Greece is poised to send Germany a formal diplomatic note detailing its demand for billions of euros in wartime reparations after MPs voted overwhelmingly for the emotive issue to be raised officially. In a move bound to stir sentiment ahead of crucial European parliament elections, Athens vowed to pile pressure on Berlin, taking legal and diplomatic steps that will throw the spotlight on crimes committed during the brutal Nazi occupation. “It is an open issue that must be resolved,” Greece’s deputy foreign minister, Markos Bolaris, told the Guardian, hitting back at German insistence that compensation claims had been conclusively settled. “For matters of this kind there is international justice,” he said on Friday. “In all disputes the EU abides by it, on principle. Germany may say it has been resolved but what counts is international law.” Greeks suffered hugely at the hands of Hitler’s forces, enduring what Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, recently described on a visit to Greece as “unimaginable” horrors. Tens of thousands were killed in reprisals as Greeks mounted what historians would later hail as a heroic resistance against the Wehrmacht [Nazi armed forces], with entire villages being wiped out between 1941 and 1944. By the time the occupation ended, an estimated 300,000 people had died from famine and the country’s Jewish community had been almost entirely obliterated. The prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has raised the issue more persistently than any other to date. Despite criticism of political opportunism as European polls near, Greek MPs this week backed a resolution calling for the government to pursue demands for €300bn in damages following debate on the findings of an all-inclusive parliamentary inquiry into the German occupation. The findings have been described as the first complete reading of Nazi atrocities in Greece. In its report – compiled after in-depth research of records obtained from US national archives and Russia – the cross-party committee estimated that €11bn was owed for an interest-free “occupation loan” forcibly extracted by German forces. Gold holdings, seized from the country’s central bank in 1943, were used to fund Germany’s campaign in north Africa. A further €288bn, it said, remained outstanding for the destruction Greece sustained during the war. Berlin has long argued that recompense was delivered when, under a bilateral accord, it paid Athens DM115m in 1960. But addressing the Greek parliament, Sia Anagnostopoulou, the minister who will be heading the compensation campaign, described the reimbursement as inadequate. “The agreement did not take into account the occupation loan or reparations … they concerned individuals, victims of the Nazis,” she said, adding that the Netherlands had received a much greater sum despite having “one-hundredth” of the total number of victims of Greece. “There is an issue here with the German people and the German government with whom we are friend and allies, and we must not forget that.” Leftist MPs have long claimed that Greece’s brutal wartime experience delayed its development as a modern European state. The issue of war crimes reignited with renewed passion with the eruption of Greece’s debt crisis in late 2009 when Germany, as Europe’s paymaster, imposed punishing austerity measures as the price of emergency loans to keep the insolvent country afloat. At its height, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was depicted in Greece in Nazi garb, wearing a swastika armband, with many Greeks drawing comparisons to the time when they lost sovereignty under Nazi rule. Although Tsipras has since tempered his rhetoric, forging visibly warm relations with the German leader, the question of war debt is likely to gain traction as Greece gears up for general elections later this year. Prior to Athens exiting its third and final bailout last summer, officials say it would have been “nonsensical” to have raised the issue. Indicative of the emotions Nazi-era crimes are still prone to elicit, within hours of the vote in the Greek parliament, the MP in charge of Warsaw’s reparations campaign announced that Poland should follow suit. Greek compensation claims pale by comparison. Warsaw was razed to the ground by the Nazis after an abortive uprising in which 200,000 civilians died. The lives of 6 million Poles – including 3 million Polish Jews – were lost. Poland, which also faces parliamentary elections this year, has since demanded €800bn in war debts it insists it is still owed by Germany.<doc-sep>Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wants to revisit the issue of World War II-era reparations with the German government, telling lawmakers on Wednesday that he hopes parliament grants him a mandate to do so. Greek parliament had held a debate earlier in the day on reparations from Germany to Greece for war damages and crimes committed during the Nazi occupation of the country during World War II. Three years ago, an expert commission estimated the value of the war losses at as much as 290 billion euros (328 billion dollars). Tsipras said he declined to raise the reparations issue in recent years for fear of intertwining it with the country's financial crisis. Now that Greece has exited a series of international bailout programmes, the time has come to discuss the topic again. "It is a historic, ethical and emotionally loaded topic," Tsipras said ahead of a vote by lawmakers on the issue set for later Wednesday. "We now have the chance to close this chapter." The question of reparations is both legally and politically settled, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday in Berlin. Lawyers and historians, however, are divided over the right of Greece to reparations. Germany invaded Greece between 1940 and 1941, and Nazi troops occupied parts of the country until 1944. Berlin maintains that the the reparations issue was settled with German reunification in 1990 and a treaty that stipulated the new Germany would not be expected to pay more war reparations.<doc-sep>Greece has voted to pursue billions of euros in damages from Germany for the Nazi occupation of the country during the Second World War. Legislators in the Greek parliament debated the issue for nearly 12 hours on Wednesday before voting to launch a diplomatic campaign pushing for reparations. The proposal calls on the government to take “every appropriate legal and diplomatic action to satisfy Greece’s demands”. It does not set out a particular figure but in 2016 a Greek parliamentary commission put the cost of Nazi German rule in the country at more than €300bn. “This claim is our historic and moral duty,” Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, said during a speech to legislators. Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Show all 4 1 /4 Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Post-D-Day report 'Doesn't mind the heat, somewhere in France (Saint-Sauveur- Le-Vicomte)', 16 June 1944 Robert Capa © ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Personal nature of the war 'Lovers parting near Nicosia, Sicily', 28 July 1943 Robert Capa © ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Friendly welcome 'Conquered town in Cefalu, Sicily', 26 July 1943 Robert Capa © ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery Robert Capa's images of the Second World War Dodging sniper bullets 'American troops approaching Cherbourg, France', 26 June 1944 Robert Capa © ICP/Magnum photos, courtesy Daniel Blau gallery “To build a better future we need to close the open cases of the past and Germany needs to do the same.” Mr Tsipras added that Greece would raise the issue with Germany through diplomatic channels. Berlin, in response, said all such claims by invaded countries had long been settled. In 1960 West Germany paid Greece 115 million deutschmarks (£50.8m) in reparations for the country’s wartime suffering. Germany has apologised for Nazi crimes but has more recently been unwilling to open talks on reparations. Wednesday’s vote marked the Greek parliament’s first official decision on damages and is likely to further strain relations between Germany and Greece. ✕ Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Many Greeks blame Germany for severe austerity measures which were imposed on the country during the financial crisis, as part of a 2015 bailout package. Greece was given loans by eurozone creditors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the unpopular deal. On Thursday a Polish lawmaker said his country should follow Greece’s decision to push for reparations. Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who heads the Polish parliamentary committee on reparations, said in a tweet that the Greek vote showed Second World War compensation had become an international issue. Additional reporting by agencies<doc-sep>
Greece to demand war reparations from Germany ATHENS- Agence France-Presse Greek lawmakers on April 17voted through a resolution demanding the payment of German war crime reparations, an issue long disputed by Berlin. A parliamentary committee last year determined that Germany owes Greece at least 270 billion euros ($305 billion) for World War I damages and looting, atrocities and a forced loan during the Nazi occupation in World War II. "These demands are always active. They were never set aside by Greece," parliament speaker Nikos Voutsis told reporters this week. With cross-party support, the chamber approved the resolution to call on the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras "to take all the necessary diplomatic and legal steps to claim and fully satisfy all the demands of the Greek state stemming from World War I and World War II." Speaking in parliament, Tsipras said that making the demand "is a historic and moral duty and a duty in memory of the heroes of the past ... above all at a time when the extreme right, nationalism and racism threaten Europe." He said Athens would now send a "verbal note" to Germany which "will allow the opening of a dialogue on this question.” Reclaiming war reparations has been a campaign pledge by Tsipras since 2015. He faces multiple electoral challenges this year, with his party trailing in opinion polls. During a visit to Greece in January, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country "recognized its historical responsibility.” "We know how much suffering we, as Germany in the time of Nazism, have brought to Greece," she said. In 2014, the then president Joachim Gauck sought public forgiveness in the name of Germany from relatives of those murdered by the Nazis in the mountains of northern Greece. But when it comes to actual payments, Berlin has always insisted that the issue was settled in 1960 in a deal with several European governments. Germany's government spokesman Steffen Seibert reiterated on April 17 that "the reparation issue is judicially and politically settled.” He said Berlin is doing "everything it can so Greece and Germany maintain good relations as friends and partners.” During the Greek economic crisis, there was further tension in Athens over draconian EU austerity and bailout terms seen to be imposed by Berlin hardliners. Relations have improved over the last three years after Tsipras' government endorsed conditions linked to satisfying its creditors to exit the bailout programmes. Tsipras, who insisted it would be "repugnant" to conflate the issue of war reparations and Greek debts, and Merkel have also worked closely on finding common ground on migration and Balkans security.