“No European crisis has left Greece untouched in recent years”, visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Thessaloniki on Sunday, while inaugurating the exhibition “Fragmented Memories 1940-1950”, at the northern metropolis’ Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art.
He was accompanied by his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias.
“In my country they have not understood this yet,” he stressed, citing the dire economic meltdown, the refugee problem emanating from warfare in the Middle East and even souring relations between the Union and Turkey. He also cited a “callousness” on the part of some German opinion makers who repeatedly brought the specter of “Grexit” to the forefront.
Steinmeier also referred to the prospect for progress on a Cyprus solution, with Kotzias adding that Greece’s standing position is for no occupation troops or guarantors to plague the island republic.
“We don’t want any European country to have occupation forces,” he emphasized.
Steinmeier was later declared an honorary member of Thessaloniki’s Jewish community, at a special ceremony. Before WWII, Thessaloniki hosted the world’s largest community of Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews.
The German FM will meet separately on Monday with Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras and main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
