Kammenos heads to USA after controversy

Senator blocked annual Independence Day resolution over minister’s comment

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos heads to New York this weekend for Greek Independence Day celebrations after finding himself at the center of a controversy that led to the US Congress failing to pass a resolution commemorating the start of Greece’s revolt against Ottoman rulers for the first time in 30 years.

The Senate had passed the mostly ceremonial resolution for 29 years in a row before this year, when the Republican senator for Indiana, Dan Coats, blocked the process. Coats said he objected to quotes made by Kammenos, who threatened to allow irregular migrants to travel to other European countries if Greece’s lenders punish the country.

“If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and it will be even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadists of the Islamic State too,” said Kammenos.

According to reports, Coats demanded an official statement from Greece that Kammenos’s statement did not constitute official government policy. Greece’s ambassador in Washington, Christos Panagopoulos, tried to speak to the senator but was unable to.

“The ambassador repeatedly tried to communicate with him but Mr Coats was not available,” said the embassy’s press officer, Christos Failidis.

After his visit to New York this weekend, Kammenos is due to return to the USA on May 21 for a meeting with Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter.