 |
| English: Alexis Tsipras in a press conference in Komotini. Ελληνικά: Συνέντευξη Τύπου του Αλέξη Τσίπρα στο ξενοδοχείο Ξενία στα πλαίσια της επίσκεψης του στην Κομοτηνή 13.11.2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras called for the establishment of an inter-party parliamentary committee to pursue WWII war reparations from Germany, in a letter addressed to the parliament president tabled on Thursday, noting that "we must all invest faith and confidence" in such a committee's work.
Tsipras' motion was tabled in the 300-member parliament just days after a German foreign ministry statement said that "there is no issue" of reparations to Greece after the passing of so many years.
The SYRIZA leader said in his letter that in the approximately 70 years since the end of WWII, the Greek governments have never organised or pursued systematically the demand for the fulfillment of occupation Germany's obligations to the Greek people.
He pointed out that the inter-state agreement for the forced loan to Germany during the occupation, the stolen treasures and the reparations for the destruction of infrastructures and human capital have been dealt with by the various Greek governments in a piecemeal fashion and with an attitude that was almost offensive to the historical memory of the Greek people.
Tsipras also said that the joint meeting of parliament's standing Economic Affairs and Defence and External Affairs committees on March 28 on the German reparations, at the initiative of MPs of all the parties, had been an initiative of outstanding importance, and recalled that "the demand and decision of this meeting was the establishment of an inter-party parliamentary committee, from the parliament plenary, responsible for the collection and organisation of the undisputable historic documents that will render the Greek argumentation capable of demanding that which is owed and to rally other European forces in this effort".
Tsipras assured the parliament president that the SYRIZA parliamentary group, true to its commitments, "wants to give continuity to this common effort, with a motion for the establishment of this committee".
In May, then Finance Minister Filippos Sahinidis told Parliament that he had ordered the archives of the General Accounting Office to be searched for evidence to support Greece's claims against Germany for war reparations that have been outstanding since the period of the Nazi occupation in WWII.
Sahinidis said that finance ministry officials had already found dossiers with the details of Greeks who had received compensation from Germany in the 1960s, while the search of the archives would continue and any documents found would be utilised and converted to digital form in order to ensure that it would not be lost. (AMNA)
Posts
