Government backs conservative MP over Lausanne Treaty comment

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis backed New Democracy lawmaker Angelos Syrigos who was criticized by the main opposition for saying that the Treaty of Lausanne, a 1923 peace accord which, among other things, forged modern Greece and Turkey's borders, is mostly "outdated."

"The Treaty of Lausanne constitutes the solid, international legal foundation on which the regulation of all relations in the wider region is based," the spokesman told Skai television. "Syrigos spoke in his scientific capacity about some individual parts of the text, he made a scientific analysis, emphasizing that our sovereign rights are never in question," he said, adding however that the comment had a "problematic wording or was expressed in a way that could create problems."

Marinakis also rejected calls to discipline the lawmaker.

Speaking on the same TV channel the previous day,...