Enet.gr: Immigrant neighorhood in Athens

The Arabs have their own corner at the Neos Cosmos neighborhood of immigrants

Source : Enet

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A scent of aromatic spices is spread at the alleys of Neos Cosmos in Athens. Satellite dishes and men’s washed clothes coexist in the tiny balconies of the old residential buildings for the workers. Young Arabs ask for 30€ a day at construction jobs.

The Arabs settled at Neos Cosmos since the 80s looking for a new life. The central mosque of the Arabs is located at a multi-storey building on Galaxia Street.  At the entrance we met Naim Elghandour, president of the Muslim Association of Greece, “Yesterday night they attempted again to attack an Arab store of the neighborhood. It was the same group. The Arabs caught on to them and they chased them. Now they are guarding their stores”.

There is an Arabic supermarket in the building’s basement.  The owner is Mazen Rassas, vice president of the Association. He treats us mango juice saying that “around the neighborhood there are about ten Arabic mini markets. Our customers are Syrians, Egyptians and Iraqis. But Greeks also come.”

Rassas narrates, “We settled at Neos Cosmos in the 80s. It was then that the first Arabs were arriving. Then we began constructing this building. We used the underground garage as a mosque. We were asking permission from the governments to build our mosque ourselves but they did not allow it. We hope one day to achieve it”.

The shelves of the store – as in all Arab stores – are loaded with Arabic bread, dates, Arabic newspapers, rice and lentils of fine quality, spices that their smell is spread out to the street. But there are no customers, “the same situation we share with all Greek store owners. We are dancing the same dance…”

Brothers, cousins, the whole family lives on the upper floors of the building. For so many years there has never existed a single problem with the neighbors. Even when we gather every Friday more than 1000 Arabs to pray”. They squeeze, one next to the other, and they do not fit in. They fill the stairs, the pavement…

We descend with Naim Elghandour to the second basement that operates as a mosque. A blue carpet is laid down and has a ventilation system. Young Arabs are studying the Quran.

Behind a curtain at the right corner is the library. Every weekend, they say, is full of students that learn Greek and Arabic language, and are taught the Quran.

No cemetery

The vice president of the Muslim Association is pointing out the need for a cemetery. “I buried my parents at Komotini. For years and years we knock the doors of the ministries without an answer”.

N.Elghandour adds, “We pay the operating expenses from our pockets. We do not ask for funding and European programs, we want to be independent. But a program for integration of the Arabs could be launched in the local society. We also ask from the City of Athens to bestow us a place with low rent to cover the needs of the community. We closed our offices to save the rent.”

We discussed the attack at the two stores, “It was a fascist attack. Some young people attacked, but also young are the Arabs. If they chase them they will catch them. And then we will go to another situation. The state must secure the fortune of the victims of such terroristic attacks. We noted down the destruction and we will claim compensation at the courts.”

In Attica, more than 700 000 Muslims live legally. We need an imam theologist, with academic education. If they allow this we will pay from our wages his salary and his accommodation. Now every community sets an imam that is a construction worker…” he adds.

A few meters away, at Dorm Street, the workers’ residential building are located. Men’s clothes freshly washed and satellite dishes are witnessing that there lives exclusively Arab immigrants. “They repaired the face work, the apartments. They were dilapidated,” an old woman remembers.

We met her across the street at the store “Salma” that was destructed at the attack. Salle gives her a bottle of water. He says that “I am trying to replace the broken glass windows. I pay 350 euro for 9m².” His customers are the Arabs of the buildings across. “Here lives more than 200 Syrians. They all work at construction jobs. They pay rent of 250-270 euro for 30 m² at these dilapidated buildings. Three to six people live in every small apartment.

We go four floors up by the stairs. There was never an elevator. Nor central heating. From the moldy walls of the corridors old pieces of plaster are dropping. Hussein, 28, opens his door and shows us the repairs proudly. He tiled the bathroom and repaired the old window doors. He lives with an Iraqi to share the rent. He complains, “There are no jobs. A year without a wage. And I just ask for 30 euro a day. But in Syria and Iraq things are worse. It is impossible to go back”.

The Greeks

At the entrance we meet a Greek man, “Some Greeks and Arabs sub-rent rooms by person. Things get wild. It’s like we have a piece of meat, we pull from the edges like dogs”.

At the Arabic café, at Kasomouli Street, the Arabs of the neighborhood met. “Here we live 350 Arabs. Every morning we go to work, at evening we go home. We gather ten people in each apartment. We drink tea, chess, backgammon, cards. This is our life,” says Aiman Alahmat.

“Did the neighbors stand up for you?”

“One does not bother the other. We do not steal, we do not make trouble. We know each other, many of us are relatives. We need work and legal documents. Not to be attacked by the fascists and not to be disturbed by the police. We do not need them.”

At the café, before the gathering of Arabs and Greeks in order to group the “committee of Greeks and immigrant residents of Neos Cosmos,” we met Thanasis Kourkoulas from the movement ‘Deport Racism’: “Many Arabs from Neos Cosmos are attending the Sunday immigrant school. They have an organized community, they help each other to overcome the difficulties. They are angry though because suddenly fascist groups are appearing that question their peaceful coexistence.”

By Georgia Dhama

Photo by Spyros Tsakiris