Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris isn’t backing down from giving permission to a group of students from the Muslim School of Komotini, in northern Greece, to visit and pray in Thessaloniki’s New (Yeni) Mosque – for the first time in 88 years – which drew fire from Greek Orthodox priests and nationalists. Writing for the newspaper [...]
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Stournaras Tells Troika: “Take The Keys!”
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took over talks with international lenders on April 7 after his Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras fired back at them over continued demands for austerity measures, including the firing of 25,000 workers and said if they persisted they could “Take the Keys!” to Greece. The newspaper To Vima reported that the [...]
Nazi-Salute Soccer Player Banned Again
Professional soccer player Giorgos Katidis, who was banned for life from Greece’s national team for giving a Nazio-like salute after scoring the winning goal for his team in a Greek league match, has also been given a five-match ban by his club, the once powerful but now lowly AEK Athens. A Hellenic Football Association disciplinary [...]
Bishop Wants Greek Court To Bar Mosque
With the Greek government moving ahead with plans to build the country’s first official mosque, Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus, known for his provocative views, has appealed to the country’s highest court to block it as unconstitutional. He told the Council of State that the plans violate Article 13 of the Constitution, which stipulates freedom of [...]
German Tourists Big Spenders In Greece
While much enmity remains between Greeks and Germans because of Greece’s crushing economic crisis and the view from Berlin that it’s because of a laissez-faire attitude about work, it hasn’t kept German tourists from coming – and spending. On an annual basis, German tourists are the biggest spenders in Greece, putting out some 1.65 billion [...]
Samaras Wants Troika To Back Bank Merger
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is planning to go head-to-head on April 7 with envoys from international lenders who are in Athens checking progress on reforms before releasing a 2.8 billion euros ($3.5 billion) overdue installment and will push them to agree to a merger of the National Bank and Eurobank, which would create the country’s [...]
Papandreou Won’t Testify On Lagarde List
Former prime minister George Papandreou has said he won’t appear before a parliamentary committee investigating a list of 2,062 Greeks with $1.95 billion in secret Swiss bank accounts that was never checked for tax evaders at a time his administration was imposing big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions on the populace on the [...]
Crisis Leaves Greek Military Outgunned By Turkey
Struggling with a crushing economic crisis that has cut government spending across the board, Greece’s military is seeing itself unable to keep pace with rival Turkey in armaments and preparedness. The cuts have meant that Greek pilots have not been able to be as effective in preventing Turkish fighters from violating Greek air space, and [...]
Foiled Helicopter Prison Escape Try Filmed
Dramatic video footage has appeared on Greek news site www.nocomment.gr of convicted murderer and racketeer Panayiotis Vlastos’ failed attempt to escape from by helicopter from Trikala prison on Feb. 24. The video shows the life-serving prisoner falling around five meters, more than 15 feet, rom a rope ladder courtyard after being shot during gunfire exchange [...]
Bank of Cyprus Officials Deleted E-Mails
Two of the beleaguered Bank of Cyprus’ former top executives appear to have deleted critical e-mails to cover their tracks over why they decided to invest heavily in Greek bonds that were later devalued by 74 percent, hitting the state’s banks with 4.5 billion euros ($5.81 billion) in losses and triggering the near-collapse of the [...]
Greece-Troika Talks Get Rough Start
Envoys from Greece’s international lenders were heckled by protesters who screamed “You’re murderers,” at them as they left the finance ministry and as negotiations with the government were delayed amid reports of a deep division between the two sides. The first day of meetings on April 4 did not go well, with Finance Minister Yiannis [...]
Bishop Seraphim Wants Athens Mosque Stopped
As the Greek government readies to build the country’s first official mosque, the hard-line Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus has gone to the Council of State to appeal the decision, saying he doesn’t want Muslims in Greece to have a sanctioned place of worship. Seraphim, already known for his anti-Semitic opinions, has described a 2006 law [...]
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Calendar – Exhibits, Concerts, Fun
- Greek-By-Choice Pedro Olalla Honored May 20, 2013
- AHEPA Day Celebration Hosted In Athens May 20, 2013
- Greek Gastronomy Days At Benaki Museum May 20, 2013
- Open Call for Greek Designers May 19, 2013
