Βy Vassilis Kostoulas
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A spokesman for Estonia's EU Presidency on Wednesday stepped into the increasingly acrimonious political furor in Greece this week over the leftist Tsipras government's decision to boycott a conference in Tallinn, entitled "European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Communist and Nazi Regimes".
In a statement to "N", spokesman Jüri Laas said "Estonia strongly condemns all crimes against humanity and the massive human rights violations committed by all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and remembers the victims of all these regimes."
The statement comes after a controversial decision by the Greek justice minister, Stavros Kontonis, not to attend the Estonian presidency's conference, which is set to begin on Wednesday.
Laas reminded that the European Parliament in April 2009 adopted a resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism, which he said called for the proclamation Aug. 23 as “a Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, to be commemorated with dignity and impartiality”.
Kontonis turned down the invitation late last week and underlined, in a written statement, that the conference lacks "specific content and (its) title sends a wrong and dangerous political message ... (it) revives a Cold War climate, which brought so much suffering to Europe, runs contrary to the values of the EU and certainly does not reflect the view of the Greek government and Greek people, namely, that Nazism and Communism can never exist as the two parts of the same equation."
Greece is the only EU country that is not attending the specific Tallinn conference.
