Free Republic

The story of two Greek immigrants in Colombia serves as a lesson of what the nation can achieve when united. Petros Gkrilis and George Sitaras come from Thessaloniki. They are fanatic supporters of the city’s eternal rivals PAOK and Aris respectively. They proudly wear their club’s jerseys in Colombia, speak with passion about their love for their idols back in Greece and they both claim their team is the jewel in Thessaloniki’s sports crown. Yet they have managed to show to the entire world that football rivalries are nothing compared to all the other things in life which unite people...

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on Turkey to respect International Law at the Press Conference following the 5th trilateral meeting in Israel with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday... “We have emphasised the need for respect of international law in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean. Respecting, in particular, the right of Cyprus to exercise its sovereign rights in its EEZ “. Mr Tsipras went on to underline the need for a just and viable solution of the Cypriot problem with the scrapping of the guarantees on the occupied part of the island and...

Last night, we returned from a two week trip to Greece. We visited Athens, Crete, and Thessaloniki. Athens and Crete are familiar American tourist destinations. Thessaloniki is not, and for good reason. It’s interesting, but not interesting enough to cause many American tourists to visit it. We went because it’s where my wife’s father was born. At that time, in the early years of the last century, Salonika (as the city was called) was one of the most fascinating cities in the world. My wife and I arrived 100 years too late. Thessaloniki, Greece’s second most populous city, is located...

Israel President Rivlin Addresses Poland, Anti-Semitism At Holocaust Remembrance By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyAthens, Greece — January 29, 2018 … Israeli President Rivlin commented on Poland’s denial of its role in the Holocaust. Rivlin, who is visiting Greece, stated that in relation to the new Polish legislation that Poland’s decision to place in prison those who speak of Poland’s complicity with Nazi Germany is a reminder that it is still beholden upon Israel, all Jews and Christians to fight for the memory of the Holocaust, as it happened. Research into the Holocaust must be free, open, and sincere. The...

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — A missing British hiker whose dismembered, fleshless remains were found in the hills of northern Greece was probably attacked by wolves while walking alone on a remote path, then torn apart and devoured, a Greek coroner said after an autopsy Wednesday. Coroner Nikos Kifnidis told the Associated Press that both the woman’s thigh bones had been cracked open by bites and large sections of her body are still missing. He said a veterinarian at Wednesday’s autopsy in the town of Komotini confirmed that no dog or jackal could have administered such bites.

An incomplete inscription might reopen the debate about the identity of the owner of a tomb from the Alexander the Great era, according to new research into blocks from the circular retaining wall of the mysterious mound. The tomb was unsealed in northern Greece 18 months ago. Dated to between 325 B.C. -- two years before Alexander the Great's death -- and 300 B.C., the tomb is located in Amphipolis, east of Thessaloniki, and is billed as the largest of its kind in the Greek world, measuring more than 1,600 feet in circumference. According to study author Andrew Chugg, a...

Conventional estimates for the collapse of the Aegean civilization may be incorrect by up to a century, according to new radiocarbon analyses. While historical chronologies traditionally place the end of the Greek Bronze Age at around 1025 BCE, this latest research suggests a date 70 to 100 years earlier. Archaeologists from the University of Birmingham selected 60 samples of animal bones, plant remains and building timbers, excavated at Assiros in northern Greece, to be radiocarbon dated and correlated with 95.4% accuracy using Bayesian statistical methodology at the University of Oxford and the Akademie der Wissenschaften Heidelberg, Germany. 'Until very recently...

Excavation work during construction of a new subway network in Greece's second largest city has discovered an ancient wreath made of gold that was buried with a woman some 2,300 years ago. Archaeologists say Friday's find in Thessaloniki occurred on the site of an ancient cemetery in the west of the northern port city. A total 23,000 ancient and medieval artifacts have been found during archaeological excavations connected with the construction since 2006. Archaeologist Vassiliki Misailidou said the olive branch wreath made of gold was buried in a simple, box-shaped woman's grave. It dates to the late 4th or early...

One thousand two hundred and fifty companies of Thessaloniki put "padlock" from the beginning of the year until the end of August, according to a statement of the Crafts Chamber of VETH city. Individual companies seem to be the most "weak link", and 998 of them have ceased to operate in the specified period of 2012. The picture shows the craft community is a continuation of 2011, when during the same period (January 1 to August 22) removed from the register of companies VETH 1269. (mangled thru google translator)

SNIPPET: "A Sun Express Boeing 737-800, registration TC-SUO performing flight XQ-973 from Stuttgart (Germany) to Izmir (Turkey) with 62 passengers and 6 crew, was enroute overhead Skopje (Macedonia), when a crew member found a note in one of the lavatories saying "Today we will die, boom"." SNIPPET: "Greek police detained a man carrying a marker pen of the same color as the note written on the lavatory's mirror, but later permitted him to continue the journey. After the airplane arrived in Izmir, Turkish police detained the man again and interviewed him. The man was released without charges after the interview."

SNIPPET: "A bomb has exploded outside the Athens stock exchange, slightly injuring a female passer-by and damaging the building, police say. The bomb - which set fire to several cars - was hidden in a stolen van. Another bomb went off outside a government building in Thessaloniki, causing minor damage and no injuries. The blasts may be the work of a Greek extremists' group, Revolutionary Struggle, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens. Earlier this year the group claimed responsibility for two bombs aimed at the American Citibank group. Flying glass A warning of the Athens explosion was telephoned to...

HOODED youths firebombed a police station next to the Exarchia district where locals held a silent vigil for a teenager who was killed a week ago. Police fired tear gas and were in hot pursuit of a group of about 100 youths who had congregated there - with similar numbers in Thessaloniki also vandalising a gymnasium before holing up in university premises. The fresh outbreak of hostilities ...

The rioting began in Athens late on Saturday soon after the shooting in the central Exarchia district, where youths threw petrol bombs at police, burnt dozens of cars and smashed shop windows. It quickly spread to Greece's second largest city of Thessaloniki and other towns in northern Greece. Cities on the holiday islands of Crete and Corfu also saw protests at the shooting, which prompted Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos to offer his resignation. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose fragile government has been rocked by a series of scandals, rejected it, a ministry spokeswoman said.

Tunnels will go deeper to spare antiquities Preliminary work on the metro is slowly bringing to light the story of Thessaloniki. The first architectural remains and portable finds discovered in the city’s historic center are just a sample of what the metro tunneling machine will turn up once it starts digging deeper. Though the exploratory digs at 350 points along the 9.6-kilometer metro line that were begun last August have so far uncovered only a handful of portable finds, a museum has already been found to house them. It is the Alkazar (formerly Hamza Bey mosque). Refurbishment is under way,...

ATHENS, Greece - Police captured a 10th suspected member of the deadly November 17 terrorist organization and a newspaper reported that the group had been planning an attack on U.S. and NATO peacekeepers. The daily Eleftherotypia reported Sunday that alleged gunmen of the ultra-left group already in custody told police they had planned to strike NATO peacekeepers based in Kosovo as they traveled through Greece. The newspaper said evidence had been found at November 17 hideouts suggesting the urban guerrillas were gathering information on NATO convoys leaving the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki. November 17 has claimed 22 killings, including...