Irredentism

Greece's main opposition party, which is polled to win the next general election, has doused speculation that it plans to propose former socialist prime minister Costas Simitis or ex PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos as President of Greece.

Speaking on Skai radio on Thursday, New Democracy spokesperson Maria Spyraki said both scenarios were "out of the question."
 

Conventional wisdom has it that the Macedonia dispute is an issue of national importance for Greece. But what kind of issue is it exactly? And how is Greece performing?

Whatever one thinks of Andeas Papandreou, the founder of the once-mighty PASOK party, there are two things that are beyond dispute. Firstly, he was a far more complex personality than his aspiring emulators would like to think and, secondly, he is far less contemporary than his "heirs" would like to believe.

Amid accusations that ruling SYRIZA is trying to appropriate the legacy of the once powerful PASOK party, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and other government members visited the home of Antonis Livanis, a veteran of the Socialist party, on the occasion of his name day on Thursday.

The leftist government is exempt from any kind of inhibitions or guilt. If everything going on today - out in the open or behind the scenes - occurred during a New Democracy or PASOK government, there would have been a universal uproar - with the left at the forefront of course. 

Greece has asked the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to purge history schoolbooks in the neighboring Baklan country of revisionist and irredentist elements, including misleading maps and references to ancient Greek civilization, the Athens-Macedonian news agency reports.

An Albanian policewoman who lost her thumb has recovered through a new treatment method developed by Turkish doctors.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has called on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to shed any irredentist ambitions.

During a visit to a military outpost near the Greek-FYROM border on Wednesday, Kammenos said that Greece wanted to maintain peaceful ties with its Balkan neighbor.

The European Parliament is calling for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Konstantinos Katsifas, a 35-year-old ethnic Greek man who was fatally shot by Albanian authorities in the southern village of Bularat at the end of last month in what was described by Albanian authorities as an exchange of fire.

A decision by Greek judicial authorities to open the bank accounts of a former deputy PASOK minister in connection with the acquisition of a C4I security system for the 2004 Athens Olympics, was welcomed by him as a "great opportunity" to restore his "honor and reputation."