Greek Ambassador: “Commission for remains of Greek soldiers must operate again”

28/10/2017 21:03

At the annual symbolic ceremony held near the cemetery of Greek soldiers killed during their war with Greece, in Kelcyra and BUlarat, hundreds of Greek citizens, relatives of the soldiers, gathered to commemorate the soldiers.

The Greek Ambassador to Tirana, Eleni Surani, asked Bularat to start with the bilateral commission for finding the remains of Greek soldiers who died in Albania.

“We hope that the agreement with Albania, as a NATO member, is made functional the soonest possible, for finding, identifying and burying once again our fallen soldiers. It is our obligations to try hard until we find the last of these soldiers”, Surani declared.

The chairman of the Association of Soldiers Without Graves Killed in the ‘40s, Jorgos Surlas, asked the case to be reopened, since, according to him, has been closed for more than six years.

“There are 59 graves in Bularat, and we are grateful to the residents who found the medallions with stones and wrote them on the graves. I cannot say the same thing for the Albanian government. After 76 years we still don’t have the remains of our fallen. The agreement of 2009 is not being respected by Albania and this has touched us all. I am certain I am talking on behalf of other relatives of the fallen as well”, Surlas declared.

Greece has been asking for years to use mural cemeteries for 2500 Greek soldiers who died on Albanian territory during the Italian-Greek war, but talks between commissions were interrupted due to disagreements on the matter.

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