Socialist history professor Antonis Laikos published a message of support to the Call for Peace and a Democratic Society issued by Abdullah Öcalan last 27 February.
Professor Laikos drew attention to the bloody conflicts that have continued for the past two centuries in the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Middle East. He wrote: “The ancient cradles of civilization today resemble lands of barbarity. Seen from afar, this picture appears as though it were a conflict between the children of Sarah and Hagar: peoples who, for centuries, shared the same cities and villages, drank from the same rivers, and traded in the same markets… Colonialism combined with nation-state building displaced these communities, leading to ethnic cleansings and genocides. So how can people live together in peace by recognizing each other’s dignity and rights? The path lies hidden in three words: ‘mutual respect,’ ‘reconciliation,’ and ‘coexistence.’ These principles and values apply both to Turks and Greeks, as well as to Turks and Kurds. That is why I stand with the forces who defend these three principles in Turkish, Kurdish, and Greek.”
Antonis Laikos
Born in 1947, Antonis Laikos is a retired history professor from the University of Athens. In 1969, while a student at Thessaloniki University, he was arrested by the Colonels’ Junta and released in 1973.
In his work “How Those Who Wanted to Change the World Imagined the Nation”, Laikos critically examined socialist approaches to the national question. He also served for a period on Syriza’s executive board, and is a member of the editorial board of Historein journal and of the European Science Foundation Network of National Histories in Europe (NHIST).
