ATHENS – [ANA-MPA] [Photos: Presidency of the Hellenic Republic]
President of the Hellenic Republic Constantine Tassoulas attended on Sunday events organised by the Municipality of Viannos to mark the 83rd anniversary of the Holocaust and the destruction of the villages of Viannos and Ierapetra.
Following a doxology at the Church of All Saints and a memorial service, President Tassoulas laid a wreath at the Holocaust Victims Memorial and addressed the gathering.
The President of the Hellenic Republic also responded to a question from Polish journalist Aleksander Wierzejski of Telewizja Republika on the future of Greek-Polish cooperation in seeking German reparations, including whether it could be made more effective and acquire an institutional framework.
“As you know, Greece and Poland – and not only Greece and Poland, but this certainly applies to both countries – suffered indescribably during World War II under the occupation of Nazi forces. And because of this suffering, we have very strong claims. These claims are based on three foundations: moral, historical and legal.
“We believe that these reparations, which we are pursuing from Germany on this solid basis, will be met in the future. We will continue our struggle for these reparations, because of the destruction inflicted on our country by Nazism. And we feel that it is a common duty – not only between Greece and Poland, but a duty that I would describe as European – to preserve this memory and do justice to the suffering we endured during World War II,” President Tassoulas replied.
Member of the European Parliament and former Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Arkadiusz Mularczyk also attended the events.
