After leading Labor back into government in South Australia on Saturday night, Premier-elect Peter Malinauskas has vowed to hit the ground running to implement his future-focused agenda for the state.
Determined to help him on this journey is his new-look government are at least three candidates of Greek heritage set to be elected in the new SA government under Labor.
First up is Tom Koutsantonis MP, who retains his seat of West Torrens.
Malinauskas paid tribute to Koutsantonis on Saturday night. Photo: ABC News / Screenshot.
“Every team needs a lion and in Labor we have a loyal Labor lion in the Honourable Tom Koutsantonis,” Malinauskas said to wild applause.
“The thing about Tom is that he and I, like every other South Australian, are utterly committed to our families and the long-term future of our state and I thank him for his service.”
Elsewhere, Olivia Savvas is a new Labor MP who won in the key marginal seat of Newland. On Facebook, Savvas said she’s “incredibly humbled” by the win and thanked “the hundreds of people who’ve worked on the Newland campaign.”
Premier-elect of SA Peter Malinauskas with deputy leader Susan Close and new MPs Nadia Clancy, Olivia Savvas, Lucy Hood, Erin Thompson and Rhiannon Pearce at Prospect on Sunday morning (L-R). Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes.
“I am incredibly humbled to have had their support and the support of so many others,” she said.
Savvas is joined by another senior female MP, Andrea Michaels who retained her seat of Enfield and said her re-election was “incredibly humbling.”
For the Senate, there is no Greek Australian close to being elected yet. Stavros Pallaras’ Real Change SA got less than one per cent and Senators Connie Bonaros and Irene Pnevmatikos are still in the fight.
Despite losing the election, Mr Marshall directly addressed the SA people in his concession speech and said he was proud of the work his government had done over the last four years.
“We leave this state in an immeasurably better state than we found it four years ago.
“It’s been an honour and a pleasure and privilege to lead this state. I love this state.
“I’m just so proud of the way that South Australians have responded to a global pandemic. We’ve come out of this stronger than before and all South Australians must share in this fantastic result.
“Thank you for your support. I think we have immeasurably changed South Australia. We’ve put it on a new trajectory going forward.
Greek tennis star, Maria Sakkari, went down fighting in her Indian Wells final against Iga Swiatek this morning, but it wasn’t enough to give her the win.
Her performance, which saw her lose to Swiatek in straight sets, still made Greeks proud as Sakkari was the first-ever Greek woman to make it into the Indian Wells final.
The 26-year-old will also move into the top 3 of the WTA world rankings from tomorrow.
Swiatek is the best player in the world at the moment, having reached her 11th consecutive victory on the tour and her second consecutive WTA 1000 title of the season.
Greece’s President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, along with European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas and Israeli Ambassador Yossi Amrani, participated in a memorial march in Thessaloniki on Sunday to commemorate the deportation of Jews from the city during WWII.
The march was titled, Never again, Thessaloniki – Auschwitz – 79 years since the departure of the first train, and was attended by over 2,000 people who carried white balloons and help up placards that read ‘Never Again.’
During the event, Sakellaropoulou laid flowers on the steps of the train which travelled with the first 2,800 Jews from Thessaloniki to the extermination camp complex Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland.
Σήμερα στη Θεσσαλονίκη, παρουσία της Προέδρου της Δημοκρατίας, πορεία στη μνήμη των Εβραίων μαρτύρων της Θεσσαλονίκης.
Το μήνυμα επίπονα επίκαιρο καθώς κάποιοι στρεβλώνουν την ιστορία. Aπαράδεκτο να αποκαλούνται ναζιστές αυτοί που αγωνίζονται για την ανεξαρτησία της χώρας τους. pic.twitter.com/OUtxXK9Rel
The Greek President then gave a small speech and stressed how acknowledging the Holocaust and its deadly impact will ensure it never happens again.
“It is only if we transmit the historical knowledge to the next generation, if we preserve the memory, if we all have the empathy, feel the pain and the anguish of the victims as it were our own, if we understand that the Holocaust is part of an international historical heritage, that can we arm ourselves against the march of evil,” she said.
The Vice President of the European Commission agreed and emphasised the need for peaceful coexistence and historical remembrance in these dark hours, when Europe is once again being put to the test.
The Israeli Ambassador thanked everyone present at the march and said “the historic lesson of the Holocaust is one of responsibility, individual and collective, within our states and country, to stand by the victim, the weak, the refugee.”
The Jewish community of Thessaloniki, with roots since the 15th century, was decimated by the Nazis during WWII. Of the community’s nearly 50,000 people, almost 45,000 were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where only a handful survived.
Greece’s Consul General in Mariupol, Ukraine arrived at Athens International Airport on Sunday, following an evacuation operation from the besieged and heavily bombarded city.
Manolis Androulakis was greeted by his wife, 7-month-old son and his father, as well as Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Andreas Katsaniotis.
Speaking to media at the airport, Androulakis said “the real heroes are the people that have stayed in Ukraine and will try to build up their lives back from nothing.”
“I have been dealing with Russia for 20 years…what is happening is a tragedy both for the Ukrainian and the Russian people…” he said, whilst pleading for a ceasefire to evacuate civilians and protect lives.”
Androulakis, along with local staff from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and their families, were first evacuated from Mariupol on Thursday. The convoy first travelled westward to the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, before arriving in Moldova and now Greece.
Androulakis thanked the leadership and officials at the Ministry, the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry and the OSCE that made the “humanitarian convoy” trip possible.
Media conference at Athens Airport.
He also thanked the families, unknown to him, who put him up at their homes during his way out of the war-torn country.
Androulakis was the last EU diplomat who stayed behind in Mariupol to assist the evacuation of Greeks and ethnic Greeks.
Speaking at the airport, Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister welcomed Androulakis to Athens and thanked him for his service in Mariupol.
Καλωσορίζουμε στην πατρίδα τον Γ.Πρόξενο #Μαριούπολης Μ.Ανδρουλάκη. Εκ μέρους της κυβέρνησης & όλων των Ελλήνων εκφράζω θερμές ευχαριστίες για τις υπηρεσίες του. Για την άριστη εκτέλεση των καθηκόντων του προκειμένου να προστατεύσει & να βοηθήσει τους ομογενείς μας στην #Ουκρανίαpic.twitter.com/dkBLXPKjpw
Greece offers to rebuild bombed maternity hospital in Ukraine:
This successful evacuation operation comes as Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said on Friday that Greece is ready to rebuild a maternity hospital destroyed last week by Russian shelling in Mariupol.
Greece is ready to rebuild the maternity hospital in Mariupol, the center of the Greek minority in Ukraine, a city dear to our hearts and symbol of the barbarity of the war.
“I want to express my abhorrence for what is happening in Ukraine and in Mariupol in particular, which has become a symbol of resistance. You know of our specific interest, as there are more than 100,000 Ukrainians of Greek decent living there,” Mitsotakis began during a meeting with the PM’s of Italy, Spain and Portugal.
“As a minimum show of support, once the hostilities are over, the Greek government will take on the reconstruction of the maternity hospital in Mariupol that was bombed.”
Photo: Twitter via Mstyslav Chernov.
In response, the Parliament of Ukraine thanked Greece on Friday for its pledge.
“Thank you for your support!” tweeted the Ukrainian parliament in its official account (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine), including emojis of Greek and Ukrainian flags and a handshake.
There were around 500 people who gathered at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance on Sunday to celebrate 201 years since the start of Greece’s War of Independence on 25 March 1821 – and half of them were officials.
Tony Tsourdalakis, head of the Organising Committee for the Celebration of the National Anniversary, told the Greek Herald prior to the event that he had expected 200 to 300 attendees. Despite exceeding expectations in numbers, the celebration was a far cry from the droves that showed up in 2019, some of them booing Greek politicians who had supported the Prespes Agreement. As a result of this bad behaviour, the large parade was cancelled.
Officials at the event. All photos copyright: The Greek Herald / Mary Sinanidis.Ange Kenos.
Ange Kenos, a member of the Organising Committee and the RSL state executive committee, told the Greek Herald the “shrine trustees were intent on making this a respectful event and that is why the parelasi (parade) was not held and will not be held at all, due to a small minority who thought they had more rights than anyone else and disrespected what this place is – holy ground.”
This year, it was a wiser group solemnly attending the first National Day celebration at the Shrine following the global pandemic. Without a parade, there were less students, Greek cultural groups and mayhem. But there was a lot of meaning packed behind the speeches of official guests and dignitaries, with both Victoria’s Premier Dan Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy present at the event.
Daniel Andrews.Matthew Guy.
A taste of Ukraine
Premier Andrews spoke Greek with little trace of an accent on what he called a ‘σπουδαία μέρα’ (significant day) in the “biggest Greek city outside of Greece”. The premier spoke of the importance of freedom and supported Ukraine.
Daniel Andrews meeting with His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia.
It was Mr Guy’s emotional speech, however, which linked Greek Independence to the struggles of his own beloved Ukraine which showed how Greece’s struggle for freedom transcends time. Following the speeches and wreath-laying, Mr Guy mingled with those present, and told the Greek Herald that he has attended Greek celebrations at the Shrine before, but this year was more meaningful to him.
“Greek Independence symbolises how a strong-willed people, against all the odds, can defeat an evil enemy even with overwhelming numbers,” an emotional Mr Guy said, adding that people in Ukraine are inspired by this and feel a bond with the Greeks that gave them “our cyrillic alphabet, our Orthodox religion and now we’re looking for the courage that you guys had against the Turks in 1821”.
Matthew Guy said the event resonated with him due to his connection to Ukraine.
“My mother’s family is still in the East and so they are hanging on, they make Molotov cocktails to give a good welcome for everyone who comes into their village. But it’s not fighting for the sake of it, it is, like the Greeks of 1821, fighting and standing up for their independence, for their religion, for their families, for their culture and their beliefs.
“And that’s of great inspiration for many people. And I’m proud for so many Greek Australians who have never given up on celebrating that. They’ve been in Australia, some families, for 80 years and they’ve never given that up.”
Hopes for a parelasi
Young Greek children, the next generation, were far fewer in attendance than in the past, due to the cancellation of the large parade. Loukia Andrews, a teacher at Aetolean College’s Reservoir Campus, told the Greek Herald that all schools were given a choice to attend. “We were asked if we were interested in taking part and our response was ‘yes’,” she said.
Young students at the event.Andriana and Gabriella from Aetolean College, Reservoir Campus, Year 6 and year 7.
Aetolean student Andriana said she had attended previous events pre-COVID, but felt this year was special. “I think it’s going to be a better experience because I am older and will suck up more of the information,” she said.
Mr Tsourdalakis told the Greek Herald he was very pleased with the event on Sunday. He said a parade may take place next year, possibly not at the Shrine. “One of the reasons one did not take place this year is because it needs to be planned months in advance and we were still seeing restrictions in February,” he said, adding that 90 per cent of schools had given a negative response when invited to take part in the event.
Archbishop Makarios and other clergy were present at the Shrine.Sotiris Sotiriou and Eleni Lelakou from Pegasus dancing troupe.
Shrine of Remembrance CEO Dean Lee was present at the event, but there was no mention to anyone whether the Greeks this year had redeemed themselves following the events in 2019. Mr Kenos said, “Today, they were happy with what we did, and we can continue like this in the future.” He added, “we can talk about bringing some students back.”
Sotiris Sotiriou of Pegasus dancing school would like to see this. “It is quite another thing to have the passion of thousands of children with their parents and grandparents cheering them on,” he said. “It is a different vibe, but we had no choice but to keep it at this level this year.
There were around 500 people who gathered at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance on Sunday, March 20 to celebrate 201 years since the start of Greece’s War of Independence on 25 March 1821 – and half of them were officials.
Tony Tsourdalakis, head of the Organising Committee for the Celebration of the National Anniversary, told The Greek Herald prior to the event that he had expected 200 to 300 attendees. Despite exceeding expectations in numbers, it was a far cry from the droves that showed up in 2019, some of them booing Greek politicians who had supported the Prespes Agreement. As a result of these boos, the large parade was cancelled.
This year, it was a wiser group solemnly attending the first National Day celebration at the Shrine following the global pandemic. Without a parade, there were less students, Greek cultural groups and mayhem. But there was a lot of meaning packed behind the speeches of official guests and dignitaries, with both Victoria’s Premier Dan Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy present at the event.
The attendance list was plentiful including His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, Victorian Multicultural Commission Chairperson Vivienne Nguyen, Greek Community President Bill Papastergiadis, and Victorian Greek Australian MPs from across the board, local to federal, including Maria Vamvakinou, Member for Calwell, and Steve Dimopoulos, Nick Staikos, Kat Theophanous, Lee Tarlamis, Theo Zographos and more. Greece’s Consul General Emmanuel Kakavelakis, self-isolating due to COVID-19, was not present at the event.
Andriana and Gabriella from Aetolean College, Reservoir Campus, Year 6 and year 7.Sotiris Sotiriou and Eleni Lelakou from Pegasus dancing troupe.
*All photos copyright: The Greek Herald / Mary Sinanidis.
Athenian-born poet, Eleni Papalampropoulou, is making waves in her creative industry after recently collaborating with the Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece to transcribe and print a book of Greek poetry entirely in Braille.
Braille is a system of touch reading and writing for people who are blind in which raised dots represent the letters of the alphabet.
In an interview with Greek News Agenda, Eleni spoke about her anthology of Greek poetry written for the blind, Poetry in Braille, and says she published the work after realising the availability of Braille books in Greece was scarce.
The anthology.
“[The anthology] constitutes the result of our effort to bring Braille to the fore and raise public awareness in this respect through poetry and at the same time, to enrich e-books available on the internet for the non-blind who are learning the writing system and for educational purposes in general,” Eleni said in the interview.
The Greek poet also stressed how the anthology is particularly important as it enables a person who is blind to have equal access to knowledge and literature.
“I reckon it is very important to bring Braille to the fore and to put it in our daily life not as something strange, as something that concerns other people, but as something that concerns all of us, as something through which we ensure that all people have equal access to knowledge and literature,” she said.
The theatrical performance of Women of Passion, Women of Greece is now available via on demand streaming on viva.gr and can be watched with both Greek and English subtitles.
The theatre show focuses on the mythical and iconic Greek figures of Medea, Maria Callas and Melina Mercouri. It has been on show at ‘To Treno sto Rouf Railway Carriage Theatre’ since 2016 and toured to cities such as Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin, Brussels, New Delhi and Bangalore.
Synopsis:
Three mythical female figures of Medea, Maria Callas and Melina Mercouri travel among a crowd of passengers by a train of the 50’s.
Medea, the tragic figure of ancient greek drama, blinded by her deep love for her husband, murdered her own children.
Maria Callas, the internationally celebrated opera diva, devoted her life to music and let her fate be sealed by a “fatal” romance.
Μelina Mercouri, one of the most beloved Greek actresses, singer and politician who starred in the most well-known international films, fought for culture and democracy.
The tragic ancient drama heroine Medea, meets the two great priestesses of modern Greece, Maria and Melina.
A common feature unites their different paths and that is passion. Passion for life, passion for love, passion for creation, passion for freedom.
Maria Callas character.
History, culture, art, the power of the human soul and the struggles for democracy come alive by an actress and a musician, who take audiences on a journey of creative memory, humour and emotion where Greece is at the same time the starting point and final destination, with the feelings of people all over the world as stopovers.
Greek and foreign spectators of all ages from across the world are guaranteed to be moved by Eugenia Arseni’s powerful and emotional play, Tatiana Ligari’s distinctive and sensitive directorial approach, Evelina Arapidis’ great acting in the three leading roles of Medea, Maria Callas and Melina Mercouri, as well as the exceptional live music and the impressive video design.
The performance can be also viewed by teenagers and children aged 10 years old and over who wish to practice their comprehension of the English language.
The satirist George Mikes once quipped that, having realised it could never be a world power, Cyprus decided to become a world nuisance.
It’s a ‘comedy’ which owes its longevity to blatant international hypocrisy and indifference more broadly. Something reaffirmed today in Ukraine.
Cyprus was first handed over to Britain by the Ottomans in 1878 as insurance against Russian aggression, becoming a Crown colony in 1925.
For Greek-Cypriots, which make up 80 percent of the island’s inhabitants, the arrival of the British was at first seen as a blessing. They mistakenly believed that British philhellenism, which had been instrumental to the liberation of Greece, would also support Greek-Cypriot dreams of union with the latter.
British forces arrive on Cyprus. Photo: Pavlos Andronikos.
Greek-Cypriots soon discovered that things had, surprisingly, been much better under the Ottomans.
By the early fifties, the Greek-Cypriot struggle for union with Greece had become a major challenge for British interests on the island. Protests increasingly assumed the form of urban and guerrilla warfare between Greek-Cypriots and the British.
Realising that they didn’t need to actually possess the entire island in order to control it, the British encouraged Turkish-Cypriots to also assert their own national aspirations. At the same time, they began to float the idea of an independent republic within the Commonwealth.
The new Republic would have a Greek-Cypriot president and a Turkish-Cypriot Vice President. Britain would retain 99 square kilometres of the island and, along with Greece and Turkey, become a guarantor of the new constitution. The new constitution was signed on 16 August 1960 and the modern Republic of Cyprus was born.
Britain had skillfully handballed the Cyprus Problem to the Greek and Turkish-Cypriots, as well as Greece and Turkey, whilst securing its strategic interests in the region. It had also managed to frame the conflict as one of ancient ethnic rivalries whilst preserving its ‘mediatory’ role.
The main beneficiary of Cyprus’ first constitution was the 18% Turkish-Cypriot community with a 30% representation in government and 40% in the armed forces. From a Greek-Cypriot point of view, this distribution of power was disproportionate and therefore, unfair.
The issue was brought to a head in 1963 when Greek-Cypriot President Makarios suggested amendments that were supposed to address the constitutional imbalance. The result was the outbreak of violence, pushing Turkish-Cypriots into enclaves. This was followed by the establishment of a buffer zone.
After 1967, Greek-Cypriot nationalism became increasingly choreographed by the Greek Junta which aggressively sought the union of Cyprus with Greece. Cypriot President Makarios, who was no longer pushing for union, refused to cooperate with it. The Junta responded with an unsuccessful coup to assassinate him on 15 July 1974.
In the days following the coup, Turkey consulted with Britain about a joint intervention. The British were not prepared to get involved. Finding no objections, Turkey invoked article 3 of the 1960 Cypriot constitution which gave it the right to intervene in order to ‘re-establish the state of affairs,’ launching its ‘peace mission’ at 6am on the 20 of July 1974.
Turkey’s ‘peace mission’ subsequently set in motion the violent displacement of 200,000 Greek-Cypriot civilians from their homes and ancestral lands, and the disappearance of almost 2,000 Greek-Cypriots. It also resulted in the brutal murders of Turkish-Cypriot civilians and the subsequent displacement of approximately 40,000 Turkish-Cypriots.
To this day, Turkey has steadfastly argued that its actions were legal and in accordance with Cypriot constitution. That, had it not done so, the Greek-Cypriots would have annihilated the island’s Turkish-Cypriot population.
For almost a month during the early phases of Turkey’s ‘peace operation,’ there was a flurry of negotiations between Britain, Turkey, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. Whilst these were underway in Geneva, Turkish Prime Minister Ecevit ordered his troops to take a ‘fair share’ of the island. This directive was followed by a full-scale invasion which included extensive bombing of civilian areas, killings and mass rapes. Within days, Turkey had turned what at first may have seemed like a lawful intervention to ‘restore the status quo’ into an opportunistic and brutal invasion, occupying 37% of Cyprus.
Almost immediately after its invasion, Turkey embarked on a recolonisation of the island’s occupied areas with settlers from the Turkish hinterland in contravention of article 49 of the Geneva Convention, which states it is a war crime to remove a population and replace it with another and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
By 1984, Turkey had transferred 40,000 settlers to the island in a blatant and deliberate attempt to alter the demographics on the ground. Since 1974, approximately 150,000 settlers have been transferred to Cyprus from Turkey.
There is no doubt that in the past, certain Greek-Cypriot elements had more sinister ambitions but it was never the prevailing attitude, or objective, on the island in 1974. It is an absurd premise which has served Turkish domestic propaganda extremely well while feeding an endless animosity between communities.
Deserted buffer zone.
Turkish Cypriots are under no existential threat from their Greek-Cypriot compatriots. Greek Cypriots, on the other hand, have a legitimate fear of the 30,000 Turkish troops still stationed illegally on the island and a very powerful Turkey of 85 million people with its cutting-edge military capabilities, only 65 kilometres from the coast of Cyprus.
With a confirmed history of repeated genocides, Armenian, Greek, Kurdish, Turkey’s claims of victimhood cannot be taken seriously. It’s a mythology that the Erdogans and the Putins peddle to their nationalist acolytes.
There is no malicious agenda to erase the Turkish-Cypriot community or their history on the island. On the contrary, one need only look at the substantial difference in the mindset of the occupied north and free south. Unlike occupied Cyprus, free Cyprus celebrates its Ottoman/Turkish past. The official languages of the Republic of Cyprus are Turkish and Greek, and no matter which city you visit in the south you will encounter dozens of Ottoman street names, signs and landmarks.
There is no equivalent in the occupied parts of Cyprus. There is no Greek writing or streets named after famous Greeks, or Orthodox/Byzantine Churches and cemeteries that have not been desecrated in the vilest way. This says something.
The solution to the Cyprus problem rests squarely on the shoulders of Turkey. Turkey alone can solve this forgotten crime against humanity by demonstrating it is in favour of peace by simply withdrawing its troops and desisting from meddling in the affairs of Turkish-Cypriots. Hundreds of thousands of people still yearn to return to their ancestral lands and homes. It is time the international community, which today is justifiably protesting the illegal invasion of Ukraine, is reminded of another illegal invasion that has never been genuinely addressed.
Mary Politis from Mary’s Kouzina has all your Lenten needs sorted with her fasting kolokithokeftedes recipe!
Ingredients:
3 compressed cups grated pumpkin.
2-3 spring onions – chopped.
1/2 cup chopped dill.
1/3 cup chopped mint.
1/3 cup aquafava (canned chick pea water).
1/2 cup self raising flour (more if needed).
1/2 cup fine semolina.
5 Tbsp olive oil for the mixture + oil for frying.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Photo supplied: Mary’s Kouzina.
Method:
Place the grated pumpkin into a cloth and twist to squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Add it to a bowl with the remainder of the ingredients.
In a large pan drizzled with a olive oil place a heaped tablespoon amount of mixture onto the hot surface shaping it into a fritter. It’s always best to do one test kolokithokefte first, this way you can check for seasoning and/or if you need to add more flour or semolina to stabilise the mix.
You’ll know if your mixture needs adjusting if it is difficult to flip in the pan and is a little too soggy once cooked. Once you’ve made the adjustments continue with the rest of the mixture and place on absorbent paper towels. Makes approximately 20 fritters.
