Art exhibit disrupted by Greek neo-Nazis over irredentist material
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No arrests were made when local police arrived at the scene as protestors left.
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Supporters of Golden Dawn far-right party hold torches and Greek national flags during a rally to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre of Pontic Greeks by the Ottoman empire at the end of the first world war, in Athens, Greece May 19, 2019 (Reuters)
A municipal exhibition of artwork by North Macedonia painter, Sergej Andreevski, was interrupted on Thursday by a demonstration of masked nationalists claiming affiliation to the Greek neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn in Thessaloniki.
The Golden Dawn Youth Front were shown in their YouTube video confronting Andreevski to accuse him of posting material online that relates to irridentism and "cast doubt on the Greekness of our homeland", with one of the men saying "You have no right to be here".
He added: "We have relatives and grandfathers who sacrificed their lives for the Greekness of Macedonia".
AFP was told that no arrests were made when local police arrived at the scene as protestors left.
Kalamaria suburb Mayor Ioannis Dardamanelis stated that ten people disrupted the exhibition "on its final day" and labeled them "irredentist hotheads" seeking fame before next month's elections.
According to the mayor, Andreevski is "renowned" and has been invited previously both in 2002 and 2004 which the Greek foreign ministry approved.
Read next: Pope Francis returns three fragments of Parthenon to Greece
In a 2018 bilateral deal with Athens, North Macedonia changed its name from Macedonia which is a name of a historic Greek region. It ended a 27-year diplomatic strife opposed by conservatives and nationalists in both nations.
The xenophobic and neo-Nazi group became famous during the ten-year Greek debt crisis, and became the country's third-largest party after entering parliament.
In a landmark 2020 trial, the court jailed its leadership on the basis of the group being considered a criminal organization and being linked to the murder of an anti-fascist rapper and the beating of migrants and political opponents.
