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Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-02-28
CONTENTS
[01] President bestows honourary distinctions
[01] President bestows honourary distinctions
President Karolos Papoulias gave honourary distinctions to
personalities from both Greece and abroad during a ceremony held at the
Presidential Mansion on Wednesday. The ceremony was attended by former
prime minister and ruling New Democracy party's honourary president
Constantine Mitsotakis, ministers and deputies.
"Some of you are being honoured for your contribution to the ideals of
freedom and democracy, some for your contribution to culture and
science and some, lastly, for actions of yours or a stance of life that
constitutes an example or for your tangible love for Greece, either as
its children abroad or as Greeks in the wider sense of the term,"
President Papoulias said in his address.
President Papoulias awarded the Great Cross of the Order of Honour to
Yiannis Haralambopoulos (former deputy prime minister, former foreign
minister and former defence minister) and the Great Cross of the Order
of the Phoenix to Yiannis Varvitsiotis (the head of the ruling New
Democracy party's Eurodeputies and former defence minister) and Petros
Molyviatis (former foreign minister).
He also awarded the Supreme Brigade of the Order of Honour to, among
others, General Mohammar Abdel Salam El Mahgoub, Egypt's Minister of
State on Local Development issues and former governor of Alexandria,
and to Valentina Ivanova Matvienko, governor of Saint Petersburg.
Lastly, Michael Bilirakis, former Congressman of the State of Florida,
was given the Supreme Brigade of the Order of the Phoenix, and Patrick
Leigh Fermour, a national resistance fighter and writer, received the
Brigade of the Order of the Phoenix.
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