In Greece, one is reminded of fascism and occupation. At the same time from Athens calls for reparation payments, according to. A campaign issue for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Together, the Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella commemorate the beginning of the war in 1940
The jets shoot through the sky of Northern Greece, Thessaloniki. It is a national holiday in Hellas, here one speaks of the Ochi-day. Ochi in Greek means “no” and is reminiscent of the success of the Greek army in the fight against Mussolini’s troops in 1940. But then Hitler came, the Wehrmacht and the Land occupied up to today, a Trauma in Greece.
Symbolic of the annual military parade ends in front of the German Consulate. There, the Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and his Italian counterpart Sergio mattarella, surrounded by representatives from politics, the military, and the Church sit on the honorary tribune. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is not traditionally present. Welcome from the audience, he would not. “This year especially, many people came,” says a seventy-year-old visitor. “It demonstrates for a Greek Macedonia” – a reference to Tsipras‘ people unpopular agreement in the name dispute with the neighboring country with the same name as the Northern Greek province.
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A national holiday in Greece: memory and a little election campaign
Tanks roll passed the crowds. Troops marching and singing loudly, the Greek Macedonian anthem. The audience is thrilled and agrees. One is Patriotic – a character property, not with the Prime Minister at all. High above the city of the village of Chortiatis. It is representative of many places where the Wehrmacht untold crimes began. In Chortiatis alone, they killed 149 civilians in a retaliation action. And also the proud military parade can not distract from the fact that Greece in the war was just a victim and not a Victor.
A ‘no’ with a follow
28. October 1940 marked the beginning of the Greek-Italian war. At that time, the Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas reached an Ultimatum from the fascist Duce Benito Mussolini from Rome. This called, to grant the Italian and German troops are allowed on Greek soil. Already in April 1939, Italian troops had section to be occupied Albania – the rise of the fascists in the direction of the South, only one range.
The Greeks call the 28. October Is ‘Ochi” Day. It means ‘no’ and is directed against the fascist occupation of the country in 1941-44
Metaxas ‘no’ to this Ultimatum, the beginning of a war, which was from the Greek side. Hellas‘ outnumbered forces were able to push back the Italians – until they called on their allies to Hitler to help. In April 1941, the Balkan campaign of the Wehrmacht began, with devastating consequences. “Germany has ermordetet thousands of people, at least 1,700 villages destroyed loans enforced a famine triggered and the Jewish population destroyed. This is not just a Trauma of the German-Greek relations, but a Trauma that have caused the Germans in Greece,” said Giorgos Margaritis, Professor of modern history at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Trauma vs. Patriotism
On each 28. October of this Trauma. In many private homes, the Greek flag is hoisted. Until 1974, this was required by law. Television shows documentaries and feature film productions for the occupation. “Honor those who have given their lives for the Fatherland,” said the conservative Internet newspaper Thessnews in the morning on your Facebook Account. “It’s a little strange that it is the national holiday commemorating the beginning of a war, and not in the memory of the victims, or the end of the war,” a 24-year-old Student to think.
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The German government considers the question of reparations for finally answered. A first conference was held in the autumn of 1945 in Paris. The Greeks were awarded a percentage share of the German reparations for the Second world war. Greece received benefits in kind in the present-day total value of up to two billion euros.
In the London debt agreement of 1953, the West moved the regulation further demands for reparations powers finally to the conclusion of a peace Treaty. In addition, you discount the whole of Germany a Debt. Came to an official peace Treaty between Germany and the war’s opponents, however, it never. Instead, the so-called “Two-plus-Four-agreement entered in 1990,” to German unity with the four victorious powers in the force, which has also been recognised by Greece, and no further reparations payments.
For the historian, Margaritis, the self-understanding of the country: “the importance of The day and of the’ no ‘ lies in the fact that Greece is a small country. We have won the war against the Italians. And on this day, it is about the fact that even small countries can have rights and make a difference.” He has little understanding of the fact that the Federal government provides on the subject of reparations and the repayment of the Nazis forced loans of Greek banks ‘ cross. “No words here. Here, money must flow.”
Patriotic Wind in the election campaign
This train will now popping up also Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Just for him Ochi ‘has a significance of its own. In 2015, he was on the third credit package in view of the threat of state bankruptcy in the vote. The vast majority clearly said ‘no’ to further austerity measures and the terms and conditions of the donor countries. A few days later, Tsipras reached an agreement with the Troika and agreed to those conditions, which he had rejected categorically. This change in the voters take him up to today’s evil and he has to draw back to his side. So it is little surprise that he brings a short time after the expiry of the International loan programme in August, the issue of reparations back on the table.
Military and Folklore: The annual, Central Parade in Thessaloniki
The issue for him is by no means new. Already in the election campaign of 2013, he gave up the fight with joy. “Enough with the polite Mrs Merkel,. We owe it to them. You owe us, too. The hour of reckoning has come,” he announced at that time confident of victory. And also the first Finance Minister Giannis Varoufakis threatened to get the promissory note from the vault, should not show in terms of austerity measures and the cutting of debts of cooperative.
Also for Ilias Kouskouvelis, Professor of International and European studies, Macedonia University of Thessaloniki, is not clarified, the matter of reparations to finally. Why the Prime Minister is warming up right now, in preparation for the elections in the coming year this theme? To do this, he does not want to comment on that in particular. To little you know about the steps which the government in Athens to plan in concrete terms.
He thinks little of such advances. “We must take this issue very seriously. Since neither populism nor political exploitation. In both countries, the subject requires great caution. On both sides of the intelligence and reason must prevail. This is essential,” says Kouskouvelis in the DW-Interview. Fixed only one thing: “We need to work on for the future. And keep in mind: things are happening and there are things.”