Podcasts

Crossing the Aegean: A Century of People on the Move

Hafıza Merkezi and the Legal Centre Lesvos, in collaboration with Community Peacemaker Teams, have joined forces to envision a transnational Aegean that opposes xenophobia, racism, and anti-migrant rhetoric stemming from the concept of national borders. Our podcast, “Crossing the Aegean,” delves into the 1923 Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, a landmark event that occurred a century ago. Throughout our podcast series, we’ll feature interviews with academics and activists specializing in the history of exchange, transnational migration, and critical refugee studies. Additionally, we’ll hear from individuals who recount their family’s history of forced migration, allowing them to shape and reconstruct their family narratives. We’ll explore how they make sense of their families’ forced migration experiences and how it influences their perspectives on refugeeness today.

New episodes in biweekly on Tuesdays, available on Spotify. For more information on the project, you can click, here.

“We must learn from each other”: The Supporting Migrants Across Borders Conference in Izmir

In this episode of VC Mytiline, I give you a comprehensive report the Supporting Migrants Across Borders Conference that took place end of October in Izmir, Turkey. The event was dynamic and made up of a very diverse group of people, who all contributed their different perspectives.

I was there on invitation of co-organizers Legal Center Lesbos to bring you this report. Over the three days of the conference I spoke to a large amount of people, attended workshops and listened to the various presentations in order to bring you the most comprehensive overview of the event I can manage.

I have made in depth podcasts on some of the topic’s that come up during this episode.

“We Don’t Need Walls, We Don’t Need Doors”: A Look at the Decaying Rule of Law in Turkey

In this episode of VC Mytilini, we take a look at how the current authoritarian regime impacts the rule of law in Turkey. With currently over 20 lawyers currently in jail, there was some expectation in what direction this podcast would go. However, that is only part of this episode, together with death and hope.

The guests today are 3 lawyers who are active in political organizations that frequently experience oppression by the Turkish State: Ceren and Fatih of the Progressive Lawyers Organization, and Fatma of Lawyers For Freedom. Fatih and Fatma are currently living and practicing law in Turkey. Ceren was forced into exile for her work, and is currently residing in Austria.

Both these organizations have been banned at various points throughout their existence for providing open and accessible legal assistance to marginalized groups. In addition they, like all other people in opposition to the current regime face intimidation, arbitrary arrests and other forms of repression on a daily basis.

“The Prosecution Never Brings Big Evidence”: A Look Back At The Moria 35 Trial

In this episode of VC Mytilini, we take an in depth look at the 2018 court case of the Moria 35 together with Vicky, who was one of the lawyers defending the accused during the court case.

The Moria 35 were a group of 35 migrants who were arbitrarily detained on the Greek Island of Lesbos after the police disturbed a protest in the notorious former migrant camp Moria. The intial raid of the camp was only in what was colloquially known at the time as the „African Section“ of the facility, and after only 15 minutes and a staggering amount of police brutality 35 people were arrested. Then, after a year in pre-trail detention the trail took place in Chios.

Together with Vicky we take an in depth look at the trail proceedings, including the strategy of the defense, the nonexistence evidence that the prosecution and how the police brutality and racial profiling impact the case.

What’s Going on with the Vastria Camp on Lesvos?: A Look at the Past and the Possibile Futures of Migrant Detention in Greece

In this episode of Radio VC Mytilini, we figure out what is going on with the planned Vastria CCAC (Closed Controlled Access Center) on Lesbos. It is meant to replace the current Marovouni facility that has been in use since Moria burnt down and was intially announced in 2021, but is as of yet still not in use

We will dive into the process that lead to the selection of Platia-Vastria as the location of the new facility, the legal challenges to stop it with the help of Marion and Ozan from Legal Center Lesbos and we will take a look at the new facility on another Greek island, Samos. With the help of Ella from I Have Rights Samos we will try to get an impression of what the Vastria camp will be like by looking at the facility in Samos that openend only 2 years ago and is meant to be the blueprint for migration detention in Greece.