Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-05-17

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Special Parliamentary session held on 60th anniversary of end of WWII

[01] Special Parliamentary session held on 60th anniversary of end of WWII

The prime minister and the main opposition party leader focused on the comparison of Europe of wars and hostility with that of the vision of its political union as it is being served by the European Union today.

On the other hand, leftist parties expressed grave concern over the prospects of peace which is being threatened by "intraimperialist contrasts and domination by one power, the United States".

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis dedicated the special Parliamentary session "to the millions of men and women who sacrificed themselves for the human ideals of freedom and dignity, to the peoples who dared and stood their ground against the forces of totalitarianism."

Karamanlis added that "the slogan 'no more war' that was being heard from the lips of the peoples of all the world in May 1945 is becoming a tangible reality in a Europe which is joining its forces. Today, 60 years after the ceasefire, united Europe is becoming a model of peace, democracy and cooperation."

Main opposition PASOK party leader George Papandreou said "we have no right to forget history", adding that "historic memory must not hold us captive but must liberate us."

Papandreou further said the message of WWII, on the value of the struggle for peace, stability, cooperation, progress and the strengthening of democratic structures, must be mobilised against phenomena of racism, ultranationalism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary General Aleka Papariga said WWII took place for the same reasons as WWI did, with the purpose of reallocating markets and with the additional aim of crushing the first socialist state in the world.

"We are extremely concerned over the current situation", Papariga said, "both because of lies being spread by the U.S. on WWII at a time when they are engineering campaigns and interventions in the domestic affairs of other countries and because Europe of capitalist countries, which in its ranks encloses the conflict of markets and which wants to become strong to claim more markets with peaceful and non-peaceful means, is dangerous."

Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology party leader Alekos Alavanos said "today, the forces of neo-fascism, racism and xenophobia are attempting to reappear. The forces of the left must not allow this."

Alavanos added that "the effort to doubt the decisive contribution of the USSR to the anti-fascist victory must not pass", which is also being paved "by the American neo-conservatives who are not satisfied with plans wanting the current century to be an 'American century' but who also want the 20th century to appear as an American one in retrospect."

Parliament President Anna Psarouda-Benaki said 60 years after the end of WWII "the situation being shaped cannot be ignored. There where the population explosion coexists with untold poverty, the irrational use of nuclear energy and the wave of economic refugees cannot let us be indifferent", adding that "the times are difficult, dangers do exist, but hope, we want to believe, is alive."

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