Header
Updated: 15 June 1999 NATO Speeches

Commemorative
event

Meeting
of the North
Atlantic
Council
at the level
of Heads
of State
and Government

Washington,
23 Apr. 1999

Statement

by the Prime Minister of Greece, Constantine Simitis

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Fifty years ago in 1949 the government troops entered a Greek village and killed two young people. Asked why, they answered: "They were Bulgarian communists". Two days later the rebels came and they also killed two young people. Asked why, they said: "They were American fascists".

NATO was and should be an effort to put an end to such practices and to such mentalities. NATO should be an effort to secure co-operation, peace and prosperity. I think it is a great aim and we must work for it.

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