Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, confirmed on Tuesday there is an operation underway to evacuate the Greek Consul General in Mariupol, Manolis Androulakis, along with local OSCE staff and their families.
The operation is being undertaken in close cooperation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe.
Τη στιγμή αυτή βρίσκεται σε εξέλιξη η προσπάθεια εκκένωσης του Έλληνα Γ. Προξένου Μ.Ανδρουλάκη από τη Μαριούπολη, μαζί με το προσωπικό του ΟΑΣΕ (από την ανακοίνωσή μου στην Επιτροπή Άμυνας & Εξ. Υποθέσεων της Βουλής για τον απεγκλωβισμό του Γ. Προξένου από τη Μαριούπολη). #voulipic.twitter.com/3K13DXLNBS
“I hope he will be able to return safely to our homeland,” Dendias said whilst thanking the Consul for his efforts to protect Greek expatriates in the Ukrainian port city.
Το "κομβόι της αγάπης" του Ελληνικού Ερυθρού Σταυρού πριν από λίγη ώρα διέσχισε τα ελληνικά σύνορα με κατεύθυνση προς Σόφια, όπου και θα διανυκτερεύσει, κερδίζοντας το ζεστό χειροκρότημα και τις επευφημίες του κόσμου. Συγχαρητήρια! Μείνετε ασφαλείς!✊#Ukraine#hellenicredcrosspic.twitter.com/PDwNEjkpzr
— Ελληνικός Ερυθρός Σταυρός – Hellenic Red Cross (@greekredcross) March 15, 2022
This news comes as the Greek Red Cross announced it has sent a second large delivery of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
The delivery includes three trucks loaded with 40 tons of humanitarian aid, as well as a mobile Red Cross Health Unit complete with nurses and a rescue vehicle manned by volunteer rescue workers.
Non-Executive Director of SBS and former CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD), Vic Alhadeff, has always been extremely proud of his Greek roots.
Speaking with The Greek Herald back in May 2021, Mr Alhadeff explained how not only was the Alhadeff family ‘one of the largest Jewish families on the Greek island of Rhodes,’ but both of his parents were also born there.
This all changed in 1938 – a year before World War II erupted.
Anti-Semitic decrees were passed in many parts of Europe banishing Jews from civil society. There were approximately 4,000 Jews living on Rhodes at the time and approximately half of them left for places such as the United States and South Africa.
Mr Alhadeff’s father, Salvatore, left Rhodes and went to Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, with the aim of bringing out his parents, his teenage sisters aged 14 and 16, and his fiancé Becky.
The Square of the Jewish Martyrs on Rhodes Island, where the Jewish residents were assembled before being deported to Auschwitz.
“But then WWII erupted and he wasn’t able to bring them out. In 1943, German forces arrived on the island and in 1944 they sent the Jews who were still on Rhodes island to Auschwitz. That included my father’s parents, sisters and his fiancé,” Mr Alhadeff tells The Greek Herald.
“His parents were murdered at Auschwitz, his sisters both survived and what happened to Becky? He was told that she had been killed and she was told he had been killed.”
Approximately 40 years later, Salvatore was on holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, when he overheard his fiancé’s name in a restaurant.
Doing justice to his father’s story:
Whilst we won’t spoil what happens next, this true story of turmoil and upheaval is the main focus of Mr Alhadeff’s new play Torn Apart by War.
Mr Alhadeff wants to do justice to his father’s story.
The play is the first act of a larger production titled, Letters From a Troubled Past, which will be performed at the ARA Darling Quarter Theatre in Sydney on March 17 -19 and at the Randwick Ritz in Sydney on April 3.
Ahead of its opening night, Mr Alhadeff admits he never even considered turning his father’s life into a play until he was encouraged by Sydney theatre producer, Moira Blumenthal.
Since then, Mr Alhadeff has spent the last two years writing the play and trying his best ‘to do justice’ to a father he loved but rarely saw. His parents divorced when he was a child and he was sent to boarding school in Zimbabwe whilst his dad relocated to Zaire.
“It’s been an intense journey because my father’s story was a story of turmoil, of upheaval in his life and then one also thinks about what could have happened if he had married the person he was engaged to. Everything would have been different,” Mr Alhadeff explains.
Salvatore and his fiance Becky.
“Also… I’ve never written a play before and so inserting myself into my father’s story has been a pretty emotional experience and a very challenging one.”
Despite these challenges, Mr Alhadeff hopes his play will not only honour his father, but also the countless other Jewish stories of tragedy and loss from WWII.
“On a deeper level, I really want to raise awareness of the Holocaust and specifically, awareness of the Holocaust in Greece because it is not widely known,” he concludes.
A worthy cause which we look forward to learning more about at the launch of ‘Torn Apart by War’ on March 17 at the ARA Darling Quarter Theatre in Sydney. Bookings:moirablumentalproductions.com.au and jiff.com.au.
The Cyprus Community of NSW is set to launch a youth committee called ‘Neolaia’ as a new initiative in affiliation with global advocate, NEPOMAK, an organisation that works to preserve the cultural roots of Cypriots worldwide.
This new initiative will be aimed at 18–30-year-old young Cypriots in order to help them create a connection within the community and strengthen ties to their heritage.
The Greek Herald spoke with Assistant Secretary of the Cyprus Community of NSW, Emilios Michael, and he said this new initiative was created alongside NEPOMAK to bring in the youth and create awareness of the Cyprus issue.
“To understand how to move forward, you need to understand the past. A lot of the youth have not lived the Cyprus issue,” Mr Michael says.
“It’s that link between our parents and grandparents.”
So why now? Mr Michael said that with the help of social media and because of the way the global community engages, appealing to the youth has never been easier.
“We do very well with kids while they’re in school, when they do Greek dancing, up until the ages of 16, 17 and then there is a disconnect, they tend to re-engage at a later stage,” Mr Michael explains.
The hope is that this new committee, once chosen and formed, will create initiatives which will become entrenched within the local Cypriot community.
To find out more about ‘Neolaia,’ an information evening will be held this Thursday, March 17 at 7pm at the Cyprus Community Club at Stanmore. Guest speakers from NEPOMAK will be present to introduce the new initiative and how the youth can get involved.
South Australia’s Liberal government has released its policy costings and says it will not be making any further funding commitments, ABC News reports.
The expenditure list released today shows $288 million in new funding is required to pay for the Liberal Party’s election commitments.
SA Treasurer, Rob Lucas, said the announcement was an attempt to “force” Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas to explain how Labor’s pre-election promises will be funded.
Mr Malinauskas said all of Labor’s policies had been fully costed and that he would be announcing all of the budget numbers on Thursday.
SA-BEST candidates Keyvan Abak (far left) and Ian Markos (far right) with MLCs Frank Pangallo and Connie Bonaros.
In response, SA Best’s lead Upper House candidate, Ian Markos, accused the government and other major parties of being dishonest in their insistence that taxes would not increase to pay for their promises.
“BS has its own sound and that’s what you’re hearing now,” Mr Markos told ABC News.
If elected to the Legislative Council, Mr Markos said SA Best would advocate for wide-ranging tax reforms, including to stamp duty, payroll tax and slashing the “outrageous cost” of registering land titles.
Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, said on Sunday that people will need a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to help fend off another wave of the virus.
Speaking to CBS’ Face the Nation program, Bourla said “many variants are coming” and although a third dose of the vaccine does offer some protection, it “doesn’t last very long” when faced with a variant like Omicron.
“It is necessary, a fourth (dose) for right now,” Mr Bourla told CBS.
We have seen encouraging results of our #COVID19 treatment in high-risk adults, and we are now expanding studies to non-hospitalized, symptomatic, pediatric participants who are at risk of progression to severe disease, including hospitalization or death: https://t.co/YjJSUs1BeD
The Greek Jewish CEO went on and said Pfizer is now working on a vaccine that will protect against any future variants.
“What we are trying to do, and we are working very diligently right now, is to make not only a vaccine that will protect against all variants, including Omicron, but also something that can protect for at least a year,” Mr Bourla said.
“If we be able to achieve that, then I think it is very easy to follow and remember so that we can go back to really the way [we] used to live.”
Cyprus needs to improve its policies and infrastructure in order to be ‘more humane’ when accommodating migrant refugees, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Monday.
The President’s statement comes after he paid a visit to Pournara camp on the western outskirts of Nicosia on Monday.
The Cypriot Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Despo Michaelidou, last week called conditions at the camp “miserable,” including poor food and a lack of sanitation facilities.
President Nicos Anastasiades listens to a migrant behind the fence of the Pournara refugee reception centre in Kokkinotrimithia. Photo: Financial Mirror.
During his visit, President Anastasiades said that any “deficiencies” at the camp that arose as a result of an influx of migrants will be “dealt with accordingly.”
The Cypriot President stressed that difficulties were to be expected when nearly 5 percent of Cyprus’ population are asylum seekers. He said Cyprus has the highest number of asylum applications per capita among the European Union’s 27 nations.
“It would be better to focus on how to solve these problems, how to deal with the crisis created from the flow (of migrants), rather than dealing with everyone’s criticism,” he said.
So far, according to the Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris, 92 of the 356 children at Pournara have already been relocated to hotels, while accommodations for another 150 will be found soon.
Minister Nouris said the overcrowding at Pournara will be alleviated once the migrants are transferred to a newly-constructed reception center 50 kilometres south of the capital.
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has assured Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Greece’s “full support” for his government in a telephone call on Monday.
Mitsotakis told Zelenskyy that “Greece would send aid and receive Ukrainian refugees as well as from the Greek diaspora.”
Held talks with 🇬🇷 PM @kmitsotakis. Reported on the course of countering Russian aggression. We appreciate defense, humanitarian support of 🇬🇷. Stressed the need to ensure the work of humanitarian corridors, especially in Mariopol. Also discussed 🇺🇦 movement towards EU membership
On the topic of the Greek diaspora, Mitsotakis noted the need to open a humanitarian corridor for the safe exit of civilians from cities such as Mariupol.
The Greek Prime Minister also told Zelenskyy he wanted to ensure the Greek Consul General and others trapped in the OSCE building in Mariupol could move freely.
Dramatic appeal for help by ethnic Greeks in Mariupol:
This telephone call comes as the President of the Federation of Greek Associations in Ukraine, Alexandra Protsenko, made a dramatic appeal the international community to mobilise to prevent the imminent extermination of Ukraine’s Greek communities.
The Ukrainian military has been defending Mariupol for more than a week. Photo: AP / Mstyslav Chernov.
According to Keep Talking Greek, Protsenko sent a letter to CNN Greece, from an underground shelter in Mariupol, which denounced the “genocide of the Ukrainian people and the Greeks of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.”
The President then called on the international community to organise a “green corridor” for the evacuation of Greeks “from settlements surrounded by the enemy,” as well as “the provision of humanitarian aid.”
More than 2,500 residents have already been killed in the port city of Mariupol since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Monday.
People fleeing the conflict in Ukraine cross the Moldova-Ukraine border checkpoint near the town of Palanca. Picture: AFP.
After several days of failed attempts to deliver supplies to Mariupol and provide safe passage out for trapped civilians,ABC News has reported that a convoy of over 160 cars left the city on Monday.
This appears to be the first successful attempt to arrange a “humanitarian corridor” to evacuate civilians from the encircled Ukrainian city.
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has tested positive for COVID-19.
“I will be self-isolating in my home and work from there,” the Prime Minister said in a video posted to Instagram.
“Triple vaccination provides the best possible protection against serious disease. I’m sure everything will go well and I will be back in the office very soon.”
Mitsotakis has tested positive for COVID-19.
The diagnosis comes just one day after Mitsotakis visited Istanbul in Turkey and met with Turkish President Erdogan and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
On Twitter, Mitsotakis said Erdogan had wished him a speedy recovery from the virus during a phone call.
Thank you President @RTErdogan for your call and your kind wishes for a speedy recovery!
Excitement is growing amongst Sydney’s Greek community as much-loved international singer, Melina Aslanidou, prepares to hit the stage at Enmore Theatre on Wednesday, March 16 at 7pm.
Aslanidou arrived in Sydney last Thursday night and hasn’t wasted any time mingling with her local fans and sending a message to all Greek Australians ahead of her concert.
Speaking at a press conference organised by The Greek Festival of Sydney and the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW (GOCNSW), Aslanidou expressed her joy at arriving in Australia and congratulated the local diaspora for maintaining their Greek culture and traditions.
Melina Aslanidou at the press conference on Friday afternoon. All photos: The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
“I was born outside of Greece in Germany and so I have an accurate understanding of how it feels to live away from your homeland but for it to be a part of who you are wherever you are,” Aslanidou said.
“So it will be my pleasure to put all my feelings as a Greek into songs which showcase our homeland, our culture, our ethos and our traditions because it is very important to never forget our traditions.
“We are all one… and I congratulate you all because you are far from the homeland but you have brought Greece here [to Australia] and promote our culture…”
Festival Chair, Nia Kateris (left) facilitated a Q&A segment with Aslanidou.
Later, during a Q&A segment facilitated by Festival Chair Nia Kateris, the Greek singer talked openly about what people can expect from her upcoming concert and stressed that “it will be magical.”
In response to a question from The Greek Herald, Aslanidou, who has Pontian heritage, also gave an insight into whether she will be performing any Pontian songs at her concert to mark the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe this year.
“In my shows, I always have a Pontian song in honour of my roots and can guarantee there will be one on Wednesday night as well. A song sung with love and devoted to all Pontians worldwide and all those who love our music,” Aslanidou said.
“So I can’t wait for us to be united [at the concert] and for us to become one voice.”
*All photos and video copyright The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
In late 2015, Dr Essam Daod found himself standing on a beach on the Greek island of Lesvos as numerous small boats, filled with hundreds of Syrian refugees, approached the shore.
In an interview with ABC RN’s Sunday Extra, Dr Daod details how over the course of a year, he witnessed “unspeakable suffering” on Lesvos as almost one million displaced Syrians arrived on the island in an attempt to flee the civil war and ISIS.
This, he explained, inspired him and his wife to set up Humanity Crew, an organisation devoted to making mental health a priority in humanitarian crisis responses.
“If we want to help someone going through trauma, we need also to take care of his mind. And not only his basic needs [of] food and shelter,” the psychiatrist told the ABC program about why he launched Humanity Crew.
Nowadays, Humanity Crew volunteers continue to operate in Greece, training thousands of people and mental health professionals in psychosocial work.
There’s also an online clinic, run by mental health professionals, which aims to help refugees with their mental health wherever they are.
