Achlada and other nearby settlements at the foothills of Mount Kaimaktsalan are sending out an SOS. Residents find themselves held hostage by the private company Lignite Mines of Achlada S.A., owned by the Mytilineos Group. Three villages now stand like islands surrounded by lignite pits. Expropriations began back in 2011; fields have vanished from the map, compensations remain unpaid, and dust, noise, ground subsidence, and state neglect have put residents’ health and safety at risk.
Recently, villagers woke up to learn that even their homes were being expropriated, while the company had gone as far as to label their village “nonexistent.” The residents have launched legal action to save their homeland from what they call the “runaway extraction frenzy of the post-lignite era,” pursued in the name of “public interest” by self-proclaimed saviour contractors.
It should be noted that lignite from Achlada is still being transported and sold across the border in Bitola, North Macedonia.
Guests:
– Panagiotis Nikolaidis, Public Power Corporation (PPC) employee
– Thanasis Mainos, PPC employee
– Giannoula Dimitriadou, medical laboratory technologist, unemployed
All three are residents of Achlada and members of the Achlada Struggle Committee.