Professor Vrasidas Karalis held a lecture on ‘The Macedonian issue after the Prespes Agreement’ on Sunday, October 23 at AHEPA Hall in Rockdale in southern Sydney.
The lecture is part of a series of talks organised by the Pan-Macedonian Association of New South Wales together with the Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis Society for the 2022 Dimitria Festival. This year’s festival celebrates Macedonian culture.
Professor Vrasidas’ lecture drew a large crowd on the day including a number of VIP guests such as the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis; President of the Pan-Macedonian Association of NSW, Anastasia Karakominakis; Vice President of the Pan-Macedonian Association of NSW, Peter Papoulidis, and President of AHEPA NSW Inc, Bill Skandalakis; among many others.
On the day, Professor Vrasidas spoke about the history of the Macedonian issue and raised questions about when it started and how it evolved.
From there, he briefly spoke about the three key players which currently have a role in the Balkans region – that is, Russia, Turkey and China.
After discussing the actions of Russia, Turkey and China in the Balkans at the moment, the Professor turned to the Prespes Agreement and stressed that it puts Greece in a “brighter spot” than it was in the past.
“In my opinion, the agreement was the best agreement that we could have achieved under the circumstances… it [the agreement] does have inaccuracies and issues that need to be resolved at some stage,” Professor Vrasidas said.
At the end of the lecture, there was a Q&A session where Professor Vrasidas answered questions from attendees, before people stood up to enjoy some finger food and mingling.
