Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, visited Mariupol and the village of Sartana in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Monday to meet with the local Greek community.
The visit took place amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine after Russian President, Vladimir Putin, deployed around 100,000 troops near the border with its former Soviet neighbour.
In Ukraine #together with the 🇬🇷 expatriates! I visited the 8th Modern Greek Language Learning School and met with the teachers, the Head of the civil-military Administration of Sartana and members of the Greek community of the #Sartana & #Chermalyk. pic.twitter.com/5hyX8wPcgB
In a press release, Dendias said he visited the area, which is just a few kilometres from the line of tension, “in order to support with my presence, upon instruction from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek Community living here; a community numbering over 100,000 people.”
“Greece will always be on the side of diaspora Greeks, particularly at difficult times,” Dendias added in a tweet on Sunday.
During a visit at the premises of the @OSCE_SMM Mariupol office, I was briefed on the security situation on the ground and the Mission's work. pic.twitter.com/2Ujp7i9DeU
Earlier that same day, Dendias also paid a visit to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission. During the visit, he was briefed on the current security situation in the country and the Mission’s work.
The visit was praised by the outgoing United States Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt, who called it “an important and very welcome signal of support.”
To conclude his trip to Ukraine, the Greek Foreign Minister also spoke on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and expressed Greece’s support.
“Greece, out of principle, always supports the independence and territorial integrity of all states, in accordance with the principles of International Law and the United Nations Charter,” Dendias said in a press release.
“I would like to express the hope that the tension which currently exists will not continue, that the situation will return to calm and de-escalation.”
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, met with His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia on Monday at the Maximos Palace in Athens.
According to local Greek media, Mitsotakis and Archbishop Makarios spoke about the role of the Greek diaspora and Hellenism in Australia.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis meets with Archbishop Makarios of Australia. Photo: Thema.com.
The Prime Minister also reiterated his support for the work done by Archbishop Makarios in Australia.
This meeting comes just days after Archbishop Makarios met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on January 29 in Constantinople.
The Archbishop was accompanied on the day by three of the four newly ordained bishops, Bishop Kyriakos of Sozopolis, Bishop Christodoulos of Magnesia and Bishop Evmenios of Kerasountos, as well as Archdeacon Athenagoras Karakonstantakis, Dr Theodosios Penklis and his wife, Marianna Penklis.
Meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch. Photo: Nikos Papachristos / Ecumenical Patriarchate.
According to a post by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Bishop Bartholomew of Charioupolis “was unable to travel from Australia to Constantinople due to the continuing force of restrictive measures in his area” of Canberra.
Despite this, the meeting was a success with Archbishop Makarios offering the Ecumenical Patriarch a dedicatory book titled, ‘Βαρθολομαίω τω Οικουμενικώ ευλαβικόν αφιέρωμα,’ which was edited by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia to mark the 30th anniversary of the Ecumenical Patriarch’s enthronement.
The three new Bishops also asked for and received the venerable Patriarchal wishes for the beginning of their new hierarchical ministry.
Archbishop Makarios offering the Ecumenical Patriarch a dedicatory book. Photo: Nikos Papachristos / Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Vaughn Arambatzis is the 12-year-old Greek Australian boy who has raised thousands of dollars for the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home by collecting cans and bottles and recycling them through the NSW Government’s Return and Earn Scheme.
It’s no surprise then that Vaughn recently won his category of Young Legends for the Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Cities Awards.
These awards set out to recognise and celebrate positive actions taken by councils, community groups and individuals in metropolitan areas to protect and enhance their local environments.
Vaughn collecting his award. Photo: Freshie Photography.
Vaughn definitely fits the bill and to celebrate his win, we sat down to speak with him about his passion for sustainability and his future plans.
1. How does it feel to win and be recognised for your work?
I was really shocked and excited to win the Young Legends Award from Keep Australia Beautiful. The award was huge and I got to give a speech about what I’ve been doing.
Vaughn gave a speech. Photo: Freshie Photography.
2. How much did you raise for the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home last year?
I ended up recycling over 12,000 drink containers and I raised $2000 for Sydney Dogs and Cats Home. Lots of generous Greeks helped me after you wrote the last article. My local IGA donated money, The One Sauce, which is run by a Greek lady and a Texan man, donated some of their hot sauce and I was able to use it as a prize. I left a bin at our business, UFC GYM Gregory Hills, and lots of neighbours just kept dropping off drink containers. It was non-stop! Lockdown was a bit tough but I just extended my deadline by a couple of months.
Vaughn raises money for the Sydney Dogs and Cats Home.
3. What are your future plans?
I want to speak to Council to see if they can help me this year. I definitely need more bins but I also mainly need help with transporting everything to Return and Earn. I also just found out about the Purple Bin service so I need to investigate that too.
4. Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I think that Sydney Dogs and Cats Home is a really important charity. They need all the help they can get because they need to build their new shelter at Kurnell. If more generous Greeks want to help me again this year, that would be great!
There is currently a renewed interest in preserving the Jewish cultural heritage of Thessaloniki and Jacky Benmayor plays a key role in fulfilling this need.
Benmayor is the last speaker in Greece of Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, a language derived from Old Spanish spoken by the Jews driven out of Catholic Spain in 1492.
Why? Because, as the curator of the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki told Euronews, after the Holocaust and the annihilation of more than 90% of the total Jewish population, many Jewish people struggled to pass on Ladino, even for political reasons.
Headstones in Ladino. Photo: AP Photo / Nikolas Giakoumidis.
“Many survivors didn’t want to speak the language that had made them targeted. They believed that if extermination had happened once, it could happen again. As a matter of consequences, Jewish families claimed that they were first and foremost Greeks,” Evangelos Hekimoglu told the website.
Circumstances for Benmayor, however, were different. He was able to learn the language from his father, Leon, who was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 27.
“My father was the only member of his family to survive: he was not inclined to speak about his experience in the concentration camp, but he taught me Ladino, which was the first language spoken in my family,” Benmayor said.
This was a large Jewish population in Thessaloniki prior to the Holocaust.
Now, although retired and 75 years of age, Benmayor is determined to revive the sound of his mother tongue by teaching Ladino courses at the University of Thessaloniki.
Most of the students who attend Benmayor’s lessons are not Jews, but historians and archaeologists interested in reading the city’s historical sources, such as archives and tombstones.
There are hopes that this will in turn fuel a deeper interest in Ladino at universities across the world.
Elfa has been nominated for her exemplary leadership and commitment to the social sector, bringing vision into action as a natural change agent and collaborator, advocating for Western Sydney communities and their needs.
Elfa has been involved in the community sector for the past 30 years and has an extensive background in developing services for linguistically disadvantaged communities, with a focus on engaging community and stakeholder participation.
Elfa (centre) was awarded 2017 Blacktown Woman of the Year.
Elfa was awarded 2017 Blacktown Woman of the Year for supporting migrant and refugee women establishing their businesses and was one of the 2020 UNSW Alumni finalists for Social Impact and Service. She is a Director of Settlement Services International and a Director of the NSW Council of Social Services.
The Pro Bono Australia’s 2022 Impact 25 awards began in 2014 and each year they aim to recognise innovators, collaborators and change-makers across the social sector who are making a positive impact in the community.
Show your support for SydWest Multicultural Services and cast your vote for Elfa here.
There were two weeks of magic at the Australian Open this year with many highlights from our favourite sport stars.
Rafael Nadal made history in the men’s final, claiming a record 21st major after fighting back from two sets to love down to defeat Daniil Medvedev.
Elsewhere, Ash Barty became the first local player to claim the Australian Open women’s singles championship in 44 years after defeating American Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).
Nadal celebrates with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup. Photo: Getty / Clive Brunskill.
But what about the top Greek moments from the tournament? The Greek Herald takes a look back at its top five.
1. The Special Ks become Australian Open doubles champions:
Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis became grand slam champions on Saturday after claiming the Australian Open doubles title by beating fellow Aussies Matt Ebden and Max Purcell.
The best mates brought their typical spark to proceedings in front of a Rod Laver Arena crowd that was clearly on their side.
The Special K show is not for everybody, but plenty of people love it. Photo: AAP / Dave Hunt.
They weren’t broken a single time while one break of Ebden’s serve in each set was enough to win them the title, 7-5 6-4.
It means Kyrgios and Kokkinakis have both a junior doubles Slam (Wimbledon) and senior doubles Slam (Australian Open) on their resume.
The Special Ks now have their sights set on more grand slam and ATP Finals glory.
Photo: Facebook.
To celebrate their win Kokkinakis was spotted at Philhellene Provincial Greek Cuisine restaurant in Melbourne with his family, whilst Kyrgios was seen at Mr Wong in Sydney with his girlfriend.
2. Stefanos Tsitsipas makes his second Australian Open semi-final:
Stefanos Tsitsipas made it into his second semi-final at the Australian Open and played against the Russian Daniil Medvedev.
Ultimately, Tsitsipas lost the match 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 but not before he made the local Greek community proud with his tennis skills and determination.
Tsitsipas hits out against Medvedev. Photo: Getty Images.
The match itself wasn’t without controversy as well, with Medvedev fined just over $17,000 following his outburst at the chair umpire. He accused Tsitsipas of receiving illegal coaching from his father in the stands.
While Medvedev’s blow-up was confronting to watch, it seemed to do the trick as the umpires proceeded to launch a crackdown on the Tsitsipas team.
MEDVEDEV BLOWS UP! 😡😡
The Russian has sensationally accused Tsitsipas of being coached and has GIVEN IT to the umpire over it too! 🤯🤯#AusOpen – live on Channel 9, 9Now and Stan Sport. pic.twitter.com/8Xa3qOjvnf
Fellow umpire, Eva Asderaki-Moore, who can speak Greek, was placed in a strategic position in the tunnel directly below Tsitsipas’ box in a bid to detect any coaching going on.
The ‘sting operation’ paid off and Tsitsipas was hit with a code violation, as well as a fine worth around $7,000.
Despite this, it was still an enjoyable tournament for Tsitsipas in Australia. His iconic Tsitsipas souvlaki at Stalactites Restaurant in Melbourne was again for sale with all proceeds going towards Beyond Blue Australia.
This year, Tsitsipas is also matching the amount made in sales to double the donation.
3. Michaela Laki books her first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final:
Michaela Laki had a fantastic week at the Australian Open Juniors tournament, qualifying for the first time in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament.
This came after the 16-year-old achieved victory against the Czech Dominika Salkova, with 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8).
Michaela Laki (left) and Dimitra Pavlou.
Laki, who is world No.11 in the juniors world rankings, won the match after 2 hours and 27 minutes of fighting in Court 6 of Melbourne Park.
Laki faced the American Liv Hovde, No. 13 on the board and No. 20 in the world junior ranking, in the quarter-finals but was defeated in straight sets.
4. Jaimee Fourlis reaches the Australian Open mixed doubles final:
Local wildcards, Jaimee Fourlis and Jason Kubler, finished as runners-up in the Australian Open mixed doubles tournament following a straight-sets defeat to Kristina Mladenovic and Ivan Dodig in the final.
Jaimee Fourlis (right) and Jason Kubler reached the final as wildcards. Photo: Getty Images / Darrian Traynor.
France’s Mladenovic and Croatian Dodig swept to a 6-3, 6-4 victory in 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Fourlis and Kubler were bidding the become the first all-Australian duo to win the mixed doubles championship since 2013.
5. Maria Sakkari almost reaches the Australian Open quarter-final:
Fifth-seed Maria Sakkari crashed out of the Australian Open in the fourth round after losing in straight sets, 6-7 (0-7), 3-6 to Jessica Pegula of the United States.
Sakkari was trying to reach her first Australian Open Quarterfinal but could not overcome Pegula, losing to her for the first time in their three encounters.
Despite this, Sakkari still made the local Greek community proud and she vowed to come back stronger next year.
“It feels like I’m at home back here. We all know that Melbourne has a very large Greek community and I’m very pleased and grateful to have them behind me,” she said in a post-match interview.
The UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Thessaloniki are now available to view on the Google Arts & Culture platform.
“Thessaloniki: An Open Museum of Early Christian and Byzantine Art” includes exquisite photographs, videos and interactive street view features of the city’s ancient and Byzantine monuments, collectively inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1988.
Some of the ancient sites included on the platform are: the Rotunda, the Acheiropoietos, Panagia Halkeon, the Vlatadon Monastery, the White Tower and the Byzantine baths, among many others.
The Rotunda, with its unique interior mosaics, is one of the most important monuments of the Late Roman world. Photo: Greek Ministry of Culture.
The addition of Thessaloniki’s famous sites and monuments to the multilingual platform, presented in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Tourism Organization, is part of Google’s ongoing promotion of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The hugely successful Google Arts & Culture platform, which launched in 2011, uses high-resolution images and a range of interactive features to enable virtual visitors to explore artworks, sites and galleries at a number of museums and partner institutions worldwide.
Prominent British historian, Mark Mazower, attended a ceremony awarding him Greek citizenship on Friday, during a visit to Athens to promote his new book.
The Ira D. Wallach Professor of History at Columbia University in New York City was honoured for “the promotion of Greece, its long history and its culture to the international general public.”
The decision was announced last September, but Mazower chose to attend the ceremony in Athens, where the Greek edition of his new book “The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe” was launched at an event at the War Museum.
In a videotaped address played at the event, Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said Mazower’s new book is “another sample of his scientific zeal and genuine love of his second country,” and will contribute to Greek historiography.
“The book leaves no space for comforting stereotypes or myths, and looks at the role of foreign powers in Greece as well as their contributions to the building of the modern state,” Mitsotakis said.
After the ceremony, Mazower toured an exhibition of works by naif painter Theophilos at the Theocharakis Foundation.
Government officials have said on Sunday that the decision by the main opposition leftist Syriza party to table a motion of no confidence was a desperate move in the face of polls, Ekathimerini reports.
Citizen Protection Minister, Takis Theodorikakos, the first minister to speak during the first day of a three-day debate on the censure motion, said Syriza’s proposal is also an attempt to paper over its internal disagreements.
He also accused the opposition of having nothing negative to say about the operators of Attiki Odos, the motorway around Athens, who failed to keep the motorway open and stranded over 2,000 motorists during a heavy snowstorm last Monday.
Citizen Protection Minister, Takis Theodorikakos.
Theodorikakos admitted that the government and the state agencies failed to adequately respond to the uncommon storm, although they had ample warning.
“We do not hide problems, we do not hide mistakes and weaknesses,” he said.
Mitsotakis attended Theodorikakos’ speech on Friday afternoon but did not intervene in the debate. On Sunday however, he had his say along with opposition leader, and his predecessor as Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras.
Tsipras took the floor first and asked the Greek government to give an explanation for the problems caused by the Elpis snowstorm.
Δεν αρκεί μία συγνώμη. Χρωστάτε 23.275 συγνώμες, σε κάθε οικογένεια που έχασε τους ανθρώπους της άδικα στην πανδημία, επειδή αποφασίσατε να μην ενισχύσετε το ΕΣΥ. Ενώ η μελέτη Τσιόδρα – Λύτρα σάς έλεγε ότι εάν ενισχύατε το ΕΣΥ, οι μισοί εξ αυτών σήμερα θα είχαν σωθεί.#Βουλη
“It was not only Attiki Odos that was closed. Other roads were closed. Will you tell us where you were wrong? Will you ever take any responsibility?” Tsipras asked, before accusing Mitsotakis of giving a “sham apology.”
In response, Mitsotakis pointed out that he forced the motorway operator to pay each stranded motorist €2,000 and stressed that even if the “apology” of the government is a sham, it is better than “no apology of SYRIZA for the 120 dead in Mati.”
“You never apologized for either Mati or Mandra,” Mitsotakis responded.
About 220 of the Parliament’s 300 MPs spoke during the debate, which concluded at 8 pm on Sunday with a roll-call vote.
Ekathimerini reports that lawmakers voted 156-142 against the motion after the acrimonious debate. The result was expected, as the ruling center-right New Democracy holds 157 seats in the 300-member Parliament.
Ahead of a roundtable set to be held in early May at the NSW Parliament, President of The Democracy & Culture Foundation, Achilles Tsaltas met on Thursday with state officials to discuss ways and policies that will further promote citizen engagement in the political process.
At the luncheon hosted by the Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly Jonathan O’Dea and the President of the Legislative Council Matthew Mason Cox were also Executive Director of Commonwealth Bank and President of the Kytherian Association of Australia Emmanuel Alfieris, Founder of newDemocracy Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM as well as Executive Director of Business Sydney and Deputy Chair of the UNSW Hellenic Foundation Paul Nicolaou.
Emmanuel Alfieris Executive Director of Commonwealth Bank & President of the Kytherian Association of Australia, Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM Founder of newDeomcracy, Achilles Tsaltas President of Athens Democracy Forum and Paul Nicolaou Executive Director of Business Sydney and Deputy Chair of the UNSW Hellenic Foundation
“I’m glad one of the five roundtables will be in Sydney. The other four are in Seoul, Tel Aviv, Berlin and New York,” Australian born Achilles Tsaltas told The Greek Herald.
“We will discuss the power of the people and what we mean by this is how deliberative or participatory democracy through citizen assemblies, panels and citizen engagement can become integrated in the political fabric of our society.”
“Twenty experts will give us their views on policy recommendations and various initiatives on citizen engagement.
“At the same time, we’ll have 30 randomly selected citizens that will also participate in the roundtable and after its conclusion they will stress test what the experts have said so that their recommendations have a more bottom-up approach rather than a top-down approach.
“It goes to the core of what we do. We need to listen to the citizens.”
For 9 years, we’ve sought to bring together some of the world’s top thinkers and their ideas to solve the unprecedented challenges we face today.
In September 2022, Mr Tsaltas will take the outcomes to the 10thAthens Democracy Forum, an international conference founded in 2019 by the Democracy and Culture Foundation which explores the evolving state of democracy.
“We’ve been through two years of a health pandemic but there are many other pandemics that the world is facing,” Mr Tsaltas said.
“Like the pandemic of inequality, technological change, migration, climate. These are forces that are changing our world so we need to fix democracy or help it evolve. If citizens become a bit more engaged in the political process, then our governance can only benefit from it.”
‘We need to hear the voices of youth’
Asked about the role of youth political participation and decision-making Mr Tsaltas referred to the Foundation’s recently launched ‘Teens for Democracy’ initiative and said that “we need to hear the voices of youth in order to bridge the intergenerational gap that exists in our world.”
“A lot of the problems that our world is facing, concerns the younger generations and will impact the younger generations in a more profound way. We need their point of view but also, we need their freshness of thinking because we’ve gotten to where we are today with the current systems.
“I think we need some fresh thinking that is free of institutional constraints.”
On Friday Mr Tsaltas also met with the Consul General of Greece in Sydney and recently with Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andreas Katsaniotis.
“Diaspora Greeks have an important role to play in the evolution of democracy and Greece seems to be more open to their input,” he said.
