Subject: News I - Thu, 19 Aug 1993 From: zarros@turing.scs.carleton.ca (Theodoros Sp. Zarros) Athens News Agency Bulletin, August 19, 1993 ============================================ Alexandroupolis, 19/8/1993 (ANA - K. Christodoulou / D. Petrovic / Reuters): Over 1,000 ethnic Greeks evacuated from Georgia's Abkhazia province to escape civil strife and start new life arrived in Alexandroupolis early yesterday morning after a 55-hour sea journey. Carrying only a few belongings in suitcases, bundles and cardboard boxes, the ethnic Greeks arrived in Alexandroupolis aboard the Greek cruise ship "Viscountess" which delivered 31 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the once-bustling Black Sea resort of Sukhumi. "I left everything back because of this stupid war. If shelling wasn't enough, looters broke in my house in the middle of the night and took all my money and valuables, "Stathis Yannides, who arrived with his wife and baby daughter, told Reuters. "I thank Greece for giving me another chance". The evacuees were greeted by Foreign Under-secretary Virginia Tsouderou, National Defence Under-secretary Ioannis Stathopoulos and the president National Foundation for the Resettlement of Refugees, George Iacovou. "The government is determined to exert every effort to make your settlement here as easy as possible", Ms Tsouderou said at a special welcoming ceremony in Alexandroupolis. In addition to helping the evacuees find housing and work, the government will also organise language classes and provide other assistance for the Pontians' resettlement. Noting that the ethnic Greeks were on the threshold of a new beginning, Ms Tsouderou said she discerned their "willingness and determination to settle and prosper in this blessed land". "You are now safe in Greece, a place of peace, where all the Greek people embrace and welcome you", she added. Ms Tsouderou said that the "perfectly organised" operation for the Pontians' evacuation had been made possible by "the steady determination and staunch political will of the Greek government". The evacuation, code-named Operation Golden Fleece, was organised by the Greek government despite an easing of hostilities between Georgian troops and Abkhazian separatists after a year of civil war. "Even if the war stops, I won't go back. My house was destroyed from shellings. There is no food, no love, just constant terror", said Maria Gialanzides who hopes to find some distant relatives in Greece to help her start a new life. The Pontian Greeks will be temporarily housed in camps near refugee reception centres set up at Elassona and Olympus before being transferred to permanent settlements in Thrace. Early yesterday afternoon, groups of evacuees left Alexandroupolis on chartered buses for temporary reception centres in Dikaia, Soufli, Thessaloniki, Larisa and Fthiotida. Government officials say there are about 500,000 ethnic Greeks in the former Soviet Union. About 100,000 are in Georgia and an estimated 12,000 have emigrated to Greece since 1989. Greeks were among the first inhabitants of present-day Georgia, which local legend has it was the home of the Golden Fleece of ancient Greek legend. Greek merchants traded on the Black Sea coast more than 3,000 years ago. The first recorded settlement at now battle-scarred Sukhumi had the Greek name Diaskuria. More Greeks settled in the area in the 19th and early 20th centuries, fleeing homes in north-eastern Turkey to escape wars. Georgian Greeks were forcibly resettled by then Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s when the army moved whole villages from the Black Sea to remote Soviet republics. Athens, 19/8/1993 (ANA) Greece will receive 650,000 European currency units in emergency aid from the European Community, National Economy Under-secretary Aristides Tsiplakos said yesterday. A ministry announcement said the EC Commission had approved 500,000 ECU (560,000 dollars) in emergency aid for the victims of the Patras earthquake and 150,000 ECU (168,000 dollars) for the victims of the recent forest fires on Samos and Ikaria. On July 14, an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the open-ended Richter scale shook the port city of Patras, causing extensive damage to dozens of buildings. Twelve people were killed and more than 30 homes gutted in a blaze that broke out on Ikaria on July 31. At least three homes and 3,000 stremmas of forest and farm land were burned in a fire on Samos the following day. Melbourne, 19/8/1993 (ANA - S. Hatzimanolis): Four members of the Greek Parliament and four members of the Cyprus House of Representatives will participate in the 90th conference of the Interparliamentary Union to be held in Canberra September 13-18. New Democracy deputy Apostolos Kratsas, Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) deputy Ioannis Pottakis, Coalition of the Left and Progress deputy Grigoris Farakos and Communist Party of Greece (KKE) deputy will represent Greece at the meeting. The Cypriot delegation will include DISY deputy Nikos Anastasiades, EDEK deputy Yiannakis Omirou, DIKO deputy Aristos Chrysostomou and AKEL deputy Andreas Filippou.