Sunday, 28 October, the President Mattarella at Kefalonia and Corfu
Ο Πρόεδρος Παυλόπουλος κάλεσε τον κ. Sergio Mattarella στη Θεσσαλονίκη, για τη στρατιωτική παρέλαση κατά τη διάρκεια της "Ημέρας του ΟΧΙ!"
HONOR TO THE ACQUI’S DIVISION SOLDIERS, IN THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE MASSACRE
The President Pavlopoulos also invited Mattarella, at Thessaloniki, for the military parade during the “NO Day!”
The President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, has chosen a special date for inviting the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in Greece.
The President Pavlopoulos chose Sunday, on 28 October: a national Day, one of the most meaningful of the Hellenic History.
A date not chosen by accident, because on 28 October is the “No Day” and the whole Greece remembers the past 28 October 1940 when, at 3.00 a.m., the Greek Premier Ioannis Metaxas replied Όχι (no!) to Benito Mussolini’s ultimatum – personally given by the Italian Ambassador Emanuele Grazzi to him – that wanted to invade the Country by force of arms and so Greece entered into war against the Axis.
Metaxas’ outright rejection seemed to be the signal for a cruel war that went on for eight long months and fought in Ipiros and South Albany during the chill Winter; there were 25.000 dead (almost the same number of victims for both the Armies) and the conflict finished by the Italians’ defeat.
Every Greek town remembers that historic date and, because of the coincidence of the day chosen by Thessaloniki as the feast day of its patron saint (saint Demetrios), normally, the official military parade has place in Thessaloniki, exactly in the place where the president Pavlopoulos will meet the president Mattarella at 11.00 (Greek time).
A meaningful meeting, with a great institutional and historic breath, also able to put an important and further milestone towards the way of the pacification with the past (and not the simple historic reconciliation) in order to support a rich collaboration between Greece and Italy towards the building of the great and common European house.
The presidential meeting will continue through the official visit to the Ionian Islands that, on September 1943, were the sad frame of a terrible massacre, known by the History like the Massacre of the Acqui Division at Kefalonia and Corfu.
At Kefalonia, the President Mattarella, together with the President Pavlopoulos, will put down a laurel garland at the Monument to Italian Acqui’s Division Soldiers, in the presence of the Kefalonian Authorithies and of a delegation of Acqui Division national association and, then, he will go to Corfu for a further honor at the Monument to Italian Acqui’s Division Soldiers, killed during the dramatic September 1943, in the presence of the Corfian Authorithies and a delegation of Acqui Divisionnational association.
“The visit of the President Mattarella at Kefalonia and Corfu, in order to pay homage to our Acqui’s soldiers, in front of the both Monuments that remind their eternal Memory, lets us to feel a deep joy and a grateful feeling to the President Pavlopoulos, because he invited our President in a so special day for the whole Greece – the national president Giuseppe Dalpiaz tells.
“We are sure – Dalpiaz continues – that the moral strenght and the prestige of the President Mattarella, in addition to the strong witness for the service at the State, called for that by the History, and the so important institutional action done by the Hellenic President, are able to let for germinating a deep sense of the Institutions, the basic value of the Memory and the constant research of the exercitation of the Solidarity, in every way it can be able, especially towards the young people”.
“We are very grateful to Kefalonian and Corfian people for their friendship and we always engage ourselves because our friendship can day-by-day be more strong”- Dalpiaz concluses.
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