The former close associate of Maria Karystianou and new president of the Association of Tempi Victims, Pavlos Aslanidis, speaks about everything to protothema.gr and the show “First Word,” three years after the tragedy and on the occasion of tomorrow’s large rally. He asks that no one allow incidents to occur and that parties not try once again to politically exploit the gathering.

For the father of Dimitris, who was lost in Tempi, time is not, as he says, a healer. Nothing erases the pain for his child, no matter how much time passes. He feels it inside him, he says, as if two hearts are beating in his body.

Pavlos Aslanidis took over as the new president of the Association of Victims after the resignation of Maria Karystianou. She had assured him until the very last moment, he says, that she would not form a party. She told him that what was being written were speculations. He asked her again at court about the videos and she told him the same. And two days later she announced the party on a television show. “She misled us,” he says, and caused great damage to the Tempi movement itself. All the relatives have been disappointed by her. “Many people come, especially students, and tell me how disappointed they are that all of this ultimately turned into a party by Karystianou. I tell them that she is alone in this; all the rest of us are only concerned with justice for our children.” We ask him whether he himself will vote for Ms Karystianou’s party. “No. We do not align ideologically,” he replies.

Mr Aslanidis generally wants to keep politics away from Tempi. And above all, politicians. He says he called Zoi Konstantopoulou and asked her to stop arguing in Parliament in the name of their children. “Many parties wanted to gain votes from the tragedy. And we did not receive any substantial help from any party, with the exception of our presence in the European Parliament.”

We ask him what remains unanswered three years later. “What caused the fireball. We never found out.” He now also rejects the xylene theory himself. “Some experts were telling us this; I never adopted it. Many experts were later shown to have been seeking publicity,” he says.

Pavlos Aslanidis was the first to request the exhumation of his son. He has been asking for it for more than a year now. At first, without even his wife agreeing. As he explains, he is not looking for xylene or substances. He is looking to find out whether he truly has the bones of his child. And also what he ultimately died from—the cause of death. The relatives have found laboratories abroad and are ready to cover the costs. He describes the stance of the Minister of Justice as hypocritical, as he now says laboratories abroad have been found. “He has found nothing. He has never informed us.”

With regard to the trial that is set to begin soon, he distances himself from those who rushed to judge the judges who were selected before they even appeared. “You cannot make pre-emptive criticism. They may be the best judges; it will be shown in practice. I do not expect much from the trial. Karamanlis, after all, is not on trial. He is free. He should have been in the dock.”