Vasilis Pinaris, 86, murdered on Imvros (Gokceada) island in Turkey

By George Gilson

The Greek community of the island of Imvros (Gokceada in Turkish) was shaken by the brutal murder of 86-year-old Vasilis Pinaris in his agricultural home on the outskirts of the village of Evlambio.

Pinaris lived alone and a neighbour who brought him food daily found the octogenarian on his bed with face bloodied and with his hands and feet tied. The body was taken to the city of Bursa for an autopsy.

The Mayor of Gokceada offered his condolences.

Turkish media reported that one individual has been arrested and three remanded in custody in connection with the brutal murder.

Locals reported that the murderers had dug outside the house which led some to believe that they may have been seeking hidden money, though there is no evidence of that as yet.

The crime comes at a time that the Greek community on the island has begun growing and flourishing after a long period of desolation, following the great exodus of the island's Greeks, about 2,500 residents, in the mid-1960's when their land was expropriated by the Turkish state.

Whereas for many decades only a few dozen mostly elderly Greeks remained, the gradual liberalisation of policy beginning around 2010 under Erdogan led to a truly miraculous renaissance, with 500-600 Imvriot Greeks now living on the island for at least six months a year and many hundreds of diaspora Imvriots returning to their ancestral homeland in the summers.

The crucial factor that allowed the return was the permission granted by Turkish authorities for the rebuilding of schools that were shut in the 1960's, first a kindergarten and grade school and then in 2015 a high school (lyceum).
The strong support of Ecumenical Patriatrch Vartholomeos (file photo on Imvros) who was...

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