Subject: News I, 9/08/93 From: zarros@turing.scs.carleton.ca (Theodoros Sp. Zarros) Athens News Agency Bulletin, August 9, 1993 =========================================== Athens, 9/8/1993 (ANA): Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis on Saturday appeared optimistic about the prospects for a peaceful resolution in Bosnia. "Every hour I become more optimistic that peace will prevail", he told reporters at Hania airport on his return from Brussels. Mr. Mitsotakis said that while in Brussels, where he went to attend funeral services for Belgian King Baudouin, he held separate meetings with foreign leaders including Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides, EC Commission President Jacques Delors, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic. He also met with Belgian Prime Minister Jean Luc Deheane and Foreign Minister Willy Claes, whose country holds the European Community's rotating presidency. "It was particularly important that I had the opportunity to meet with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and even more important that I spoke with Mr. Izetbegovic", the premier said. Before arriving in Brussels late Friday, Mr. Mitsotakis visited Belgrade for talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic at the request of international mediators Lord Owen and Thorvals Stoltenberg. Dimitris Avramopulos, director of the premier's diplomatic office, is expected to go to Geneva today to brief the mediators on Mr. Mitsotakis' talks in Belgrade. Turning to domestic issues, Mr. Mitsotakis described draft legislation submitted to parliament Friday on the partial privatisation of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) as very "important". "This legislation was very carefully drafted ... and serves the interests of the Greek people. It will provide better telecommunications services for Greece and will help make OTE more competitive", he said. The government is seeking to sell 49 per cent of the state-run phone company. Under the bill submitted to parliament, 35 per cent will be sold to a strategic investor, who will also assume the company's management, 10 per cent of OTE shares will be sold on the Athens Stock Exchange and the remaining four per cent will be distributed free to OTE employees. Athens, 9/8/1993 (ANA): Hundreds of Greveniotes from around the world arrived in western Macedonia over the weekend to attend the First World Congress of Greveniotes sponsored by the Grevena municipality. The congress, which opened yesterday, will discuss cultural issues, as well as plans and prospects for the Grevena prefecture and western Macedonia. Belgrade, 9/8/1993 (ANA - A. Kourkoulas): Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos yesterday decried Western prejudice against Eastern orthodoxy and denounced attacks against the Serbian Orthodox Church. "In recent centuries, the old envy has been replaced by a contempt for everything Orthodox or Eastern", he said on the first leg of a Balkan tour, which includes visits to Romania and Bulgaria. His remarks, delivered at the old Hopovi monastery in Voyvodina, were especially poignant as the monastery has been ransacked and destroyed by the Turks and Austrians 11 times in its history. The Patriarch said that a "general offensive" had been launched against the Orthodox Church in former Yugoslavia and eastern Europe. He also described "the heavy flow of tears shed for Orthodox martyrs" under former communist rule as hypocritical in light of the attacks launched against the Orthodox faith following the collapse of "anti-Western and Western-generated atheistic regimes that inflicted pain on the Orthodox peoples". "The Orthodox Serbian nation has been chosen by God to guard the western border of the Orthodox East, and it has fulfilled that sacred duty heroically by sacrificing countless of its children", the Ecumenical Patriarch said. "The peoples of Serbia and Greece have the fortitude to overcome difficult crises by drawing strength from the Orthodox faith", he added. "The cross of martyrdom born by the people of Serbia calls for universal sympathy from all Orthodox peoples, who are now facing attacks by dark forces from many directions", Patriarch Vartholomeos said. Yesterday Patriarch Vartholomeos and Serbian Patriarch Pavle also officiated at a Holy Liturgy in Belgrade's Saint Marco church attended by about 1,000 Orthodox faithful. His week-long visit to Serbia is part of a mission of "love, peace and unity" to all Orthodox patriarchates. His Balkan tour follows official visits to the patriarchates of Alexandria, Damascus and Russia. The Ecumenical patriarch is scheduled to visit Greece in October. Athens, 9/8/1993 (ANA): Agriculture Minister Christos Koskinas visited Halastra yesterday to discuss measures to combat the drought threatening 260,000 stremmas of maize and rice crops in northern Greece, the Macedonian Press Agency reported from Thessaloniki yesterday. The drought has been exacerbated by a Skopje's reduction of irrigation water from the Axios river, which local farmers say has been slowed to a trickle, it added. MPA said about 18,000 farmers in Halastra, Agios Anastasios, Anatoliko and Sindos are in danger of losing their crops because of the drought and have launched an urgent appeal for government assistance. It said the problem has been compounded by a severe reduction in water from the Axios, which has been slowed to three cubic meters per second by the Skopje authorities, who claim they need the water to irrigate their own crops. Mr. Koskinas said 17 water pumps had been set up in Loudia to help offset the water shortages. He added that the drought had delayed work on the Aliakmona-Axios pipeline but pledged additional assistance to deal with the crisis. Athens, 9/8/1993 (ANA): The treasures of King Priamos of Troy, unearthed by the renowned German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, will be exhibited at the Ilion Mansion, where the late archaeologist once resided. The treasures, to go on display in December, will be sent to Greece on loan from Russia, following a pledge made by Russian President Boris Yeltsin during his visit here in June. Details of the exhibition will be finalised by a delegation headed by Culture Minister Dora Bakoyannis which will travel to Moscow in September at the invitation of the Russian culture ministry. The exhibition is already considered one of next season's cultural highlights and is expected to attract great international interest. A student of Homer from childhood, Schliemann retired from business in 1863 to dedicate himself to his dream of finding Troy and other Homeric sites. After several years of study and travel, in 1871 he undertook at his own expense excavations at Hissarlik which resulted in the discovery of four superimposed towns. He also wrote several books and left a vast collection of personal papers on his excavations at Myceinae, Ithaca, Orchomenus, Boeteia and Tiryns. Schliemann initially brought the treasures to Greece, where some pieces were exhibited at the Athens Archaeological Museum, before shipping most of the collection to Germany. After Germany's defeat in world War II, the collection was taken to Moscow although Soviet politicians only recently admitted it was in Russia. During an official visit to Greece in June, Mr. Yeltsin said the treasure of Priamos now belonged to Russia but expressed his desire to see it exhibited at the house in Athens which Schliemann built.