Georgios Karatzaferis

Infobox Politician


name=Georgios Karatzaferis
honorific-suffix =
MP
width=
term_start=13 June 2004
term_end=25 September 2007
birth_date=1947
birth_place=flagicon|Greece|royal Athens, Greece
party=Popular Orthodox Rally
office=Member of the European Parliament
website= [http://www.karatzaferis.gr/]

Georgios Karatzaferis (born August 11, 1947) is a Greek politician, a member of the Hellenic Parliament and the president of the Popular Orthodox Rally nationalist/radical right-wing populist party. Previously, Karatzaferis was a member of parliament of the liberal-conservative New Democracy party, from which he was expelled in 2000. He is a former Member of the European Parliament and former vice-president of the Independence and Democracy group. His party's views, ideas, and electoral campaigns are often broadcast and promoted by the private Greek TV channel TeleAsty (former Telecity), which he founded and owns. The party's ideas are also disseminated in the party’s weekly newspaper, "A1".

Biography and career

Born in Athens in 1947, Karatzaferis became a producer of radio broadcasts at the age of 15 and a television producer at 22. In 1977 he founded R.TV.P.R. AE advertising body and he created the "TV Press Video Review" in 1983. In 1990 he established the radio and television stations "Radio City" and "TeleAsty" (the latter was initially known as "TeleCity").

In 1983, he was offered a scholarship by Adenauer Foundation and also obtained an honours diploma from the London School of Journalism in 1994. He became a draftsman with the newspaper "Alpha Ena" in 2000. In the beginning of the 1980s he was also a columnist for "Nea Poreia", the official publication of the political organization to which he belonged and was an MP. He also wrote contributed to daily newspapers including "Eleftheros", "Apogevmatini", and "Eleftheros Typos". In 2005, he founded the Academy of Communications Studies in Athens.

As a member of the Greek Parliament his responsibilities included the chairmanship of the Parliamentary Watchdog Committee, the Public Order Committee and the Press and Mass Media Committee (1993–2000). He was a member of the Committees on Public Administration and Foreign Affairs (1993–2004), Member of the National Communications' Confidentiality Protection Committee and Vice-Chairman of the Greco Spanish Friendship Association (1999).

In 2000, Karatzaferis was expelled from the New Democracy party for what were considered to constitute derogatory and inflammatory remarks, amongst a wide variety of which were also his call for the party to "hire 100.000 of our boys" in the public sector, and his accusations that the party's leader Costas Karamanlis was uncritically following Spiliotopoulos' wishes. Karatzaferis then announced the foundation of the Popular Orthodox Rally.

While on the New Democracy ticket, he had been elected Representative for Athens in 1993, in 1996 and in 2000. In 2002, after being expelled from New Democracy, he unsuccessfully ran for the position of hyper-nomarchis in Athens, where he was elected as a Prefectural Councilor on the "Me Kathari Kardia" (With Clean Heart) party. In the National Elections of 2004, his party failed to tally the 3% threshold of popular votes, and did not enter the parliament. In the subsequent European Parliament Elections of 2004, LAOS received 4.2% of the votes and Karatzaferis became member of the European Parliament. In 2006 Karatzaferis ran for mayor of Thessaloniki. He tallied 7,5% of the vote trailing three other candidates.

In the European Parliament, Karatzaferis became the recordholder MP in the number of questions to the EP (more than 422). He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Delegation to the EU-Bulgaria Joint Parliamentary Committee, the Delegation for relations with Mercosur and the Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly and substitute member of Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners. According to a December 2005 subscriber-only article in the online newspaper "New Europe" [http://www.neurope.eu/view_news.php?id=56360] . the "European League" NGO, based in Geneva, selected Karatzaferis as one of the TOP 4 MPs for his rhetoric skills and overall activity. The same NGO selected him in its list of the best Members of the European Parliament per country for the year 2006, where the factors taken into consideration were the overall activity of the MEP, the contribution to the interests of his/her own country, as well as his/her dedication to the establishment of peace, democracy, understanding and cooperation in Europe [http://www.neurope.eu/view_news.php?id=69432] .

Books

Karatzaferis is also the author of five books which are the following:

*1) Το Μοντέλο της Δημοκρατίας-The Model of Democracy
*2) Η Γυναίκα Σήμερα-The Woman of Today
*3) Η Λιάνη στηρίζει την Αλλαγή - Liani supports the Allagi [The "Allagi" (Change; Greek: Αλλαγή) was a slogan used by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement founded by Dimitra Liani's husband Andreas Papandreou.]
*4) Αγώνες και Αγωνίες της δεκαετίας 1990-2000-Struggles and agonies of the 1990–2000 decade
*5) ΒΙΟΙ ΑΓΙΩΝ - Hagiographies

Controversy

Karatzaferis and his media ("Teleasty channel, A1 newspaper") have been repeatedly accused in Greece of harbouring an extremist far-right, xenophobic and chauvinist agenda. Controversial statements he has made, as reported by the [http://www.iospress.gr/ IOS team] of Greek left-wing newspaper Eleftherotypia :-

*"Hitler was a mere college-boy compared to the Jews". (25/9/01)

*He has also asked to "release Dertilis out of prison today, and he will take Constantinople for you within 5 years". Dertilis was an officer of the Greek military Dictatorship (1967–1974), convicted to life imprisonment for the murder of 19-year-old Michael Mirogiannis in cold blood, during the Athens Polytechnic Uprising. (25/9/01)

*On September 21, 2001, Karatzaferis asked Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou to inform him as to whether he was aware of articles published in two Israeli newspapers ("Ha'aretz" and "Yedioth Ahronot"), and if he had brought them to the attention of his European counterparts. According to George Karatzaferis, these publications revealed that the “4000 Jews working in the Twin Towers did not go to work on the day of the attack”; that “Ariel Sharon canceled his trip to New York that day where he was to speak at a celebration of Zionism”; and that “5 Jews were arrested while videotaping the destruction 4 hours after the event [and] are being held by the FBI for suspicious behavior interpreted as ridiculing the tragic event". In fact, no such article has ever appeared in either newspaper. The "4000 Jews did not attend work" is an antisemitic urban myth, propagated by Islamic fundamentalist media, and debunked by noted Urban Legends Reference Page Snopes [http://www.snopes.com/rumors/israel.htm] . According to the US Department of State, between 10% and 15% of the 9-11 attacks' victims were Jewish, which correlates very closely to the overall number of Jewish inhabitants in the area [http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/14-260933.html] .

*Karatzaferis has also made statements referring to an "Auschwitz myth". He also characterised Jews as "God-murderers" (θεοκτόνους), and "enemies of our nation". (25/9/01)

*On a separate occasion, he related through his television broadcast his conviction that "1/3 of Greek congressmen are passive homosexuals with Albanian stallions".

*In June 2002, he traced the exact number of Freemasons in the Greek parliament to 136, out of 300 parliamentarians.

*In 2006, Georgios Karatzaferis criticised singer Anna Vissi's video clip for the song "Everything" claiming that it discredited Greece, to the point of asking for a relevant inquiry in the European Parliament. The theme of the video clip is that the protagonist has a night full of troubles while wandering in Athens. Mr. Karatzaferis claimed that the video clip was defamatory to the country's reputation in the eyes of future tourists.

*Karatzaferis has defended controversial French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen against the "Jewish pens that curse him. They are the same pens that curse and accuse us".

* In 2000, Karatzaferis claimed that the Protocols of Zion were being put into effect and that "the Pope and the Jews are conspiring against Greece". [http://www.enet.gr/online/online_fpage_text/dt=20.10.2002,id=76848240,84927984,19454128,98978672,11563824]

*"The New World Order means that we are a puppet at the hands of the Jews. Razing. Protocols of Zion. The Global government has taken place in Europe. The common currency too. They are dancing it to their tune. Do you know what kind of money the Jews are profiteering with these ups and downs? We are being led to the fulfilment of targets set 200 years ago." (statement made on 24/05/2000) [http://www.enet.gr/online/online_fpage_text/dt=20.10.2002,id=76848240,84927984,19454128,98978672,11563824]

*In 2001, Karatzaferis stated that "the Jews have no right to provoke, because they have filled the world with crimes". "The Jews have no legitimacy to speak in Greece and provoke the political world. Their impudence is crass". In the same tirade, Karatzaferis challenged the Israeli ambassador to come and debate "the Holocaust, the Auschwitz and Dahau myth" and claimed that "the whole world cannot be mad, as everybody throughout history has asked to throw the Jews out". Karatzaferis finished by asking "mister Jew ambassador" to "be a bit careful" and warning "the Jews" that if they continued their "insolent behaviour" they were "not going to have a pleasant time". The "insolent behaviour" in question was the Greek Jewish community's response to Karatzaferis's earlier claims that "the Jews" were responsible for 9/11. [http://www.iospress.gr/mikro2001/mikro20010929.htm]

*On 20 October 2002 in "Typos tis Kiriakis" Karatzaferis advocated violence, or at least indifference to violence, towards what he deemed as "far-right" when he stated, "May they cut the legs of the far-rightists, may they decapitate them, may they rip out their eyes [...] it is something that does not pertain to me". [ [http://elkosmos.gr/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=747&Itemid=1 "Incongruity" & Historical Debt, 23 September 2007] ]

Activities in the European Parliament

Karatzaferis has been a very active Member of European Parliament. A partial record of his activities there includes:

* A motion for a resolution on [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B6-2005-0079&language=RO European Parliament resolution on anti-Semitism and racism]
* A written declaration on the genocide of the Pontic Greeks [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sidesSearch/search.do?type=WDECL&language=EN&term=6&author=28587#]

External links

*El icon [http://www.karatzaferis.gr/ Official Website]

References

* [http://www.europarl.eu.int/members/expert/groupAndCountry/view.do?partNumber=1&group=1554&country=GR&language=EN&id=28587 European Parliament Biographical Record]

Quotations

# [http://www.karatzaferis.gr/ The article scanned]

ee also

*Popular Orthodox Rally