Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 01-11-03

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

CONTENTS

[01] BRITISH MPS BACK THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES TO GREECE

[02] ARCHBISHOP ANASTASIOS OF ALBANIA IS IN GREECE

[03] PROTOPAPAS' STATEMENTS ON THE SUSPICIOUS LETTER IN THE US EMBASSY

[04] THE ISLAND OF KOS ATTRACTS TOURISTS LIKE MAGNET

[05] THE ABDI IPEKCI AWARDS

[06] THE TURKISH FM ON A FORMAL VISIT TO ATHENS

[07] WINTER FINALLY ARRIVED IN GREECE

[08] CONTACTS BY THE GREEK PUBLIC ORDER MINISTER IN ALBANIA

[09] PAPANDREOU IS IN TEHERAN

[01] BRITISH MPS BACK THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES TO GREECE

Four British parliament deputies, coming from different political parties, call for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. With a resolution they signed call on the Blair government to start talks immediately with the Greek government aimed at bringing the Parthenon Marbles to the Acropolis Museum in 2004.

Greek Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos commented that the initiative undertaken by the British parliament deputies shows that the Greek effort for the return of the Parthenon Marbles has the considerable support of the British public opinion.

[02] ARCHBISHOP ANASTASIOS OF ALBANIA IS IN GREECE

The head of the Albanian Christian Orthodox Church Archbishop Anastasios is on a visit to Greece since yesterday. He is scheduled to have a number of contacts with Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All of Greece as well as, with the country's state and political leadership.

The Archbishop of Albania will meet with President Kostis Stephanopoulos and Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, while he will visit monasteries, churches, old people's homes, orphanages and other institutions.

Archbishop Anastasios is accompanied by Metropolites Ignatios of Verati and Ioannis of Korce. He and his entourage arrived in Athens yesterday and were welcome at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport by Archbishop Christodoulos, members of the Holy Synod, government representatives and other officials.

[03] PROTOPAPAS' STATEMENTS ON THE SUSPICIOUS LETTER IN THE US EMBASSY

The Special Infections Control Center will issue its findings very soon concerning the samples taken from the US embassy in Athens, stated Greek government spokesman Christos Protopapas, when asked to comment on a suspicious letter received by the US embassy in Athens.

Public health is at no risk whatsoever and this is confirmed in the most categorical way by the responsible authorities, stated Mr. Protopapas.

The government spokesman also stated that the Greek government through the Foreign Ministry pointed out to the United States today, via its embassy, that the Greek authorities had to be briefed on the incident without a delay. He said that the US embassy has acknowledged that and pledged that from now on there will be continuous cooperation and flow of information.

[04] THE ISLAND OF KOS ATTRACTS TOURISTS LIKE MAGNET

Over 700.000 tourists visited the island of Kos in southeastern Aegean during this year's tourist season, corresponding to an increase of 6.8% in tourist arrivals compared to the same period last year, according to figures provided by the Civil Aviation Authority. The overwhelming majority of the tourists are foreigners, while domestic tourists correspond only to 3-4%.

According to the Kos Hotel Owners Association president Ms. Maria Kipreou, the low percentage of domestic tourism is the result of the fact that there is no direct Thessaloniki-Kos flight.

Speaking to MPA within the framework of the island's presentation in the 17th International Tourism Exhibition Philoxenia 2001 in Thessaloniki, Ms. Kipreou stressed that the Hotel Owners Association of Kos has contacted the airline companies Cronus and Aegean Airlines to persuade them to launch a Thessaloniki-Kos direct flight.

When asked to comment on whether tourism in Kos has suffered a blow as a result of the terrorist attacks in the United States, Ms. Kipreou stated that apart from the cancellation of two conferences in the following days after the terrorist attacks there were no other direct consequences.

[05] THE ABDI IPEKCI AWARDS

The 10th Abdi Ipekci Awards ceremony was held in Athens yesterday.

With the special awards were honored Greek Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeritis for his work when he was Minister of Agriculture and his former Turkish counterpart Yusuf Golkop for their constructive cooperation in the sector of agriculture.

Special awards received the deans of the Universities of Istanbul and Athens, Kemal Alemdaroglu and Konstantinos Dimopoulos, businessmen Panagiotis Koutsikos, Sarik Tara and Asaf Giuneri as well as, former Athens Association of Newspaper Journalists president Nikos Kiaos.

The communication award was received by mayors of Chalkida Charalambos Maniatis, as well as Osman Giurun of Muglon, Dinos Charitopoulos of Sappes, and Osman Tabak of Redestos. Also, among those who received awards were journalists Giorgos Bistis, Taslan Suerdem and Manolis Mavromatis, author Yulsun Bilgehan, basketball player Ibrahim Kutluai, private sector employee Malvina Sfgga and artist Phaedon.

Awards were also received by school students, while lawyers Saha Ilman and Enis Tulza received special commendations.

The Ipekci Award was adopted 22 years ago in honor of Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci, who was murdered in February 1979.

[06] THE TURKISH FM ON A FORMAL VISIT TO ATHENS

Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem will be on a formal visit to Athens on Wednesday within the framework of the regular contacts between the Foreign Ministries of Greece and Turkey. The issues under discussion will be the EU-Turkish relations, the Cyprus problem and the Greek-Turkish relations.

Diplomatic sources in Athens characterize the visit as important because it will complete a full circle of Greek diplomacy contacts that began from Moscow and Washington and, in cooperation with the European partners, expanded to the Arab-Muslim world.

Mr. Papandreou and Mr. Cem will deal with bilateral issues such as, the re-mining of the border region of Evros, at the Greek-Turkish borders in the northeast, that had been agreed during the visit of the Greek Minister to Ankara last April, as well as, the materialization of the nine Low Policy Agreements signed between Greece and Turkey.

[07] WINTER FINALLY ARRIVED IN GREECE

It appears that winter finally arrived in most parts of Greece.

Snow fell in Pilio Mount, in central Greece, and according to the Weather Bureau, snow is also expected to fall in the mountain regions around Thessaloniki and Parnitha in Athens.

In the Aegean Sea, 9-Force winds make sailing impossible, while tomorrow weather will become worse with 10-11-Force strong winds. For precautionary reasons, many ports have closed among them, the ports of Piraeus and Rafina.

[08] CONTACTS BY THE GREEK PUBLIC ORDER MINISTER IN ALBANIA

Greek Minister of Public Order Michalis Chrisochoidis had talks yesterday with his Albanian counterpart Ilir Gioni in the city of Vlore and with Albanian Prime Minister Ilir Meta in Tirana.

Mr. Chrisochoidis visited the Regional Center against illegal activities in Vlore accompanied by Mr. Gioni and in their statements they referred to the cooperation between the two countries against organized crime, illegal activities and drug trafficking.

Mr. Chrisochoidis characterized cooperation between the two countries as excellent and pointed out that the goal of his visit to Vlore was to promote this cooperation even further.

In his meeting with the Albanian Prime Minister, Mr. Chrisochoidis stated that Greece is willing to contribute considerably to the efforts against organized crime and illegal activities.

From his side, Mr. Meta stated that cooperation between Greece and Albania is of a special importance for security in the region and pointed out that illegal activities are an international phenomenon and cooperation at an international level is necessary in order to deal with it.

[09] PAPANDREOU IS IN TEHERAN

Teheran is the last stop for Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou after Islamabad and New Delhi.

Mr. Papandreou is on a tour of the countries neighboring with Afghanistan which is under US attack in the war against international terrorism.

The Greek Foreign Minister is scheduled to meet today with Iranian president Hatami and Foreign Minister Kamal Haradgi.

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