![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Distomo_massacre_1944.jpg\")
This photo by unknown Author, licensed fair use
Source: photo taken in 1944 by unknown photographer
https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Distomo_massacre_1944.jpg
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The fact that International Law does not allow individuals to claim damages\nin such cases (only states can claim war reparations from other states) the\ncourts have not justified them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the above resolution of the Greek Parliament, such claims for damages\nare raised by the Greek Government and are likely to end up in higher European\ncourts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Treaty London Agreement on German External Debt (1953)\nArticle 5, Paragraph 2 it is stipulated that the examination of claims for war\nreparations is postponed until a peace agreement with Germany is concluded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany then tried to conclude bilateral agreements with the states\nconcerned to close this issue by paying those states compensation. In a\nbilateral agreement of this type, Greece received $115m based on the\ncontract-agreement made in 1960. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The German government considers that the issue of reparations for Nazi offences has been closed, citing this agreement of 1960 and Agreement 2 + 4 of 1990. The Treaty 2 + 4 was a peace agreement between the two Germanies (West and East) (2) and the winners of the WWII (USA, USSR, England, France) (4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greece, for its part, insists that with Treaty 2 + 4 of 1990 on German\nunification there is a peace agreement alone and the issue of reparations has\nnot been closed but should be definitively clarified again. So, since Greece\nhas requested in the most formal way from Germany these allowances, following\nthe customary official refusal of Germany, Greece will bring the case to the\ncompetent international court outside Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Proposal to resolve the problem<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our proposal is that the German state should find a way to compensate\nexclusively the relatives of the victims of the murder of Distomo and in such a\nway that he cannot “lay his hand” the Greek state in compensations of\nthese people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since this tragedy is acceptable it is purely a moral issue to compensate\nthe relatives of these victims because everything is created again except for\nhuman life which, if lost, is not restored. That is why this case should never\nhave reached the highest courts in Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, and always according to our opinion, Germany should compensate the\nrelatives of all those victims who have suffered the ‘Nazi injustice’ in Greece\nand always based on irrefutable evidence to prove that their relatives have\nfallen victim to “Nazi offences”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there could be an acceptable agreed amount between the two countries\nfor compensation to be paid by the German state to the Greek state, which would be able to satisfy\nGreece without compromising Germany’s economy, given that German economy is the\n“locomotive” of the Eurozone\/EU economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This agreed amount for compensation could be attributed by Germany to\nGreece by funding research projects and projects in areas such as drugs,\ntechnology, artificial intelligence, projects in the digital world,\ninfrastructure projects to local communities in Greece etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These projects could be undertaken by German companies in Greece and Greek\ncompanies. In this way, work will be given\nto Greeks stimulating parallel the Greek economy and\nprojects will be undertaking by German companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The loan granted by Greece to Germany during the German\noccupation<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n During the WWII and more specifically during the German occupation in\nGreece, apart from covering all expenses for the living of German troops from Greece,\nthe Nazis forced Greece to provide the Germans and the Italians a significant\namount in the form of a loan. Part of this loan amount was used by the Nazis to\nfinance the war in North Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This loan was signed on March 14, 1942. Then the terms and amount of the\nloan was reformulated twice, and Nazi Germany had started repaying the loan by\npaying nineteen installments and until the end of the war, so since then and\nuntil now the loan has never been repaid. The amount\nof the loan\nwas DM476m.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, Germany and Greece should jointly agree today on a mutually\nacceptable way of calculating interest rates, considering the level of\ninflation for the two countries since then to date and to bring an acceptable\nsolution for both countries. The amount of the repayment of this loan is\ncalculated using current prices and is of around \u20ac10-\u20ac11bn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Germany could attribute this amount to the Bank of Greece without affecting\nthe development of its economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It will not be any good for both countries sharing common values within the\nEurozone\/EU to be brought to the International Courts to resolve these issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The law of Intellectual Property is Prohibited in any way\nunlawful use\/appropriation of this article, with heavy civil and criminal\npenalties for the infringer.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, the Greek Parliament voted to entitle the Greek government to start the process for the formal request from Germany to pay reparations for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[818,390],"tags":[633,637,146,636,217,634,632,635],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-politics","tag-distomo-massacre-1944","tag-european-court-of-human-rights","tag-greece","tag-international-court-of-justice","tag-international-law","tag-proposal-to-resolve-the-reparations-problem","tag-the-german-compensation-to-greece-for-the-nazi-occupation","tag-the-loan-granted-by-greece-to-nazi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3662,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/3662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}