Nikolaos (Nikos) Koumettis was named President, Coca-Cola Canada, Ltd. on June 1, 2008.
Prior to his current role, Mr. Koumettis served five years as President of the Adriatic and Balkans Business Unit, where he developed the business in nine diverse countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Croatia. He joined The Coca-Cola Company in 2001 as Southeast Mediterranean Region General Manager, with responsibility for Greece and Cyprus.
Before joining the Company, Mr. Koumettis served in marketing roles with Kraft Jacobs Suchard; sales and distribution roles with a large Greek distribution company, Elgeka; and in commercial and logistics functions for Papastratos S. A. / Phillip Morris, the biggest tobacco company in Greece.
He is a member of the Board of Governors for Food & Consumer Products of Canada (FCPC), and a member of the Board of Directors for Refreshment Canada.
Mr. Koumettis holds a Master of Science degree in International Marketing from Strathclyde Business School, and a B.Sc. in Business Administration from the American College of Greece.
The ancient Greek sanctuary and theater of Dodona, home to the oldest oracle, and located in Epirus, northwestern Greece, are part of a uniquely historic site in the country, which predated even the more universally-known Delphi.
Questions that required a prophetic answer from the Oracle of Dodona on matters of politics, religion, family, health, work, travel and property, were written on sheets of lead, and many of these small tablets have been excavated on the site of the Dodona Oracle.
Here is a sample of the questions asked to the oracle of Dodona:
Over the course of centuries, people from across the Greek world traveled to the Oracle of Dodona in Epirus and asked questions inscribed on lead tables.
Some of the questions asked of the Oracle of Dodona
“Would it be in my best interests to migrate to Chalkis?” (a city in Evia, Central Greece)
“Should I go with another man in order to have children? To which Gods should I appeal?”, asks a woman called Kleoniki.
“Will Nikeas be well enough to fit out his workshop?”, a man called Alkinoos asks.
“Will I be happy if I marry the daughter of Filonedes?”
“I am Kittos, slave of Dionysios and ask: Will my boss release me as he promised?”
“I am Myrta and I would like to know if I will become a widow.”
The questions ancient Greeks asked at the oracle are a significant source of information on their everyday lives.
The oracular tablets, on which a total of 4.216 inscriptions can be read, date from the end of the 6th century B.C. to the mid-3rd century BC.
They are usually small lead sections measuring a few centimeters, which had generally been re-used many times.
The letters are no larger than 1-1.5 millimeters, while the questions are written in a variety of alphabets and dialects, as people from many places traveled to the Oracle; from Syracuse, Taras/Taranto, Boeotia, Athens and Corinth.
The historian Herodotus stated that the Dodoan oracle there dated all the way back to the second millennium BC. Even Homer mentioned Dodona, saying that there was an oracle of Zeus there. Situated in a remote region, far from the main Greek poleis or city-states, it was considered second only to the Oracle of Delphi in prestige.
Aristotle considered the region around Dodona to have been part of Hellas—even the region from which the Hellenes originated. The oracle, first under the control of the Thesprotians before it passed into the hands of the Molossians, remained an important religious sanctuary until the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman era.
The MP is led outside the parliament building. Credit: AMNA
An MP elected with the ultra-right Spartiates Party (Spartans) was arrested on Wednesday after he assaulted a colleague from the populist Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) party in the colonnade outside the plenum hall.
Konstantinos Floros, now an independent MP, assaulted and punched MP Vasilis Grammenos.
In addition to immediately evicting Floros under guard, Parliament President Constantinos Tasoulas gave orders that he should be immediately handed over to law enforcement authorities and face criminal charges of assaulting a member of Parliament.
He noted that Parliamentary immunity does not apply in the case of violent criminal offenses.
Floros is expected to be charged with violating Article 157 of the Criminal Code, according to which it is a felony to attack a member of parliament during the performance of his duties.
Greek ultra-right party the surprise of the last elections
The Spartiates party was the biggest surprise of the 2023 elections in Greece getting 4.64 percent of the vote and gained 12 seats in Parliament.
The grouping was catapulted from relative obscurity after support from Ilias Kasiadiaris, the frontman of the now-banned Golden Dawn far-right party. His own party was barred from the elections and he endorsed the Spartiates from jail.
The party considers that the traditions of Hellenism are missing from public life nowadays and describe themselves as “the iron arm and the real bulwark that will stop the decline and the sell-out of Greece and the Greeks.”
The Spartiates are among three fringe parties of the right that gained parliamentary representation after the elections.
Elliniki Lysi, a nationalist, pro-Russia party formed by former journalist and TV salesman Kyriakos Velopoulos, got 4.47 percent of the vote and is represented in Parliament with 12 MPs.
Niki, or Victory party which emphasizes Orthodox Christian traditions got 3.71 percent and 10 MPs.
Kasidiaris was also charged with morally instigating the deception of voters, as the prosecutor’s investigation revealed he is the true leader of the Spartiates party. It was he who secretly controlled events and was responsible for the party running in the elections and electing MPs to Parliament.
The charge is based on evidence showing that there was continuous contact between the Spartiates candidates and Kasidiaris while he was in prison. He is said to have provided the party with guidance and political support. This would be illegal for both him and other jailed members of Golden Dawn, which was ruled to have been a criminal organization.
The 11 lawmakers effectively “used the Spartiates party as a front for a new political entity under Kasidiaris, thereby aiding him in circumventing the electoral restrictions imposed by election legislation,” the prosecutor’s report said.
The shipwrecks at the sites at the region of Magnesia in the Pagasetic Gulf are filled with artifacts from antiquity and the Roman and Byzantine eras. Credit: Ministry of Culture
Four stunning ancient shipwrecks off central Greece can now be explored by amateur divers, the Ministry of Culture announced recently.
The shipwrecks at the sites at the region of Magnesia in the Pagasetic Gulf are filled with artifacts from antiquity and the Roman and Byzantine eras, officials have announced.
Licensed local crews will accompany the divers and monitor them as they check out the treasures. Past shipwrecks have yielded bronze armor, marble statues, ceramics, gold jewelry and silver coins.
“We have responded to this great challenge by opening to the public a total of four underwater archaeological sites in the prefecture of Magnesia, which will allow Greece to join the world map of diving tourism.”
The Aegean is full of wrecks from antiquity, with too many on the seabed to count. These are monitored by the coastguard and you can be arrested for any unauthorized diving near the wrecks. The authorities are worried that valuable artifacts like amphorae might be stolen.
Up until now, only trained archaeologists and other experts were allowed to visit the three subterranean museums and even they needed special permission.
But the Greek Culture Ministry’s announcement comes after the authorities set up a supervised test project near the island of Alonissos, which has been running smoothly since 2019, the ministry says.
So treasures await for divers and the ministry alike, with the latter set to profit from the lucrative tourism.
The 4 ancient shipwrecks in Greece open to divers
Ancient shipwreck of Alonissos in Greece
More than 3,500 amphorae were discovered at the Alonissos-Peristera shipwreck. Credit: Ministry of Culture
The islet of Peristera is located east of Alonissos, within the marine park of the Northern Sporades.
Near its western rocky coast and at a depth of 22 to 30 meters, the ancient shipwreck dubbed the “the Parthenon of shipwrecks”, was discovered by a fisherman in 1985.
More than 3,500 amphorae have been discovered. Two types of amphorae have been identified that come from Skopelos and probably carried wine.
The finds also include luxurious vessels that were secondary cargo, vessels for daily use of the crew (lamps, wicks, etc.), and items related to the equipment of the ship (lead anchor parts and nails).
Based on the findings, the shipwreck is dated to the last quarter of the 5th century BC.
Telegrafos Wreck
Eight types of commercial amphorae were found at the Telegrafos shipwreck. Credit: Ministry of Culture
The Shipwreck was located in “Telegrafos” bay in 2000. The area of the findings is located at a depth of 17 to 23 meters on a rocky bottom with sand pockets.
Eight types of commercial amphorae were found, all from the 4th century A.D. Traces of tar were found inside many amphorae indicating the transport of wine. The type represented with the most vessels (20) is from the Peloponnese. This set is the largest known concentration in Greece.
Other types come from the Northeast Aegean, while a unique amphora was identified as Palestinian.
Kikynthos Island
The Kikynthos shipwreck was a relatively small merchant ship of the middle Byzantine period. Credit: Ministry of Culture
The uninhabited islet of Kikynthos is developed as a natural breakwater at the entrance of Amaliapoli Bay, in the western Pagasitikos.
Due to the ancient remains that have been identified from the early Christian era to the 19th century, the islet has been declared an archaeological site.
On the northwest coast of the island, at a depth of 3.5 to 12m, a pile of large, but broken, transport vessels was discovered in 2005. These are parts of pithos that typologically appear as early as the 9th century and amphorae that date more precisely between the 11th and 12th centuries.
The archaeological data so far indicate a wreck of a relatively small merchant ship of the middle Byzantine period, probably of the 11th century.
Cape Glaros
Byzantine-era amphora seen at the Cape Glaros shipwreck. Credit: Ministry of Culture
On the southwestern shores of the Pagasitic Gulf, Cape Glaros was a dangerous passage for ships trying to enter the sheltered bay of ancient Nios.
Traces of at least four ancient shipwrecks – one Hellenistic, one Roman and two Byzantine – can be found at the bottom of Glaros, as well as vessels and anchors from other periods that represent possible discards.
Two concentrations with a total of over ten iron Byzantine anchors can be linked to 12th-13th century amphorae found in the same area, indicating the wreck of a large Byzantine merchant ship.
This is the largest set of Byzantine anchors that has been found in the Greek seas.
Zelensky said it “reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world”. Credit: Public domain
The US Congress has approved a $95bn (£76bn) foreign aid package that includes military support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The Senate on Tuesday evening backed the measure passed by the US House of Representatives on Saturday. It includes $61bn in military aid for Ukraine, which the Pentagon says can start being delivered to the war-torn nation “within days”.
It passed in a bipartisan vote of 79-18. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the legislation into law on Wednesday.
Biden hailed its passage in a statement late on Tuesday, calling it “critical legislation [that] will make our nation and world more secure as we support our friends who are defending themselves against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin”.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “After more than six months of hard work and many twists and turns in the road, America sends a message to the entire world: we will not turn our back on you.”
The Senate passed a similar aid package in February, but a group of conservatives who oppose new Ukraine support had prevented it from coming to a vote in the House of Representatives.
Last week, Democrats and Republicans in the lower chamber joined together to bypass this opposition.
They ultimately agreed to a package bill that included foreign aid as well as legislation to confiscate Russian assets held by Western banks; new sanctions on Russia, Iran and China; and a provision that will force the Chinese company ByteDance to sell the popular social media service TikTok.
In the House on Saturday, a majority of Republicans in the chamber voted against the foreign aid package.
The bill also faced resistance among a handful of Senate Republicans who opposed any new aid to Ukraine.
Fifteen voted with two Democrats – as well as independent Senator Bernie Sanders who objected to providing new offensive weapons to Israel – against the bill.
“Pouring more money into Ukraine’s coffers will only prolong the conflict and lead to more loss of life,” Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville said in remarks on Tuesday.
“No one at the White House, the Pentagon, or the State Department can articulate what victory looks like in this fight.”
Aid approved by Congress offers a boost to Ukraine
Reacting to the vote, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it “reinforces America’s role as a beacon of democracy and leader of the free world”.
The aid package is expected to provide a significant boost to Ukraine’s forces, which have suffered from a shortage of ammunition and air defense systems in recent months.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, faced the latest in a series of recent drone and missile strikes, with authorities saying two people in a residential neighborhood were injured.
The commander of Ukraine’s National Guard, Oleksandr Pivnenko, said he was expecting an attempt by Russian forces to advance on the city, which is near the Russian border.
The area was called “Montedoro” and inhabited by Greeks who moved inland from the coastal town of Metaponto. Credit: Maurizio Moro5153, CC BY-SA 4.0
Craco, a ghost town in Italy, located in the province of Matera about twenty-five miles inland from the Gulf of Taranto, was once inhabited by Greeks.
The medieval village of Craco in Magna Graecia is typical of the hill towns of the region with mildly undulating shapes and the lands surrounding it sown with wheat.
Around 540 AD, the area was called “Montedoro” and was inhabited by Greeks who moved inland from the coastal town of Metaponto. Tombs have been found dating from the eighth century, suggesting the original settlement dates back to at least that time.
Today, earthquakes, landslides, and a lack of fertile farming land have contributed to the abandonment of Craco.
The inhabitants of the town grew from 450 in 1277 to 2,590 in 1561 and averaged around 1,500 in succeeding centuries. A plague struck in 1656, killing hundreds and significantly reducing the population.
By 1799, there was enough impetus to change the feudal system, and an independent municipality was established. In 1815, it was decided that the town was large enough to divide into two separate districts.
From 1892 to 1922, over 1,300 Crachesi left to settle in North America because poor agricultural conditions created desperate times, as the land was not producing enough for the people.
During the mid-twentieth century, recurring earthquakes began to take a toll on the town. Between 1959 and 1972, portions of the village were severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable by a series of landslides.
The geological threat to the town was known to scientists since 1910 due to Craco’s location on a hill of Pliocene sands overhanging the clays with ravines causing progressive incisions.
Now, Craco is uninhabited. Guided tours allow participants to explore the ruins wearing hard hats. From afar, Craco resembles a painting with stairways and houses stacked on top of each other.
Up close, its advanced state of decay is obvious. There are towers where no bells chime, and rusted balconies where families once hung their washing. Weeds sprout at the altar of San Nicola church, whose nave is open to the sky.
In more recent times, Craco has found fame as a film set—scenes from the Italian movie adaptation of Christ Stopped at Eboli were shot here. Christ did finally make it as far as Craco for the filming of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.
As beautiful as Craco is, the land and location have proven unsuitable for sustaining habitation.
Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is looking to crypto as a means to bypass new sanctions placed on it by the US, Reuters reported.
The US Treasury Department last week gave PDVSA’s customers and providers until May 31 to wind down transactions under a general license it did not renew due to a lack of electoral reforms.
The move will make it more difficult for the country to increase oil output and exports as companies will have to wait for individual US authorizations to do business with Venezuela, Reuters said.
PDVSA since last year had been slowly moving oil sales to USDT, a digital currency also known as Tether whose value is pegged to the US dollar and designed to maintain a stable value. The return of oil sanctions is speeding up the shift, a move to reduce the risk of sale proceeds getting frozen in foreign bank accounts due to the measures, per Reuters.
“We have different currencies, according to what is stated in contracts,” Venezuelan oil minister Pedro Tellechea told Reuters last week, adding that in some contracts digital currencies might be the preferred payment method.
The US dollar is the preferred currency for transactions in the global oil market. Even though they are emerging in some countries, payments in cryptocurrency are not frequent.
Tether said in an email it respects the US Treasury’s list of sanctioned entities and “is committed to working to ensure sanction addresses are frozen promptly.”
Venezuela looks to crypto
Last year, PDVSA was rocked by a corruption scandal after the discovery of some $21 billion in unaccounted receivables for oil exports in recent years, partially related to prior transactions involving other cryptocurrencies.
The nation’s oil exports have increased under Tellechea, who took over Venezuela’s oil ministry following the scandal. Encouraged by U.S. licenses allowing sales, exports reached some 900,000 barrels per day in March, the highest in four years.
By the end of the first quarter, PDVSA had moved many spot oil deals not involving swaps to a contract model demanding prepayment for half of each cargo’s value in USDT.
PDVSA also is requiring any new customer applying to conduct oil transactions to hold cryptocurrency in a digital wallet.
In October, when Washington issued the six-month license that allowed trading houses and former PDVSA customers to resume business with Venezuela, most of them resorted to intermediaries to meet the digital transaction requirements.
“USDT transactions, as PDVSA is demanding them to be, don’t pass any trader’s compliance department, so the only way to make it work is working with an intermediary,” one trader told Reuters, referring to how unusual it still is to pay for oil in digital currencies.
PDVSA has relied on middlemen for its own oil sales, especially to China, since the US in 2020 imposed secondary sanctions on Venezuela, disrupting its relationship with large trading partners.
The volcanic winter of 536 AD that spread chaos around the globe is regarded as one of the worst years in human history. Public domain
Determining which year in human history was the worst to be alive is subjective and there are many contenders for the top post.
Among them 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic that claimed the lives of millions of people and shut down whole countries. Periods marked by large-scale violence and atrocities like World War II are also contenders.
Further back 1918 was horrific when the Spanish Flu pandemic infected one-third of the global population, killing an estimated 50-100 million people. The 1347-1351 period was stigmatized with the Black Death pandemic that devastated Europe, killing an estimated 30-50 percent of the population.
Was 535 AD the worst year ever?
However many historians and scientists argue that the worst year to be alive was 536 AD due to a series of devastating events that plunged much of the world into chaos.
A massive volcanic eruption, or possibly a series of eruptions, shrouded the Northern Hemisphere in a veil of ash and dust. This blocked sunlight for an estimated 18 months, causing a dramatic drop in global temperatures. This phenomenon is known as the volcanic winter of 536.
The plummeting temperatures led to widespread crop failures. With crops unable to grow, people faced starvation across Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.
Weakened by hunger and harsh conditions, populations became more susceptible to disease. The Plague of Justinian, believed to be bubonic plague, emerged in 541 AD and devastated the Eastern Roman Empire, further worsening the situation.
These events had a ripple effect, impacting societies for years to come. The famine and disease caused widespread death and social disruption. The volcanic winter ushered in a period of cold weather known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age, which lasted until around 560 AD.
Medieval historian Michael McCormick from Harvard University said recently that 536 “was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.”
“For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year,” wrote Byzantine historian Procopius.
Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, initiating the coldest decade in the past 2300 years. Snow fell that summer in China; crops failed; and people starved. The Irish chronicles record “a failure of bread from the years 536–539.”
Then, in 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, in Egypt. What came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse, McCormick told Science magazine.
Massive volcanic eruptions in Europe and North America
McCormick’s team reported that a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed ash across the Northern Hemisphere early in 536. Two other massive eruptions followed, in 540 and 547. The repeated blows, followed by plague, plunged Europe into economic stagnation that lasted until 640.
A research team led by Michael Sigl of the University of Bern, found recently that nearly every unusually cold summer over the past 2500 years was preceded by a volcanic eruption.
A massive eruption—perhaps in North America, the team suggested—stood out in late 535 or early 536; another followed in 540. Sigl’s team concluded that the double blow explained the prolonged dark and cold.
Kurds demonstrate against Turkish oppression. File photo. Public Domain
Kurds are often denied equal access to political representation, economic resources and cultural freedoms in Turkey. Since the 1980s, Turkey has been engaged in a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has resulted in over 40,000 deaths.
By Recep Onursal
The world has 91 democracies and 88 autocracies. Yet 71% of the world’s population (some 5.7 billion people) are living under autocratic rule, a big jump from 48% ten years ago.
This trend towards authoritarianism can clearly be seen in Turkey. Since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took office in 2003, he has gradually centralized power by systematically suppressing any political opposition. This has involved controlling the media, limiting civil liberties and interfering with the judiciary.
However, recent local election results signaled a significant shift in the political landscape. Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party was handed its biggest defeat in over two decades. The main opposition group, the Republican People’s Party, not only retained control of Istanbul and Ankara but also won 37.7% of the vote – its highest share since 1977.
The elections were particularly important for the Kurdish opposition. The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, making up around 18% of the population. But, since 2016, democratically elected mayors in Kurdish-majority areas have repeatedly been replaced by government-appointed officials.
The first sign that the regime would look to continue this policy came only two days after the elections. In the eastern city of Van, the government tried to prevent Abdullah Zeydan of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party from becoming mayor despite winning a clear majority.
The move sparked large protests in cities across Turkey’s south-east. And a few days later Turkey’s supreme election council overturned the decision and granted Zeydan the mayoral mandate.
The decision to reinstate Zeydan may look like a retreat from authoritarianism. But the entrenched political logic driving the systematic suppression of the Kurdish political movement in Turkey continues to be a fundamental element driving the Kurdish conflict.
Since the 1980s, Turkey has been engaged in a conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an insurgent group fighting for greater Kurdish rights. The fighting, which has occurred primarily in south-eastern Turkey but has spilled over into northern Iraq and Syria, has resulted in over 40,000 deaths. Following the collapse of the latest peace process in July 2015, violent clashes have led to at least 6,939 further fatalities.
Suppression of Kurds by Turkey
Kurds are often denied equal access to political representation, economic resources and cultural freedoms compared to the majority Turkish population. One of the clearest examples of their political marginalization is the closure of Kurdish political parties. Since 1990, five Kurdish parties have been closed by court orders in Turkey.
This strategy has perpetuated the conflict instead of fostering dialogue for a political solution. In many ways, this approach mirrors the initial British strategy in Northern Ireland where criminalising and excluding Sinn Féin from peace negotiations only prolonged the Troubles.
The closure of political parties in Turkey often coincides with the criminalization of Kurdish political leaders. A prime example is Selahattin Demirtaş, a former presidential candidate who gained seats in the 2015 elections and denied Erdoğan’s party a parliamentary majority for the first time since 2002.
However, Demirtaş was detained on terrorism charges in November 2016 and since then has been held in a high-security prison near the Greek border. He remains in jail despite two definitive rulings from the European Court of Human Rights calling for his immediate release. The court has stated that his ongoing detention is politically motivated.
In May 2023, Erdoğan stated that Demirtaş would not be released under his governance, labelling him a “terrorist”. Aside from expressly disregarding judicial independence, this statement exposes the political motives behind Demirtaş’s detention.
The repression of Kurds extends into everyday politics. Kurdish human rights defenders and political activists advocating for basic rights and freedoms are frequently targeted and prosecuted.
In January 2016, over 2,000 academics from Turkey and abroad signed a petition calling for peace in Kurdish regions. The petition received support from prominent figures like American professor Noam Chomsky and philosopher Judith Butler. However, many of the signatories within Turkey were dismissed and prosecuted. Some were even imprisoned.
The future of democracy in Turkey
Turkish citizens are currently limited to a form of democracy that is primarily confined to voting. This limitation curtails opportunities for genuine democratic deliberation and engagement on critical societal issues such as income inequality, corruption and, most notably, the Kurdish conflict.
Unsurprisingly, Turkey’s approach to the Kurdish conflict offers little room for a democratic resolution. This strategy mimics ultimately unsuccessful historical examples like Colombia’s use of military force against the Farc, the country’s Marxist rebel movement.
Military offensives, aerial bombardments and counterinsurgency measures successfully weakened the Farc’s military strength. But this approach consistently failed to achieve lasting peace and hindered democratic progress in Colombia. It was only in 2016, after 52 years of conflict with the Colombian state, that the Farc made peace with the government.
Turkey must decide whether to learn from these past mistakes and forge a new path or continue with its ineffective strategies. The Kurdish conflict will only be resolved through dialogue and compromise, which will include the broader public participation of Kurds in political processes.
In the words of Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Recep Onursal is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Kent, UK
The article was published in The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
The ancient theater at Thassos has been restored with white marble from local quarries. Credit: AMNA
After eleven years, the ancient theater of Thassos, one of the oldest in Greece, reopens to the public in mid-May, following the completion of extensive restoration work.
The theater has been restored to the phase it was in during Roman times and is now completely clad in the famous white marble mined in the island’s quarries.
Built in the 4th century BC on the slopes of a hill to the east of the ancient city of Thassos (the current capital of the island, Limenas), the ancient theater with its unparalleled view of the sea is preparing to enter a new period of operation, more than century after it was first discovered.
The oldest phase of construction of the theatre of Thassos dates back to the beginning of the Hellenistic period (late fourth – first quarter of the third century BC). The theatre had a stage building with a marble facade. The rows of seats are made of simple marble blocks without curvatures, except for the seats found in the lower part of the koilon.
From the 1st century AD, the theatre was used for animal hunts and gladiator fights. The conversion of the theatre into an arena took place at the time of the Roman dynasty of the Severans (late 2nd – early 3rd century AD).
The work of restoring this monumental theater was perhaps one of the most difficult technical projects carried out in recent years by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kavala – Thassos.
The hollow of the theater was excavated from its foundations to restore past damages, provide a solution to static issues, and complete important infrastructure that would ensure its modern function as a space that can host cultural and artistic events.
The theater was restored with white marble from Thassos’s quarries
“The restoration work on the hollow turned out to be extremely problematic and much more extensive than originally anticipated,” explains the project supervisor, archaeologist Constantina Panousis, speaking to the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA).
“What we had to deal with in the ancient theater of Thassos was a great challenge, especially in terms of the supply of marble…The analysis of the material that was made in the ancient benches showed us the type and composition of the marble used in antiquity, and based on this, a similar marble was ordered from a quarry on the island,” she added.
Until 2013, when the theater was permanently closed to start the restoration work, the theater seats were made of wood, resting on metal platforms, which were installed in the 1990s.
The former mayor of the island, Kostas Hadjiemmanouil says he feels vindicated with the result. “I feel that I won a personal bet and fulfilled a commitment I made to Thassos when in 2010 I promised that I would throw away the rotten plywood from the island’s ancient theater and replace it with all-white Thassos marble.”
Current Mayor Lefteris Kyriakidis, says that the opening of the ancient theater to visitors is a very important development and notes that the municipality intends to host events there when conditions allow.
Armenian people are marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh by armed Ottoman soldiers. Kharpert, Ottoman Empire, April 1915. The Armenian Genocide was officially recognized by the USA in April 24, 2021. Credit: Wikipedia
The Armenian Genocide, the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians carried out in Turkey and adjoining regions by the Ottoman government between 1914 and 1923, is commemorated on April 24th every year.
The Armenian Genocide was an atrocity that occurred within the context of a wider religious cleansing across Asia Minor that lasted 10 years and included Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. They were all Christians who were also subjects of the Ottoman Empire.
The religious cleansing was actually the first in modern times, and it fit the pattern of genocides that would follow in the century ahead.
It is worth noting that the Nazis in the following decades were transfixed by the events that occurred in Turkey in those nightmarish years of mass killings and deadly deportations—and saw in them a pattern that they could emulate for their own twisted ends.
The Armenians, in many ways, bore the brunt of the slaughter, but ethnic Greeks and Assyrians were also massacred in similar ways—and for the same reason: They were scapegoats in a crumbling empire that saw Christians as a dangerous and potentially treasonous population inside the country.
There was a strong nationalistic impulse to create a “Turkey for the Turks,” and that meant a homogeneous population based on “Turkishness” and the Muslim faith.
The persecution of Armenians began in 1914
Initially, it was just a campaign of boycotting Armenian businesses and shops. But within months, it culminated in acts of violence and the murder of key Armenian politicians and persons of importance. By April 15, 1915, almost 25,000 Armenians were slain in the province of Van.
On April 24, 1915, the Ottomans arrested 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople and sent them to Chankri and Ayash, where they were later murdered.
On the same day, the editors and staff of Azadamart, the leading Armenian newspaper of Constantinople, were arrested, to be executed on June 15th in Diyarbekir, where they had been taken and imprisoned.
The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople and Zohrab, an Armenian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament, petitioned the Turkish authorities on behalf of the arrested Armenians of Constantinople. The answer was that the government was dissolving the Armenian political organizations.
Within nine months, more than 600,000 Armenians were massacred. Of those who were deported during that time, more than 400,000 died of the brutalities and privations of the southward march into Mesopotamia, raising the number of victims to one million. This became known to the rest of the world outside Turkey as the Armenian Genocide.
In addition, 200,000 Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam to give Armenia a new Turkish sense of identity and strip Armenians of their historical past as the first Christian state in the world.
On August 30, 1922, Armenians who were living in Smyrna were victims of yet more Turkish atrocities. The “Smyrna Disaster” of 1922, which was aimed at Christian Greeks who were living in the seaside city, involved thousands of Armenians as well. Turkish soldiers and civilians set all the Greek and Armenian neighborhoods on fire, forcing Greeks and Armenians to flee to the harbor, where thousands were killed or drowned.
Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day is a national holiday in Armenia. Credit Wikipedia
On April 24, 1919, prominent figures of the Armenian community who had survived the atrocities held a commemoration ceremony at the St. Trinity Armenian church in Istanbul. Following its initial commemoration in 1919, the date became the annual day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide.
Yet, somehow, ever since the horrific events of 1915, Turkey has methodically denied the fact that the Armenian genocide occurred. Despite Turkish denials, the genocide has been unanimously verified by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and become internationally recognized with the intention of upholding moral responsibility above political purposes.
“Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” the American President said.
