The recent speech by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to Greek Parliament raised quite a few eyebrows when he unexpectedly gave the platform to an alleged ethnic-Greek Ukrainian claiming allegiance to the neo-Nazi group the Azov Battalion.
Among the political parties that reacted strongly was the European Realistic Disobedience Front (or MeRA25) a left-wing Greek political party founded by former Syriza MP and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis who issued a statement condemning Zelensky's speech.
In their statement, MeRA25 claimed the speech was an insult to Greece and Cyprus because Zelensky gave a platform to neo-Nazis in front of parliament while refusing to condemn Turkey’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus.
The full statement reads:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky dealt a huge blow to his attempts of getting the support of the Greek and Cypriot governments on Thursday, first by broadcasting messages from the neo-Nazi Azov battalion and then by refusing to condemn the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Unfortunately, his attitude proved that he is not only no friend of the Greek and Cypriot people, but that he undermines the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people.
By bringing Nazis into the video call in front of the Greek parliament to speak on behalf of his government and by failing to make any comment on the Cyprus issue, he insulted the parliaments and the peoples of our countries.
When the House Speaker brought up the issue of the Turkish invasion and continued occupation of Cyprus, his connection supposedly cut off due to ‘technical reasons’.
With his performance on Thursday, Zelensky handed a gift to Vladimir Putin by playing the role of one of his “useful idiots”, lending credence to the Russian president’s claim to need to “denazify” Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, in his address to the Greek Parliament, provided a platform to two neo-Nazis who supposedly represent the resistance of the Ukrainian people and indeed of the Greek homogeneity, thus undermining his country’s noble battle against Russia’s invasion.
In the land of martyred villages such as Kalavryta, Distomo and Kandanos at the hands of Nazis, Zelensky delivered a massive insult the Greek parliament and its people by broadcasting speeches from members of a neo-Nazi battalion.
