Greece’s President Prokopios Pavlopoulos deemed any kind of reparations over the victims of the German occupation army are "legally active and legally pursuable”.
The President made the comments on Thursday at a luncheon by the mayor of Kalavryta, part of events commemorating the 75th anniversary of the city's destruction in Nazi hands.
Pavlopoulos noted that "as to the above reparations, the demands have not expired, and they are supportable by specific regulations of international law," he said, citing the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907.
"I have stressed for long and still do that Greece's demands for the occupation loan and any kind of reparation over the victims of the German army of occupation are legally active and legally pursuable," Pavlopoulos said.
Earlier in the day, when he lay a wreath at the town monument, the Greek president said the danger of the Nazi atrocity is not over, and European democracies must never allow such "ideologies" to determine the future again.
Greeks honor the memory of the victims of "the greatest and most abominable war crime in Greece during World War II," Pavlopoulos said, by sending the message "We will not forget. Never again."
"Revenge is an unknown feeling in the history and culture of the Greek nation," Pavlopoulos said, "on the contrary, it is our self-evident obligation in memory of the victims that we pursue the unwavering application of international law as a basic model of the final and overall prevalence of law and legality."
He added that "we must not overlook that the danger of this Nazi atrocity is not over. Europe is seeing today the rise of entities which are fundamentally and unfortunately continuing this atrocity and inhuman ideology," and called for the defence of humanitarianism and the European culture.
