Dimitris Christoulas ΔΗΜΗΤΡΗΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΛΑΣ A Greek man Dimitris Christoulas shot and killed himself in the middle of Syntagma Square in Athens o April 4th, the location which has been the center of protests in Greece. And now details have emerged of Christoulas whose suicide has been seen as symbolic of the problems of Greece. In today’s The Gartman Letter, Dennis Gartman dedicates a section of his report to 77-year old Christoulas whom he says was an educated, retired pharmacist. He sold his pharmacy in 1994. In his comment on capital markets Gartman poses the question: “Was this the Greek Tunis?”. Christoulas in his suicide note referred to the Tsolakoglou government which annihilated all traces of his survival. Gartman writes that Georgios Tsolakoglou was the prime minister of Greece during Germany’s occupation of Greece during World War II. From Gartman: “Mr. Christoulas is making the none-too-subtle comparison between the Tsolakoglou government and that of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who Mr. Christoulas believes is “collaborating” with Germany to disparage Greece and the Greek people.”
In the summer of 2011 Christoulas attended the daily austerity protests Athens. Speaking to ekathimerini Christoulas’ daughter Emy Chrstoula said her father’s life was spent as “leftist fighter, a selfless visionary” and she added, “this final act was a conscious political act, entirely consistent with what he believed and did in his life.” And Christoulas’ suicide-protest wasn’t entirely unexpected to those who knew him. And 91-year old Thymios who was a member of Christoulas’s neighborhood association told ekathimerini: “I used to tell him that taking to the streets is the only way to protest. But in one of our last meetings he said: ‘I take to the streets and go to rallies but maybe I should go to parliament to blow my brains out.” Christoulas reportedly loved reading and spent many evening’s at a bookshop in his neighborhood owned by a man called Elias Tsironis. His last purchase was supposed to have been Greece’s Pompeii which looked at the similarities between Pompeii which was marked by a corrupt social system and current day Greece. Christoulas lived alone in his first-floor apartment. He is survived by his ex-wife a pensioner who formerly held a job in national broadcaster ERT’s accounting office and his daughter Emy Chrstoula.
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