Follow Us on Google
The German government on Friday rejected a request by Greece to negotiate over reparations for damage caused by Germany during the two World Wars.
The Foreign Ministry has handed Greek ambassador Theodoros Daskarolis, a corresponding diplomatic note.
“The legal opinion of the German government in this matter is unchanged: the reparations issue is conclusively settled. Nothing has changed there,” a ministry spokesman said.
The government considers that the issue was resolved by the so-called Two Plus Four Agreement, which was signed in 1990 at the reunification of Germany.
But Greece had sent Germany a diplomatic note verbale in early June, requesting that Berlin discuss reparations with Athens.
The Greek government, led at the time by prime minister Alexis Tsipras, had been asked by parliament to do so.
A Greek parliamentary commission had estimated the value of the war damage caused by Germany in the country at 289 billion euros (322 billion dollars), including a forced loan that Greece had to grant the German central bank during the war.
Greece’s new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has embraced his predecessor’s demands.
He had expressed hope during a visit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August that there would be a “positive reaction” from Berlin.
The Foreign Ministry stressed on Friday that Germany accepts political and moral responsibility for the crimes that were committed in Greece during World War II.
“We hope we can continue on the path of reconciliation with Greece that was started by the previous generations,” the spokesman said. (dpa/NAN)
