History and irony

Poor Markos Botsaris. This will not be the first time that the chieftain of the Souliotes and hero of the Greek War of Independence will be turning in his grave with helpless rage. The first time was in 1826, late April, when the hands of Turks and Egyptians, victors at the Exodus of Mesolongi, but defeated morally in light of the sacrifice of the Souliotes, excavated his tomb to find precious metals, and scattered his bones. The second time was in 1852, when the hands of uneducated anti-monarchists "punished" his son Dimitrios, a lieutenant of King Otto, by desecrating his burial monument, the famous marble work titled "Reviving Greece," by the French sculptor David d'Angers.

The third time was last Friday, when Konstantinos Barbarousis, a convicted former lawmaker of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, entered the Garden of Heroes in Mesolongi with his small entourage and a Greek flag...