The concert will feature Byron Triandafyllidis (vocals and bouzouki), Ayşe Göknur Shanal (vocals), Cüneyt Çakmak (kanun) and George El-Azar (percussion), and they will be bringing the music of Anatolia, the region where Europe and Asia meet, to the audience.
In an interview with The Greek Herald, Triandafyllidis says he’s looking forward to the performance in Sydney because the collaboration has been in the works for a while.
Byron Triandafyllidis.
“I met Ayşe through George, the percussionist. She was visiting Melbourne at the time and I was doing a performance of Greek music at Queen Victoria Markets,” Triandafyllidis explains.
“I knew a few common songs from Turkey and Greece so I got her up to sing a few and she did and that’s basically how it all started.”
Triandafyllidis says the concert will incorporate his interest in rebetika and Asia Minor, as well as give him a chance to get in touch with his ancestral roots which are from Constantinople and Thrace.
“It’s an important concert because we live in a multicultural society and… for social cohesion as well, just to know where some of our heritage came from,” he adds.
For her part, Ayşe tells The Greek Herald the concert will share a repertoire of music “that doesn’t leave anybody out from Anatolia.”
Ayşe Göknur Shanal.
“It will be really, really interesting for the audience. There is so much body of repertoire from different parts that haven’t even been explored yet and we will do that,” she concludes, while encouraging everyone to attend.
New Zealand’s last surviving veteran of the Battle of Crete during World War II has died at the age of 104.
According to the Otago Daily Times, Cyril Henry Brant Robinson, known as Brant, passed away at Whangamata Moana House retirement home on Sunday.
Former president of the NZ Battle of Crete Association, Paul London, believes that Brant was the last Kiwi veteran of the Battle of Crete.
The Battle of Crete.
Who was Staff Sergeant Brant?
Staff Sergeant Brant arrived on Crete in 1941 with the advance party to set up camp and was captured by the rampaging Germans on June 1, 1941 at Souda Bay.
Force-marched for days without food and little water, he was kept in a POW camp on Crete for seven weeks before being taken to Nazi Germany.
He was imprisoned at Stalag VIII-B Lamsdorf, before being moved to Stalag 8B Teschen for three months, then Stalag 383 Hohenfels.
By early 1945, Brant was one of thousands of men forced to march west on the Death March Across Germany. He was finally liberated by advancing American troops.
The “great resignation” phenomenon brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a number of industries such as healthcare, cleaning and hospitality, welcoming more mature aged job seekers.
One of these workers is 60-year-old disability support worker, Christine Sideris, who changed careers later in life.
In an interview with The Advertiser, Christine detailed how she was forced to give up her dream of being a hairdresser after suffering a debilitating shoulder injury as a retail worker in 1991.
Christine has taken on a role as an allied health worker at disability service provider .
She found work as a school services officer but 12 years later resigned to care for her sick father full-time.
Now 60, Christine has taken on a role as an allied health worker at disability service provider HenderCare in May.
“I feel fulfilled because I know I’m giving back to the community,” she told the newspaper. “You’re never too old and if you believe in yourself everything and anything is possible.”
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said on Monday he was unaware Greece’s intelligence service had been bugging the mobile phone of his political opponent, PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis.
In an televised address to the nation on Monday, Mitsotakis described the phone tapping of Androulakis as a mistake that should never have occurred, and insisted that he wouldn’t have allowed it had he known.
“What was done may have been in accordance with the letter of the law but it was wrong,” Mitsotakis said. “I did not know and obviously I would never have allowed it.”
Στη Δημοκρατία μας δεν επιτρέπεται να υπάρχουν σκιές. Γι’ αυτό και θέλω να σας μιλήσω ανοιχτά για τις πρόσφατες εξελίξεις. Δεν κρύφτηκα ποτέ μπροστά σε δυσκολίες ή ευθύνες. Και σε αυτόν τον δρόμο θα συνεχίσω να πορεύομαι. https://t.co/u7viFAJTu1pic.twitter.com/sdDnmVGIS3
Mitsotakis said the eavesdropping took place over a three-month period last year when the newly revitalised centre-left Pasok, Greece’s third-largest political force, was preparing to elect a new leader. Androulakis, a 43-year-old MEP, had been favoured to win the race.
The Prime Minister said that although the actions “happened legally… it should not have happened, causing rifts in citizens’ trust in the national security services.”
Mitsotakis added that the case had exposed the shortcomings of the Greek National Intelligence Service and pledged an overhaul of EYP.
Greece’s political scene has been profoundly shaken by the wiretapping scandal, with the leftist opposition wasting no time in likening it to Watergate.
Αλαζόνας, αμετανόητος και ψεύτης, δεν είχε την αξιοπρέπεια να παραιτηθεί – Tο απόστημα έσπασε και όλα θα αποκαλυφθούν [Ανακοίνωση του Γραφείου Τύπου του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία – https://t.co/dxy83rfQsb] pic.twitter.com/VUJUEd48ZS
In a statement after Mitsotakis’ televised address, the SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance party said the Prime Minister “did not have the courage to do what is self-evident in every liberal European democracy: to resign.”
The Prime Minister “praised the National Intelligence Service (EYP) for its national role, but in his effort to shirk his own responsibility did not hesitate to present it as a service that is both disorganised and beyond control,” the statement added.
Androulakis himself dismissed Mitsotakis’ comments on Monday as a bid to play for time, saying the prime minister “methodically avoided providing explanations.”
Με την σημερινή του δήλωση ο Πρωθυπουργός εμφανίστηκε και πάλι άμοιρος ευθυνών υιοθετώντας το αφήγημα ενός «νόμιμου λάθους» για να δικαιολογήσει μια αξιόποινη πράξη και την ευθεία παραβίαση της συνταγματικής πρόνοιας για το βουλευτικό απόρρητο. #διαγγελμα
Greek Australian tradesman, Peter Haramis, has described the moment he came to the rescue of a woman who was stabbed in the chest by a family friend in the doorway of her Sydney home.
According to The Daily Telegraph, a 46-year-old woman is in a critical but stable condition in hospital after the daylight attack at her home in Dover Heights.
37-year-old Mr Haramis was eating lunch on a nearby block with two concreters when they heard the woman’s screams and began walking, then running up the hill as the sounds became more panicked.
“She was just screaming: ‘Help me! Help! He’s gonna kill me!’” Mr Haramis told NCA NewsWire.
When he arrived at the triple-level home, the woman was doubled over at her door with a man standing over her.
“He sort of looked at me and he froze for a second and I thought, I’m gonna have to run at him here. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Mr Haramis said.
But just as he was about to start running towards the man, the female victim took advantage of the split second her attacker had stopped to get the knife off him and threw it past Mr Haramis on the grass.
He was able to pick up the knife, which had “about four centimetres of blood” along it, and the female ran inside her house and locked the door.
“He was just walking towards me saying: ‘Give me the knife.’ I said: ‘No, you’re not getting it.’ Then the guy just calmly turns around and starts walking up the hill to his car,” Mr Haramis explained.
Mr Haramis immediately called for police and an ambulance, then followed the man up to his car to get a description of the vehicle.
It wasn’t long before police surrounded her alleged attacker, a 46-year-old man, who had driven his white Audi vehicle to a road at Bondi.
He was arrested at gunpoint and taken to Waverley police station where he has been assisting detectives with inquiries.
British-born Australian singer and actress, Dame Olivia Newton-John, has died at the age of 73.
In a statement by her husband, John Easterling, he said the Grammy Award-winning actress “passed away peacefully” at her ranch in southern California surrounded by family and friends.
Easterling went on to describe Newton-John as a symbol of “triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer.”
“Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer,” he added.
She is survived by her husband, daughter Chloe Lattanzi, sister Sarah Newton-John, brother Toby Newton-John, and her nieces and nephews.
Tributes are flowing for the performer who was best known for starring as Sandy from Grease alongside John Travolta, and a string of hit albums in the 1970s and 1980s. Newton-John also played the immortal and beautiful Greek muse, Terpsichore, in the 1980 film ‘Xanadu.’
Travolta was among the first to leave a tribute on Instagram.
“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better. Your impact was incredible. I love you so much,” he wrote in the post.
“We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the first moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”
Former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, also expressed his sadness at the news.
“This is really sad news. Really sad. A great Australian woman. And a great advocate for global cancer research. Taken from her family far too early. Vale Olivia,” he said.
People in Greece haven’t forgotten the 2021 devastating wildfires that ravaged over 300,000 acres of forest and bushland across the country or the 2018 fires along the Attica coast that claimed 102 lives in Mati.
This year, since the start of the fire season on May 1, nearly 2,500 wildfires have been recorded so far.
Following sharp criticism of its response to the fires last year, the government has set up a new civil protection ministry and boosted firefighting capacities with more firefighting aircraft available and 250 firefighters from six European countries to provide back up if needed.
But apart from those who battle blazes from the ground, Australian fixed and rotary-wing firefighting aircrafts and crews, who were deployed from Queensland and New South Wales, have joined forces with the Hellenic Fire Service and work around the clock since June fighting fires from the air.
“We have eight aircraft and more than 20 people in the country at any one time over a period of nearly five months. There are many more people who support our operations from both Greece and Australia,” McDermott Aviation’s base manager in Greece, Tim Vercoe, told The Greek Herald.
The Sunshine Coast-based company has been assisting Greece for three years now and according to Vercoe the crews are more prepared and have a better understanding of the conditions.
Australian helicopter specialists McDermott Aviation are in Greece helping the nation battle its third fire season. Watch one of their helicopters at work in Penteli earlier this week. 🎥: Up Stories READ MORE: https://t.co/KEZVB4YIRQpic.twitter.com/Ei8N1QClsa
“This year we are back with additional helicopters based in more locations in Greece. We now have some good friends here and it’s great to renew our working relationship with AK Aviation, fire fighters and other air crews,” he said.
“The season is starting to heat up and the aircraft have been busy already up to the beginning of August. We hope it will be easier but we are prepared if conditions get worse.”
Asked whether Australian crews face operational challenges in Greece due to the country’s highly skilled crews but limited resources, Vercoe said that the biggest challenge is the current international transport and freight environment.
“We fly with Greek coordinators to communicate with fire fighters on the ground and to assist with Greek fire protocols. One of the biggest challenges this year has been in international logistics to get the aircraft here and returned at the end of season and to supply the parts and personnel we need,” he said.
The Australian specialist firefighting helicopters are used to transport fire fighters and equipment as well as water bombing and Vercoe attributes the efficient work done so far to the “excellent cooperation with ground crews” and the support from the local communities.
“We have tremendous support from local communities,” he said. “Both those that have seen our work up close and those that are more familiar through the news services. There are a lot of Greek connections with Australia and we always get a good reception and a lot of appreciation.”
But like the Greek people, the Australian crews also will never forget last year’s devastating fire season that ripped through Evia Island.
“In the space of a few days, we were able to mobilise four additional helicopters from Australia in a massive air freighter and have them straight away fighting the damaging fires around Athens. We believe the quick action with our Greek partners helped prevent more damage to people and property,” Vercoe said.
The aerial firefighting assets and crews are expected to be redeployed back to Australia in time for the southern hemisphere fire season.
Nina Xarhakos has opened up about the benefits of multi-generational living after she moved in with her mother, Maria, in 2020.
In an interview with ABC News, Nina shared how she moved in with her 92-year-old mother after she began to suffer mobility issues and was becoming isolated following the death of her husband and the closure of her Greek social club due to COVID-19.
She said the decision was ‘satisfying to be able to make that sort of contribution towards her quality of life and I think it strengthens our relationship as well.’
According to Edgar Liu, a senior research fellow at the UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre, the largest growth in Australia in multi-generational living arrangements had occurred in households where two generations of adults lived together.
Dr Edgar Liu.
Dr Liu said finance, especially the cost of care for both the young and the elderly, influenced people’s decisions to form multi-generational households.
In Nina’s case, she said she decided to move in with her mother because it was becoming increasingly difficult to find carers with the language and cultural skills to care for someone like her mother whose English was limited.
Ultimately however, she said the living arrangement was benefiting them both.
“I’m learning certain skills from my mother, she’s passing on customs and traditions that I hold dear as well. So there’s a lot to learn from someone with such wisdom and such capacity,” Nina concluded.
The 27-year-old took just 81 minutes to defeat Nishioka 6-4, 6-3, completing a tournament where he held serve 64 times without being broken.
It is Kyrgios’ seventh ATP title and first since he won in Washington in 2019.
Nick Kyrgios after the match. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images.
After the match, Kyrgios said he had come a long way since he lost in the first round of last year’s Citi Open and admitted he had lost some of his competitive edge.
“It was emotional for me to see where I was last year to now, it’s an incredible transformation,” Kyrgios said.
“I love this court, I played so many good matches here. I’m just really happy with myself.
“There’s so many people who have helped me get there but myself, I’ve shown some serious strength to just continue and just persevere and get through those really tough times and still be able to perform in tournaments like this one.”
Kyrgios also claimed his third doubles title of the year, after defeating Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the Washington final this morning alongside American Jack Sock.
Kyrgios is now seemingly on track to secure an all-important seeding for the US Open starting on 29 August in New York ahead of big events in Montreal and Cincinnati.
