SPEECH OF S.P
Beatitude, venerable and honorable audience
We are in the worst phase of our history after the war. We live in a time we cannot visionise, we cannot dream, we cannot program. Our every day is special and every night we thank God that “we exist,” wishing that the next day, at least, will be the same.
Ideologies, political beliefs and the familiar way of life have collapsed.
Really, has this happened again?
We live in a very painful era, when it comes to everyday life, but that at the same time gives us the opportunity to reorganize as humans, as a society, as a nation.
We stopped burning the Greek flags!
We stopped taking down the Orthodox symbols, at every given moment we saw them hanging up somewhere.
We stopped braking up!
We stopped feeling that the people next to us and our neighbors are strangers or enemies!
We stopped being political opponents!
We started coming closer to each other. Most of us who were apart are now united.
Now is the time to prove what we all say: “that the Greeks at times of war are united and magnificent.” I’m sure this will happen now.
The same way we survived the four hundred years of Turkish slavery, the same way we overcame Harilaos Trikoupi’s “we are sadly bankrupt”, the same way we endured the twentieth century with two world wars, with Balkan conflicts, with German occupation and civil war, that’s how we will survive today. This is for sure!
In a period of “economic occupation,” where everything is shaken by the anxiety of survival, the unknown tomorrow, the mental upheaval of the disappointment of beliefs, the shattering of hope, dreams, visions, the worry for the next moment, one thing remains stable, immovable and unshakable … “that Greece will never … die!”
We, in this condition and in these circumstances, where our everyday life does not fit ideas of nation and vision, “the Foundation for Ecumenical Hellenism”, which is nothing more than a “node of Greeks”, resist the alternation of our identity and history and we continue to exist! And we exist because Greeks exist.
20 years have been completed with continuous action! For 20 years, this private initiative stands out! 200,000 Greeks in Greece have been actively engaged to us and I thank them very much! Besides, this evening is dedicated to these people as well as to two great hierarchs who are not with us, but they certainly see us from above and rejoice. To the last Archbishop of North and South America Jacob and to the physiognomy that shook the stormy waters of Greece Christodoulos.
All these years, when they were burning the Greek flags we were distributing them throughout Hellenism. When schools were removing the symbols of Orthodoxy, we were restoring them, when no one in Greece cared about Macedonia, while abroad the propaganda was getting out of hand, we sent our volume “Macedonia” to the foreign centers of power for information. Today, when no one deals with our border Thrace, we, despite the crisis prepared the two-volume project “Thrace”. Identity issues such as the eradication of the religion on our ID, the confinement of Smyrna and lastly the cohabitation agreement for all others was a priority.
2016-2026
And now, Dispersed Hellenism. Our great national chapter.
The next decade is dedicated to the people that Greece owes a lot too. They traveled and settled in all parts of the world, most of them because they were forced by civil wars and poverty. They thrived! They were the ones who played a catalytic role not only in the creation of the Modern Greek world but also in the transmigration of Greek history and culture, which all modern civilization was based on.
After the Fall…
Philhellenism.
Liberation of Greece.
Building the Newer Hellas by the Benefactors:
Zappas, Averoff, Varvakis, Elena Venizelou Skylitsi, Dromokaitis, Rizaris, Sivitanidis, Sinas, Syngros, Harokopos etc.
After the war, the checks were backing up the Greek families. To those forgotten Greeks we will we dedicating our next ten years. Attempting a census record highlighting the hidden treasure of our homeland.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We do not substitute anyone! We do not compete with anyone! We do not claim to be or have the first role! Just, for the past twenty years we have been walking a specific path! A “Greek National Line”. Without state subsidies, without European funds, but with the love and support of the Greeks.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are co-responsible in all. Both good and bad. It is up to us to reverse this climate of pessimism and the occupational conditions we are experiencing now.
But to do this, we must return to our values, our ideals that we have as a race and people. Besides, the crisis is a result of the misinterpretation of our values, ideals and beliefs, such as the first Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronimos said in 2010. We must return to legality, we must regain our pride. And what do I mean by pride?
Next month we celebrate our national anniversary. Closing this speech, I will tell you a very small story.
We are shortly after the year 1821. The newly established Greek state, is handing out, begging places for the fighters of ’21. Thus, they gave Nikitaras the “Turk eater”, who in the Dervenakia battle broke two swords in his hands, a begging place in the Temple of Evangelistria, every Thursday, not especially a good day. The Austrian Embassy in Greece heard about that and sent a representative to meet him.
Nikitara’s sight was blurry because of his sugar level, but he saw that his visitor was an official, and immediately withdraw his hand.
“What are you doing here?” He was asked by the representative of the Austrian Embassy.
– “I am enjoying the free air of my homeland,” Nikitaras replied.
After attempting to persuade Nikitaras to follow him back to the embassy, turning to leave, he deliberately dropped a pouch with coins.
Nikitaras, by the noise, understood what it was. Squirming, he grabbed the pouch and shouted to the official.
– “Mister, something fell off you and it’s probably money.”
-“No problem, it doesn’t matter. Once you found them, keep them, ” the official replied.
– “Take them and give them to those in need,» Nikitaras replied.
This is the pride of the Greeks.