Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was hand in Paris on Sunday for events to commemorate the centennial of the end of World War I, an anniversary that brought together practically all of the West’s leaders.
In his contribution for the inauguration of a Paris peace forum set to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the armistice that ended the “Great War”, Tsipras gifted his hosts a copy of a comedy by ancient Athenian playwright Aristophanes, aptly named “Peace”. He added that the struggle for peace is daily.
“This work (the ancient play) is today more timely than ever, as it describes why we must struggle on daily basis against war, and not consider peace as a given,” he said, while bemoaning what he called the rise of nationalism and xenophobia, as well as continued conflicts around the world.
The Greek prime minister even expanded his brief statements to include references to the subsequent world war, the Second World War, saying that “Hitler and Mussolini exploited exhausted societies, in which fear and desperation reigned. The dominant elite were absolutely despised; they (elites) were the people that sent their (societies’) children to a war, which de facto, could not be won by anyone.”
Back in Athens, government sources cited brief exchanges Tsipras had with other leaders in Paris, saying that besides the event’s host, French President Emmanuel Macron, he spoke with US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among others.
According to the same government sources, Trump congratulated Tsipras over Greek economic progress; Putin said he is expecting him in Moscow on Dec. 7, whereas Erdogan also repeated his invitation to Tsipras to visit Istanbul.
