SRF: experts of the Bundestag considered the refusal of Berlin from reparations of Greece to be unquestionable

Whether Germany remains Greece billions in reparations for Nazi past? Athens demands from Berlin compensation for the occupation by the Nazis during the Second world war, said the Swiss TV channel SRF.

These demands are not new, but they became important again when Greece became insolvent due to the financial crisis, and it was Germany that pushed it towards a radical policy of austerity. Former then Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras openly spoke about the wine of Germany.

Berlin constantly rejected the claims of reparations, referring to the existing contracts, but now the expertise of the scientific service of the Bundestag came to the following conclusion: the position of the German government is acceptable from the point of view of international law, but is not necessarily mandatory. With regard to Poland, experts of the Bundestag came to the conclusion that its demands are illegal, because Warsaw officially renounced possible claims in 1953 and then again — in 1970.

The government of Angela Merkel insists that the situation with Greece was settled at the Paris conference in 1945. There Greece was promised a small percentage of military reparations payments to Germany, in terms of today's money is about €2 billion.

In 1960 the second contract was signed, reminds the Swiss TV channel. Germany paid DM 115 million to victims of Nazi crimes. However, there is still no peace Treaty with Greece, which would settle all the issues.

Germany refers to the "Two plus four"Treaty concluded after its unification. On one side the table then sat both Germany, on the other — former powers-winners the US, Russia, Britain and France. From the point of view of the German government, this Treaty settled all legal issues related to the Second world war. The issue of reparations was not touched upon in it, SRF notes.

Greek experts estimated the amount of €290 billion for human and material damage — murder, torture, destruction, robbery, as well as for the forced loan that the country had to provide the German Reichsbank. These funds financed the occupation of Greece. After the war, this interest-free loan was never repaid, the newspaper recalls.

The international court of justice in the Hague could deal with the issue today, but Germany must give its consent to this, and so far it has evaded consideration of this controversial issue. "This is contrary to all international practices," says Heinz Richter, who is considered the leading German historian of Greece in the XX century. He insists that the matter was settled by the London agreement of 1952 and by the Treaty of two plus four of 1989. According to the historian, more to this topic did not return, because after the experience of the Treaty of Versailles, no one wanted to take up something like that again.

According to Richter, Greece did not sign the Treaty "Two plus four", but did not provide written evidence against it. Thus, she agreed to the Treaty in accordance with international diplomatic customs — and Tsipras just tried to get the money, explained the position of the German historian Swiss TV channel SRF.