Archaeologist attacked in Greece accuses developers of ordering ‘professional’ hit

Property developers on the Greek island of Mykonos have been accused of ordering a “professional” hit on an archaeologist who found they had broken strict laws protecting historic sites.

Manolis Psarros required hospital treatment after he was attacked by a group of assailants as he left his house in Athens on March 7, leaving him with broken ribs, a fractured nose and severe bruising to his face.

“I remember approaching my car and then the next memory I have is being loaded into the ambulance,” Mr Psarros told The Telegraph.

Photographs Mr Psarros shared with The Telegraph showed severe bruising around his eyes and swelling across his face.

For the last decade, Mr Psarros has worked for the Archaeological Service of the Cyclades Islands, making sure new homes and businesses comply with laws intended to protect the remains of antiquity scattered across Greece.

Mr Psarros and the Association of Greek Archaeologists (SEA) believe that the assault was related to two businesses in the tourist hotspot of Mykonos which he found had encroached on archaeological sites. The archaeologist took the two cases to the authorities and they are currently under investigation.

“The assault was professional,” Despina Koutsoumba, the chair of the association, told The Telegraph. “Our colleague had no other contact with people who could organise such a hit, other than his occupational involvement in cases of illegal development carried out by business interests in Mykonos.”

With its pristine white-painted villages and turquoise waters, Mykonos has long been one of Greece’s most popular tourist destinations.

The island’s luxurious resorts cater to billionaires, football stars and oligarchs, pushing up property prices and helping the tiny island, home to under 10,000 permanent residents, to account for more than 0.5 per cent of Greece’s GDP.

Mr Psarros said that over the last three years, the pressure he has faced from local interests has mounted in parallel with the island’s intensified development, which often endangers precious archaeological sites.

The attack on Mr Psarros has exacerbated a growing rift between archaeologists and the Greek Ministry of Culture.

In a statement, the SEA criticised the ministry for putting “economic interests” over “the protection of cultural heritage”, claiming it had “defamed” archaeologists’ work.

Tensions between archaeologists and Lina Mendoni, the Minister of Culture, have been high since she took office in 2019.

Ms Mendoni has often attacked archaeologists in statements, calling them “fans of backtracking” and “stuck in stereotypes and the ideology of introverted culture”.

“Whenever there is a conflict, the ministry intervenes in favour of business interests,”, said Ms Koutsoumba.

“We know that the general secretary of the ministry is in direct contact with businessmen in Mykonos who managed to get legislation passed in their favour a month ago,” she claimed.

The ministry declined to comment on Ms Koutsoumba’s allegations when approached by The Telegraph.

In the aftermath of the attack, the Ministry of Culture put out a statement condemning the assault and Ms Mendoni visited Mr Psarros in hospital.

But Mr Psarros insists that the ministry caters to private interests at the expense of archaeologists and describes his meeting with Ms Mendoni as “completely perfunctory”.

“I asked her to guarantee that I will be able to return to Mykonos and do my job,” he said.

In order to do that, Mr Psarros said, his assailants must be found and convicted. “If that does not happen, I don’t know what I’ll do. I am the father of a small child. But I don’t want to be forced out of the island where I have been working for the last ten years.”