Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas declared on Sunday that Greece's demands for German World War II reparations remai...

Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas declared on Sunday that Greece's demands for German World War II reparations remain legally active and will never expire, speaking at a memorial ceremony in Ligkiades, a village near Ioannina where Nazi forces massacred 89 civilians 83 years ago. On October 3, 1943, six German trucks from the Edelweiss Division arrived in Ligkiades while the village's men were away working in Zagori. Soldiers burned the village, looted it, and executed 86 residents of Ligkiades and 3 from nearby Amfithea. Forty-one of the dead were children. Tasoulas said Greece's reparations demands are "active, legitimate, imprescriptible, and claimable," stressing that memory, duty, and the need for justice all require Greece to keep pressing the claim. He noted he has made the same declaration at Kalavryta, Viannos, and Paramythia, other villages where German occupation forces carried out mass killings. "We remember, we claim, and we protect our future, because we honor these civilians who fell 83 years ago here in Ligkiades," he said after laying a wreath at the Holocaust Memorial and attending a memorial service at the Church of Saint George. The President also emphasized that the villages endured the brutality of occupation but survived it, describing their resilience as the best possible response to what was done to them. He was presented with the symbolic honorary key of Ligkiades during the ceremony. The government was represented by Deputy Labor Minister Kostas Karagkounis. MP Giorgos Amyras represented the Speaker of Parliament. #GermanReparations #Ligkiades #Greece