On 27 February 2020, the Turkish government opened its borders with Greece in an attempt to exert political pressure on the EU over Syria. Thousands of migrants and refugees were funneled to a single point on the land border between the two countries, the border fence near Kastanies/Pazarkule, with the promise of an open route to Europe.

The Greek government responded by deploying its police and military to the region. It warned migrants not to cross, and suspended its asylum system. After several days of tension, on 3 March, a committee of EU officials, including the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, visited the region. They gave a joint statement, where der Leyen praised Greece as the ‘shield’ of Europe.

On the next day, 4 March, violence escalated near the border crossing. Reports emerged of shootings, and casualties. Turkish authorities stated that the Greeks “used live rounds and wounded five asylum-seekers.” The Greek authorities denounced these claims as fake news. There is still no commonly accepted account of what happened that day.

In partnership with Lighthouse Reports and Bellingcat, we examined hundreds of videos and images. In collaboration with Der Spiegel we spoke to eyewitnesses and collected documents in order to reconstruct the events of that day. We consulted forensic experts who performed acoustic analysis on gunshots captured in different videos.

Together, we established that live rounds were fired along that stretch of the border on that day. Seven people sustained injuries, two of whom have been identified as Mohamad Hantou, from Syria, and Zeeshan Omar, from Pakistan. One person, Muhammad Gulzar, a Pakistani citizen who had until recently lived in Greece, was killed.

Our analysis shows that it is highly probable that the shots that killed Gulzar and, in all likelihood, wounded the remaining six casualties were fired from the Greek side of the border. Lawyers representing the family of Muhammad Gulzar will request that Greece launch an investigation to establish who was responsible for his killing. All evidence we have gathered will be made available to investigating authorities.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28470