Greek former prime minister Costas Simitis, the architect of the country's eurozone entry, was laid to rest Thursday in a state funeral.
Simitis, who died on Sunday aged 88, received the full honours of an incumbent leader in a ceremony at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral attended by top officials, and was interred at the Athens First Cemetery alongside other prominent Greeks.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an address at the funeral that Simitis will be remembered for "his unwavering belief in (Greece's) European orientation and his constant effort for Greece to converge with the most developed, most dynamic states of our continent."
He was a resistance fighter against the Greek dictatorship, a "worthy servant of democracy" and a "noble adversary," said the conservative Mitsotakis.
"Today Greece bows before one of the greatest leaders of its modern history," said the leader of the socialist Pasok party, Nikos Androulakis, at the funeral.
A founding member and veteran minister of Pasok, Simitis succeeded historic leader Andreas Papandreou as prime minister and served two consecutive terms from 1996 to 2004, a seminal period in the country's modern history.
In addition to overseeing Greece's eurozone entry in 2001, Simitis's reformist administration secured and managed the mammoth task of preparing for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
Under Simitis, Greece also held the 2003 European Union presidency that saw the bloc's biggest enlargement to date, with the accession of 10 new EU states including its historic ally Cyprus.
"He was a leader who left a mark on history, a modest and progressive leader," retiree Alexandra Kroupi told AFP.
Turkey detente
A former law professor, Simitis is also remembered for clashing with Greece's powerful Orthodox church to remove religious affiliation from state identity cards, a move hailed by rights groups.
Simitis left Greece "more confident and stronger than ever", Androulakis said.
In later years, the legacy of Simitis's governments was dimmed by probes into a major stock bubble and corruption scandals that saw two of his former ministers jailed.
Tensions with neighbouring Turkey also spiked dangerously on two occasions under Simitis's administration.
In 1996, the historic rivals and NATO allies nearly went to war over a cluster of uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea.
A naval showdown in the area was averted after the United States intervened.
In early 1999, Greece was left red-faced when separatist Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan was revealed to have been hiding at the Greek embassy in Kenya, and was snatched by Turkish commandos.
Three of Simitis's ministers were forced to resign over the diplomatic debacle.
A few months later, both countries were hit by deadly earthquakes and rushed to each other's aid.
Simitis used the opportunity to usher in a period of detente with Turkey under his foreign minister George Papandreou, which later became known as "quake diplomacy". He is survived by his wife and two daughters.