Lambros Fountoulis,father of murdered victim, Speaks Out to Media Snakes: “I am proud of my son’s ideas and patriotism.”

In this exclusive Golden Dawn New York Translation of the Video Below, Lambros Fountoulis, father of our slain brother Giorgos Fountoulis, speaks to Greek media reporter Tatiana Stephanidou.  Even if you cannot understand Greek, pay close attention to the eyes of the reporter in the video, and how she is being coached to make questions which try to defame the character of Giorgos even in front of the father! 

We would like to ask all fans of this website, to spread this far and wide, let the systems tactics and the fathers words about our fallen brother be known to all, because the media is trying feverishly to erase their memory. 

We also would like to ask anyone with video editing ability who would like to help, to email us at xaameriki@yahoo.com and we ask if it is possible for someone to turn this english transcript into subtitle form and embed it in the video itself, so that it can be spread around youtube and seen by all.  We would appreciate your help.

Special Thanks to M. Kyriakidou for help with the transcript.

Father of Giorgos Fountoulis:
What i want to say is that i hope what happened to us, will never happen to other parents. I mean No one, and when i say No one, i mean it. It does not benefit anyone when the blood of innocent kids pours on the streets, no matter what place those kids belong to ideologically. This is what i wanted to say. Blood should be something we give to offer life to people when they need it, blood should not be wasted like that in the streets. For years now, we have been fighting for our other child who is disabled and has special needs, trying to offer to our child anything possible, there are thousands of families out there just like us.

You said something about dignity, the Greeks have dignity. With these morals and dignity our parents have raised us, and those precise morals and dignity were the ones i have tried to pass on to my son.

My son was a beloved kid, a boy with a golden heart that has never hurt anyone, not even an ant. He hoped for something better. He was disgusted with the entire political system, he was experiencing within our family all these things they have done to us, with their decisions, their reductions of salaries, their reductions overall, their taxes, all the difficulties we were going through to be able to buy drugs and medicine, he was disappointed, Yes, i agree he went to Golden Dawn hoping for something better.

Giorgos though was not a fascist. I know they might try to present him as a fascist. I am aware of what kind of a kid i have raised, and yesterday with all these thousands of people who have stood with us and honored us on our way of accompanying him with dignity to his final resting place, i was touched. I thought i was the only one who knew my boy so well, but all these people must have known him much better to honor him like that. I wouldn’t like to say anything else right now, thank you Very much, and thank you for trying to approach and talk about this matter with sensitivity, the way you did.
One thing is there that i would never like to see again, i don’t ever wish to see these scenes with kids laying down like this on the streets. I am not the kind of father, how am i supposed to say this.. the father who will annihilate my kid’s beliefs, every kid believes whatever he/she wishes, and he/she supports his/hers beliefs with words, actions and ideas. Some others want to make us believe that by using violence and blind strikes they will manage to defeat other ideas. Well, ideas cannot be killed.
I am proud of my child, i am proud for his ideas and i do not have anything else to add.

Reporter:  Mr. Fountouli you have asked for no political parties to participate at your son’s funeral?

Father: Yes, yes, no political party.

Reporter: No politicians, no sides, no one of a specific political side, you have asked from people coming to the funeral to only come as friends.

Father: Yes some kids asked me “can we come to the funeral as friends, will the funeral be an open funeral for the public, “will it be more of a personal or private matter?”, i told them “it will be an open funeral you will come to his funeral as his friends, not as Golden Dawn supporters, and they have respected that and i appreciate that very much, i want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for coming as friends and honoring him as a hero.

Personally Mrs. Tatiana, i have never seen policemen crying, while they do their job. I have seen how policemen were last year, when the Sigitaridio institution was shut down, and we were marching out in the streets for our kids so that the institution would open again and the policemen arrived with those sprays to spray us and our children, as if they would be in danger because of us. These policemen i have witnessed yesterday (at the funeral) though with tears in their eyes, i want to thank them and i want to congratulate them. I have nothing else to say.
Thank you very much

Reporter: I would like to have one more word with you regarding the Sigitaridio institution, since you, as a family, you have experienced the lack of existence of state to your life and the lack of existence of state of your child’s life which is the less stronger part of your family (speaking of the other child with the special needs that the family has). A kid that suffers with Down syndrome and was hosted by the Sigitaridio institution, and used to go to this school.

Father: My kid is still going there..this year the institution is working again.

Reporter: You ‘ve said that the institution shut down last year for some months.

Father: Last year the institution shut down for 5 months.

Reporter: Why?

Father: This year it is open again, i am not aware of what kind of problems they have now, because it is still the begining of the year, we have not asked for people to bring flowers (for the boy’s funeral), the amount of 3150 euros was able to be gathered from people, and i want to thank everyone for that, and i will make sure that this amount of money will be offered to the Sigitaridio institution, right where there is need, the money will not be given just anywhere, so lets see what kind of problems they are dealing with, where do they have problems, so that these money will end up useful, this is how my child, Giorgos, would have wanted it.

Reporter: And we would like to ask from people to help, help for these initiatives to take place.
I would like now to conclude with one last question. Was your son involved to Golden Dawn for a long time, was he there for a long time in other words, was he a pillar (important member) of Golden Dawn?

Father: What pillar are you talking about Mrs. Tatiana? What are these things you are saying? My son was a member and an activist of Golden Dawn.

Reporter: Could you possibly tell why am i asking you this?

Father: I know what you are talking about, probably because you ‘ve seen him somewhere wearing a uniform and holding a flag.

Reporter: No, to be honest to you, it was uploaded on the internet just before this show begins, i think it must have been ten minutes, a photo of your son with Kasidiaris to a mountain climb..

Father: I know, i know

Reporter: Well this is the photo (the photo is being shown on the screen), and a discussion has started that maybe your son, Giorgos, because he had a more of a personal relation with Ilias Kasidiaris..

Father: Yes, you are trying to say he was a big pillar (important member)?

Reporter: No, no, not that, its another thing i would like to ask you. That maybe because the boy, because he had these contacts with Ilias Kasidiaris and because there might have been some photos uploaded on the internet with Kasidiaris, maybe that was the reason he was targeted like the way he was.

Father: No, no, he was not targeted, the shooting was blind, they wanted to kill overall, they wanted blood, it could have been me personally, it could have been any other walking through that place at that moment, first of all Giorgos was not even in the offices of Golden Dawn, he was in a coffee shop with his friend and they were drinking coffee, discussing about jobs, because Giorgo’s mother had found a job for him, and they were just about to leave, they drank their coffee and they were about to leave.
Ilias Kasidiaris and my son had a common interest, gym fitness. And they were walking together, they were climbing up the mountain of Penteli to watch the sunrise, my son among many other people.

Reporter: The reason why i am asking you, because -if you’d wish- Ilias Kasidiaris is a person intensely charged (meaning emotionally, causing lots of debates among people of different political sides and overall politics) and because he presents this particular political side (Golden Dawn), these contacts your son had with him and these photos uploaded with him caused all these…

Father: No, no there was no relation with that, i do not know if it was that much coordinated, but there was no reason for my son to be “marked” and targeted the way you describe, i mean..how am i supposed to say it.. he was no big important member (of Golden Dawn) or anything close to that inside the party. He just always had a bright smile on his face, everyone was drawn to him and wanted to hang out with him. He was a boy with a good heart. I am not in a position of eliminating my son’s ideologies and beliefs. My son was disgusted from this whole rotten political system and he was trying to find something else, more pure, he was in general searching for something better. Like every other kid.

Reporter: And may i tell you something else Mr. Fountouli, possibly your son and possibly the other boy, Kapelonis, who was only for 1 year in the environment of Golden Dawn since one year ago he had just finished his academic studies, they could have not even be in Golden Dawn in a year from now. It could have only been an ideological quest for a young boy. In other words Kapelonis decided to be a fascist all of the sudden in the 21 years of his age while he had a father who was a Pasok unionist for so many years.

( at this point the reporter is not facing the camera. She is constantly looking elsewhere, looking on her left like as if she is being told from people in the panel how&what exactly to say)

They were only kids who were trying to find some political party to belong to.

Father: The boys were going there (Golden Dawn) to listen to something different. They were going there to listen to some other voice, some other suggestion. People who are not trying to rob you, people who do not try to cover things, who do not say one thing and then do another, who do not lie, who do not tear apart our lives, but, you know, it’s the entire political system’s fault. It is the whole political system’s fault. When media and all channels start exercising judgments, come up with decisions, condemn and turn one part of the society against the other, then some people try to take advantage of all that.
This is why i am saying.. Let this evil stop here.
Thank you very much.

Reporter: Mr. Fountouli, my last question is after the murder of Pavlos Fyssas (far left anti-fascist Greek rapper), did you not have any concerns that possibly your boy or some other kid could have been targeted ..

Father: Of course i had my concerns, of course i had some concerns.

Reporter: You’ve denounced that Golden Dawn supporters bought bulletproof vests to protect themselves and the Greek police took them away just recently..

Father: I didn’t even know, this is the first time i am hearing such a thing.

Reporter: Yes, they bought bulletproof vests in the offices of Golden Dawn and those along with the weapons (at this point the reporter is looking again at her left..looking probably to someone writing or telling her what she will say to the father)

Father: What weapons? What weapons mrs. Tatiana?

Reporter: eew..well this.. (looking again on her left, uncomfortable this time, trying to make up and justify the excuse for weapons)

Father: My son told me that one time they were told to throw in the trash bin out in the streets five flagpoles and the police caught them -not my son, some other boys from there- and held them in the police office all night long with the accusation of holding weapons, claiming that the poles of the old flags were weapons. They were not weapons, there were only 5 poles from flags and the boys were told to throw the poles to the trash bin.

Reporter: I think that this statement for the bulletproof vests was made from Giorgo’s uncle

Father: It was the security of the offices those Golden Dawn persons who wanted to wear the bulletproof vests, like in banks you always see a security employee wearing a bulletproof vest without holding guns, well in this way there were some kids who were standing outside the offices wearing the vests, not my son, some others.

From the moment the police and the ministry of civil protection banned them from taking any measures to keep them safe, they undertook themselves the task of protecting the offices.
This Friday though (the day the shootings took place), there was no protection, they (meaning the state) made it very easy for kids to be shot and murdered, do you understand what i am saying to you?
No one can convince me that they could not send a police car or two police motorcycles to the offices like they used to do in the past every time, but they sent 5.000 policemen for the game of Olympiacos with Panathinaikos (Greek football teams).
This is all i wanted to say Mrs. Tatiana, thank you very much. Goodbye.