Free Republic

October 13th is the day that marks the death of one of the most important defenders of Macedonia’s struggle for freedom, the Hellenic Army Officer Pavlos Melas. Melas, born in 1870 in the French city of Marseille, was the son of Michael Melas, an elected MP for Attica and mayor of Athens. At an early age, Melas decided to go to Athens to study and later joined the Hellenic Army, graduating from the Hellenic Army Academy as an artillery lieutenant at age 21. In 1892, he married Natalia Dragoumi, the daughter of a famous politician from Macedonia’s city of Kastoria,...

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...