Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said ahead of Greek Independence Day on March 25 that the Greek community in Ukraine “is in our thoughts, as it’s going through a trying time and is suffering the hardships of war.”
In a message to diaspora Greeks, Sakellaropoulou said that ethnic Greeks in Ukraine are “showing courage drawn from the love for their homeland, looking forward to the quickest possible end to the war and the beginning of a new life from the ashes of destruction.”
Sakellaropoulou said the Greeks’ glorious struggle for independence 200 years ago is a constant reminder “of the value of our nation’s unity and harmony which transcends our borders,” referring to the Greek War for Independence that began in 1821.
“Greek struggle for independence nurtured in Ukraine’s Odessa”
Moreover, the notion of Greece’s struggle for independence from Ottoman rule was nurtured at the port city of Odessa, “while the revolution was sparked in the heroic city of Mariupol, where a ‘little Greece’ became prosperous in the Sea of Azov.”
Greece is standing by Greeks in Ukraine, stressed Sakellaropoulou.
Sakellaropoulou spoke as she attended a student parade in Kalamata, the first major Greek city liberated from the Turks days before the official declaration of the War of Independence.
Student parades throughout Greece on Thursday
Student parades to mark the 201st-anniversary of the War of Independence took place in all major cities and towns in Greece on Thursday.
In Athens, dozens of schools paraded through the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Greek Parliament.
Thousands of Athenians took advantage of the fine weather and attended the parade.
The student parade is ahead of the armed forces parade that will take place on Friday, on Greek Independence Day.
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