The coronavirus continues to plague citizens in Melbourne, with three of the latest victims of the deadly disease being grandparents of Greek origin.
Nine News identified two of the victims as two Greek grandmothers Maria Vasilakis and Helen Alexiou. Both victims were part of Victoria’s deadliest day of coronavirus, with the state’s COVID-19 death toll rising to 56.
Another victim was 80-year-old Greek migrant Haralambos Bakirtzidis who died in Footscray hospital following an 11-day fight on a ventilator after contracting COVID-19, Nine News separately reported.
Grandmother Helen Alexiou., who has died from COVID-19. (Photo: Nine)
Maria Vasilakis has died of coronavirus in Melbourne (Photo: Nine)
According to his daughter Athina, the Greek father continued visiting the TAB and shopping despite falling ill. Haralambos believed he had the flu after calling an ambulance but did not need to go to hospital.
“I wish I could have tied him to his chair at home. I wish I could have yelled at him. I wish I had done a lot more and said ‘Dad, no. If you go (out) this is how it will affect us’,” Athina told Nine News.
Mr Bakirtzidis immigrated to Australia from Greece in the 1970s and had misinterpreted what medics told him initially, believing he had the flu.
The Maidstone grandfather – who immigrated to Australia from Greece in the 1970s – assumed Melbourne had beaten coronavirus at the end of the first lockdown. Photo: 9 News
After he couldn’t eat, sleep and drink, an ambulance was called a second time and he was admitted to hospital, testing positive for coronavirus the next day.
Athina, along with her three siblings, watched their father deteriorate over Facetime while prohibited from visiting him in hospital. Her mother, who had also contracted coronavirus, was the only one allowed to be by his side.
“He told me ‘I don’t want to die.’ And I told him you have to trust the doctors,” Athina said.
Mr Bakirtzidis died at the Footscray hospital after being taken off his ventilator. Athina and her siblings are waiting for their mother to recover before burying their father. She’s issued a warning to anyone, particularly older Melbournians, who are becoming complacent.
“It’s very hard. Dad can’t even have the funeral he deserves,” she said.
“I do feel robbed because I had so much more I wanted to share with him. It will take our family a long time to recover. We may never recover.”
Thousands of Muslims have gathered outside of Hagia Sophia to conduct the first prayer after its official conversion into a mosque tonight.
Waves of people were scattered across the road outside the former Christian Cathedral waiting to enter and pray, solidifying the building’s conversion into a mosque.
The Turkish high court ruled that Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia was to be converted back into a mosque on July 10 following the request of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Hagia Sophia was built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral during the Byzantine Empire, and was since turned into a UNESCO World Heritage Site, visited by millions of tourists each year.
“Owing to its historical significance, the conversion of the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul – a unique architectural monument – into a museum will gratify the entire Eastern World and will cause humanity to gain a new institution of knowledge” – Turkish Council of Ministers, 24 November 1934.
The sixth-century building had been open to all visitors, regardless of their faith, since its inauguration as a museum in 1935.
It’s understood that the Turkish Presidents actions are an attempt to cause greater tension with their Eastern neighbours.
“This decision clearly affects not only Turkey’s relations with Greece but also its relations with the European Union, UNESCO, and the world community as a whole,” Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
For the past three decades, George Ellis has been bringing classical music to the masses. From presenting concerts with international icons such as Hans Zimmer to appearing in Hollywood film Mao’s Last Dancer, the 56-year-old orchestral conductor and composer has become a household name.
But George says this is something he never takes for granted as he’s just grateful to be able to perform and write the music he loves so passionately.
“Working with the
extraordinary brilliant musicians – all experts – is what I love most about
what I do. Their sounds are such a beautiful reward for the hard work that goes
into writing music for them,” George tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
“It is a personal challenge to make sure the music I provide for these great musicians, and the audiences, is as excellent as I can possibly make it.”
George Ellis has been composing and conducting for over three decades.
The
young conductor:
George is definitely no stranger to challenges. Born in Australia and living in Marrickville for most of his formative years, George discovered music at age four with the Beatles album ‘Sergeant Pepper Lonely Heart’s Club Band,’ which his father passed on to him. The only thing standing in the way of furthering his passion? He needed piano lessons.
“Ever since I was a little boy, I was
totally captivated and fascinated by the amazing sounds brought about by music.
I was keen to learn how great sounds were made. My older brother was learning piano at the time so I pestered
my parents… until they sent me to a piano teacher,” George explains.
“In high school I also met others who could play music, so we got together and formed bands and wrote songs. And when I thought about what to study after school and how I wanted to make a living, I auditioned at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music to do a Bachelor of Music degree.”
At
the Conservatorium, George played cello, piano and classical guitar. He was
also introduced to a subject called ‘conducting’ and the lecturer who
encouraged George to pursue the subject as a career.
“My lecturer called me into his office after my first
time conducting in his class and he said, ‘This is your future – you must
conduct for a living.’ He told me it came naturally to me and that I should
pursue it as a career,” George says.
“He then organised a scholarship for me to do a
Master’s degree in conducting at the University of Colorado in the US, which I
completed three years later. I have been conducting ever since.”
George’s “Greekness”:
It’s clear that conducting and composing music is as ingrained in George’s blood as his Greek heritage. Many of his performances over the years have been inspired by the Greek culture and language, including his involvement in the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games back in 2000.
“My
Greek heritage influences my work in many ways. Greekness means a love of life
and an ebullient, energetic approach to life. The way I compose and conduct is
a by-product of this energy,” George says.
“Even
conducting at the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 was
extremely meaningful to me, mainly because the singing I conducted was in the
Greek language.”
Conducting and composing music is as ingrained in George’s blood as his Greek heritage.
With
such a clear passion for his “Greekness,” it should come as no surprise then
that George also aims to promote Greek composers to young Greek Australians and
in turn, hopes to perform at the Acropolis one day.
“At
the moment, the plan is to get on the stage again as soon as possible and be
able to make music. I miss its magic. It is an ambition of mine to one day
stage a concert at the Herod Atticus Theatre at the Acropolis in Athens,”
George explains.
“I would also love young Greek Australians of today to
know the music of the master Greek orchestral composers of our heritage –
Theodorakis, Hadjidakis, Xarhakos and Markopoulos. It is full of rich beauty.”
Almost as beautiful as the pieces he will continue to compose and conduct right here in Australia.
The Asclepieia were sanctuaries and places of worship of the holy physician and healer god Asclepius. They were the first hospitals, or rather complexes of health buildings, not only in Greece but in the whole of western civilisation.
According to Homer, Asclepius and his two sons were regarded as the first ‘doctors’, inheriting the secrets of the medical art and carrying it down through generations. However, it was the teachers of the Asclepieion that carried their medical legacy to Greek healers.
Hippocrates was the most famous teacher of the Asclepieion, teaching the Medical School of Kos. He was descended from the son of Asclepius, Podaleirios, a fact that is assumed to be proved by his family tree.
Hippocrates is still internationally recognised as the “Father of Medical Science” as he was the one who clarified and published the first and basic principles of this science. The “Oath of Hippocrates” also remains an accepted sacred declaration of the obligations of doctors.
Written sources and archaeological evidence has proven the existence of about 320 Asclepieia in the ancient Greek world. According to less-credible sources, Asclepieia in the ancient world exceeded 500.
According to written sources, the priests/doctors in Asclepieia worshiped Asclepius by offering health to ‘men’ (patients and beggars). All men were treated with sacred respect, as a complete being with strong characteristics. Illness was seen as the result of complex and negative interactions with the environment, along with psychological, spiritual, and physical factors.
Health care in during this time seemed to have been aimed at normalising internal conflicts and restoring harmony, with the help of medicine.
As the Temple of Asclepius was so sacred, visiting the monument was not a simple task. The Priests of the Temple had to call you. It was preceded by fasting, a laxative bath and mental purification. The whole process was headed by the High Priest and was assisted by priests who performed the duties of a deacon.
The Temple of Asclepius remains a great mystery. Patients with incurable diseases were treated. The blind found their light. Paraplegics were walking again. The healing power of Asclepius has been known to the Priests since ancient times. Yet, their healing tradition was secret and was only revealed to the young missionaries.
Miracles recorded in the inscriptions of Epidaurus:
1. Cleo was pregnant for five years, and could not give birth. She came to the Temple and slept in Avaton. As soon as she woke up and went out of the Temple, she gave birth to a son, who immediately walked. To thank the gods, Cleo engraved the following on an inscription: “It is not the grandeur of the inscription that is admirable but the Deity, because Cleo was pregnant with the baby for five years until she slept in the Temple and Asclepius healed her”.
2. A man suffered from paralysis in his fingers. He visited the Temple of Asclepius seeking treatment. As he played dice outside the Temple, the god appeared, grabbed his hand, and stretched out his fingers. After that the man could move all his fingers. God asked him if he was still skeptical of what the temple inscriptions said. The man said, “No more.”
3. A little boy could not speak. He came to the Temple with his father to worship the gods. While making the necessary sacrifices and rituals, a Priest appeared bringing fire from the Altar of the gods. He looked at the boy’s father and demanded he promise that if his son was healed, then the father would donate a votive offering to the Temple of Asclepius. Suddenly the boy replied: “I promise.” The boy’s father was shocked by the miracle and asked his child to repeat what he said. The boy repeated the words, and since then his voice has fully recovered.
4. Pandaros from Thessaly, had spots on his forehead. He saw a vision where the gods wrapped his wounds in a bandage and told him to remove it when he left the Temple. And once he is healed, offer the bandage as a votive offering to the Temple. When Pandaros woke up, he removed the bandage and found that the spots had disappeared. Then he dedicated the bandage to the Temple, as commanded by the god Asclepius.
5. A blind man from both eyes arrived at the Temple of Asclepius. His eyes were so damaged that in the niches there was nothing but eyelids. As soon as he fell asleep, the blind man saw a vision. Asclepius appeared, prepared a medicine and after lifting the patient’s eyelids, he smeared the area with the medicine. When he woke up the man had light in both eyes.
The Treaty of Lausanne was the final treaty that concluded World War I, settling the fight between Turkey and Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia).
The treaty recognised the boundaries of the modern state of Turkey, with Turkey making no claim to its former Arab provinces. Hence, the Treaty of Lausanne led to the international recognition of the sovereignty of the new Republic of Turkey as the successor state of the defunct Ottoman Empire.
Following negotiations, the Greek-Turkish border was defined on land to the middle course of the river Evros. At sea, every island and islet is attributed to Greece, so long as it is located beyond three miles from the coasts of Asia Minor, except Imbros and Tenedos.
Upon the signing of the treaty in 1923, the Turkish straits between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea were declared open to all shipping.
The Greek-Turkish border has remained undisputed for 98 years, until the admission of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The ‘power-hungry’ Turkish leader seeks to institute certain revisions in the Treaty of Lausanne under the concept of Neo-Ottomanism. He also laments the content of the treaty that forced Turkey to cede the Aegean islands to Greece.
The leaders of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Australia and the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ACBC) have released a joint statement expressing their disappointment at the change in the status of Hagia Sophia.
His Eminence Archbishop Makarios and Mark Coleridge, president of ACBC, both shared their concerns on the adverse effects that this development may have on the Christian community.
“Our fear is that this could aggravate tension between Christians and Muslims at a time when we need to pursue the path of dialogue and seek common ground,” the statement said.
“The path of nationalist ideology and the political decisions it prompts can lead only to division, which is never the fruit of the holy wisdom all religions seek.”
The Christian leaders share their hope that the decision will be reversed, so that Hagia Sophia can again be “common ground for all people and an emblem of peace.”
The Hagia Sophia World Heritage monument will be officially converted into a mosque Friday night at 7pm AEST. A mourning service is being held at St Spyridon Parish in Sydney at the same time, with permission by His Eminence.
A monument dedicated to the 102 victims of the Mati fire was unveiled in Neos Voutzason on Thursday as people mourned for those lost in the deadly tragedy.
The mourning ceremony took place exactly two years after the deadly fire on July 23, 2018. The presented artwork symbolises the people who ran to be saved from the fiery flame.
Relatives and friends of the 102 victims left flowers at the base of the monument, with a memorial prayer also being performed by the Metropolitan of Kifisia, Marousi and Oropos Cyril.
Unveiling of the Monument of the victims of the fire in Mati . Photo: EUROKINISSI
Angeliki Papadopoulou, the resident who donated the monument, stressed that the need for justice is insurmountable.
“Vindication of the people who lost their loved ones, who lost their homes, and those who are are fighting with all their might to rebuild their homes and resurrect their lives,” Papadopoulou said.
“Justice will calm the souls of people who no longer exist among us,” he concluded.
Unveiling of the Monument of the victims of the fire in Mati. Photo: EUROKINISSI
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also spoke about the anniversary of the deadly fire, saying that “we will never forget the dead.”
The blaze on Greece’s eastern coast grew is still regarded as one of the largest urban wildfires in recent European history.
Greece warned Thursday it will do “whatever is necessary” to defend its sovereign rights in response to plans by neighbouring Turkey to proceed with an oil-and-gas research mission south of Greek islands in the eastern Mediterranean.
The dispute over seabed mineral rights has led to increased navy deployments by both NATO members in the region, where a Turkish research vessel, the Oruc Reis, is being prepared for a survey mission.
Turkey has drawn growing criticism from Western allies, with French President Emmanuel Macron joining calls for European Union sanctions against Ankara if the dispute escalates further.
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas described the mission as a direct violation of Greek sovereignty and that of Greek ally Cyprus.
In this undated but recent photograph, made available by Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, the research vessel Oruc Reis is seen in Antalya, Turkey. (Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources via AP)
“The government is underlining to all parties that Greece will not accept a violation of its sovereignty and will do whatever is necessary to defend its sovereign rights,” Petsas said.
Macron said sanctions now appeared necessary.
“It is not acceptable for the maritime space of a Union member state to be violated or threatened. Those responsible must be sanctioned,” Macron said before talks in Paris with Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades at the presidential Elysee Palace
Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over sea boundaries but recent discoveries of natural gas and drilling plans across the East Mediterranean have exacerbated the dispute.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, ministers and army commanders follow a guard of honor at the mausoleum of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Thursday, July 23, 2020. (Turkish Presidency via AP, Pool)
Turkey argues Greek islands should not be included in calculating maritime zones of economic interest — a position that Greece says is a clear violation of international law. Greece has around 6,000 islands and smaller islets in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, more than 200 of them inhabited.
The survey ship Oruc Reis remains anchored off the port of Antalya, in southeastern Turkey, but a navigational telex issued by the port says the mission planned through Aug. 2 remains “valid and effective.”
Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Thursday: “We want all natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean to be shared fairly.”
“We will never accept threats or sanctions,” the state-run Anadolu quoted him as saying. “We do not accept Greece’s maximalist position.”
Newcastle Olympic FC director Kosta Patsan has slammed the Morrison government’s community sport grants scheme as being contaminated with “nonsensical graft and corruption”, the Newcastle Herald reports.
The outrage is in response to the federal government’s controversial $100 million Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program. The government has been accused of allocating funds to sports programs that missed the cut-off date by months.
Mr Patsan appeared on Thursday before a Senate inquiry in Canberra into the so-called sports rorts scandal. The director claims the club’s application met the cut-off date and the program’s criteria. It applied for $500,000 under the program, but missed out.
“We don’t mind if we missed out for very good reasons. What we cannot countenance is … graft and corruption,” Mr Patsan said.
“We are a worthy recipient. We do a lot of good for the community. We got diddled because we’re in a Labor seat and a safe one.”
Application were required to meet a certain criteria, achieving a minimum score of 74 points. Newcastle Olympic scored 76 points.
“The lowest score funded was 39,” ALP Senator Tim Ayres said.
Mr Patsan said the club received a further “kick in the guts” when it realised the government had used images from its application to promote the grants program.
Senator Rice asked Mr Patsan whether he knew the former sport minister Bridget McKenzie had discretion in which grants would be funded.
“If the minister has the discretion to do whatever she likes, you may as well just turn us into another banana republic”, Mr Patsan added.
The club’s $1.3 million plan includes a grandstand and dressing sheds at Darling Street Oval. It had raised $270,000 from volunteers. Newcastle City Council was to match the federal grant. The club said it had been selected as a venue to host training during the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
St Spyridon Parish Sydney will hold a mourning service on Friday night (tonight), for the “horrible decision of the President of Turkey to turn the Temple of Hagia Sophia into an Islamic mosque.”
The Sydney Parish received a special blessing from His Eminence Archbishop Makarios to hold the service at the same time Hagia Sophia will be opened as a mosque, at 7pm (AEST).
Έκτακτο…Ο ΑΚΑΘΙΣΤΟΣ ΥΜΝΟΣ ΘΑ ΨΑΛΕΙ ΑΥΡΙΟ ΒΡΑΔΥ ΣΤΟΝ ΑΓΙΟ ΣΠΥΡΙΔΩΝΑ ΩΣ ΕΝΔΕΙΞΗ ΠΕΝΘΟΥΣ ΤΗΝ ΙΔΙΑ ΩΡΑ ΠΟΥ ΘΑ ΑΡΧΙΣΕΙ Η…
“We will sing the Akathist Hymn tomorrow night at St Spyridon as an indication of mourning, the same time the of the first Islamic prayer at Hagia Sophia,” the statement reads.
The church invites parishioners and all Orthodox Greeks to attend and witness the Akathist Hymn.
The Turkish high court ruled that Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia was to be converted back into a mosque on July 10 following the request of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Hagia Sophia was built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral during the Byzantine Empire, and was since turned into a UNESCO World Heritage Site, visited by millions of tourists each year
![Thousands of Muslims gather at Hagia Sophia for first official prayer [VIDEO]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/EdrSYa6WAAA11c_-768x363.jpeg "Thousands of Muslims gather at Hagia Sophia for first official prayer [VIDEO]")
