Strong was Athens’ response to today’s post by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on the anniversary of the fall of Tripolitsa, with diplomatic sources speaking of a “systematic distortion and instrumentalization of History”.
Ankara, in its post on social media, referred to the 205th anniversary of the “Massacre of Tripolitsa”, claiming that the Muslim Turkish population of the Morea suffered systematic massacres from 1821 to 1830 and that there was a “deliberate campaign of destruction and desolation”.
Responding, diplomatic sources note that “the systematic distortion and instrumentalization of History and the selective invocation of historical memory do not alter the historical facts”, arguing that this is precisely the practice served by today’s Turkish post.
“Such statements, which are contrary to recorded historical facts, do not contribute to the shaping of a climate of trust, mutual understanding and substantive dialogue, nor are they consistent with the approach required by relations of good neighborliness”, they state.
The same sources underline that historical memory cannot be turned into a tool of foreign policy. “History is not subject to a statute of limitations, is not falsified, and is not erased by posts on social media”, they note, adding pointedly that “it has the annoying characteristic of surviving propaganda”.