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Tsipras raises Nazi war reparations claim at Berlin press conference with Merkel
UK Guardian ^ | March 23, 2015 | Ian Traynor

Posted on 03/24/2015 5:54:34 AM PDT by C19fan

Greece’s leftwing prime minister Alexis Tsipras stood beside German leader Angela Merkel and demanded war reparations over Nazi atrocities in Greece on Monday night, even as the two leaders sought to bury the hatchet following weeks of worsening friction and mud-slinging.

“It’s not a material matter, it’s a moral issue,” said Tsipras, unusually insisting on raising the “shadows of the past” at the heart of German power in the gleaming new chancellery in Berlin. It was believed to be the first time a foreign leader had gone to the capital of the reunified Germany to make such a demand.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alexistsipras; europeanunion; germany; greece; nato; reparations; syriza; turkey; victimcard; worldwareleven; worldwarii; ww2; wwii
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To: C19fan

This was a really, really stupid move by Tsipras.


21 posted on 03/24/2015 6:31:50 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Leaning Right
Folks who disagree with WW II reparations, and say "let bygones be bygones", are usually those who have lost nothing.

Does your theory extend to descendants of US slaveholders?

22 posted on 03/24/2015 6:32:46 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: C19fan
Whambulance photo: Whambulance Whambulance.gif Eeek it's a Greek.
23 posted on 03/24/2015 6:33:37 AM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: yldstrk

Japanese probably saved your Grandfathers’ life from the Communists.

Although the Communists probably never would have taken power if the Japanese hadn’t invaded.


24 posted on 03/24/2015 6:34:32 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: skeeter
Does your theory extend to descendants of US slaveholders?

Not now. Soon after the Civil War, yes. Kindly see my post #9. And I certainly admit that all this is a judgment call. My definition of "soon after" might well be very different than someone else's definition.

25 posted on 03/24/2015 6:40:34 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: C19fan

What do you expect from someone who holds Hugo Chavez as a role model...


26 posted on 03/24/2015 6:44:25 AM PDT by JohnLongIsland
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To: Dr. Ursus
Jewish bankers are now German bankers - got it

They are? I'm thinking more in lines of Germany winning WW3 in Europe, through their economic domination. I honestly did not even know that there were Jewish people in significant numbers in Germany.

27 posted on 03/24/2015 6:45:10 AM PDT by grania
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To: skeeter
There was very little fighting in Germany itself in WWI so very little war damage.

Gavrilo Princip caused WWI, and without WWI there would have been no WWII, so maybe the Bosnian Serbs owe reparations to everyone who suffered in either war. Of course no one in 1919 or later suggested that since the Bosnian Serbs had very little money (you can't get blood out of a turnip), but that's where the logic of reparations could take you.

28 posted on 03/24/2015 6:49:02 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Leaning Right
If the guilty aren't around to account then let it go. None of us should be forced to pay for the sins of our fathers.

In fact we've already started down that road. It will not lead to a good place - it never has.

29 posted on 03/24/2015 6:51:23 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: Leaning Right
Folks who disagree with WW II reparations, and say "let bygones be bygones", are usually those who have lost nothing.

My dad named me after his brother, who died on the Bataan Death March, in the Philippines. I do not hold present day Japanese responsible for that, and I do not expect reparations.

30 posted on 03/24/2015 6:51:37 AM PDT by Mark17 (Beyond the sunset, O blissful morning, when with our Savior, Heaven is begun. O glorious dawning)
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To: skeeter
None of us should be forced to pay for the sins of our fathers.

There is a lot of truth in that, and to ignore it is to get caught up in an endless loop of grievances.

But on the other hand, suppose a company willfully makes a defective product, and that product does great harm to many families. Shouldn't the company be held accountable, even if the original officers are all gone?

I guess what I'm saying is that there are two sides to this issue. And that's where my statute of limitations argument comes in.

31 posted on 03/24/2015 7:00:52 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Verginius Rufus
"There was very little fighting in Germany itself in WWI so very little war damage."........................................... That qualifies as the most fatuous statement I've read on FR in a coon's age. Dresden, post fire-storm. Most of the dead suffocated in their basements. Dresden World War II photo: Dresden Massacre.  Dresden Bombing. Dresden19001.jpg
32 posted on 03/24/2015 7:01:39 AM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: All

Tsipras is a snake who has no intention of repaying the money lent to him.

Reparations for WWII is an excuse.

No one was asking for WWII reparations until the loan payment came due. WWII reparations was not part of what Tsipras campaigned on.

It is plain to see that Tsipras is Europe’s Hugo Chavez


33 posted on 03/24/2015 7:03:00 AM PDT by kidd
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To: yldstrk

One could easily argue that the NATO nations, primarily the USA, paid Greece billions during the cold war. Greece has always been a taker and used its unique geography to get billions in direct and indirect aid. If the money dried up, Greece threaten closer ties with the Soviet Union.


34 posted on 03/24/2015 7:05:36 AM PDT by 11th Commandment ("THOSE WHO TIRE LOSE")
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To: ifinnegan

Oh yeah right. And him suffering malnutrition in the camp was nothing, seeing people beaten to death, priests in hot boxes was nothing, the Japanese “saved” him. You are a complete idiot.


35 posted on 03/24/2015 7:08:16 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Leaning Right
A company is accountable for the products it produces by definition. It is a contract.

There is no equivalent moral imperative that applies to individuals and their progeny.

36 posted on 03/24/2015 7:08:33 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: grania

There aren’t Jewish people there now, hello, they were gassed, shot, starved, beaten to death in WW2.


37 posted on 03/24/2015 7:09:25 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: tumblindice

He was referring to WWI, I was referring to WWII.


38 posted on 03/24/2015 7:12:36 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: tumblindice
Get your retraction ready, FRiend. Verginius Rufus was talking about WW I, not WW II.
39 posted on 03/24/2015 7:14:26 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: C19fan
Greece recovered enough from WWII to host an Olympics which cost as much as 15 billion. The 04 Olympics is more responsible for the current Greek crisis than WWII.

If Greece is able to guilt Germany out of $ for WWII damage, will they forward that on to the USA for repayment of the $376 million (1950’s dollars) they collected through the Marshall Plan?

40 posted on 03/24/2015 7:24:46 AM PDT by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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