Defense minister attends WWII Greek Muslim soldiers commemoration for the first time

[Hellenic Ministry of National Defense]

Nikos Dendias connected Wednesday became the archetypal defence curate to be an yearly memorial ceremonial honoring Greek Muslim soldiers killed during World War II.

The ceremonial took spot successful the Muslim number village of Oraio, successful the mountainous municipality of Myki successful Thrace, where the Supreme Military Command of Thrace – formerly the IV Army Corps – commemorates astir 65 Greek Muslim soldiers who died warring successful various parts of Greece during the war.

Speaking successful the village square, Dendias said the state was honoring citizens who “lost their lives defending Greece” and who signifier “an inseparable portion of our corporate nationalist representation and tradition.”

He described Thrace arsenic a crossroads of civilizations and stressed that the Muslim number is “an inseparable and valuable constituent of Greece’s very identity.”

“The Hellenic Republic has the work and work to admit the sacrifices of its citizens,” Dendias said, adding that religion and connection bash not diminish nationalist work oregon contribution.

He besides described Thrace arsenic an illustration of harmonious coexistence for Greece and Europe, emphasizing that nationalist cohesion is built done inclusion, equality earlier the instrumentality and communal trust.

Under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, the Greek state recognizes the beingness of a Muslim, but not an ethnic, number successful Thrace.