage, says Korkidis.

"We had over 850 protests in the last year. This means that the centre was blocked three times a day throughout the year. This resulted in an average loss of four working hours per day, when the traders can not do their job," is indignant Korkidis. He described the last year’s events as disastrous and expressed his deep concerns that protesters from different sectors could win the sympathy of the people who consistently comply with their whims.
 
In his opinion, the biggest crime is that the whole mess affect tourism the most, which now is a crucial sector for the Greek economy. "During the summer, we are not only frightening and chasing the tourists who have come, but are preventing other tourists from visiting our country." Vassilis Korkidis stresses that the videos of international broadcasters do not give a full picture of the country and foreigners believe that the various clashes between police and hooligans are ubiquitous. They are not. But it does not matter, because such vandalism affects the overall image of the country.

"We believe that the right to protest is a democratic right but it should be done somewhere where it would not create permanent traffic chaos." Retailers offer the government to direct the protests of discontented unions and individuals to the open park area on Pedio tou Areos which is also situated in the city centre between the Aleksandras and Patision boulevards. It is often used for organized rallies and protests which create some inconvenience in the traffic, but not completely block the city.

Korkidis explained that the events of last year changed the commercial appearance of the capital. The permanent occupations of the centre led to building larger shopping centres in the outskirts of the capital. "The crisis was the icing on the cake, which helped transfer the large and small shops along the shopping streets to the suburbs of Athens, where shopping malls, shopping villages, outlets and other major stores were built." Eastern and Western Attica acquired a new look with large hypermarkets, which are preferred by people because of easy access, lack of hazards, such as strikes, protests and riots, and for the big parking lots - a luxury that does not exist in the city centre.