Doesn't this sound radical:
---
Greece sours German relations further with demand for war reparations
Guardian, March 11, 2015
Greece's strained relations with Germany took a turn for the worse
on Wednesday when Athens’ leftist-led government raised the spectre of
seizing German assets for war reparations that it claimed Berlin has
stubbornly refused to honour. In an address before the Greek parliament,
Alexis Tspiras, the Greek prime minister, said Germany had "a moral
obligation" to make amends for the atrocities wrought during three
devastating years of Nazi occupation. Berlin, he said, had deliberately
flouted its duty employing "legal tricks and delay".
---
Is this a radical turn or a descent into farce? One indicator might be
the properties available to be seized. According to the Guardian story
just quoted:
---
German assets range from diplomatic properties and cars to the
Goethe institute, which is among Athens' leading cultural centres.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/11/greece-sours-german-relations-further-demand-war-reparations
---
The BBC says:
---
The justice minister went further, saying he was prepared to
enforce the Supreme Court's ruling in 2000 relating to the massacre of
218 civilians in the central Greek village of Distomo on 10 June 1944.
The court ruled that Germany should pay €28m (£19.7m) to the relatives
of those killed, although the decision was not enforced, and the dispute
effectively reached stalemate in international courts in the following
years. The ruling allowed for German-owned property to be seized as
compensation but it was never acted on by then-Justice Minister Michalis
Stathopoulos. Among possible assets are property belonging to Germany's
archaeological school and the Goethe Institute, a cultural association.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31831694
---
So did Syriza raise a piddling court ruling of 28 million euros? The
press reports lots of foggy rhetoric by Tspiras but no specific threat
to put a specific figure on larger reparations either unilaterally nor
by a demand on Germany, in typical Syriza style, to negotiate an amount.
There are billions of euros of German direct investment in Greece, but
so far they are out of the story.
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