On Saturday 14 October, the General Secretary of the Ministry of National Defence, Antonis Ikonomou, representing the Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias, attended the Commemoration Events for the 80th Anniversary of the Massacre of approximately 8,000 Italian prisoners of war of the Acqui Division by the German Occupation Troops in Cephalonia.
Mr. Ikonomou welcomed the Italian delegation under the Italian Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto. The events were also attended by the Commanding General of the Technical Corps Training Centre, Brigadier General Evangelos Tountas, representing the Hellenic Armed Forces, the Chief of the Defence Staff of Italy, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the Ambassador of Italy to Greece, Patrizia Falcinelli, the Commander of the historic Division, as well as a delegation of the National Union of the Acqui Division, representing the families of the fallen Italians.
The General Secretary of the Ministry of National Defence attended the memorial service and laid a wreath at the Italian War Memorial in Argostoli.
The event was attended by MP for Cephalonia and Ithaki Panagis Kappatos, the Deputy Head of Region for Cephalonia and Ithaki, Stavros Travlos, the Mayor of Argostoli, Theofilos Michalatos, as well as representatives of the local authorities.
Earlier that day, wreaths were laid at the Memorial of the Hellenic National Resistance in Argostoli, as well as at the site where the German Troops executed the Italians of the Acqui Division in September 1943.
