STAYING IN TOUCH NO: 83
A newsletter from the SAE Oceania Co-Ordinator
Let the Games begin! The first Pan-Hellenic Games to be held in more than 40 years kick off in Sydney this Friday, 25 March � Greek National Day! More than 250 athletes from all states and New Zealand will compete in men and womens soccer, track and field, swimming, wrestling and taekwondo, with the tennis and weightlifting to be held in April and May respectively. The programme follow:-
Friday 25 March - mens soccer at Belmore Oval at 1pm, 3pm and 5pm.
Saturday 26 March � (1) mens soccer at Belmore Oval at 1pm, 3pm,& 5pm.
(2) Wrestling and Taekwondo at the Sydney Sports Centre (Olympic Boulevard near the tennis centre) Sydney Olympic Park at 10am.
Sunday 22 March � Community panegyri at Belmore Oval sponsored by Canterbury Council with womens soccer at noon, the mens bronze medal at 2pm and for the gold medal at 4pm.
Monday 28 March � (1) Sixty swimmers will compete in all strokes and distances at the Des Renford Aquatic Centre, Robey Street Maroubra from 10am.
(2) Almost as many athletes will compete in the track and field events at the Hensley Athletic Field, Wentworth Avenue Pagewood, also from 10am.
Lets give these young Greek Australians our support.
Social Security Agreement
SAE Oceania and the Federation of Greek Australian Societies in Hellas have joined forces to pressure the Australian and Hellenic Governments to finalise a Social Security Agreement. Both Governments have committed themselves to do so and it appears that either Minister Panayiotopoulos or Deputy Minister Angelopoulos will visit Australia in the near future to sign a protocol.
ETHNIKA THEMATA
The U.S. State Department�s annual report on the state of human rights around the world made the absurd statement that Cyprus violates the Turkish Cypriots human rights because it will not allow them to operate an illegal airport in the occupied territory! It ignores the simple answer that the Turkish Cypriot �state� is illegal and U.N. Resolutions prevent states from having any dealings with it. Even worse, it makes no mention of the illegal Turkish military occupation! It seems clear that there is a concerted effort to present Cyprus as a case of two communities occupying separate sections of the island with the Turkish Cypriots at a disadvantage due to the economic embargo imposed by the Greek Cypriots in the occupied area. This sinister distortion of reality completely ignores the facts that Turkey invaded and occupied a sovereign state and that in the so-called �Turkish Cypriot State� the majority of the population was ethnically cleansed in order to artificially create a Turkish State by the transfer of settlors from Turkey. Meanwhile Turkey has transferred new state of the art (U.S made and supplied) weapons to the occupied territory. Turkey has 45,000 men under arms making Cyprus the most militarised area, per square kilometre, in the world. Further evidence of the concerted effort against the internationally recognised Government of Cyprus is the recent U.K. Foreign Affairs Committee Report that calls upon Cyprus to adopt European values but makes no such call to the (EU hopeful) country that is occupying Cyprus in violation of international law and U.N. Resolutions!
The Report also states that it was correct that the Turkish settlers voted in the 24th April referendum and they should vote in any future referenda. This is in contrast to long accepted principles of international law and it should be noted that the Indonesian settlers In East Timor were NOT allowed to vote in the referendum for independence on that island.
The U.K Foreign Affairs Committee also recommended to the British Government to recognise FYROM as �Republic of Macedonia�.
SAE is to open a medical centre in Himara. A school has also been opened in Koritsa. SAE will also establish a medical centre in Stavropol in Southern Russia and has obtained the support of P.M. Karamanlis for the latter project.
Carolos Papoulias, foreign minister under Andreas Papandreou has been elected almost unanimously (279 of 296 deputies) President of the Hellenic Republic to succeed Costis Stephanopoulos. SAE Oceania congratulates him and wishes him a successful term of office.
JOTTINGS
� SAE has delivered $1 million worth of medical supplies to help tsunami victims and the shipment will be co-ordinated by Metropolitan Nikitas of Hong Kong.
� Congratulations to SAE Youth Co-Ordinator Dean Kalymniou on the publication of his latest collection of poetry ����������� and to Achaian Federation delegate to SAE Nikos Bournazos for his recently published book.
� There is a 15 April 2005 deadline for the University of Crete�s �Back to your Roots� summer camp for diaspora children aged 8-16. For information contact Ms. M. Fasoulaki at [email protected] or [email protected].
� SAE has established a permanent dialogue with Hellenic Defence Minister Spiliotopoulos relating to the obligations for military duty of the apodimoi. Some of SAE�s submissions have already been agreed to by the Minister and he is now considering further submissions which will allow for some apodimoi to �buy out� their obligations and lessen the service time for others.
� Congratulations to SAE Oceania�s cultural network co-ordinators John Vasilakakos and Yota Krili respectively for organising the 2004 literary contest and the 2005 seminars on the history of the Greek language.
� The Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens invites applications for its 2005-2006 Institute Fellowship. The applications must be submitted by 31st March 2005. For more details call (02) 93514758 or [email protected].
� An interim Committee was elected to steer the Board of Hellenic Education to its next stage. As the maintenance of Greek Studies is the community�s highest priority SAE Oceania pledges its full support to the Committee.
� SAE Oceania has also re-activated an ad.hoc committee of representatives from peak organisations to pursue efforts for the establishment of a Pan Hellenic Centre.
See you at the Pan Hellenic Games!
Costa Vertzayias 21 March 2005
Back
| 
Search