After roaming the high seas for four days as Greece and Turkey haggled over its fate, a cargo ship packed with hundreds of Afghan refugees has been allowed to dock at an Aegean island, with passengers disembarking to apply for asylum.
In what Greece’s migration ministry called “an unusual and special case,” the Turkish-flagged vessel was towed into the port of Kos on Sunday.
About 375 passengers, the biggest single influx of asylum seekers in years, were taken to a reception centre on the island. Six others were detained for questioning and one woman was admitted to hospital on the island of Karpathos.
Earlier today the Hellenic coastguard safely disembarked 382 migrants from a Turkish flagged vessel after its engine failed in international waters off Crete. Yet again another dangerous and illegal journey from the Turkish coast, unseen by the Turkish authorities. pic.twitter.com/JChiKJBLae
— Νότης Μηταράκης – Notis Mitarachi (@nmitarakis) October 31, 2021
Greek coastguard officials said those onboard were mostly young Afghan males. Many were reported to be hungry and dehydrated after an ordeal that began on Thursday when the freighter, initially bound for Italy, developed engine trouble and sent out a distress signal off the island of Crete, shortly after setting sail from Turkey.
Days of negotiations between Athens and Ankara followed after the Greek government appealed via the European Commission for Turkey to take the vessel back in line with a 2016 accord reached with the EU intended to staunch migrants flows.
When the Turkish authorities made clear they would not be accepting the ship, Greek coastguard officials launched what they called one of the largest search and rescue operations in the eastern Mediterranean.
375 passengers were on board the ship.
The refugees are now being housed in the reception centre until their asylum applications have been examined by officials and they complete their quarantine. However, the ministry stressed this solution is temporary and a result of extenuating circumstances.
“Greece has once again proven that it protects human lives at sea and offers safety, where others are indifferent to their obligations,” Greek Migration Minister, Notis Mitarakis, said.
The minister also stated on social media that he has informed the European Union that Turkey refused to accept the cargo ship and called on the EU to ensure that the migration agreement with Turkey is upheld.
Angela Merkel has completed her final trip as German chancellor to Greece, a country where she was not overly welcome in the past because of the strict austerity measures she backed to keep Greece’s economy afloat.
Sticks, stones, gas bombs and heated demonstrations gripped Greece on Merkel’s first visit to Athens in 2012.
But now, a decade later, the outgoing chancellor got an almost indifferent public reception, walking freely along streets bare of any public protest or threat.
Με χαρά υποδέχθηκα την Καγκελάριο Merkel στην Αθήνα, την οποία επέλεξε ως έναν από τους τελευταίους προορισμούς της, ολοκληρώνοντας τον πολιτικό της μαραθώνιο. Μία διαδρομή 16 ετών στην ηγεσία της Γερμανίας κατά την οποία προσέφερε πολλά στην πατρίδα της αλλά και στην Ευρώπη. pic.twitter.com/IamlOVKEHP
During her visit, Merkel met with Greece’s President, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. She also visited the Goethe Institute of Athens.
Merkel admits being tough on Greeks:
In Merkel’s meeting with Mitsotakis, she referred to Greece’s 10-year financial crisis, saying she is aware of the burden that was borne by Greek citizens and that she “demanded a lot.”
“I was always in favour of Greece remaining in the eurozone and I said that the efficiency of our economic system must be comparable otherwise we would not be able to keep the common currency alive,” she said.
Η σημερινή Ελλάδα είναι πολύ διαφορετική από την Ελλάδα της τελευταίας δεκαετίας. Δεν είναι πλέον μία εστία κρίσης και ελλειμμάτων, αλλά ένα σύγχρονο ευρωπαϊκό κράτος που προχωρά στη δυναμική ανάπτυξη, στη μείωση της ανεργίας και στον σχεδιασμό ενός καλύτερου αύριο. pic.twitter.com/HJN7yLV7Mq
“I know that I demanded a lot from the Greeks but, on the other hand, there were various governments in Greece that considered many reforms possible.”
For his part, Mitsotakis, who is the eighth Greek Prime Minister to work with Merkel, said: “Merkel was the voice of reason and stability. Sometimes unfair, but decisive, as she was in 2015, when she rejected the expulsion of Greece from Europe.”
Turning to Greece’s relations with Turkey, Mitsotakis told Merkel: “I know your firm position in favour of dialogue and the easing of tensions.”
Merkel at the Goethe Institute of Athens.
Merkel pointed out that Greece, due to its geopolitical position and proximity to Turkey, faced huge challenges at its external borders.
“One can learn and be taught many things by Greece and from one another and many discussions led to very good solutions,” she said.
“I cannot but agree that most of the problems between Greece and Turkey are EU-Turkey problems, and within the framework of the EU there is unity.”
Kayla Itsines is among a record number of women to make Australia’s richest young entrepreneurs lists.
The Australian Financial Review ranks Itsines #39 at a worth of $164 million.
Itsines, 30, has amassed 13 million followers since launching her Sweat fines app business on Instagram in 2009.
Itsines is among influencers turned businesswomen such as Natasha Oakley, Jessica Sepel, and Tammy Hembrow to make it onto the list.
The list’s publishers say social media influencers – especially those focusing on health and wellness – are breaking into the Top 100 in record numbers.
Itsines is younger than the average age of the Young Rich List of 35.
Manolis Mikromanolis, was born in November 1940 in Malona, a rural village located on the south east coast of Rhodes.
He has no recollection of the Italian occupation but fragmented memories of his childhood after the Germans took full control of the island in 1943 and a few years before the Dodecanese islands were ceded to Greece after World War II.
“I was six years old. I remember it like in a dream. I saw Italian soldiers running in the fields holding their guns and instructing us not to leave our homes. Not all Italians were bad. Some were persecuted by Nazism,” says Mr. Mikromanolis, 81, from his Adelaide home where he has lived with his wife Maria for fifty-two years.
The fifth of the six kids of ‘Dimitri Mikromanolis the charcoal maker’ and Anastasia (nee Sergou) young Manolis grew up in the village watching his father work hard to feed the family.
“My mother would hold my hand, take me to the kitchen where the Italian soldiers cooked their meals and ask for leftovers. They always gave food when they saw a hungry child,” Mr Mikromanolis says.
“There was poverty and misery. We had no food. My mother and father dug the ground to unearth onion bulbs that would later fry in the pan. They also made bread with them.”
Dimitris and Anastasia (nee Sergou) Mikromanolis
It was at this period that Manolis also saw his older brother learning and reading Italian under the De Vecchi government that imposed unequivocally brutal political oppression and permanently Italianized all the primary and secondary schools in the Dodecanese.
“They [Italians] called the schoolkids ‘Ballilas’ which means ‘Little Italians’. They taught them the language to create janissaries and take them to their country.”
“My brother became fluent in Italian and they asked him to go with them. He did not accept. Others from my village left,” says Mr Mikromanolis explaining that at that stage the Rhodians had created friendships with the Italian soldiers who found themselves persecuted by the Nazis.
“Many islanders, like my father, protected them risking their own lives.”
Cesare Maria de Vecchi, governor of the Dodecanese from 1936 to 1940
Friendships formed in the heat of battle
“We had a stable in the village where my father hid an Italian soldier for almost two years. His name was Mario. In return he helped dad cultivate the fields. My mother used to wash his clothes and cook for him.”
“When the day came for the Italians to leave the island my father lent him clothes and accompanied him to the bus. He had advised him not to mention he is a soldier. While he was boarding, someone betrayed him and the Germans shot him on the spot,” says Mr. Mikromanolis.
“I remember my father grieving for years that he was not able to save Mario who also had a daughter in Italy. He had even given a photo of her to my father. I still have this photo.”
Maria Mikromanolis’ parents
The Rhodians were not the only ones who helped Italians. Samians did the same according to Mr Mikromanolis’ wife, Maria, whose family is from Chora, Samos.
“My mother used to tell me that my father, Georgios Giakoumis, together with other fishermen used to help Italian soldiers escape from the Germans by transporting them to Kusadasi in Turkey,” Mrs Mikromanolis says.
“Behind our house we had a shelter and my father hid some there as well.”
“In the 70’s some of the children of these soldiers returned to the island to thank the Samians for helping their ancestors.”
The years after the occupation and the migration to Australia
In 1947, Rhodes and all of the Dodecanese islands became part of the Greek State.
Mr. Mikromanolis remembers that people were poor and had to work hard but they were relieved to be free.
“There were jobs, we were happy,” he says explaining how he decided to immigrate to Australia.
He went to school but left it when he was thirteen years old to become a house painter.
At the age of 21 he joined the Greek Army where he served for two years as a clerk under his Commanding Officer Anastasios Economou .
Manolis Mikromanolis while serving in the Greek Army
A year after his discharge, in January 1964, he immigrated to Australia on the ship “Patris” following two of his siblings who made the journey a few years earlier also looking for a better future.
“I loved Australia from the very beginning despite the fact that I didn’t know the language. For the first nine months I worked as a painter with the Economou family in Adelaide until nine months later I started my own business which I had for 30 years,” says Mr. Mikromanolis.
In 1969 he met his wife, Maria, at an event held by the Laconian Association at the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia’s Olympic Hall
From L to R: Manolis and Maria on their wedding day and (R) with their three children
A few months later they got married and their family grew.
Maria and Manolis have three children and now help with the upbringing of their four grandchildren.
“We are grateful for the opportunities Australia has given to us, our children and grandchildren,” they say.
“But it is important to always remember the stories of hardship. To remember our roots and to keep our language, culture and religion alive.”
Mr Mikromanolis with the Greek Ex Servicemen Association of SA
“Adversities and hardships are parts of life that shape us into better people,” says Mr Mikromanolis, who still pays his duty to his home country by being an active member of the Greek Ex Servicemen Association of South Australia.
“Take life in your hands like we did when we came to Australia,” Mrs Mikromanolis says.
Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance will hold an online service Sunday to commemorate 103 years since the Armistice of Mudros.
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee president Lee Tarlamis thanks the Shrine for running the service.
“They have thereby ensured that the commemoration of the Armistice and the service and sacrifice of thousands continue to be remembered,” Tarlamis said.
(Photo: Supplied)
The Armistice, signed between the Entente Powers and the Ottoman Empire on 30 October 1918, signalled the end of WWI in the eastern Mediterranean.
(Photo: Supplied)
Lemnos was an advance base during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16. It treated wounded and sick Australian and Hellenic soldiers.
More than 200 Australian and New Zealand service personnel rest in Lemnos’ war cemeteries.
The Shrine will lay a wreath in remembrance of these soldiers at its annual service this 31 October at 11.45 am.
Nick Kyrgios has missed out on playing in the Davis Cup finals in Italy next month.
Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt was forced to leave Kyrgios out, who is back home in Canberra after playing in the Laver Cup.
“Team selection is never easy,” Hewitt says in news.com.au.
Alex de Minaur will lead the Australian team again, which includes John Millman, Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin, and doubles star John Peers.
“It’s going to be really exciting to be back with the boys again at the Davis Cup Finals,” Hewitt says.
“We will be led by our No.1 Alex de Minaur, who has had a really consistent three to four years on the tour and has established himself as a top player.”
Writer Christos Tsiolkas and playwright Alana Valentine have written the libretto for a new oratorio on a murder that changed Australia.
Watershed: The Death of Dr. Duncan retells the manslaughter of then 41-year-old London-born law lecturer George Duncan in 1972.
Duncan and another man, Roger James, were confronted by a violent gang at a well-known meeting spot for gay men near a footbridge along Adelaide’s River Torrens.
Both were thrown in the water. Duncan drowned.
After his body was retrieved from the river, his corpse was returned to the water and dragged out again for the benefit of a news crew’s camera.
“The body was desecrated twice, in a way,” says Tsiolkas.
“That kind of desecration would not have occurred to the body of a heterosexual man.”
“It was the fact that he was a poofter, that kind of made it all right to do.”
A 1972 newspaper front page covering the murder of George Duncan. No one pictured was suspected in Dr. Duncan’s death (Photo: SA State Library)
In 1988, two vice squad members were tried and acquitted of Duncan’s manslaughter.
“I don’t think we’ve shied away from saying that the culpability of police is an unaddressed question,” says Tsiolkas.
“It’s still there, and clearly there was a real history of homophobic violence in the police force, as there was at that time in police forces across the globe.”
Duncan’s death sparked momentous change and led to a bipartisan push to decriminalise homosexuality.
Fifty years later, the show will fuse inquests, press clippings, private correspondence, real and imagined monologues spanning five decades and 30 years of research by local historian Tim Reeves.
The show will bring together solo voices, a dancer, the Adelaide Chamber Singers, and an elite chamber orchestra under the baton of Christie Anderson.
Adelaide Festival Co-Artistic Director Neil Armfield directs the opera (Photo: Adelaide Festival via ABC News)
The festival has tried unsuccessfully to track down those involved at the time of the murder in 1972.
But Tsiolkas hopes they may still find them or they will suddenly turn up.
“I think we all hope if they come to this show that they will feel that elation and that mourning,” he said.
Tsiolkas says the oratorio’s combination of “celebration” and “lament” reflects upon continuing violence against queer people.
The opera is directed by Adelaide Festival co-artistic director Neil Armfield and features then South Australian premier Don Dunstan – who decriminalised male homosexual acts in 1975 – as a character.
Watershed: The Death of Dr. Duncan premieres at the Dunstan Playhouse from Wednesday, March 2-8 as part of the Adelaide Festival.
The current COVID pandemic has impacted on our lives and our access to public activities. Many no doubt had planned to be Greece for this year’s 80th anniversary of the Greek campaign of 1941.
Despite these restrictions the Australian Embassy in Greece was able to organize and take part in a number of innovative events to commemorate the Greek campaign anniversary, and particularly Australia’s role in it. This included not only attendance at various commemorative events on Crete but also an innovative visual display in Athens of photographs from Australian and other archives of the campaign.
During the commemorations the Australian Embassy produced and released a new and impressive nearly 200 page publication, entitled “Mates and Allies.” It showcases many of the photographs and images of other important documentation from the campaign including the battle of Crete, sourced from Australian and Greek archives. Also included are text extracts from firsthand accounts by diggers and nurses of their campaign experiences. Photos show images from Athens to northern Greece, to Argos, Nafplio and Kalamata, to Crete and the evacuation. Importantly, the whole publication is produced in both the English and Greek languages.
Victorian Minister for Veterans, the Hon Shaun Leane, MP (left) being presented with his copy of Mates and Allies by Victorian MP Mr Lee Tarlamis, OAM, in the Victorian Parliament’s Queens Hall. Photo Lee Tarlamis 2021
The significance of the publication is shown by the inclusion of prefaces by the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison MP, the Prime minister of the Hellenic Republic Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the then Australian Minister for Veterans Affairs Darren Chester MP and the Regional Governor of Crete Stavros Arnaoutakis.
Historian Jim Claven was enlisted to support the publication by assisting in the selection of photographs and in providing an authoritative historical overview of the Greek campaign as a way of introducing the photographs and placing them in context, as well as suggestions for further reading. Readers of Jim’s Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed and his many historical articles will know that his contribution to this new publication is of a similar high standard.
Jim’s overview provides an excellent introduction to the campaign – from the arrival of Australian and other Allied forces in Athens and the popular welcome they received, their movement up to the north of Greece to face the coming enemy invasion, the various battles in the north (from Vevi and Pinieos George to Servia), the fighting retreat towards the evacuation beaches across southern Greece and the fierce engagements fought on the way (such as at Brallos Pass, Corinth Canal and Kalamata), the evacuation to Crete and the subsequent defence of the island (such as at Maleme, 42nd Street, Rethymno and Heraklion) to its final evacuation. He touches on the often forgotten role of Australia’s nurses and Royal Australian Navy in the campaign as well as the service and fate of the only Australian soldier of Hellenic descent to die in the campaign, Private James Zampelis.
Importantly Jim has also chosen to highlight some of the escape and evasion stories from the campaign, drawing on his research into the stories of Horsham’s Private Syd Grant, Frankston’s Lance Corporal Skip Welsh and indigenous digger Sergeant Reg Saunders, recalling the depth of gratitude felt by these young Australians to the many ordinary Greek civilians who helped them survive and escape capture. This is sentiment is reflected in the words of Skip Welsh and selected by Jim to illustrate this feeling:
“The Greeks helped us to escape from the country. They guided us over the mountains, from village to village, each village supplying a guide to the next one. They helped us with food, Greek Orthodox priests gave us shelter and food in their churches and the police warned us of any approaching Germans on the route. … The Greeks were extremely kind to us. It amazed me that people who have everything to lose and nothing to gain could open their arms to us”
In recounting the story of the campaign, the book also honours the service of diggers like these who fought across Greece. Jim says that the descendants of both Syd Grant and Reg Saunders are glad that these stories have been part of the re-telling of the campaign. Throughout the overview Jim refers to many of the photographs published in the book, weaving their images into his narrative, drawing your attention to their illustration of aspects of the campaign.
Mr Claven says that it was an honour to be approached to contribute to this important publication and congratulated the Australian Embassy on taking on such an important task:
“I have always found the individual stories connecting Australia and Greece through the Greek campaign fascinating. They connect people and communities to this period of intensity, where ordinary people – whether as soldiers or civilians – felt called upon to do extraordinary things in the cause of freedom and the defeat of fascism. This book demonstrates that bond vividly”, Mr Claven said.
A small number of copies have been distributed in Australia. Recently Victorian MP Mr Lee Tarlamis OAM presented a copy of the new book to the Victorian Veterans Minister, the Hon Shaun Leane, MP. He did so in the Victorian Parliament’s Queens Hall, in front of the portrait of the Hon Stanley Argyle , former Premier of Victoria and Gallipoli veteran. Mr Tarlamis will soon also be presenting copies to both the Premier of Victoria, the Hon Daniel Andrews, and to the Victorian Parliamentary Library.
Mr Tarlamis also congratulated the Australian Ambassador to Greece, his Excellency Mr Arthur Spyrou, the Australian Embassy in Greece, the Australian Government and Hellenic authorities for their efforts in supporting this important initiative. He told The Greek Herald that this was one of the most significant contributions to the commemoration of the Greek campaign by the Australian Government in recent years:
“As time passes and the distance from the Greek campaign grows, it is through major publications like these that awareness of the Australian connection to Greece through the 1941 campaign is kept alive. As they say, a picture can tell a thousand words and the photographs published in this collection demonstrate the bonds of friendship between our two peoples – as the title of the book says, we are “Mates and Allies.”
The publication was made available by the Embassy in Greece during the recent commemorative events on Crete and in Athens. Mr Claven is hopefully that the book may be made available to a wider audience in the near future.
Victoria Police will pay $11.75 million to a man left paralysed after police officers allegedly used excessive force while responding to a noise complaint.
Chris Karadaglis said three police officers allegedly forcibly removed him from his home in Warrnambool in November 2017, in a settlement filed in the Supreme Court.
“The plaintiff was alone at the premises and he posed no threat to the police officers or anybody else,” court documents obtained by AAP said.
He claimed one of the police officers placed him in a headlock and applied “increasing force” to his neck.
“One or more of the officers applied excessive force to the plaintiff who suffered devastating injury to his cervical spine,” the documents stated.
Mr. Karadaglis is now quadriplegic and suffers from post-traumatic stress, as well as depressive and anxiety disorders.
The documents lodged with the court alleged the force used by police was “cowardly and brutal” and their conduct was contemptuous of Mr. Karadaglis’ rights.
It was “an affront to his dignity”, high-handed, insulting, and “in reckless disregard of the harm likely to be caused to him”, the claim said.
After the incident, two of the officers involved allegedly visited the Warrnambool hospital where Mr. Karadaglis was being treated and told a nurse he “was feigning his medical condition”.
Mr. Karadaglis asked for Victoria Police to pay exemplary damages to show the court’s strong disapproval of the incident, and as a deterrent to “bring home to” police that physically restraining a non-violent offender must “avoid foreseeable injury”.
The documents said police officers “must be properly supervised, assessed, monitored and trained”.
On October 1, Victoria Police agreed to pay $11.75 million to Mr. Karadaglis, less any repayment to the National Disability Insurance Agency, as well as his legal costs.
The court documents did not reference fault nor liability on behalf of the officers themselves.
A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed the settlement but refused to comment further.
