The Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will be the special guest at The Hellenic Initiative Australia’s inaugural Digital Conversation Series event being held on Tuesday, 20 October 2020 at 6.30pm (AEDT).
The Prime Minister will be joined by Andrew N Liveris AO, THI’s Global Chairman, for a one-hour discussion around the theme Greece reborn and the role of the Greek Diaspora.
This is the first Australian live stream event the Prime Minister has participated in since coming to office in 2019.
“We are honoured that the Greek Prime Minister has accepted our invitation to speak directly to Greek Australians about the role we can all play as a stronger Greece emerges from its years of crisis,” said THI Australia President, Nicholas Pappas AM.
“This promises to be a thought-provoking conversation between two outstanding and dynamic political and business leaders.”
“We are particularly pleased to be starting this dialogue as we approach the 2021 celebrations marking 200 years since the Greek Revolution that led to the creation of the modern Greek State,” Mr Pappas said.
Since 2014, THI Australia has supported a range of not-for-profit charities in Greece delivering health, social services, education and employment programs.
Registration for this event is essential. As spaces are limited, please register to secure your participation.
Greece’s National Organization for Public Health (EODY) reported 436 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, which brings the nationwide total since the start of the health crisis to 21,381.
The official death toll has increased to 430 after six people tragically lost their lives with the virus in the past 24-hour period. The death toll is still only half of Australia’s total death count, which remains at 897 lives lost.
14.8 percent of infected cases are considered related to travel from abroad, and 40.8 percent are related to an already known case.
Map of infections in the last ten days, according to regional units – based on infected permanent or temporary residence.
91 Greek citizens are being treated by intubation, however up to 80 of those people are recorded as being over 70 years old or having an underlying disease, raising concerns for their recovery.
The total number of coronavirus tests conducted in the country reached 1,390,270, and the number of Rapid Ag tests rose to 20,079.
A Greek court on Thursday adjourned the sentencing procedure for 18 former lawmakers of the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party and others convicted in the case, a day after the three-member panel of judges delivered a landmark verdict deeming the party a criminal organization.
The court hearing will resume Friday morning with summations by the lawyers representing the former lawmakers, including the party’s leader, with arguments on mitigating circumstances for more lenient sentences to be imposed.
Wednesday’s verdict was the culmination of a five-year, politically charged trial that involved 68 defendants — party officials, members, and alleged supporters — more than 200 witnesses and over 60 lawyers. About 20,000 people held an anti-fascist rally outside the courthouse for the verdict, and thousands more held a similar rally in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Magda Fyssa, the mother of late Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas, who was stabbed and killed by a supporter of the extreme right Golden Dawn party in 2013 triggering a crackdown on the party, celebrates after the announcement of a court decision in Athens, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Golden Dawn, founded as a neo-Nazi group in the 1980s, rose to prominence during Greece’s brutal near decade-long financial crisis that began in 2009, and became the country’s third largest party. Considered a model for many extreme-right groups in Europe and beyond, it held parliamentary seats from 2012 until 2019, when its popularity plummeted in national elections.
Government spokesman Stelios Petsas described the court decision as being of “historic importance,” and added: “What is important is that democracy prevailed.”
Sparked by the 2013 fatal stabbing of left-wing Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas, the trial wrapped four cases into one: Fyssas’ killing; physical attacks against Egyptian fishermen in 2012 and on left-wing activists in 2013; and whether Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organization.
The court ruled that of the 18 former party lawmakers on trial, seven, including party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, were guilty of leading a criminal organization. They face between five and 15 years in prison. The other 11 were deemed guilty of participating in a criminal organization, a charge that carries a potential sentence of five to 10 years.
The foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey met on Thursday for the first time since a dispute emerged between the two NATO members over energy exploration and territorial rights in the eastern Mediterranean, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
A dispute between the two NATO allies and longtime rivals over maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean this summer led to fears of open conflict as warships from both sides faced off.
Turkey’s foreign ministry released a short video of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusloglu meeting on the sidelines of the Globsec Forum in Bratislava. The atmosphere of what both sides said was a brief meeting appeared cordial and even jovial as the two, both wearing masks, bumped elbows, patted each other on the shoulder and stood at a table to talk.
A Greek diplomatic official said the two agreed to set a date for the exploratory talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal the contents of the meeting.
The talks will be the 61st round of a long-running process of talks between Greece and Turkey designed to reduce tension and improve relations that are often testy between the two neighbors.
At odds over a series of issues, including territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea, the two countries have come to the brink of war three times since the mid-1970s. Earlier this summer, Turkey sent a research vessel escorted by warships to prospect for energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean in an area Greece says is over its own continental shelf and where it claims exclusive economic rights.
Greece mobilised its own navy fleet and put its armed forces on standby.
Ankara withdrew its exploration vessels from contested waters last month to “allow for diplomacy” ahead of a meeting of EU leaders. After the summit the bloc said it would punish Turkey if it continued its operations in the region.
“I’m very proud to call him my father,” says Arthur George Sklavos, the son of George Peter Sklavos, before asking me a powerful question.
“Can you imagine yourself as a 12-and-a-half-year-old, going and living in a foreign country, not knowing the language and then enlisting as a 24-year-old and fighting for that country?”
For myself, and many others today, it’s a scene we probably can’t imagine. But for George Peter Sklavos, this sequence of events was a reality. His reality.
Arriving in Australia and the Cumberland Cafe:
George was born in the village of Mitata on the Greek island of Kythera on November 4, 1915. He was one of five siblings including his sister Eleni and brothers Haralambos-Babi, Vasili and Nick.
Due to the prevailing poverty in Greece during the 1920’s, George decided to migrate to Australia in search of a better life. He arrived in Sydney in 1928 on board the ship, Orian.
George Sklavos is among these boys who were migrating to Australia. Photo supplied.
George immediately began to work at the Cumberland Cafe on Church Street in Parramatta, which was owned by his uncle Arthur Psaltis. Whilst there, he would send money home to his struggling family.
“But eventually my dad saved up enough money to buy the cafe with his brother Vasili, who came out to Australia in 1937. Soon after, they were also joined by their other brother Nick,” George’s son, Arthur, tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
The three Sklavos brothers worked together in the cafe until the outbreak of World War II, which altered George’s life forever.
The Cumberland Cafe in Parramatta which George Sklavos owned. Photo supplied.
Enlisting in the Australian army:
As WWII broke out in 1939, George decided to enlist into the Australian army. According to his son, Arthur, the decision was not made lightly.
“It was decided by the three brothers – my dad, Vasili and Nick – that he would enlist because they knew that of the three, he would be able to adapt better,” Arthur explains.
“He had been in Australia for almost 12 years by then and knew English well because he had learnt a lot through reading the Sydney Morning Herald at the time.”
This sacrifice forced George to leave his family and the cafe he loved behind and instead, he found himself on the battlefront in Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
At the time, Australian and American forces had launched a major offensive against the Japanese occupying PNG.
George Sklavos enlisted into the Australian army. Photo supplied.
“My dad was enlisted as an engineer in the Australian army. The Japanese bombings around Port Moresby and along the Kokoda Trail meant that he was responsible for helping out with the reconstruction of buildings and rebuilding bridges,” Arthur says.
“He was actually sought after for his cafe experience as well. He oversaw the army mess, which was bombed at one stage. They sadly lost the chef, so dad was thrown into that to rebuild it and keep the stomachs of all the men happy.”
The trauma was never ending during the 18 months that George was in Port Moresby. In fact, Arthur says George also had to deal with the heartbreak of hearing that his father had been killed by the Germans in Greece, while he was off fighting for Australia.
“My dad felt sad and helpless upon hearing about his father’s death. He was sad that he wasn’t there to defend and help his father,” Arthur says.
On top of this, George even had to witness his friends being killed in action. Arthur remembers George telling him about the moment he had to take over the firing of a weapon because his friend had been hit by shrapnel.
“He had to take control of firing a 55-millimetre howitzer because the gunner was killed by flying shrapnel. And just as he had taken over, his other mate nearby was hit by more shrapnel and lost his leg. These are the horrific things that he had to live with,” Arthur explains.
Following this incident, George had to be evacuated from Port Moresby to Cairns as he had contracted malaria. After months of rehabilitation, he re-entered the service and was re-assigned to a base in Cairns as a crane driver.
Arthur says the only thing which made this experience more bearable for his father was the letters he received from home as they gave him a sense that ‘things were okay.’
George’s return from the battlefront:
But of course, nothing was truly ‘okay’ about fighting in a war. That is until, after 4.5 years of service, George was finally released from duty and allowed to return home to Parramatta.
George Sklavos was allowed to return home from war after 4.5 years.
It was on his return that he met, courted and married his beautiful wife, Eleni Mavromatis, through proxy. Their marriage produced four gorgeous children, including Peter in 1949, Anthony in 1951, Anna in 1953 and Arthur in 1960.
During this time, George became very active in supporting the local Greek community and Arthur says his father was “a proud founding member of the Greek Orthodox Church in Parramatta and the local RSL club.” Later on in 1960, he ventured into a new business on Darcy Street in Parramatta called the Cumberland Milk Bar.
He was also awarded the WWII Star, which represents service in the military, the Pacific Star, for his service in the Pacific, the War Medal and the Australian Service Medal for 1939-45.
The war medals awarded to George Sklavos. Photo supplied.
When George retired in 1992 after six decades of hard work, his greatest pleasures in life became his Sunday picnics, his love of soccer and being surrounded by family. A family which still remembers George and his sacrifice fondly even years after he passed away at the age of 99 on October 13, 2015.
“The war made men like my father into men of calibre. Dad was a very proud man, but a very, very humble man. I never heard him raise his voice to anything or anyone even though he had the tortures of war embedded in him,” Arthur says passionately.
“So to go through what he did and still be the man he was, that makes me very proud and very humbled to call him my father.”
Followers of Greek Australian, Michael Zavros, will be shocked by the artist’s long-awaited Sydney exhibition next week, his first show here in over a decade.
‘The Michael Zavros: A Guy Like Me’ exhibit at Redfern gallery, Sullivan and Strumpf, will feature a vaguely lifelike mannequin and self portrait of Zavros called ‘Dad.’
In his words, ‘Dad’ is the better looking version of himself.
“He’s a better version of me — 6’3” (190cm), broader, more cut, a bit younger and a lot smoother,” Zarvos told TimeOut.
The head of the mannequin was sculpted by Zavros then run through a 3D printer. From there, the head was attached to a store-bought mannequin and the whole thing was airbrushed to match his skin tones.
“I had to find a lot of different people to work with in order to make this thing,” he said.
Zavros then took the new and ‘improved’ him out and about around town to take in the sand and surf, a Sunday drive and a spot of horse riding.
He captured the whole thing on camera, and the final portraits have been blown up for your viewing pleasure, presented in a seriously airbrushed, lifestyle mag-ready photoshoot style.
Zavros’ show will run at Sullivan and Strumpf in Zetland from October 15 until November 14.
The Balkan wars occurred from October 8, 1912 to July 18, 1913 between members of the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia) and the Ottoman Empire.
On this day in 1912, the First Balkan War broke out when Greek naval forces landed at Moudros in Lemnos. To mark the occasion, we take a look at how the event played out.
Start of the First Balkan War:
In 1912, the first operations by the Greek Navy was to secure several objectives. The capture of the Turkish-held port of Moudros was the first step.
Located on the southern coast of the island of Lemnos, the port was attacked on October 8, 1912. The fleet landed Greek marines, which progressed quickly in combination with close naval support. They defeated the unique Turkish garrison and occupied the port.
Greek forces in Lemnos:
Moudros Bay became the cornerstone of the Greek fleet for all naval operations in the area, enabling it to keep watch on the Dardanelles and prevent a foray by the Ottoman Navy into the Aegean.
On January 18, 1913, the Turks attempted to retake the island, however, the Greeks found out the Turks were approaching and defeated them in what is known as the Battle of Lemnos.
With this, the Ottomans were prevented from supplying and reinforcing their land forces in Macedonia by sea, a critical factor in the success of the Balkan League in the war.
Foreign partners coming to Australia will soon have to demonstrate they can speak English in order to be granted a permanent visa.
Partner visa applicants and their spouses, provided they are a permanent resident, will need to demonstrate they’ve made reasonable efforts to learn English.
The change to the visa requirement comes after a rise in the number of people not being able to speak English well or at all in the past decade, Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said in a statement.
“From late 2021, new partner visa applicants and permanent resident sponsors will be required to have functional level English or to demonstrate that they have made reasonable efforts to learn English,” Mr Tudge said.
Alan Tudge says the new requirement is in part so migrants can enjoy a better life in Australia. Photo: ABC News/Tamara Penniket.
“People will be able to demonstrate this through, for example, the completion of 500 hours of free English language classes through the Adult Migration English Program.”
Mr Tudge pointed to a previously announced overhaul of the Adult Migrant English Program, giving migrants access to unlimited English classes free of charge.
Partner visas are processed in two stages and the minister’s office said the new language requirement would not need to be met until someone was applying for permanency, usually after two years of being able to live in Australia on a temporary partner visa.
The Government is also temporarily boosting the number of partner visas available this financial year under the existing migration cap of 160,000 places.
Mr Tudge said there was almost one million people living in Australia with poor or no English and that language skills were necessary to finding work and staying safe.
“And we want to encourage everybody to be able to learn English so that they can fully engage in Australian life, in every aspect of it, from employment markets, to our democracy, to our society, to community activity,” Mr Tudge said.
“English is absolutely essential in order to do all of that.”
Greece’s Foreign Ministry says it is recalling its ambassador to Azerbaijan following what it says are “completely unfounded and insulting allegations” by the Azerbaijani government that it is tolerating the preparation of terrorist acts.
In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said the Greek ambassador had been recalled to Athens for consultations.
It said the Azerbaijani government had claimed Greece was tolerating the preparation of terrorist acts, attempts to recruit terrorist fighters and cyber attacks against Azerbaijan due to the latter’s conflict with Armenia over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ministry said it had filed a protest over the issue on Tuesday with the Azerbaijani ambassador in Greece.
Earlier this month, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited media reports and other information that it said indicated that “thousands of ethnic Armenians” from several countries, including Greece, were heading to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Occupied Cyprus said on Tuesday it will reopen the beach area of an abandoned resort in no-man’s land, a move condemned by Greek Cypriots and likely to conjure up memories of the 1974 Turkish invasion that partitioned the island.
Ersin Tatar, premier of the breakaway state of occupied Cyprus, made the announcement in Ankara alongside Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who said he backed the decision on Varosha, sealed off within barbed wire for decades.
“God willing, we will start to use the Maras beach on Thursday morning together with our people,” Tatar said, using Varosha’s Turkish name.
Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, meets with Ersin Tatar, prime minister of occupied Cyprus, in Ankara, Turkey October 6, 2020.
Sources in Cyprus said the plan was to open up about 1.5 km of beachfront to the public and not the approximately 6 square km inland that includes abandoned hotels and residences, which its population of 39,000 people fled in 1974 during a Turkish invasion following a Greek inspired coup.
“We hope that the whole of Maras is opened to use after ongoing work is completed by respecting property rights,” Erdogan said, pledging support for Turkish Cypriot officials.
Cyprus promptly condemned the move to partially reopen the abandoned resort and said it would file a recourse to the United Nations Security Council.
“This is an exceptionally unacceptable situation,” Cypriot President, Nicos Anastasiades, said.
Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also criticised the move and said Greece would support Cyprus.
“I want to condemn Turkey’s decision to extend the entry permit to the Varosia coastal front. This decision is a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolutions,” Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter.
Θέλω να καταδικάσω την απόφαση της Τουρκίας για την επέκταση της άδειας εισόδου στο παραλιακό μέτωπο των Βαρωσίων. Η απόφαση αυτή συνιστά κατάφωρη παραβίαση των Αποφάσεων του Συμβουλίου Ασφαλείας των ΗE. Η Ελλάδα θα στηρίξει όλες τις προσπάθειες της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας. pic.twitter.com/bJthBdwkU6
EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, added late on Wednesday that the incident would only exacerbate tensions between Turkey and the bloc, already running high over Ankara’s gas exploration in Cypriot waters.
“The opening of this area, which is a closed area according to the ceasefire agreements under the auspices of the United Nations, is a serious violation of this agreement,” Borrell told the European parliament.
He said the bloc would issue a statement later on Wednesday “asking Turkey to stop this activity.”
“For sure, this is not going to help. On the contrary it’s going to make it more difficult to reach an agreement on an especially difficult situation for all of us on the eastern Mediterranean,” he added.