Greek leader skips the skullcap at Yad Vashem rite. -In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also refused to cover his head

JERUSALEM — Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras refused to cover his head at a Yad Vashem memorial ceremony. 

Organizers of the ceremony at the Hall of Remembrance urged Samaras to respect Tuesday’s ceremony and cover his head with a kippah or hat, but he laid a wreath at the memorial bareheaded, Ynet reported.  

Samaras is leading a fight in Greece against right-wing extremists, as well as racism and anti-Semitism.

Yad Vashem said it regretted that Samaras would not wear a kippah, according to Ynet, “but that was his decision.”