Germany-Greece relations not interrupted by attacks

The German government condemned attacks on German ambassador's residence in Athens on Monday, while reassuring that a good bilateral relationship would not be interrupted. "Absolutely nothing can justify such an attack on a representative of our country," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a statement, adding that Germany took this incident "very seriously". Residence of German Ambassasor Wolfgang Dold in Athens was attacked by unknown assailants with a rifle early on Monday. According to Greek police, at least 60 shots were fired. No one was injured. "The perpetrators would not succeed in breaking the good relations between Germany and Greece and between German people and the Greeks," said Steinmeier. He has contacted Ambassador Dold and Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who called the incident a "terrorist act". Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has also telephoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the incident. "I thank Prime Minister and Foreign Minister for their fast response. They have assured us to strengthen security measures on the ground and to do everything so that those responsible could be identified and held accountable," Steinmeier said. Germany was blamed by many Greek people for its insistance of adhering austerity measures to international bailout to the southern European country, where social welfare benefit fell and unemployment rose to a record level. In her first speech in German parliament after taking office for the third term earlier on December, Merkel reiterated her tough stance by calling on EU member states to make more efforts to fulfill reform promises by committing to binding economic reform contracts. The German chancellor praised Greece and other indebted counrties for the process they had achieved in dealing with the crisis, while noting that the reform decisions was made without any binding rules. She insisted that structural reforms within the European Union must be pushed.