The mayor-elect of Thessaloniki announced on Friday his plans to build a monument to the movement headed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Yiannis Boutaris is the city’s first Socialist backed mayor in 24 years. Boutaris intends to build the monument on a square associated with the young Turks; the movement that created the Turkish Republic in the early 20th century.
“Freedom Square took its name from Kemal Atatürk; this is where the Young Turk revolution began,” Boutaris told daily Eleftherotypia.
“You can’t deny history, these people lived here,” Boutaris said. He added that he also wants to build a memorial to the city’s Jewish martyrs on the square. Most of Thessaloniki’s Jewish residents of about 50,000 people were removed to concentration camps. They perished when Greece was conquered by Nazi Germany in World War II.
“We would like Turks and Jews to come to the city in a pilgrimage to their family heritage, in the same way as we go to Constantinople,” said Boutaris. Boutaris used the Greek name Constantinople for Istanbul, the former capital of the Byzantine Empire.
A 68-year-old wine producer and ecologist, Boutaris will formally assume his duties January 1st after his election this month.
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