SAE Oceania announces public meetings in cities with major concentrations of Greek Australians to discuss the proposed law on SAE recently tabled by Deputy Foreign Minister Panayiotis Skandalakis. The meetings will be held tonight in Sydney at 7.30pm at the Greek Community of NSW premises at Lakemba; in Adelaide on Sunday 18 September at the Ikarian House, Unley and in Melbourne on Sunday 25 September at the Greek Community premises in Lonsdale Street. The law will be a new and important milestone in SAEοΏ½s history and the meetings will give everyone who is interested the opportunity to make a positive contribution.

GREEK FILM FESTIVAL

Congratulations to the Greek Orthodox Communities across Australia for staging the annual Greek film festival which gets better every year. DonοΏ½t miss οΏ½BridesοΏ½ and the other great attractions which will screen in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra right through to early October.
For more details see www.greekfilmfestival.com.au.

TURKEY

September is a crucial month for Turkey as the 3 October date for the beginning of accession talks with the EU approaches. The calls for Turkey to not be admitted as a full member are growing and the result of the German elections will be crucial. The leader of the Christian Democrats and favourite to become Chancellor, Angela Merkel is the leading proponent against Turkish accession and echoes the feeling in France, Austria, Netherlands, and Belgium. Turkey still persists in its incongruous paradox of refusing to recognise the Republic of Cyprus but insisting on Cyprus supporting its entry. The EU is also concerned at TurkeyοΏ½s continuous violation of Christian property and its refusal to recognise the genocides against its Christian populations in  1915-22. All this, 50 years after the worst pogrom in Europe since World War II in which the Turkish authorities orchestrated the destruction of the Greek minorityοΏ½s presence in Constantinople. (Istanbul)

YOUTH CONFERENCE

SaeοΏ½s Youth Network will hold its conference in Adelaide on 17-18 September 2005.

For more details contact the co-ordinators Michael Comninos in Sydney on 0433172770 or Dean Kalymniou in Melbourne on 0412515348 or the Hosts in Adelaide Kosta Livaditis on (08) 85391151.

Jottings

οΏ½ Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has responded to SAE OceaniaοΏ½s request to call on the Georgian Government to take action to protect the lives and property of the ethnic Greek population in the mountainous Chalka region. In his reply Mr Downer writes: οΏ½οΏ½ the Australian Government is fully committed to the principle that the rights οΏ½ of the small ethnic Greek population of Chalka should be fully protected οΏ½ Your correspondence has been passed to the Australian Ambassador to Georgia  (resident in Moscow) with the request that he follow up this issueοΏ½οΏ½
οΏ½ His Beautitude Archbishop Theophilos has been unanimously elected the new Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. The new PatriarchοΏ½s priority is to restore the ChurchοΏ½s credibility with its flock and with the governments of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
οΏ½ The Benaki Museum exhibition, after a very successful run in Sydney will open at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne on 6 October 2005. It should not be missed! In fact, Melbourne will be the host of many performances which will cater for all tastes οΏ½ Eurovision winner Elena Paparizou (also in Sydney) Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Diamanda Gallas and Mihalis Hatzigiannis; and all this just as Nana Moshouri winds up her farewell concerts.
οΏ½ OceaniaοΏ½s Regional Council will hold its next meeting in Melbourne on 24-25 September. It urges readers to subscribe to the Hellenic Credit Card, the only one of its kind in the world that supports Hellenism every time it is used. Truly, there is no other like it! For details contact the SAE office on (02) 9667 4733.
οΏ½ SAE Oceania is co-ordinating a steering committee in Sydney comprised of its peak organizations which is looking at the establishment of the Pan Hellenic Centre. This, together with the maintenance of Greek language studies, remain the communityοΏ½s top priority.
οΏ½ At long last the Hellenic Ministry of Education has incorporated Pontian history in high school studies. This long overdue decision should now be followed by a world wide campaign for the recognition of the Pontian Genocide. After all it is not too much to ask for an official apology for such a heinous crime. An apology for the Christian genocides (Armenian, Pontian and Assyrian) should be linked to TurkeyοΏ½s accession to the EU.

At the forthcoming public meetings called by the Oceania Regional Council participants will have the opportunity to not only discuss the new SAE law but to raise or make any submissions on any issues of interest to the diaspora. I invite those of you who are able to attend to do so.

Costa Vertzayias                                                                    14 September 2005