Athens will press on with its quest to see Germany pay back some 279 billion euros in war reparations to Greece, Alternate Foreign Minister Nikos Xydakis said over the weekend during an interview for the Greek newspaper Agora.
“We will do everything that is required primarily on the diplomatic level and if necessary also on the legal level for German reparations,” Xydakis said.
“What is needed is the full restitution of the memory of the people who were lost,” Xydakis said, adding that “the other side has a duty to recognize this.”
Xydakis’ comments come only days after Greece’s Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, renewed his commitment to pursuing German war reparations from World War II, stating that the Greek government will do “whatever is necessary” to receive the German payout.
Just this past week Germany has reiterated its position on the reparations issue according to the German newspaper published on Wednesday in response to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ demands, Handelsblatt, the German government has once again said that the reparations issue is “closed.”
This is no surprise as the German government has long said that the reparations issue was resolved back in 1990 when, in the time preceding Germany’s reunification, West Germany and East Germany signed the Two Plus Four Agreement with the former Allied countries including United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. However, Greece did not sign the agreement and has continued to insist that the 115 million marks payment from West Germany in 1960 was only a down-payment to the total amount owed.
Nazi Germany’s occupation of Greece saw the destruction of 80 percent of Greece’s industry with 28 percent of infrastructure destroyed, transit and transportation routes such as ports, roads, railways, and bridges were left 90 percent in ruins, 25 percent of forests and other natural resources were destroyed; and loss of civilian life is estimated at some 11 percent of the population, according to official reports.
Also the Greek government has reported that some 300,000 people in Athens alone were left starving because of the enforced loan the Nazi’s imposed on Greece.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
