A bizarre and utterly provocative incident occurred in the town of Sohos, in northern Thessaloniki prefecture, as a performance group from neighboring Turkey, all males decked out in Ottoman-era attire, re-enacted a martial procession of the Janissary corps, waving green battle flags adorned with the Muslim half moon and accompanying drum-beaters.
The Janissaries were elite Ottoman infantry units formed in the 14th century, which served as the sultan’s household army, bodyguards and standing shock troops. They began as an elite corps of slaves made up of kidnapped young Christian boys, who were forcibly converted to Islam.
The so-called performance was held on Sunday in the main town square and in front of the Orthodox cathedral, generating negative reactions by the local residents and media coverage.