Greeks clash with police as Turkish party head visits Thessaloniki
Hurriyet.com.tr
REUTERS photo
A group of Greek Cypriots and members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party clashed with police in Thessaloniki after trying to enter the Turkish general consulate today.The groups were protesting a visit by the leader of the Turkish opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli to the city, who is visiting Greece as part of his tour of Balkan countries.
Bahçeli was paying a visit to the house where modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was born while the city was under Ottoman rule in 1881, when a group of around 60 Greek Cypriot students gathered in front of the Turkish general consulate to protest the nationalist leader's visit. A scuffle broke out between the group and Greek police officers protecting the consulate after the students tried to pass the police barricade. Around 40 members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party joined the melee, which ended after the police dispersed the group with tear gas.
Bahçeli left Thessaloniki in the afternoon for Macedonia.
