Germany's popularity in Greece has reached a low not seen since the worst years of the economic crisis because of its appeasement policy towards Turkey's aggression against European Union-members Greece and Cyprus, yet, the German Ambassador to Athens has not helped alleviate anti-German sentiment in Greece with tweets he made yesterday.
With Turkey violate the Exclusive Economic Zones of Greece and Cyprus, Germany vetoed on Friday a strong EU statement to condemn its actions in an attempt to protect the longstanding alliance and friendship between the Germans and Turks.
Among the hostility between Greece and Turkey that has the potential to lead to war, Germany has shown absolutely no supposed "European solidarity," opting to prioritise its relations with Turkey to serve their own hegemonic designs across the European continent via the EU after it failed to do so via military means in World War II.
As hostilities are at a high between Greece and Turkey, and Berlin favoring its alliance with the Turks instead of showing European solidarity, Ernst Reichel, the German Ambassador to Athens, found now was the time appropriate to make a completely senseless tweet and to respond back to those criticizing him in a completely narcissistic manner.
"Ali Pasha, Ottoman governor aka Lion of Ioannina, tried to create an independent state in Epirus. He failed and was killed. His headless body was buried here. In another story, he had 18 local maidens drowned because they refused to join his harem," Reichel said on Twitter.
After receiving hundreds of tweets from Greeks highlighting the insensitive tweet and how mistimed it is, Reichel would condescendingly and arrogantly make a second tweet, saying:
"Dear haters, what upsets you here: That I sympathize with Ali Pasha, who rebelled against the Ottomans? Or that I don’t sympathize with him? And what has Ali Pasha to do with today’s situation?"
Dear haters, what upsets you here: That I sympathize with Ali Pasha, who rebelled against the Ottomans? Or that I don’t sympathize with him? And what has Ali Pasha to do with today’s situation?
— Ernst Reichel 🔱 (@ReichelErnst) August 16, 2020
Dr. Eirini Tatsi from Stockholm University would respond to him saying "If you allow me (I am no hater): The Greek people are upset about the lack of solidarity from EU & especially Germany right now. If I were you, I would abstain from referring to Ottoman rule, etc.
If you are in Ioannina, let me suggest the Silversmithing Museum."
If you allow me (I am no hater): The Greek people are upset about the lack of solidarity from EU & especially Germany right now. If I were you, I would abstain from referring to Ottoman rule, etc.
If you are in Ioannina, let me suggest the Silversmithing Museum.— Eirini Tatsi (@ETatsi) August 16, 2020
Constantine Mourtos, a retired U.S. Army Officer, would say to the Ambassador "LET me explain it to you Reichel. Greeks feel no sympathy for Ali Pasha; an Ottoman Albanian governor, guilty of great crimes/repression against the local, occupied, Greek population. When you consider Turk advances in Albania, today, you were opening a can of worms."
LET me explain it to you @ReichelErnst. Greeks feel no sympathy for Ali Pasha; an Ottoman Albanian governor, guilty of great crimes/repression against the local, occupied, Greek population. When you consider Turk advances in Albania, today, you were opening a can of worms.
— Constantine Mourtos (@dinohealth) August 16, 2020
Evi Evakii tweeted "We know Germany has always been an ottoman sympathizer. Your timing wasn’t off-you simply highlighted that German business deals mean more to you and yours than the rights of a sovereign nation and member of the EU."
We know Germany has always been an ottoman sympathizer. Your timing wasn’t off-you simply highlighted that German business deals mean more to you and yours than the rights of a sovereign nation and member of the EU.
— Midsummer Eve (@EviEvakii) August 16, 2020
Aetolos would say "Mr Ambassador Reichel maybe you think that here in Greece we consider that Turk-Albanian Ali Pasha is our hero. Any way, not the time nor the situation it's acceptable."
Mr Ambassador @ReichelErnst maybe you think that here in Greece we consider that Turk-Albanian Ali Pasha is our hero.
Any way, not the time nor the situation it's acceptable.— AsemasReFile (@Aetolos) August 16, 2020
These are just some of the more than 1,000 comments on the Ambassador's Twitter by Greeks angered that Reichel would make such a comment at such a time.
The Philhellen Lord Byron visited Ali's court in Ioannina in 1809 and described the Albanian as "a remorseless tyrant, guilty of the most horrible cruelties, very brave, so good a general that they call him the Mahometan Buonaparte ... but as barbarous as he is successful, roasting rebels, etc, etc.."
He was known as a brutal ruler who often executed and tortured Greeks for little reason. But yet, at such a time of high hostility in Greece against Turkey and Germany, the Ambassador found now to be the right time to affectionately tweet about someone who made Greeks suffer.
Dear Svinehunt. You insult the nation from whence my DNA was created. And you further insult my very region. Is this still because of the hell that we gave you in WW2? When people like my grand mother and great grand mother helped a few of your ”soldiers” to find eternal rest at the end of their rifles. Daring to invade Iperos and, yes, our people kept up the fight throughout the entire war, which is why your people massacred so many communities back then – women, babies, old people. Or is it because you wish to sell weapons not only to Turkey but throughout the entire region, without concern for the consequences.