(Screenshot from Greek Parliament TV)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought an Azov Nazi of Greek descent to his speech to the Greek Parliament on April 7, 2022 and all hell broke loose, reported Joe Lauria.
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Published on April 8, 2022
UUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a virtual world tour with video connections to parliaments around the world, as well as the Grammy Awards and the UN Security Council, with sometimes difficult results.
On April 7, 2022, a major dispute broke out when Zelensky brought in a Ukrainian soldier of Greek origin from the city of Mariupol, who happened to be a member of the neo-Nazi Azov regiment. Greece was under Nazi occupation during World War II and fought a bitter partisan war against Nazism (which was later betrayed by Britain and the United States).
With Zelensky on screen, the man, who only gave his first name, told parliament: “I am speaking to you as a man of Greek origin. My name is Michail. My grandfather fought against the Nazis in World War II. I was born in Mariupol and now I am fighting to defend my city against the Russian Nazis.”
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– e-tetRadio.gr (@tetRadio) April 7, 2022
Alexis Tsiprasleader of the main opposition party, SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, castigated the appearance of the Azov fighter before Parliament.
“Solidarity with the Ukrainian people is obvious. But Nazis cannot be allowed to speak in Parliament,” Tsipras said. said on social networks. “This speech was a provocation.” He said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “bears full responsibility”. … He talked about a historic day but it’s a historic shame.
Former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called the video shown in Parliament a “serious mistake”.
Former Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said: “The Greek government irresponsibly undermined the struggle of the Ukrainian people by giving voice to a Nazi. The responsibilities are heavy. The government is expected to publish a detailed report on preparations and contacts for the event.
Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis MeRA25 to party said the event turned into a “Nazi party”.
THE Greek journalist said a government spokesperson acknowledged the error, but then used it to defame SYRIZA as an apologist for Russia:
“The socialist party KINAL issued a statement asking why Greek lawmakers were not informed about the video intervention by a member of the Azov Battalion and called on the speaker of the Greek Parliament to take responsibility.
Government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said the inclusion of the Azov Battalion’s message was “incorrect and inappropriate”. However, he did not specify who should be held responsible.
Oikonomou nonetheless criticized SYRIZA for allegedly “using this error…to justify the Russian invasion.” … It’s time for a clear answer: are they on the side of the Ukrainians fighting for their freedom, or (on the side of) Putin’s invaders?’ he said.”
Zelensky’s uneven sense of history
In his speech, Zelensky said:
“For more than a month I have been waking up every day thinking about Mariupol, which is being destroyed by Russian troops. There are still 100,000 people on the border with Mariupol. No more buildings remain. Mariupol was destroyed…
Ukraine is one of the Orthodox countries Christianized by the Greeks. In Ukrainian culture and history, it will be seen that we will lose a large part of history if we lose the culture brought by Greek culture.
Freedom or death, that was what your revolutionaries said. We are shouting the same thing today. (a reference to a slogan from the Greek Revolution of 1821.)
Ignoring Greece’s suffering under German Nazism was made even worse by bringing in a Nazi to address Greek lawmakers.
Zelensky has already gotten himself into trouble by referring to a nation’s history in his speeches to parliaments. He provoked outrage in Israel by comparing what Ukraine is experiencing today to the Holocaust while completely ignoring the role played by Ukrainian fascists in that Holocaust.
In his speech to the UN Security Council on April 5, 2022, Zelensky said Russia had committed the worst war crimes since World War II, ignoring the far more serious crime of US aggression against Russia. ‘Iraq, entirely based on lies.
Much like Western governments and mainstream media do, the Ukrainian Embassy in Athens has denied that Azov is a neo-Nazi regiment, despite the fact that it wears the Waffen-SS Wolfsangel on its uniforms and alignment open policy on Nazism. The embassy instead tried to turn the situation around.
“For many years, Russia has tried to ‘plant’ in the minds of Greeks the myth that the ‘Azov’ regiment is an independent paramilitary unit operating in Mariupol,” the embassy said. said in a report. “The video (…) has nothing to do with the Nazi acts committed by the Russians on our territory and against our people.”
Indeed, Western media have largely ignored this story. Neither The New York Times neither The Washington Post did not write anything about what happened in the Greek parliament and The Wall Street Journal only published a photo essay that did not mention the controversy.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and former UN correspondent for Tthe Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globeand many other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, London Daily Mail And The star from Johannesburg. He was an investigative journalist for the Sunday hours from London, financial journalist for Bloomberg News and started his professional work at the age of 19. The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A political odyssey, with Senator Mike Gravel, preface by Daniel Ellsberg; And How I Lost by Hillary Clinton, preface by Julian Assange. He can be reached at (email protected) and followed on Twitter @unjoe
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