A latest round of belligerent and bellicose rhetoric by the Islamist Erdogan regime in Turkey included a reference by Ankara to a so-called “Turkish minority” in the northeast Greece province of Thrace, with the foreign ministry in Athens later stressing that “…Turkey once again is distorting reality in order to serve other purposes, and certainly not to promote the rights and welfare of the Muslim Minority in Thrace. Turkey, a country with an exceptionally poor record in terms of respect for the Rule of Law and human rights, as everyone knows, instead of drawing lessons from Greece, continues not to be held accountable before the International Community.”
The foreign ministry reminded that official Turkey has never been censured for driving out the once numerous and prosperous ethnic Greek Minority in Constantinople, as well as the isles of Imvros and Tenedos, into “…the brink of extinction.”
Back in Greece, a memorial service was held on Sunday in the port city of Piraeus for Hellenic Navy Commander Panagiotis Vlachakos, who fell in the line of duty in the early morning hours of Jan. 31, 1996, while operating a navy helicopter in the eastern Aegean.
Co-aviator Christodoulos Karathanasis and chief petty officer Ektoras Gialopsos also perished, when the helicopter carrying the trio of servicemen crashed into the sea amid poor nighttime weather conditions – and amid the Imia standoff with Turkey during the specific day.
The resident Metropolitan, His Eminence Seraphim, officiated at the service, which was attended by several office-holders, military officers, local government officials and family members.