ATHENS, Greece - On Wednesday morning, the 77-year-old former pharmacist walked into Greece’s Syntagma Square, just yards from the nation’s parliament.As thousands of commuters swarmed to work, the pensioner shot himself, deciding to end his life rather than face his final years on the breadline.
His death has shocked Greece, even though the nation has already seen suicide rates increase by around 20 per cent in the past two years.
Yesterday, police clashed with demonstrators for a second day at the site where Mr Christoulas killed himself in downtown Athens.Several dozen youths dressed in hoods and crash helmets smashed paving stones with hammers and threw the rubble at riot police, chanting ‘Killers! Killers!’ as police responded with tear gas and flash grenades.
By yesterday, the spot where Mr Christoulas took his life had become a shrine to the man who is fast becoming a totem for ordinary Greeks trying to exist day-by-day in a country teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.- Last night, about 1,000 mourners once again gathered at the corner of Syntagma Square where he died, with the spot adorned by flowers and candles.
- Scores of hand-written notes were also pinned to the tree next to where he fell, bearing messages such as ‘His blood is on your hands, traitors’ and ‘A government of murderers’.
Witnesses to the death said the pharmacist declared ‘I don’t want to leave my debts to my children’ before producing a gun and shooting himself in the head at 9am.In the days before his death he had deliberately paid service charges on his apartment several weeks in advance to ensure he left no money owing. In Greece they speak of him becoming the country’s very own Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit and veg seller who started the Arab Spring by setting fire to himself.
Others called him a ‘martyr’.
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