There is anxiety about what will happen next in Vorizia after the funerals of Fanouris Kargakis and Evangelia Fragkiadaki, who were killed in an exchange of gunfire on the morning of last Saturday.

A striking example of the attempt to calm spirits was the message from the priest who performed the funeral for the 56-year-old at the church in Alikianos, Chania, on Tuesday afternoon.

As Father Emmanouil said in his message, “At this hour we stand before a coffin that should not exist. A young woman, a mother, departs in a violent and unjust way. The reason? A human passion that will not be extinguished and stopped in our place.”

“As tragic as it is for a person to arm their hand against their brother, it is equally foolish to seek vindication with blood, while the blood waters the earth and brings tears,” the priest continued.

“No hatred is healed with more hatred. We do not keep weapons for our brothers; the Church only blesses arms when the integrity of the homeland is threatened. Such events wound not only families, they shame our Crete. Crete is not an island of revenge but of honor, pride, bravery and hospitality,” Father Emmanouil went on.

He added, “Bravery is not taking up a gun; it is keeping your soul upright in pain. To have the strength to forgive, to step back, to stop the evil before it spreads. The Church asks everyone to stop the foolish cycle of violence; let pain become an occasion for reconciliation, forgiveness and peace. As long as we let blood flow, the land darkens.”

Appeals from women of the Fragkiadaki family

This spirit also appears to guide the Fragkiadaki family’s side, both through the wife of the 29-year-old brother of the 56-year-old Evangelia and through her mother.

The wife of the 29-year-old, who surrendered along with his two other brothers on Tuesday afternoon — mother of a 5-year-old and a 10-day-old infant — made an appeal for calm and reason to prevail. She stressed that women are the ones who can influence situations for the good of their children, according to cretalive.gr.

She also told reporters that she did not see any weapons from the Fragkiadaki side, but she clearly saw the person who was shooting with a Kalashnikov from above, from the house of her 27-year-old brother-in-law, whose wife is reportedly pregnant.

About 39-year-old Fanouris, she said they saw him moving quickly in his vehicle with his hands out. “He was holding both a pistol and a Kalashnikov. A bullet would pass and kill whoever it hit. He was ‘playing’ us normally. My husband took me down from the stairs because I have a 10-day-old baby. I’m breastfeeding. My other child was in the yard and bullets were falling there… I don’t even want to think about it… They put the bomb in my brother-in-law’s house; they did not respect that my sister-in-law is pregnant,” she said.

She repeated that she very clearly saw the man who was shooting the Kalashnikov from above and estimated that he killed their aunt. “We were waiting for them to surrender so we could testify,” she said.

The mother of the arrested described the night before the bloodshed: “On Friday night we were at home, 10:30 p.m., my daughter-in-law, my grandson and my husband. We heard a noise, I opened the door and saw my son’s house. I told my husband: they blew up my son’s house! And now they say we put the bomb… We called the police, but it took them two hours to come. My children were at a wedding, my older son was the best man. My son has been trying for years to fix up that house. How can I believe he would do that himself?”

Message of sasmós (reconciliation) from Evangelia Fragkiadaki’s mother

Earlier, a message of “sasmós” (a traditional call for reconciliation) was issued by Evangelia Fragkiadaki’s mother after her daughter’s funeral. The elderly woman, dressed in black, is heartbreaking as she says she hates no one and wants the evil to stop here.

“I do not provoke anyone but I want the evil to stop here so we don’t have more. I hate no one, I have nothing against anyone. Let the evil stop here. I have nothing else to say. They killed my daughter unjustly,” Mrs. Fragkiadaki said.

“Let them leave the village”

Speaking on Action 24 yesterday — a day after Fanouris Kargakis’s funeral — his mother described her son’s death as an “execution in cold blood” and said about the village’s future: “I demand that they (i.e., the Fragkiadaki family) leave the village.”

“They were always looking for trouble, always provoking. There was an incident (the explosion at a building), I don’t know who did it to their house, we aren’t to blame,” Fanouris Kargakis’s mother initially said, claiming that a year earlier someone had tried to kill her grandson at the same spot.

“They came in, middlemen, they set things up and we fixed it, and they said on one side it was us and on the other it was them, but they provoked. I don’t know who did that to them in their house; maybe they did it to get money. I know we are not to blame for anything,” she added.

According to her, “gunfire started from above, my daughter called the police. The police were there, they were shouting ‘whore’, they were shouting they would hang her.”

“Then they went to the church, they brought the Kalashnikovs, my son passed by there, they had an ambush for him and they executed him in cold blood. If you see the car you’ll understand. Fifteen people were ‘playing’ (the Cretan word they use for those who shoot),” continued Fanouris Kargakis’s mother.

She also said, “they injured each other, they killed their own woman, they were shooting around.”

“I know I lost my brave boy, my child, my man,” the 39-year-old’s mother said, adding: “they were shooting all around, they had wrapped my house, my son was alone above, he was going to work and they executed him, it was an execution in cold blood.”

When asked what will happen the next day in the village, she replied, “they will leave the village; if they want to stay here, let them. I demand they leave. I don’t know if it will stop here, I don’t know. I demand they leave. And in 1955 when the other incident happened, my grandfather did it,” she added.