Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-02

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greece shows Europe's humanitarian face, PM Tsipras tells Corriere della Sera

[02] "Greece cannot be left alone with the problem," says Merkel

[03] Marina Abramovic: Athens is culturally important

[04] Google supports "Grow Greek Tourism Online" intiative

[01] Greece shows Europe's humanitarian face, PM Tsipras tells Corriere della Sera

"And it managed to do so in a Union that closes its borders, and xenophobia and the intolerant rhetoric of far-right are on the rise," he added.

Tsipras underlined that "Greece is the point where Europe will ratify its founding principles and values, such as humanism and solidarity, or it will betray them. I am sure that there can be no united Europe without absolute respect to the common struggles and values, but also to the shared responsibilities and shared commitments. We must face the difficulties together. We will either succeed together or fail together."

Asked what prevents the implementation of a coordinated strategy, the Greek prime minister replied: "We claim nothing more than solidarity, a fundamental principle of the EU. We claim the fair allocation of the responsibility among the member states. We must proceed with a decision, which is binding for all and by all, which concerns the obligatory, fair distribution of refugee flows in all EU countries, according to each one's capacity."

[02] "Greece cannot be left alone with the problem," says Merkel

Merkel stressed the need for common European solutions which do not put pressure on one country and stated that nothing is achieved by closing the borders. On the contrary, the economy is set at risk, she said.

"Greece was lagging behind as it is the case with other countries," the German Chancellor said, adding that the hotspots were not constructed on time and the reception centres for hosting 50,000 refugees were not ready by 2015 as it was agreed.

Merkel also said that the images from the Greek-FYROM borders do not shock the people of Aleppo who are trying to save themselves from the bombs and the murderers of the Islamic State.

[03] Marina Abramovic: Athens is culturally important

She talked of her project called "As One" based on "Abramovic Method", combined with an extended programme of performance and intangible art.

"First of all, I'm very happy to be in Greece, I'm especially looking forward to the collaboration of MAI [Marina Abramovic Institute] with NEON, because NEON and MAI share many similar goals – education is one of them, working in public spaces and the large participation of the public, " she said and added: "Here we are presenting the Abramovic method and also a very large group of Greek artists performing, which was completely new and different to what Greece is used to, because it is based on long-duration experience."

Abramovic noted that Athens is very close to her heart. "I come from former Yugoslavia and we have a quite very similar culture. I always say I'm coming to Greece is like I'm coming home, but without the pain that I had in former Yugoslavia. And Athens is really important now culturally. I've been asked very often why we are here in Athens and why we're here in Athens at this moment and I think for the message of the artist and of art it is very important to choose the right time, right place and right public for the work to have a really successful impact. Right now, Athens is the right place, right time and right public to do this project together with NEON. It is not just that it is going to be the future house of Documenta, which is such an important manifestation every five years internationally, but it's also about building some kind of ground, a preparation field, for what will happen in the next few years in Athens. It is going to be a very important place culturally in the world map."

She underlined that Greece is going through a difficult time and crisis, but Greece has been going through difficult times for centuries. "I mean, you're one of the greatest civilizations and I'm so impressed by how you deal with difficult times and crises, because somehow you always survive. And right now it's not just Greece; it's the whole world that is in a terrible situation. If Donald Trump is going to be the next President of the United States we're going to have even worse crises in the world. I think one thing for me is very important: What you do with art and how art can help in different times, because art doesn't really work in nature. Nature is perfect without us or anybody else. Art works in places where there are problems, difficult economic, cultural and social crises. There, art can actually connect people, open the spirits, change the consciousness, can do a lot of things. It cannot always give all the answers and it cannot always change the world, but it can help."

"I have a very big and secret project in Greece which I don't want to share because I'm very superstitious like all Greeks. If you talk about a project early it may not happen, but it's a very big project that I want to do in Greece. But right now I'm really concentrating on the present and the NEON and MAI event is opening on the 10th, which is right around the corner and to me my expectation is how the Greek public is going to react to what we're going to present. The only thing that I can say is that we're giving 100 percent of ourselves into this project and it's up to the public how they're going to take it or not. I hope we're going to have a great collaboration, because we're working not just by presenting the work. We're not working with the public in a normal way like you go to the exhibition and the public is just a silent voyeur, where they look at the work and go home. We're actually working with the public. The public is our basic subject and object of this work. So the public has to take a completely active participation and I hope the public is emotional enough. The Greek public has great possibilities to see and experience this work," she concluded.

[04] Google supports "Grow Greek Tourism Online" intiative

In cooperation with the Economy, Development and Tourism Ministry and the National Greek Tourism Organisation as well as the Greek Tourism Enterprises Association, Google announced the implementation of a free web education platform for tourism.

Through a wide range of topics, the users will have the opportunity to be trained on how they will upgrade their presence on the web. Moreover, the users will be able to select an adapted education plan and receive a certificate by GGTO initiative and IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) Europe.

All local enterprises, tourism professionals and those who want to develop their potential offered by the web can be informed in detail by the education programmes available in their region via the official website of the initiative -greektourism.withgoogle.com.

A group of Online Advisors educated by Google will travel in Greece to discuss with the local tourism businesses.

Meanwhile, web searches under the name "Travel to Greece" increased by 19 percent in comparison with 2015 and 72 percent through mobile phones. However, the Greek tourist enterprises do not take advantage of the web's potentials provided that only 8 percent of the hotels and hosting accomodations use the web to accept reservations through their website.

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