Memorial Plaque in Honour of the First Peace-keeping Mission

The commemoration, held at the former Consulate building of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was attended by H.E. Erik Haupt, Hungary’s Ambassador to Athens, Gabriella Kállay, Consul, Colonel László Kiss, Defence and Military Attaché, the representatives of the Greek armed forces, and the delegation of the HM HIM, led by Colonel Dr. Vilmos Kovács.

The memorial plaque erected upon the initiative of the Embassy in Athens, from the finances of HM HIM – in honour of the former Consul Gyula Pintér, who by his action prevented the escalation to war of the ethnic and religious conflict emerging in Crete belonging in 1896 to the Ottoman Empire. This saved the lives of many thousands of people. The initiative of the international peace-keeping operation of 1897-1898 attached to the Consul’s name resulted in the first international peacekeeping mission of modern history, which in this sense can even be called as a Hungarian invention.

At the jointly organised inauguration ceremony a speech was given and a wreath was laid by Ambassador Erik Haupt and Colonel Dr. Vilmos Kovács, the Commandant of the HM HIM, and the descendants of the owner of the former Consulate building. (The history of the first peace-keeping mission can be read in the next issue of the Magyar Honvéd magazine.)