ATHENS, February 27./ITAR-TASS/. A left-wing Greek legislator has urged his country’s government to protect ethnic Greeks in Ukraine from persecution by local neo-Nazis. Yannis Giokas, a member of parliament from the Communist Party, speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary committee for the Greek diaspora relations, said his party had demanded the Cabinet of Ministers should take a firm stance regarding all instances of threats and persecution of ethnic minorities, including Greeks, in Ukraine.
Giokas said that “neo-Nazi organizations and parties of Ukraine, operating under the umbrella of the new Ukrainian authorities, the United States and the EU, spearhead this campaign.”
“It is not accidental that the new Ukrainian government, in one of its first steps, restricted the rights to languages and the operation of schools, which have existed for many decades,” he said.
Giokas described the current state of affairs in Ukraine as “a result of the US and EU intervention in the internal affairs of Ukraine, rivalry with Russia for the control of the markets and spheres of influence.”
"Peoples that have coexisted peacefully for many years, in particular, during the socialist period, have fallen victim to that policy,” the legislator added.