India-EU News & Analysis

[chetak]

#ItalianMarines: India disapproves of European Parliament resolution

Brussels/New Delhi, Jan 16

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution asking India to allow the return of two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen, drawing a sharp reaction from New Delhi which termed the step as not “well advised” as the matter was sub judice.

Taking exception to the European Parliament’s decision, India today said the case involving the two Italian marines is sub judice, and is being discussed between India and Italy.

“The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in its ruling on 14th January, 2015, has granted three months extension to the Italian marine, Massimiliano Latorre, for his stay in Italy on health grounds and the other marine, Salvatore Girone is living in the Italian Embassy in New Delhi.

“Under these circumstances, the European Parliament would have been well advised not to adopt the Resolution,” official spokesperson in External Affairs Ministry Syed Akbaruddin said in New Delhi.

In a late night development, the European Parliament in Strasbourg approved a resolution on the issue of two Italian marines.

The motion called for, among other things, the pair to be allowed to return to Italy and change of jurisdiction.

“The European Parliament hopes that diplomatic dispute between Italy and India over the prosecution of two Italian marines will soon be settled, under Italian jurisdiction and/or through international arbitration,” a press release by European Parliament said quoting the resolution.

Members also called for the marines to be repatriated, as their detention without charge is a “serious breach of human rights”, it said.

In a joint resolution approved by a show of hands, the members expressed great sadness at the tragic death of the two Indian fishermen, but also grave concerns about the detention of the marines, it said.

The two marines, Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, were arrested on murder charges for the killing of two Indian fisherman off the coast of Kerala in February 15, 2012. The two maintain that they fired at the fishermen after mistaking them for pirates while guarding the ship ‘Enrica Lexie’.

The shooting incident sparked a diplomatic row between India and Italy over conflicting opinions on jurisdiction and immunity.

[pankajs]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 953323.cms
Charlie Hebdo attacks: Four suspects first to face charges

The Paris prosecutor's office said the four, who would be the first to face charges in the case, are suspected of providing logistical support to Amedy Coulibaly. Coulibaly shot a policewoman to death on the outskirts of Paris and then seized hostages inside a kosher supermarket, killing four before he was killed by police. It is not clear whether the suspects were involved in plotting the attacks or even aware of Coulibaly's plans.

[pankajs]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 952182.cms
200 police raid homes in Germany based on terror suspicions

BERLIN: Some 200 police officers have raided 13 residences, mostly in Berlin but also other parts of Germany, in connection with arrests last week of two suspected members of an Islamic cell.

[RSoami]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/ ... 0520150125
The leftist anti Euro party Syriza has won in Greece. This could be a mojor headache for EU and Germany.

[Philip]

EU in crisis after victory in Greece for the anti-austerity party of Syrzia,which threatens a breakup of the EU monetary union if Greece leaves or refuses to abide by the babus of Brussels.The crisis affecting Greece will also have its effect on the UKR crisis where concerned citizens of the UKR will be watching to see what gives,since their cronies of Kiev have plumped for the bitter medicine of the EU's financial conditions.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ys-EU.html
Greece must bow to austerity or go bust, says EU
EU will threaten Syriza with the collapse of Greek banks and the prospect of going bust unless Alexis Tspiras signs up to exisiting austerity measures


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 01701.html
Greece elections: Syriza and EU on collision course after election win for left-wing party

Success for Syriza party may provoke economic siege by European Union
Patrick Cockburn
Athens
Sunday 25 January 2015

Greek voters have rebelled against the austerity programme imposed by Brussels and Berlin in return for loans to fund Greece’s massive debt. The radical left Syriza party, which promises better terms for Greece, won a decisive victory in the general election today and is close to winning an absolute majority in parliament.

With 88 per cent of the votes counted, Syriza was on 36.3 per cent of the vote and was projected by the Interior Ministry to get 149 seats – just two short of an overall majority.

The ruling New Democracy was on 27.9 per cent, which could see it get 76 seats, followed by the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party on 6.3 per cent (17 seats), the centrist To Potami on 6 per cent (17 seats) and the Communist KKE on 5.5 per cent (15 seats). The right-wing Independent Greeks party on just over 4.7 per cent (13 seats) and the once mighty, centre-left Pasok party was on just under 4.7 per cent (13 seats). The leading party receives a bonus of 50 seats in the 300-member parliament.

New Democracy's Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, was defeated because he failed to end the bailout, get a Greek debt reduction, lift the economy out of deep recession despite some recent improvements and get the IMF removed from the much-hated troika (EU, ECB and IMF) that has exercised a near-colonial control over the Greek economy.

Syriza may seek to form a government on its own or it could look for allies such as Pasok and the Potami party. But it will soon find itself in a confrontation with the EU as it look for relaxation in the austerity that has reduced four million Greeks to poverty.

At the same time, Greece remains saddled with €240bn in debt that it is unable to repay but must continue to service. Continual cuts and tax rises made it impossible for Greece to escape from a deep recession despite marginal improvements last year.

Mr Tsipras says he does not want to leave the EU or the euro and neither option is popular in Greece. The EU will not want a relaxation to austerity in Greece because of the impact this would have on heavily indebted countries such as Italy, Spain and France.

The Greek rebellion against its EU economic overlords may provoke a prolonged economic siege as Syriza seeks to negotiate new terms for a bailout while the EU waits for a lack of money to force Greece to comply with existing agreements. Professor Aristides Hatzis of the University of Athens says: “It is like a game of chicken, with Greece and the EU driving towards each other and each hoping the other will swerve first to avoid a collision.” He adds that one must keep in mind the disparity in power between the two drivers. “The EU leaders are driving a German Mercedes and the Greeks are in a beat-up old jalopy.”

A new Greek government will immediately face problems because the creditor states have frozen $8.8bn (£5.9bn) in loan disbursements while the present government has reached a $17.4bn ceiling for bond sales under the EU programme. A Syriza government would have to rely on taxes but tax revenues are down as people wait to see if taxes will be reduced by the new government. This means that Greece may only have the money – though this is disputed by Syriza leaders – until the end of February to pay state employees and pensions and service the debt. At the same time, eurozone finance ministers will extend negotiations until September.

Read more: • Reactions: Russell Brand says he'd vote for Syriza
• Communist 'Harry Potter' who could implode eurozone
• Voices: 'Syriza's vow to end 'national humiliation' is hollow'

This impending collision with the EU frightens Greeks, but they also feel that five years of being dictated to by Brussels and Berlin has brought them nothing but pain. The Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told his supporters at a final rally, held in a closed stadium built for the Taikwondo championships in the 2004 Olympics, that Greeks would be “committing national suicide” if they voted for the radical left in the shape of Syriza.

Expectations are not that high even among Syriza activists. At a polling station in central Athens today, Vanda Theodorou, a keen Syriza supporter, said: “When it comes to unemployment I don’t think we can do much if we form the government. But we will make improvements in health by providing healthcare for the unemployed.” The unemployed receive €300 to €400 a month during the first year they are without a job and after that nothing.

Ms Theodorou, formerly a journalist, said she had been unemployed since 2007 and so were her two daughters. She said “the state has not provided any social safety net and treats people like garbage”. She pointed to her mouth, which was swollen, and said that her jaw had been broken in a car crash last year and she needed to have many of the smashed teeth replaced, but could not afford to do so.

The degree of radical change Syriza can introduce even with an absolute majority will be limited by its lack of money and the unwillingness of 75 per cent of Greeks to leave the euro because a return to the drachma is not really feasible. Greece imports most of its needs and has no important allies in its confrontation with the EU. On the other hand, as the first radical-left government in Europe for decades, it will fight very hard to show that it can deliver on its promises to give free electricity to those cut off, provide food stamps for children, provide healthcare to the uninsured, provide accommodation to the homeless and raise the minimum wage from under €500 a month to €750.

Greeks view the outcome of the election with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Antonios, a businessman in the financial services sector who supports the New Democracy Party, says he fears that a Syriza victory will destabilise the country and lead to a reverse of many reforms. “Already people are moving money out of Greece,” he says. “The recession that is beginning to ease may get worse again. I hope there won’t be a bank run on Monday, but it could happen.” With the economy so badly damaged, Antonios understands why popular resentment runs very deep.

The election has once again opened up the deep traditional divisions between left and right in Greece, rooted in the German occupation, the civil war, the rule of the colonels up to 1974 and the unprecedented economic collapse of the last five years.

“A vote for Syriza is a vote for anger,” says Professor Hatzis. There is fury that the better-off and the oligarchs have succeeded in avoiding paying for a financial disaster that was largely of their making. He says that Mr Samaras’s government wanted to satisfy the demands for reform by the Troika by introducing “across-the-board cuts in order to avoid structural reform”. The corrupt clientist system in which financial oligarchs had a large measure of control over Greek politics was largely the creation of the New Democracy and Pasok parties that lost so heavily in the election. “The Greek government has protected the oligarchy and the cartels over the last two years,” says Professor Hatzis.

In theory, a radical party like Syriza is in a far better position to introduce structural reforms than that of Mr Samaras representing the political and economic establishment. One of the problems for the Troika is that it is the very fact change was being imposed by abroad, and most notably by Germany, which delegitimised necessary reforms. Compromise between Greece and the EU should be possible, but the problem remains that the EU leaders hold all the high cards and may be tempted to impose their will regardless of whom the Greeks vote for. The Greeks also fear that the priority for the Germans and North Europeans is to continue to be tough on Greece in order to send a warning to governments in Spain, Italy and France that they must stick to austerity.

[Philip]

Great tale of the alleged sexcapades of former IMF boss DSK,who had French presidential ambitions! It looks like every French pres, hopeful or incumbent has eyes more on amorous affairs rather than affairs of state!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/peopl ... 04172.html
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Dodo the Pimp, and the Carlton Hotel: France's major trial of 2015

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in court in Lille next week on immorality charges. Philip Sweeney meets one of his co-defendants, a Belgian brothel-owner known as Dodo the Pimp, who is relishing his moment in the spotlight
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in court in Lille next week on immorality charges. Philip Sweeney meets one of his co-defendants, a Belgian brothel-owner known as Dodo the Pimp, who is relishing his moment in the spotlight
Philip Sweeney

The Carlton Hotel in Lille is a staid-looking fourstar off Grand Place, the raciness of its panelled lobby bar restricted to a list of malt whiskies and some sporting prints. Whatever possessed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then IMF boss and French presidential hopeful, a globe-hopping sophisticate with women from Bangkok to Brasilia within range, to go in search of nookie in this dull hostelry in the French equivalent of Newcastle upon Tyne?

As one ventures further into the alleged stomping ground of Strauss-Kahn's co-defendants, the Carlton 14, things don't get any more glamorous.

To meet the second most famous member of the gang, you cross the border into Belgium and drive through a flat expanse of countryside and urban sprawl to the historic town of Tournai. Perhaps making a diversion first to the village of Blaton, just off the motorway, to drive past a silent detached house painted matt grey and unadorned save for two giant glamour photos and the letters DSK. Dodo Sex Klub, insists its proprietor, who was threatened at one point with legal action by Strauss-Kahn, causing him to contemplate a rebrand as IMF, for International Miss Flanders. The proprietor of this bar montant – hostess bar, essentially brothel – is a character so picaresque that Georges Simenon would have been proud to have created him. Meet Dodo la Saumure, or "Dodo the Pimp".

Dominique Alderweireld, as Dodo was christened, walks across the medieval central square of Tournai, on the way from his rambling suburban villa to Le Kennedy, his favourite café, where he shakes hands with a couple of clients, and orders a glass of rosé. A stocky figure in tan leather jacket and jeans, the king of the hostess bars has a gruff, laconic and amused delivery, a terrific vocabulary of arcane criminal slang, and complete frankness. He seems to be looking forward to the trial. "I'll wear my best suit. But I'm not bothered about the verdict. I've already been investigated for the same facts twice and had the case dismissed," he grouches. "You know, the reason I'm involved in all this is that the Lille magistrates don't like me: I'm too outspoken and I'm too like them. I've got legal training..."

Game of the name: the cheekily titled club DSK, which its owner claims stands for Dodo Sex Klub Game of the name: the cheekily titled club DSK, which its owner claims stands for Dodo Sex Klub (AFP/Getty) Alderweireld's outspokenness has brought him lots of media attention, which he clearly relishes, and even a book contract. Moi, Dodo la Saumure, published in 2013, details rather entertainingly his progress from provincial delinquent to celebrity brothel impresario via a litany of shady activities across Europe and Africa. His business card still states "Defiscalisation, Patrimoine et Entreprise" (which roughly translates as "tax exemption, legacies, and business") as his professional activity, a throwback to the time when he liquidated failing businesses via convivial leisure-time negotiations with municipal officials, pausing only for luxury hotel breaks paid for via faxes on the letter heading of the companies in question.

The charge that Dodo faces on 2 February is proxénétisme en bande organisée – roughly, conspiracy to live off immoral earnings. His co-defendants are his partner Beatrice Legrain, 11 members of the business and administrative elite of Lille, and, top of the bill, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, fresh from the dismissal of his Sofitel chambermaid rape case in New York. The 14 are accused of organising meetings for sex between groups of men and prostitutes in various parts of France and Belgium.

According to the prosecution, under French law this amounts to facilitating the activity of prostitutes, or pimping. Strauss-Kahn claims he was merely a participant in libertine encounters between consenting adults: his penchant for the échangiste (swingers) clubs still flourishing in France has been an open secret for years now. The Lille magistrates' report, based on a remarkably intensive investigation involving a special task force and months of phone taps, claims the women were professionals, and that Strauss-Kahn, the roi des fêtes, around whose diary the events were allegedly planned, could not possibly have been unaware of this.

The trial is one of the major events of 2015 in France, not only because of its star cast. A block away from the Carlton Hotel, from the Lille offices of the Voix du Nord newspaper, journalist Didier Specq has followed the affair since 2011. Specq's recent book DSK Among the Chtis is the result (Chti is a slang term for northerner). Conspiracy theories, unsurprisingly, lurk among its pages: the original result of the investigation was timed, apparently, to be announced at the height of the Socialist presidential candidacy election, before the unexpected Sofitel scandal broke "too early" and changed the timing. Specq also describes the changing moral background of France. "The French still think of themselves as liberal morally – homosexual marriage, freely available ***** and so on," says Specq, "but actually there's a hardening moral attitude to other things, particularly prostitution."

The Carlton trial fits thus into the pattern of the new clampdown on paid sex in France, where the criminalisation of clients is being mooted and a Socialist Deputy recently claimed that any use of prostitutes is complicity in human trafficking. Not surprisingly, Dodo dismisses the prostitution-equals-trafficking argument as blinkered feminist dogma. But surely there is increasing evidence of women forced violently into the sex trade? "Of course, especially among the Africans and Eastern Europeans," replies Dodo, "but not all prostitutes are, and certainly none in my bars. If they're coerced, it's by economics, but they're free to work or not as they please. The worst I do is buy them croissants on Sunday. And I can assure you I don't have a reputation for reacting slowly if I hear any suggestion of a threat against my girls..." As if to underline this, Dodo lets drop a suggestion that he once killed a man; long ago, légitime défence (self-defence)...

The location of Dodo's empire, in Belgium, is a side effect of recent French policy on prostitution. "The interesting thing about Dodo among the Carlton defendants," says Specq, "is that he symbolises both the geographic and moral distance between France and Belgium. Dodo regards himself as a simple commerçant [trader], which he is under Belgian law, but if he moved 15 kilometres south he'd be a criminal." The area north of Lille is ringed by the bars montants of Belgium, where prostitution is nominally illegal but long tolerated.

By comparison with some stretches of the sex route towards Courtrai and Ghent, Dodo's Tournai mini-chain is almost tasteful. We stop at the 36, also known as the Institut Bea, Dodo's first bar on the respectable-looking, tree-lined Avenue de Maire, then his more garish latest, the Low Cost, a few doors down. I meet Beatrice, or Bea, poised, multilingual and 40-ish, who introduces me to the lady behind the bar, a former supermarket manageress. As we discuss the girls' commission on sales of €200 bottles of champagne, Bea and Dominique argue about staff problems, like a long-married couple getting on each others' nerves. The Low Cost is in semi-darkness at lunchtime. A tiny dancefloor with a miniature pole is empty, as are the half-dozen small bedrooms upstairs. Five girls in mini dresses or negligées, watching television and drinking coffee in a back room, smile politely. Nationalities? Brazilian, Lebanese, Romanian, Spanish, Italian – well, OK, the last two actually Romanian.

The club boasts a photograph of former presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn behind the bar (AFP/Getty) The club boasts a photograph of former presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn behind the bar (AFP/Getty) So how does Dodo come to be a chum of the DSK set? I'm not, he says, but I know a lot of people. His book, and conversation, detail bewilderingly complex allegations about the overlapping networks of poulets (cops), freemasons, lawyers, businessmen and fixers such as his co-defendant Rene Kojfer, whom Dodo describes as an old friend, employed to do PR by the Carlton Hotel. "I used to be the star guest at the Carlton's Beaujolais Nouveau evenings," says Dodo. "Everyone knew what I did. Naturally the subject of girls used to come up." One evening, he claims, Dodo was asked by building industrialist David Roquet, another of the Carlton 14, about finding a girl to take to Paris for the delectation of some acquaintances. See Bea about it, said Dodo, I can't be bothered with arrangements like that. And Bea obliged, enrolling a girl named Jade, he claims.

On the train down from Lille, Roquet proudly revealed one of the acquaintances to be none other than Strauss-Kahn, he says. Who was indeed present, it is claimed, with mobile phone clamped to ear, in the restaurant L'Aventure off the Place de l'Etoile. After first making a pass at Bea, which she deflected – he looked much older than his photos, she comments – the then potential Socialist presidential candidate apparently had his way with Jade, who returned with Bea, allegedly suitably recompensed by Roquet, on the 4.25pm to Lille. Jade, it's believed, will be one of the prosecution witnesses in the trial, along with other girls ready to testify that participants in similar meetings knew that they were prostitutes.

According to the newspaper Liberation, Roquet displayed consistent loyalty to his eminent acquaintance, claiming to have kept from DSK the fact that some of the girls taking part in their meetings were prostitutes " because it was not good form" in libertine circles to admit such things. Kojfer, for his part, commented on local television: "Without DSK there'd be no Carlton Affair at all. Threatened with prison for having known a couple of escort girls? The real pimps must be having a good laugh".

So, might the Carlton trial achieve what the two earlier arrests failed to, and put Dodo out of business? He doesn't think so. "I'm opening two more bars shortly, in the same area. And I have a project for a facility for sex for handicapped people." The Institut Bea's ads for new hostesses are still running, in French, English, Russian, Romanian… And he's looking to other areas for recruitment. Do you know any places to advertise in Leeds, he asks me? I hear the economy's in poor shape up there... it could be good for recruiting girls.

By the end of February, some of the questions raised by the Carlton Affair will be answered, not least whether a lay jury, which the defendants (who deny all charges) have deliberately chosen to risk, as against a potentially less punitive magistrates' trial, will accept a prosecution case regarded by many as extremely fragile, even considering a groundswell of public feeling about DSK getting off the New York rape case.

As for the setting, the puzzle remains unsolved. Why Lille? "It's a mystery," admits Didier Specq." It's almost tempting to think it's because Lille so much isn't the Cote d'Azur, it has to be more welcoming…"

Could this be the answer? Never mind rough sex, what Dominique Strauss-Kahn really hankers after is good old northern hospitality. Maybe Dodo la Saumure is not the only one with his sights set on Leeds.

[Shreeman]

Today I learnt -- PIGS:Portugal Italy Greece Spain.

[sooraj]

Germans in shock as new Greek PM receives Russian ambassador first
http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-ge ... st-2056405

In his first act as prime minister on Monday, Alexis Tsipras visited the war memorial in Kaisariani where 200 Greek resistance fighters were slaughtered by the Nazis in 1944. The move did not go unnoticed in Berlin. Nor did Tsipras's decision hours later to receive the Russian ambassador before meeting any other foreign official.

Then came the announcement that radical academic Yanis Varoufakis, who once likened German austerity policies to "fiscal waterboarding", would be taking over as Greek finance minister. A short while later, Tsipras delivered another blow, criticising an EU statement that warned Moscow of new sanctions.

The assumption in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's entourage before Sunday's Greek election was that Tsipras, the charismatic leader of the far-left Syriza party, would eek out a narrow victory, struggle to form a coalition, and if he managed to do so, shift quickly from confrontation to compromise mode.

Instead, after cruising to victory and clinching a fast-track coalition deal with the right-wing Independent Greeks party, he has signalled in his first days in office that he has no intention of backing down, unsettling officials in Berlin, some of whom admit to shock at the 40-year-old's fiery start.

"No doubt about it, we were surprised by the size of the Syriza victory and the speed with which Tsipras clinched a coalition," said one senior German official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Another said Tsipras's choice of coalition partner and finance minister were "not good signs", while a third admitted to being "stunned" by the Greek leader's first days in office.

Officials close to Merkel say they still believe Tsipras will ultimately change course, dropping his more radical election pledges and signing up to the economic reforms that Berlin and its European partners have insisted on as a condition for handing over more aid that Athens desperately needs by next month to service its debt.

But the past days have sown doubts about this hypothesis.

RADICAL CHANGE

Even as Greek stocks plunged and bond yields soared on Wednesday, Tsipras continued to promise "radical" change. Over the past 24 hours, his government has put two big privatisations, of Piraeus port and Greece's biggest utility, on ice, and his ministers have pledged to raise pensions and rehire fired public sector workers.

In response, German economy minister and deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel criticised Athens on Wednesday in unusually stark terms for halting the privatisations without consulting, and he issued a warning to Tsipras that the euro zone could survive without Greece.

"We no longer have to worry like we did back then," Gabriel said, when asked about contagion if Greece were to exit the single currency bloc.

Marcel Fratzscher, head of the DIW economic institute in Berlin and a former official at the European Central Bank, said Tsipras was playing a "very dangerous game" by coming out with all guns blazing. "If people start to believe that he is really serious, you could have massive capital flight and a bank run," Fratzscher said. "You are quickly at a point where a euro exit becomes more possible."

Officials point to a Brussels summit of European Union leaders on February 12-13 as a first key test of Tsipras.

RUSSIA THREAT

The other major area of concern for Germany is a new Greek government's stance on Russia.

Tsipras's meeting on Monday with the Russian ambassador, who handed over a personal letter of congratulations from Vladimir Putin, and the new Greek leader's howls of protest at the EU statement on Ukraine, have raised questions about whether the bloc's fragile consensus towards Moscow can hold.

Even before Tsipras took power, officials in Berlin were worried about keeping countries like Italy on board for Russia sanctions, which must be renewed in mid-2015.

Now the fear is that Tsipras, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and sceptical eastern European countries like Slovakia and Hungary, could band together against an extension, and a ratcheting up of sanctions in response to a new advance by pro-Russian rebels on the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol.

Prying Tsipras away from his European partners on the Ukraine issue would be a coup for Putin. Some officials fear the Russian president could go so far as to offer Greece the financial support it needs to meet its debt obligations as a carrot.

One senior German official described Tsipras as part of a brash new generation of European leaders, including Italy's Renzi, who weren't afraid to stand up to Merkel and challenge the assumptions that have shaped policy in the euro zone and Ukraine crises in recent years. "He doesn't come from the establishment, he's unvarnished, confident and capable of rallying the public behind his course," the official said. "It clearly not going to be easy with him."

No one can say the signs weren't there in the run-up to the election.

Only days before the vote, Tsipras declared in a campaign speech in Athens: "We will never go as beggars on our knees to Merkel, we will go standing tall as Greeks do."

In the background loudspeakers blared lyrics from the Leonard Cohen song "First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin".

[Philip]

70 years ago,Auschwitz was liberated by Russian troops! However,the shameless Polish govt. never even invited pres.Putin to the solemn functions held on the anniversary .Poland,and other EU nations,led by the US now actively support neo-Nazis in the Ukraine and shed crocodile tears at Auschwitz!

The Greekls have thumbed their noses at the Brussels bandits,whose profligacy has brought the EU and the Euroe on the brink of collapse.Italy,Spain,Portugal,Greece and even France too to an extent are in dire eco. straits. The Germans cannot carry the eco woes of the entire EU on their backs and with world economies contracting thanks to the asinine attempt to bankrupt Russia by oversupply of oil,the oil sword is proving to be double-edged drawing blood from the hands of its European "knights" in their rusty armour.

It is going to be fun to watch how further sanctions are going to be imposed upon Russia with govts like Greece and Italy averse to them.

[Philip]

The new Greek broom sweeps clean!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/j ... y-policies

Greece’s new young radicals sweep away age of austerity
From minimum wage to prescriptions, Alexis Tsipras is making good his promises to voters in startling fashion

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras chairs his first cabinet meeting – but already the austerity policies of the previous government have been rolled back. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Helena Smith in Athens
Wednesday 28 January 2015 20.56 GMT

One by one they were rolled back, blitzkrieg-style, mercilessly, ruthlessly, with rat-a-tat efficiency. First the barricades came down outside the Greek parliament. Then it was announced that privatisation schemes would be halted and pensions reinstated. And then came the news of the reintroduction of the €751 monthly minimum wage. And all before Greece’s new prime minister, the radical leftwinger Alexis Tsipras, had got his first cabinet meeting under way.

After that, ministers announced more measures: the scrapping of fees for prescriptions and hospital visits, the restoration of collective work agreements, the rehiring of workers laid off in the public sector, the granting of citizenship to migrant children born and raised in Greece. On his first day in office – barely 48 hours after storming to power – Tsipras got to work. The biting austerity his Syriza party had fought so long to annul now belonged to the past, and this was the beginning not of a new chapter but a book for the country long on the frontline of the euro crisis.

Alexis Tsipras, accompanied by members of his government, poses for a group picture outside the parliament in central Athens. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

“A new era has begun, a government of national salvation has arrived,” he declared as cameras rolled and the cabinet session began. “We will continue with our plan. We don’t have the right to disappoint our voters.”

If Athens’s troika of creditors at the EU, ECB and IMF were in any doubt that Syriza meant business it was crushingly dispelled on Wednesday . With lightning speed, Europe’s first hard-left government moved to dismantle the punishing policies Athens has been forced to enact in return for emergency aid.

Measures that had pushed Greeks on to the streets – and pushed the country into its worst slump on record – were consigned to the dustbin of history, just as the leftists had promised. But the reaction was swift and sharp. Within minutes of the new energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, announcing that plans to sell the public power corporation would be put on hold, Greek bank stocks tumbled. Many lost more than a third of their value, with brokers saying they had suffered their worst day ever. While yields on Greek bonds rose, the Athens stock market plunged. By closing time it had shed over 9%, hitting levels not seen since September 2012 and losing any gains it had clawed back since Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank chief, vowed to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro.


‘Hope begins today’: the inside story of Syriza’s rise to power

By nightfall there was another blow as Standard & Poor’s revised its Greek sovereign rating outlook, taking the first step towards a formal downgrade. The agency warned that a bank run might also be in the offing, noting that “accelerated deposit withdrawals from Greek banks had created “a credit concern”.

Perhaps prepared for the onslaught, Tsipras had also acted. On Tuesday, he met the Chinese ambassador to Athens to insist that while Syriza and its junior partner, the populist rightwing Independent Greeks party, would also be cancelling plans to privatise Piraeus port authority, the government wanted good relations with Beijing. China’s Cosco group, which already controls several docks in Piraeus, had been among four suitors bidding for the port.

On Tuesday, Greece’s anti-austerity finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, held late-night talks with his French counterpart, again to placate and reassure. “Our priority is to conduct new negotiations with our partners with the aim of reaching a fair, viable and mutually beneficial solution,” insisted Tsipras, at 40 the country’s youngest postwar leader, “so that the country exits the vicious circle of excessive debt and recession.” As he was handed the reins of the finance ministry, by Gikas Hardouvelis, his predecessor, Varoufakis, 53, an academic who has taught economics in Athens, Britain, America and Australia, repeated that message. The new government’s aim was not to spar with its partners but to create a “new relationship of friendship and sincerity”.

There is no denying Athens’s young revolutionaries have hit the ground running – and hit it with a thunderous thud. In some ways no one represents this better than the iconoclastic Varoufakis, whose investiture should go down as a textbook case of what happens when radicals come into town.
Yanis Varoufakis: maverick economist with Greece’s fate in his hand

If Hardouvelis, had had his way the handover would have been uneventful, if a little lachrymose. “I sincerely wish the new government well,” he said, eyes firmly fixed ahead. “Greece doesn’t have the luxury of waiting until June to conclude [negotiations] with our partners. There are debt repayments that have to be made.”

And then it was Varoufakis’s turn and he was off, rocking and rolling his way through Hardouvelis’s script, demolishing the philosophy of a government that had, he said, thrown the country into a self-perpetuating economic death spiral and all because of a mistake “a huge toxic mistake made in this very building”. There was no looking back and as Hardouvelis nervously looked on – at times relieved, at times alarmed – it was quite clear that there was no stepping back either. Greece sincerely had no intention of clashing with its partners, Varoufakis insisted, but the logic of austerity was such that policies conducted in its embrace could only fail.

“We will rehire the cleaners who were fired from this building,” he said, all guns blazing, as he promised to reinstate the women who have become the face of austerity’s injustice. “And then we will seek a pan-European new deal to reboot [our] economies.”

EU troubleshooters fly into Athens for a showdown with the new "outlaw" who's taken control,Tsipras the red!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... .html[b]EU officials fly in as Greeks start cancelling austerity policies [/b]

Cabinet decides to rehire workers, raise minimum wage and halt privatisations
Nathalie Savaricas Athens.

Less than 36 hours after being sworn in as Greece’s Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras and his cabinet got down to business today, spooking markets and raising eyebrows across Europe by cancelling bailout policies.

The answer to how Mr Tsipras plans to avoid a confrontation with Europe as he starts shunning the country’s austerity commitments could come quickly, as high-profile European officials are expected in Athens in the coming days. Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament, is scheduled to hold talks in Athens today ahead of the Eurogroup chief, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, tomorrow. Mr Tsipras said the talks would be “useful and productive”. Greece faces potential bankruptcy in March unless it comes to an agreement with its creditors soon.

Mr Tsipras’s cabinet decided it would rehire “unconstitutionally” dismissed workers, restore the minimum wage to €750 (£560) a month and halt privatisations, including the port of Piraeus.

The news was received badly in financial circles. Shares in Greece’s banking sector have fallen more than 40 per cent since Sunday’s election. Piraeus Bank plunged 29 per cent, while its other three big lenders – National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank and Eurobank – also saw their market value fall by more than a quarter as economists estimated up to €8bn of deposits have been withdrawn. The Athens Stock Exchange lost around 9 per cent.

Mr Tsipras said his government had four priorities: dealing with the humanitarian crisis by offering food and electricity to the poor, restarting the economy by supporting businesses, renegotiating with the creditors by offering investment and reform proposals, and stamping out corruption.

“Our priority is a new negotiation with our partners, seeking to reach a fair, viable and mutually beneficial solution so the country exits the vicious circle of excessive debt and recession,” Mr Tsipras said.

The incoming Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said the new government would turn the page on the “toxic mistakes” of the bailout agreement while he called for a “pan-European new deal” to jump-start the bloc’s economies. “The problem isn’t that Germany, Italy, and the poorer-than-us Slovakia didn’t give enough money to Greece. They gave us more than was needed and it was all thrown into a black hole,” the 53-year old economics professor said.

Mr Varoufakis remained optimistic he would find common ground in his negotiations. But Mr Dijsselbloem cautioned “deliberations with the EU won’t be easy”.

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, urged the eurozone to make a “bold” move towards shared tax and spending arrangements. He accused it of being timid in reforms needed to drag it out of stagnation and urged it to embrace “mechanisms to share fiscal sovereignty”.

[Philip]

http://rt.com/news/228031-greece-troika ... s-bailout/
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis looks on before a common press conference with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the euro zone finance ministers' group (not pictured) at the ministry in Athens, January 30, 2015 (Reuters / Kostas Tsironis)

The new left-wing Greek government has said that it will not cooperate with the ‘troika’ of international lenders, and does not plan to seek an extension for its aid package which is set to expire at the end of February.

Without the aid, Greek banks could face being shut off from European Central Bank funding.

READ MORE: Russia might bailout Greece – finance minister

Rejecting cooperation with the troika from the EU and IMF, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said he would rather negotiate the debt in direct talks with eurozone leaders.

“This position enabled us to win the trust of the Greek people,” Varoufakis said Friday during a joint press conference with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the eurozone finance ministers’ group.

“Our first action as a government will not be to reject the rationale of questioning this program through a request to extend it,” Varoufakis said. “We respect institutions but we don’t plan to cooperate with that committee.”

The meeting between Varoufakis and Dijsselbloem is to lay the groundwork for visits by newly-elected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the finance minister to London, Paris, and Rome next week. The new Greek leadership has voiced its intention to attempt to loosen the terms of the massive €240 billion (US$271 billion) bailout.

The new government has fueled panic among creditors and investors by promising to freeze privatizations and re-hire state workers, in addition to rolling back other reforms that were mandated by the bailout.

Varoufakis said he had told Dijsselbloem that although Athens plans to make the economy more competitive and balance its budgets, the country refuses to accept deflation and non-viable debt.

Dijsselbloem, meanwhile, warned Greece against taking unilateral measures and cautioned the new finance minister against rolling back progress.

Germany, Greece’s biggest lender, has said it will not consider writing off the country’s debt. Berlin expects Greece to implement structural reform in exchange for support.

[eklavya]

70 years ago,Auschwitz was liberated by Russian troops! However,the shameless Polish govt. never even invited pres.Putin to the solemn functions held on the anniversary .Poland,and other EU nations,led by the US now actively support neo-Nazis in the Ukraine and shed crocodile tears at Auschwitz!

You ought to know perfectly well about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the Katyn massacre, and you call the Poles "shameless", the crown in this regard is surely all yours.

[vishvak]

Since when have anyone blamed Russia for what Germans SS squads did in Auschwitz? I am not sure if Russians will now be blamed also for rat lines to Argentina etc - going by the same logic - wherein the perpetrators set up routes to ran away once Allied power gain advantage.
From wiki: link

Since Poland's conscription system required every nonexempt university graduate to become a military reserve officer,[13] the NKVD was able to round up a significant portion of the Polish educated class.[f]
..
According to Tadeusz Piotrowski, "during the war and after 1944, 570,387 Polish citizens had been subjected to some form of Soviet political repression"

So now if Russians arrested conscripted officers, is that huge misadventure? In fact the total death toll in Katyn Massacre is about 22,000 - all part of army or reserves who were caught, and Russian state did a lot of work arresting/transferring/releasing the arrested soldiers. Unlike working civilians to death, this is much different actually. Not that I support it, but can't see it in the same light.

[Shanmukh]

70 years ago,Auschwitz was liberated by Russian troops! However,the shameless Polish govt. never even invited pres.Putin to the solemn functions held on the anniversary .Poland,and other EU nations,led by the US now actively support neo-Nazis in the Ukraine and shed crocodile tears at Auschwitz!

You ought to know perfectly well about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the Katyn massacre, and you call the Poles "shameless", the crown in this regard is surely all yours.

What? Poland didn't need anyone's encouragement to butcher Jews. See the Jedwabne massacre (when Poles aided Nazis to butcher Jews) or the Kielce pogrom after the war. Have you ever wondered why the holocaust was so thorough in Poland, Romania, Ukraine and the Baltic states, but nowhere as close in other parts of Europe? Even today, when all Jews are long gone from Poland, antisemitism is frighteningly high. How long did it take the last half million Jews in Poland to be reduced to a tenth of its size after the war? And what happened to the last 68K Jews of Poland?

[eklavya]

^^^^^
What has Polish anti-semitism got to do with whether the Poles invite Russia to the Auschwitz event?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_ ... _in_Poland

At the start of World War II, Poland was partitioned between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (see Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact). The war resulted in the death of one-fifth of the Polish population, with 90% or about 3 million of Polish Jewry killed along with approximately 3 million Polish non-Jews.[14] Although the Holocaust occurred largely in German-occupied Poland, there was little collaboration with the Nazis by its citizens. Collaboration by individual Poles has been described as smaller than in other occupied countries.[15][16] Statistics of the Israeli War Crimes Commission indicate that less than 0.1% of Polish gentiles collaborated with the Nazis.[17] Examples of Polish gentile attitudes to German atrocities varied widely, from actively risking death in order to save Jewish lives,[18] and passive refusal to inform on them; to indifference, blackmail,[19] and in extreme cases, participation in pogroms such as the Jedwabne pogrom. Grouped by nationality, Poles represent the largest number of people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.[20][21]

[Shanmukh]

^^^^^
What has Polish anti-semitism got to do with whether the Poles invite Russia to the Auschwitz event?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_ ... _in_Poland

At the start of World War II, Poland was partitioned between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (see Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact). The war resulted in the death of one-fifth of the Polish population, with 90% or about 3 million of Polish Jewry killed along with approximately 3 million Polish non-Jews.[14] Although the Holocaust occurred largely in German-occupied Poland, there was little collaboration with the Nazis by its citizens. Collaboration by individual Poles has been described as smaller than in other occupied countries.[15][16] Statistics of the Israeli War Crimes Commission indicate that less than 0.1% of Polish gentiles collaborated with the Nazis.[17] Examples of Polish gentile attitudes to German atrocities varied widely, from actively risking death in order to save Jewish lives,[18] and passive refusal to inform on them; to indifference, blackmail,[19] and in extreme cases, participation in pogroms such as the Jedwabne pogrom. Grouped by nationality, Poles represent the largest number of people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.[20][21]

Ahh - quoting Wiki as a source, are we? Please to take a look at `Destruction of the European Jews' by Raul Hilberg, who has quoted, chapter & verse, the Polish participation in the Holocaust. Also, please take a look at this thesis, which has again detailed how the Jews were wiped out systematically, with Polish indifference or connivance.

http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewconte ... ontext=etd

And the comment about Polish rescuing Jews is hilarious. Poles had 4 times the number of Jews in any country in Europe (except USSR). Of course more escaped from there, despite 90% dying in the holocaust. And it was not because of Polish help.

As for Auschwitz, the death camp was liberated by Soviets. So they should have been invited.

[eklavya]

This link would support nagesh's contention regarding Polish anti-semitism:

http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data. ... dia&ke=107

Although, the Poles were anti-semitic, they were also victims of Soviet aggression before, during and after WWII. The Soviets occupied Poland, they did not liberate it. As such, I find it perfectly understandable why the Russians were excluded from the Auschwitz event.

Plus, the Russian record of anti-semitism is also quite poor.

[Shanmukh]

If you find the wiki entry misleading or erroneous, why don't you amend it? Nothing you have said refutes anything in the wiki entry.

I don't consider the Wiki a source for anything, consequently, it doesn't occur to me to change or otherwise modify it. Since you want actual evidence, I am quoting all this from the thesis I linked in my previous post. My comments are in brackets.

One survivor, after witnessing the murder of a Jewish man (by Polish thugs) in the streets of Izbica, noted the response of local teenage Polish girls: “A couple of Polish girls I knew peered through the window. They laughed and joked about the grotesque position of the murdered Jew, Lipsz. A few minutes later they left, still giggling. (from Salton, ``Psalm 23: A Holocaust Memoir'' - does this remind you of something in our neighbourhood?)

The (Polish) farmer committed further crimes against the Jews. After a failed attempt to barricade the door of the Jews‟ underground shelter in an attempt to suffocate them, the Polish farmer took further action: “Suddenly a flash of light and the crack of a gun. This shooting killed one of the Jews, and in short order, a second Jew begging for his life was shot and wounded. The author of the story survived by faking death to which the Polish men‟s reply of: “Let‟s not waste a bullet; he‟s already stiff,” exhibited their intention to kill the Jews. (Blatt, ``From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival''

An even more disturbing example was a Polish farmer near Sarnaki, who had nine Jews on his property. While simultaneously receiving money for their safe keeping, he also plotted to kill them. His technique differed from previous examples: “His method was to pour boiling water into the burrow, and to wait near its opening with a pickaxe, to make sure that anyone who tried to get out would be chopped down.” In this way, the farmer killed eight of the Jews. The one who escaped was so badly burned that he turned himself over to the Nazis soon thereafter. (Gutman & Krakowski, ``Unequal Victims: Poles and Jews During World War Two'',

evidence suggests that some of the perpetration of the Holocaust was carried out by the Polish police force. “The Polish Police conducted the extermination „action‟ against the Jews in October 1942...the uniformed police maltreated captured Jews terribly. (Ringelblum, ``Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second World War''

Plenty more in the thesis I linked to you. Should give you an idea of the deep & abiding hatred for the Jews in Poland & how the Poles & Nazis often collaborated when it came to Jews. Even the Armia Krajowa committed tons of atrocities on Jews.

The Poles were victims of Soviet aggression before, during and after WWII. The Soviets occupied Poland, they did not liberate it.

The question is not whether Soviets liberated Poland; the question is whether they liberated the Jews (and other inmates) of Auschwitz. The answer to that is - yes, they liberated the inmates of Auschwitz, who would have otherwise died at the hands of the Nazis.

Plus, the Russian record of anti-semitism is also quite poor.

Totally irrelevant.

[eklavya]

^^^^^
If Russian anti-semitism is irrelevant to whether Russia should be invited to the Auschwitz event, why is Polish anti-semitism relevant? Your stance is incoherent.

The Soviets were no liberators of Poland, they were occupiers, and their victims owe them nothing.

Here is one perspective:

http://www.ihr.org/other/july09weber.html

As Soviet troops advanced into central and eastern Europe during the war’s final months, they imposed a reign of terror, pillage and killing without compare in modern history. The horrors were summarized by George F. Kennan, the acclaimed historian who also served as US ambassador to the Soviet Union. He wrote: / 4

“The disaster that befell this area with the entry of the Soviet forces has no parallel in modern European experience. There were considerable sections of it where, to judge by all existing evidence, scarcely a man, woman or child of the indigenous population was left alive after the initial passage of Soviet forces; and one cannot believe that they all succeeded in fleeing to the West … The Russians … swept the native population clean in a manner that had no parallel since the days of the Asiatic hordes.”

In a report that appeared in August 1945 in the Washington DC Times-Herald, / 6 an American journalist wrote of what he described as “the state of terror in which women in Russian-occupied eastern Germany were living. All these women, Germans, Polish, Jewish and even Russian girls 'freed’ from Nazi slave camps, were dominated by one desperate desire -- to escape from the Red zone “

“In the district around our internment camp … Red soldiers during the first weeks of their occupation raped every women and girl between the ages of 12 and 60. That sounds exaggerated, but it is the simple truth. The only exceptions were girls who managed to remain in hiding in the woods or who had the presence of mind to feign illness - typhoid, dyptheria or some other infectious disease … Husbands and fathers who attempted to protect their women folk were shot down, and girls offering extreme resistance were murdered."

[Karan M]

The East Europeans continue to have a strong streak of anti semitism in them. They have carried over that dislike to Israel. A lot of the pro Palestine and anti Israel stuff comes from them.

[eklavya]

^^^^^
Karan, there is hardly a country in Europe where anti-semitism was not a problem. The Roman Catholic church had a particular role to play in it as well. The Poles, as you know, are quite devout RC.

[Shanmukh]

^^^^^
If Russian anti-semitism is irrelevant to whether Russia should be invited to the Auschwitz event, why is Polish anti-semitism relevant? Your stance is incoherent.

Russians liberated Auschwitz inmates, most of whom were Jews and most of whom would have died without the Russian liberators. No matter what Russia did to Poland in general, for the inmates of Auschwitz, the Russians were liberators. So they should be invited. Polish antisemites (including the Armia Krajowa (Polish defence forces)) were often responsible for putting in those Jews in Auschwitz. It is the height of irony that Poles, that often helped put the Jews in Auschwitz, should be celebrating the `liberation of the Jews' without the actual liberators of those Jews. Hopefully that is clear.

@Karan
The Polish were sheltering even the Munich Massacre `heroes' in the 70s & 80s. One of the Munich butchers was shot in Warsaw by Israeli assassins.

[eklavya]

^^^^^
The Soviets killed 150,000 Poles. The Poles did the right thing in leaving them out.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wa ... _of_Poland

Most Polish citizens who perished in the war were civilian victims of the war crimes and crimes against humanity during the occupation by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) estimates total deaths under the German occupation at 5,470,000 to 5.670,000 Jews and Poles,[7] 2,770,000 Poles,[8] 2.7 to 2.9 million Jews [9] According to IPN research there were also 150,000 victims of Soviet repression.[10]

[Shanmukh]

^^^^^
The Soviets killed 150,000 Poles. The Poles did the right thing in leaving them out.

You seem to have a very selective memory. The Ukraineans (whose president was the guest of honour at the Holocaust Memorial Day) killed 100,000 Poles in Volhynia & Galicia in the second world war (see the history of the Ukrainean Insurgent Army - the predecessor of the current Right Sector scum) under the tutelage of the Nazis. The Germans killed 2.5 million Poles in WW2. They are all to be invited, even feted as guests of honour. But Russia killing 150,000 Poles is to be remembered at Auschwitz liberation, which has nothing to do with Russo-Polish politics?

By the way, the Poles have killed just as many Russians, as & when occasion offered. See the history of False (Lze) Demetrius & Boris Godunov - the Poles tried to extinguish the Muscovite Orthodox Patriarchate using an impostor, & perpetrated tons of atrocities. Polish-Russian atrocities are not one-sided.

[RSoami]

Poroshenko is guest of honour and Putin is not invited.
And then Ukrainians went around giving laughable reasons for it too.
The Polish foreign minister went around claiming that it was Ukrainians who liberated Auschwitz.

http://www.rferl.org/content/auschwitz- ... 10197.html

Since Auschwitz lies in Poland, its their business who they want to invite or not but giving ridiculous reasons to invite Poroshenko and not invite Putin didnt help their case.
If Russians murdered Poles, then so did the Ukrainians.Didnt they ?!

[KrishnaK]

Deleting post

[Shanmukh]

If Russians murdered Poles, then so did the Ukrainians.Didnt they ?!

Ukraineans murdered Poles, first under Nazi tutelage, and then under Soviet tutelage. Part of me is hoping that Novorossiya & Malorossiya reunite with Russia & while the rump Ukraine (really old Galicia & Volhynia) are forced to reunite with Poland. Poles & Ukraineans deserve each other.

On a funny note, some of my Ukrainean students' siblings (from western Ukraine, even more amusingly) are hiding out here, dodging the draft which Mr. Chocolate has instituted.

[RSoami]

Since the Lithuanian-Polish commonwealth tried to expand eastward and murdered Russians, Soviets were justified in invading Poland and murdering Poles.
Wait, I have more, Since the Teutonic Knights fought against the Russians, they are justified in invading and partitioning poland.

Do ool julool arguments have a limit?!

Poroshenko is the guest of honour and Putin is not invited is pure stupidity. Having said that, the Poles are known for acting stupid in the past too. Since joining NAtO they have been exremely hostile to Russia. The only country to have used a veto in EU to block Russia EU trade talks.
The Polish leadership is known to be eccentric and stupid. They had poor relationship with Germany too till 2006. This relationship has improved in the last 5 years. No wonder they were partitioned three times.

[KrishnaK]

Russians liberated Auschwitz inmates, most of whom were Jews and most of whom would have died without the Russian liberators. No matter what Russia did to Poland in general, for the inmates of Auschwitz, the Russians were liberators. So they should be invited.

I guess one could be forgiven for thinking that it was Poland's prerogative to do so.

[eklavya]

^^^^
The killing of the 150,000 Poles and countless other E European and German civilians by the occupying Soviets is certainly not to be forgotten. The Auschwitz event is a perfectly good time to remember it.

You are right about the Ukrainians. It appears that the Western part of Ukraine saw the Germans as liberators and the Soviets as occupiers:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/0 ... 88865.html

Each year, competing rallies commemorating World War II are held throughout Ukraine, sometimes resulting in brawls. Much of the Russian-speaking east of the country celebrates the Red Army's victory over Nazi invaders, while in the Ukrainian-speaking west, where most of the anti-Soviet insurgents fought, monuments have been erected and streets have been named in their honor. Veterans receive government benefits, no matter which side they fought on during the war.

Politicians are also deeply divided on the subject. Former President Viktor Yushchenko, who steered Ukraine toward the West after leading the 2004 Orange Revolution, campaigned to have the nationalist insurgents honored as heroes, even though leading Western historians say many of their units had a hand in massacring civilians, including Jews and Poles. And the radical nationalist party Svoboda – a vocal force in parliament whose leaders have been accused of anti-Semitic and racist remarks – extolls those fighters.

The Party of Regions led by President Viktor Yanukovych, who is seen as more Russia-friendly, has campaigned against treating the men as heroes. But the party has exploited the anti-fascist cause to its advantage. In May, it organized a large rally in Kiev to protest fascism and call for tolerance – but after the event ended, pro-government activists clashed with opposition protesters and beat up two journalists trying to film the brawl.

Post-Soviet Ukraine has failed to investigate, prosecute or bring to trial a single Nazi war criminal, according to Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi hunter with the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The same is true of other post-Communist countries with a record of Nazi collaboration such as Latvia, Estonia and Belarus. Pressed by the West, Lithuania put three Nazi criminals on trial, but waited until they were too old or unfit to be punished. In all of these countries, experts say, suspected Nazi collaborators were protected because of their role fighting the Soviets, considered by much of the population as the greater enemy.

[RSoami]

Of course its Poland`s prerogative to invite whoever it wants. Thats only because Auschwitz happens to land in Poland. Dont know of any poles liberating it though. They certainly hunted the jews very well.

It was the prerogative of Chamberlain to sign Munich pact or not. We should not talk about it.

We are only laughing at the decision of Poland to invite Poroshenko and not invite Putin.
The Poland elite is too big for their shoes. Has always been. They are like Paki jernails. They are acting amusing since they joined NATO and EU.

[RSoami]

The killing of the 150,000 Poles and countless other E European and German civilians by the occupying Soviets is certainly not to be forgotten.

I am sure not a single civilian was killed in the Dresden bombing by the anglo-americans. Certainly not anywhere else. They killed only and only Nazis. And they didnt occupy anything anywhere either. Never have. They deserve to be invited to Auschwitz.

[eklavya]

^^^^
Article 5 of NATO treaty does give the Russians a lot of khujli, especially when the Poles show them the finger.

[eklavya]

The killing of the 150,000 Poles and countless other E European and German civilians by the occupying Soviets is certainly not to be forgotten.

I am sure not a single civilian was killed in the Dresden bombing by the anglo-americans. Certainly not anywhere else. They killed only and only Nazis. And they didnt occupy anything anywhere either. Never have. They deserve to be invited to Auschwitz.

Nice equal=equal sir.

[Shanmukh]

They certainly hunted the jews very well.

All six Nazi extermination camps (Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Maidanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka) were in Poland. There were concentration camps elsewhere, where lakhs of Jews died, but all extermination camps were in Poland. Wonder why?

[eklavya]

^^^^
Sir, I think you are insinuating that it was the fault of the Poles. If so, please say so and justify your answer with some good sources.

[RSoami]

Article 5 of NATO treaty does give the Russians a lot of khujli, especially when the Poles show them the finger.

As it should. Isnt it why they are opposing the entry of other countries in NATO.
The placing of missiles in Cuba gave a lot of Khujli to US. As it should have.

Another equal=equal for you.

Poles are justified in not inviting the Russian President but inviting the Ukrainian President because soviets killed 1,50,000 poles according to you. And this Ukrainian president is using right wing militia to project force in eastern Ukraine. And you think the poles are acting appropriate.
Hmmmm. You win. I give up.

[RSoami]

Sir, I think you are insinuating that it was the fault of the Poles. If so, please say so and justify your answer with some good sources.

IMHO, all over eastern Europe, there were collaborators who willingly helped the Nazis hunt jews. In Lithuania, western Ukraine and Poland. The guilt is all German though. The same way as occupation was all soviet.
What is most amusing is that its the western Ukrainian elected Poroshenko, Polish PM, German Chancellor who were at Auschwitz. Russian President is missing.
Even more surprising is the hostile line they take today towards Russia and the soft line towards neo Nazis. Lithuania and Poland are most anti-russian in EU. Western ukraine provides the men for the neo-Nazi voluntary battalions fighting in Ukraine today. Auschwitz memorial ceremony looks like a very poor joke indeed.

[eklavya]

Looks like Ukraine is heading for Partition. Stupid move by Putin really. In a united Ukraine, he would have retained a degree of influence. The portioned off W Ukraine will forever be a thorn in his side.

[RSoami]

Lesson to be learnt.
You should wipe/push out a suspect ethnic/religious population from a region if you truly want to annex it. Like red indians in America or aboriginals in Australia.
If you dont it might cause problems 100 years down the line.

BTW, the portioned off west Ukraine will be a thorn in EU`s side too.