Former Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis called for American and European intervention against the Islamic State during a lecture at DEREE- The American College of Greece Thursday, speaking of a “humanitarian catastrophe unseen since World War Two.”
In her lecture “Developments in the Middle East and the Persecution of Christians” Bakoyannis spoke of a mass exodus of Christians and other minorities, and of millions of people who have been killed, displaced or otherwise persecuted.
“There is a dire situation and people are in desperate need of western support. Unfortunately, western leaders remain reluctant, so soon after being burned in 2003, with the Iraq War,” she claimed in the lecture organized by ACG’s Institute of Diplomacy & Global Affairs and DEREE-ACG’s School of Business.
Andreas Andrianopoulos, the director of the Institute and a former minister of trade, welcomed Bakoyannis on campus, briefly outlining her prolific career spanning her roles as mayor of Athens, foreign minister and culture minister, and thanked her after the lecture for a very informative session.
Bakoyannis, a conservative MP and chairperson of the Committee of Political Affairs and Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said during her lecture at the John S. Bailey Library Upper Level that a host of recommendations on the situation by her committee have been widely adopted by the Council of Europe.
“It is time for the international community to stop this tragedy. But, this tragedy cannot be stopped if every country just follows its own public opinion and doesn’t recognize that it’s just a matter of time before ISIS will be at our front door,” Ms Bakoyannis concluded.
Serving as Greece’s first female minister of foreign affairs from 2006-2009, Bakoyannis was also the first woman to be elected mayor of Athens in 2002, getting the capital ready for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.