K. Tasoulas: ‘National Reconciliation has not yet been achieved’

The restart of the activities of the National Reconciliation Park was announced today by the president of the Hellenic Parliament and the Foundation for Parliamentarianism and Democracy, Konstantinos Tassoulas, inaugurating a new institution in Livadia tis Kotyli, in Grammos, the annual “Meetings in the Park” with the first topic of discussion: “Constitution and foreign policy”.

Mr. Tasoulas emphasized that “the restart is in memory of Philippos Petsalnikos, who not only envisioned but also carried out the implementation of this project”. The president of the Parliament assured that “we will continue what Philippos Petsalnikos started with great foresight”, added that the ideas from the Ioannina bodies of Kastoria and Kozani for the revitalization of the area will help us “draw new directions” and promised that with the events “we will also contribute from our side to the ultimate goal of national reconciliation, a difficult course with psychological, political, historical and social elements, which we must not abandon”.

He clarified, saying that National Reconciliation has not yet been achieved and that it is a difficult goal that requires transcendence at the collective and personal level. “I have no illusions that because we proclaim it and in our official public speech, we agree that national reconciliation has been absolutely achieved. It is a difficult goal, it requires significant collective and personal transcendence. We have not reached the ideal goal of achieving national reconciliation and I am not sure what “what we experience necessarily leads us to learn”.

Wanting to support the fact that we do not always learn from what we suffer, he brought as an example Eleftherios Venizelos who left as a legacy the translation of Thucydides, where the mutual extermination of aristocratic and democratic states is described in dramatic tones, noting that “Eleftherios Venizelos having lived, having suffered, having participated in a harsh division that preceded the division of the 1940s, through this translation he wished to help the Greeks to understand these consequences”. He also spoke about reconciliation with nature, saying that we must “preserve together with the historical memory and the precious image of Grammos with its rich forests and the natural wealth that surrounds us”.

Mr. Tasoulas, opening to the public the operation of the Park after a long period of pandemic, promised that “the space that is full of historical memory, a place that was a bloody battlefield, will become a field of knowledge, exchange of views, in the attempt us to understand the modern world, to handle the future”.

He even added that “the relationship between the Constitution and foreign policy”, which is the first topic of the meeting, is an excellent opportunity for dialogue on a topic that has not been explored in depth so far.

In the 10 years of operation of the National Reconciliation Park, events have been held both by the Foundation of the Hellenic Parliament and by university bodies, with issues related to history, memory, the events of the civil war and it is the first time that the events are not present Philippos Petsalnikos, the politician who was inspired and decisively contributed to its operation. It should be noted that the late F. Petsalnikos, to the extent that his occupations allowed him, was always present at the speech events that took place in the Park facilities and he always had to remember details of his meetings with the two protagonists of the Civil War, general Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos and Markos Vafiadis at the time he shared with them the idea of ​​creating the park. In the first event entitled “Meetings in the Park” with the theme “Constitution and Foreign Policy”, family members of the late former speaker of the Parliament, his wife and brother were also present and greeted the work of the day with emotion.

In the round table discussion that followed, Panagiotis Doudonis (Oxford University), Panagiotis Mantzoufas (AUTH), Nikos Papaspyrou (EKPA) spoke, while Giorgos Katrougalos (former minister, DFT) and Petros Liakouras (Piraeus University) made interventions. Late in the afternoon, a guided tour of the Park’s exhibition spaces was held by the scientific manager, Theodoros Siontis.

In the afternoon there will be a round table on “Constitutionalism and sovereignty-International and domestic legal order” where Angelos Syrigos (Deputy Minister of Education, Panteion University), Giorgos Sotirelis (EKPA), Giorgos Katrougalos (former minister, DFT) will speak ) Sofia Galani (Panteion University) and Giorgos Karavokyris (AUTH).

Present at the event were Kastoria MP Olympia Teligioridou, the mayors of Kastoria Yiannis Korentsidis and Nestorius Christos Gosliopoulos, as well as the representative of the Prime Minister’s Office in Thessaloniki Maria Antoniou.