Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-10-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek gov't rejects Nimetz proposals on FYROM name issue

[02] Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens opens 25th anniversary symposium on Monday

[01] Greek gov't rejects Nimetz proposals on FYROM name issue

According to the ministry announcement, Nimetz submitted to Greece's permanent representative to the UN, on Friday night, proposals on the FYROM name issue.

Main opposition PASOK party Political Council member in charge of foreign policy, security and defence issues Christos Papoutsis on Sunday called for a full briefing on the content of the new Nimetz proposals, and charged that the New Democracy government was placing Greece in an increasingly adverse position due to its handling and lack of strategy.

Later, Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (SYN) political secretariat member Panos Trigazis called on the government to urgently convene the National Council on Foreign Policy, criticizing as "unacceptable" the lack of briefing of the politicay parties by the government on the new Nimetz proposal.

"We fear that we are heading to a new impasse on an issue that has greatly inconvenienced and immoblised Greece's Balkan policy over the past decade," Trigazis said.

On Saturday morning, the Greek permament representative was "instructed to return the proposals as unacceptable", the ministry announcement concluded.

In Skopje, FYROM president Branko Crvenkovski also announced the submission of a new proposal by Nimetz, adding that an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet would be convened on Sunday, followed by a conference on Monday with the leaders of the country's largest political parties.

[02] Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens opens 25th anniversary symposium on Monday

President of the Hellenic Republic Karolos Papoulias has been invited to attend the symposium, which is supported by the Australian Embassy in Athens and the World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE), while guest speakers include eminent academicians from nine Australian universities, while New South Wales governor Prof. Marie Bashir will also be attending.

The Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens was established on 23 April 1981 following negotiations with the Greek government. The Institute is similar to other scholarly institutions in Athens maintained by major European and American countries, some of these have been in existence for well over a century.

The Institute aims to promote in Australia ancient, medieval and modern Greek studies. To this end it provides services to its members in Australia and facilities for working Greece. Apart from interested people who have become Individual Members, there are many groups who have joined as Corporate or Institutional Members including twelve universities (Sydney, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia, New England, Macquarie, Australian National University, Adelaide, La Trobe, Newcastle and Melbourne).

Throughout the three-day Symposium, more than twenty scholars, mainly from Australia, or closely connected with it, will present research papers on topics related to the classical world. The areas of interest covered in the programme include archaeology, philology and epigraphyhistory. Although the programme can only provide an introduction to the research currently being conducted by scholars based in Australia it does present a realistic picture of the broad range of classical studies that is being pursued at Australian universities, and which the Institute aims to promote.

In addition to the speakers from Australia, papers will also be presented by the two Ephors (one of them just retired) who have overseen so far the two field projects conducted in Greece under the auspices of the AAIA.

Two distinguished scholars closely connected with Australia have also been included in the programme, Professor Jean-Paul Desc?udres who is especially linked to Australia by his long tenure at the University of Sydney and by his editorship of Mediterranean Archaeology, and Professor Marc Waelkens, Director of the excavations at Sagalassos, who has been the most recent of the AAIA�s Annual Visiting Professors to Australia.

The official opening of the Symposium will take place on Monday, at 7:00 p.m., at the Athens Archaeological Society lecture theatre on 22 Panepistimiou street in downtown Athens, in the presence of New South Wales governor Marie Bashir, with a keynote lecture by Professor Margaret Miller of the University of Sydney on "Persians in the Greek Imagination", followed by a reception.

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