
He also extended condolences to the family of the94-year-old deceased.
Kostas Sarantidis was born in 1927 in Athens, Greece. Sarantidis was 16when he was sent to the German army in 1943. After World War II, he could notreturn home for having no identity documents and later joined the FrenchForeign Legion and was mobilised to Indochina.
Since Sarantidis set foot on Sai Gon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1946, he decidedto follow the Viet Minh (the short name for Vietnam Doc Lap Dong Minh orVietnam Independence League) as he had witnessed invaders’ crime to innocentVietnamese and realised the aspirations of the Vietnamese revolution.
The soldier, with the Vietnamese name of Nguyen Van Lap, had made variousaccomplishments during his service and was presented with awards from the Partyand State.
He was honoured with the Friendship Order and received Vietnamese citizenshipin January 2011.
In 2013, Lap was awarded with the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces ofVietnam./.