The selection of the 23rd of August as a European Day of Remembrance for the victims of Nazism and Communism was not randomly selected by the European Union, since it coincided with the date of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, signed on the 23rd of August in 1939 in Moscow by the Foreign Ministers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Therefore, those who forget this Pact for ideological reasons, are simply trying in vain to erase it from our memory and can not delete the history of not only Europe, but of Humanity as a whole, since that was one of the reasons for the existence of the Second World War.
The European Parliament had introduced it ever since 2009.
Paradoxically, as it’s not a member of the European Union, it’s Canada that has led to the initiation of the establishment of this remembrance ever since the 1980s.
But the big phase change occurred with the European Parliament’s decision (553 for, 44 against, 33 abstentions) back in 2009, at the 70th anniversary of the signing of the pact, but also 20 years after the collapse of Berlin wall.
Consequently, Europe laid the foundations of this historic date within its own values.
The 23rd of August is not merely an anniversary for the European Union, but also officially for other States as well.
Out of the European Union, we have Canada and Georgia, and within the European Union, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia .
This practically means that the non-acceptance of the existence of this anniversary is purely ideological and not by any means, historical.
It raises however a matter of value and law.
This date is the European Union’s, and the Member States ought to respect it, without necessarily transforming it into a national anniversary.
So, there is no context for rejection at an institutional level.
The most serious matter however refers to the evaluation.
So how could a government representative be able, not to accept that crimes against Humanity occurred by Communism, and to also assume that he has the right to express himself likewise, and that on behalf of the Greek nation which encapsulates the Pontian element as well, which by the way has lived through its skin the barbarism of communism.
How could the government not put aside a minister who exposes us not only by adopting such a position, but also with his backward ideology.
Greece is pro freedom, a nation of Time, which respects the memory. And the adoption of such positions are simply unacceptable to Hellenism.