Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos stated the following in response to a journalist’s question regarding the incidents at the football match between Serbia and Albania:
“Sporting events must be events of friendship, cooperation and peaceful coexistence among peoples and nations.
It is wrong for anyone to reverse the function of sporting events.
In the Balkans, we have had many unpleasant historical experiences, and I am certain that the governments of both of these two neighbouring and friendly countries, Albania and Serbia, not only disapprove of these incidents, but will also seize this opportunity, through statements and actions, to impart a strong sense of regional stability, of respect for the existing borders, and of the common European perspective of all the countries of the region.”
October 15, 2014