A memorial service was held today at the Vlatadon Monastery, at the initiative of the rector’s authorities of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in memory of its students who were killed in the tragic train accident in Tempi.

In his statements immediately after, the Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Angelos Syrigos, said that unfortunately it was the train of students, they were the children who were coming after the three days of Clean Monday to continue their studies.

“Unfortunately, a series of actions, omissions, pathologies, mistakes that all accumulated that day led to the tragic accident. From the government’s point of view, we take full responsibility for what has happened, for all these years, and we believe that justice will be able to identify the problems for this specific accident. May God rest their souls and give courage to their families,” he added.

For his part, the rector of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Professor Nikolaos Papaioannou, said that the University will never forget the children who were lost and will try to be next to their families and parents. “I know for a fact that this pain will never go away, the wound will never heal, but as AUTH we will do everything practically possible to be able to help heal any of these wounds, scholarships, degrees, the possibility of a monument” he added.

The memorial service was attended by the Deputy Minister of the Interior, responsible for Macedonia-Thrace affairs, Stavros Kalafatis, the mayor of Thessaloniki, Konstantinos Zervas, the former minister Dimitris Mardas and a large number of people.

“Our thoughts are with the parents and relatives of the children, their friends, as well as with the survivors of this tragic accident,” said Professor Panagiotis Glavinis, dean of the Faculty of Law of AUTH, who added: “It is a shame because we are a university of knowledge. If we had even been asked for assistance, this could have been avoided. It’s dramatic.

We have the ability for specific schools of the polytechnic to provide assistance for the automation of the railways as they do in other countries.”