Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has opened a new front in the Greek Government’s negotiations with the government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia by calling for a national referendum by the citizens of Greece.
Although he is the Defense Minister of the current government, he is also the head of the Independent Greeks party (ANEL is the Greek acronym), a right wing political party that is the junior coalition partner in the current government headed by the left wing Syriza party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
“The Greek people will have to decide on the unprecedented decision to cede their history and civilization to another people,” Kammenos said in an op-ed in Kyriakatiki Dimokratia newspaper published Sunday morning in Athens, adding that this would be the “first time this would happen in the history of humankind.”
«Ο Ελληνικός Λαός θα πρέπει να αποφασίσει για την πρωτοφανή, στην ιστορία της ανθρωπότητας, εκχώρηση της ιστορίας και του πολιτισμού του σε άλλον λαό,” Kammenos wrote in Greek.
He added in the op-ed piece that “Including the term ‘Macedonia’ in the name would signal the downgrading of Greek civilization in the centuries to come.” (“Συμπερίληψη του όρου «Μακεδονία» στην ονομασία θα σημάνει τη συρρίκνωση του Ελληνικού πολιτισμού για τους αιώνες που ακολουθούν.”
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