Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-11-24
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 24/11/1997 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- President unveils Jewish Martyrs monument in Thessaloniki
- Pangalos, Cordovez discuss Cyprus
- Greek, Jewish diaspora committee to be set up
- Tsohatzopoulos, Hauer examine NATO's new structure
- Burns: US supports Greece's prominent role in the Balkans
- Italian Red Brigades fugitive arrested in Greece
- New European Left Forum focuses on Euromediterranean cooperation
- Tsohatzopoulos says Aegean tension deliberate
- Defence Minister begins five-day visit to China
- Greek cinema to receive 'generous support'
- Greek First Division soccer results
- Weather
- Foreign exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
President unveils Jewish Martyrs monument in Thessaloniki
President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos yesterday unvei-led a
monument in Thessaloniki dedicated to the nearly 50,000 Jews from the
northern Greek capital, about 96 percent of the Jewish population of the
city at the time,who perished in the Nazi concentration camps.
President Stephanopoulos, Prime Minister Costas Simitis in a message to the
ceremony delivered by Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou, and
Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos spoke of the new Europe being built,
far removed from the barbarity of the past,in which racism and the ideology
of fascism had no place,while a message from U.S. President Bill Clinton
said the Thessaloniki monument would stand as a reminder of the past evil
but also as an inspiration for future good.
The ceremony was attended by a large Israeli delegation headed by Health
Minister Yehoshua Matsa, who comes from a historic Jewish family that has
roots in the Greek city of Ioannina, German Deputy Foreign Minister Werner
Hauer, Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos and Alternate Foreign
Minister George Papandreou, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos, Macedonia-
Thrace Minister Philippos Petsalnikos, a U.S. Congressional delegation
headed by House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee chairman
Benjamin Gilman, the president of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki
Andreas Sefi cha, president of the Central Jewish Council of Greece Nissim
Mais, Thessaloniki Jew survivors of the Holocaust and other dignitaries.
The monument shows a tangle of human skeletons beneath a burning menora --
the candelabra used in Jewish worship. It was crafted by Yugoslav Jew
sculptor Nador Gild, who created similar Holocaust memorials in Jerusalem,
Belgrade and the Nazi concentration camp Dachau. It stands at the crossroad
of Nea Egnatia and Alexandros Papanastasiou streets in central Thessaloniki.
In a message to the ceremony, President Clinton said the Thessaloniki
monument would stand as a reminder of the "past evil" but also as an
inspiration for the "future good".
He said the young people gazing at it would learn the sad lessons of
history and those who visited it would reaffirm the importance of human
life.
Israeli Health Minister Yehoshua Matsa briefly outlined the journey of the
sons of Israel from the land of their fathers to Thessaloniki, often called
the "Mother of Israel" and the "Jerusalem of the Balkans" by the tens of
thousands of Jews who fled th ere from the Holy Inquisition in Spain.
He said the story of the 50,000 Thessaloniki Jews who perished in the
Holocaust was "not only one of destruction but also a story of courage and
rebirth, that of the brave Greeks who risked their lives to hide and offer
refuge to their Jewish compatriots and the struggle of those who survived
the Nazi death camps to put their lives back together".
Pangalos, Cordovez discuss Cyprus
Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos met on Saturday with UN Secretary
General's special advisor on Cyprus Diego Cordovez and discussed recent
developments in the protracted Cyprus problem.
Diplomatic sources said that Mr. Cordovez, who last week held talks in
Nicosia, also discussed with Mr. Pangalos possibilities of achieving
progress in specific issues on the basis of a step-by-step approach. Mr.
Cordovez is due in Ankara today.
Greek, Jewish diaspora committee to be set up
Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou yesterday announced that a
mixed committee of representatives of the overseas Greeks' organisations
and the Jewish communities abroad would be set up to promote issues of
mutual interest.
Speaking after the unveiling of a Holocaust Monument in the northern Greek
capital dedicated to the 50,000 Thessaloniki Jews who perished in Nazi
concentration camps, Mr. Papandreou said that overseas Greeks' representatives
and Jewish communities were advancing the establishment of the joint
committee.
Tsohatzopoulos, Hauer examine NATO's new structure
Greece sees no threat to its national security or sovereign rights under a
new structure and mode of operation being planned for the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO), Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos said on
Saturday.
"NATO's new structure and its prospects for operation have no bearing on
the country's national security and sovereign rights. This is clear and
warrants no confusion," Mr. Tsohatzopoulos told reporters after a meeting
in Athens with Germany's Deputy Fo reign Minister Werner Hauer, who
described the talks on defence and security as frank.
The planned abolition of NATO's areas of operational control would not
impinge on Greek sovereign rights as the Alliance, which had acquired a
multinational status spanning Europe and the Atlantic, was no longer
responsible for a specific area, Mr. Tsohatzopoulos said. Its mission was
to handle trouble spots that were a source of international destabilisation.
Greece's government on Friday set its policy on the plans for change in
NATO, which are due for debate at a meeting of the Alliance defence
ministers on December 1-3 in Brussels.
The government has made it clear that it maintains the right of veto on the
planning, design and enactment of military exercises.
It backs the development of NATO into a collective security organisation,
and agrees in principle with the establishment of headquarters for the
organisation's southeast European flank in Italy with secondary headquarters
in Greece, Italy, Spain and Turkey.
Mr. Tsohatzopoulos and Mr. Hauer discussed relations between Greece and
Turkey, the Cyprus issue, bilateral relations and developments in Europe.
No further details were given.
Mr. Hauer represented Germany at a Thessaloniki ceremony yesterday in which
a monument to Jewish victims of the Nazi occupation of Thessaloniki was
unveiled.
Burns: US supports Greece's prominent role in the Balkans
New US ambassador to Athens, Nicholas Burns, who is expected in the Greek
capital on November 30, has praised Greece's prominent role in the Balkans,
and stressed his country's support for the reforms promoted by the Simitis
g overnment.
" We think that the reorientation of Greek foreign policy to the north,
towards Albania, FYROM, Bulgaria and Romania is positive. Greece can be a
stabilising force in the Balkans that need this. We very much approve of
the Simitis government reforms and fully support the efforts towards
economic modernisation," he told the Antenna Greek television channel in an
interview aired yesterday.
Mr. Burns also reiterated the readiness of the US to play a prominent role
in promoting solutions to Greek-Turkish differences and the Cyprus
problem.
Athens, Ankara, and the two communities on the island "may know that the US
is an active partner on whom they can rely," he stressed, adding that his
aim was to work "on a basis of cooperation and respect with the Greek
government on all issues".
Regarding US-Greek bilateral relations, Mr. Burns said his aims included
increasing trade above the current 1.5 billion dollar a year level, and
reiterated the importance his government attributed to cooperation with
Greece in fighting terrorism.
Italian Red Brigades fugitive arrested in Greece
The Greek anti-terrorism squad arrested Italian Enrico Bianco, 45, a
suspected Red Brigades terrorist, police said yesterday.
Bianco was arrested on a yacht docked at Aktion, Western Greece. Anti-
terrorist police said he was with four other people at the time, including
one woman, who were also taken into custody.
Police were investigating whether they had ties with Bianco's terrorist
activities in Italy or elsewhere in Europe. Police are also investigating
whether Bianco had been involved in terrorist activities in Greece or had
terrorist connections here.
Police said Bianco had travelled frequently in and out of Greece, mostly to
France, and they were investigating whether he was accompanied by others on
those trips.
They were also investigating fingerprints taken from the yacht and from
Bianco's flat in the Athens residential district of Pangrati.
The anti-terrorist squad were acting on a tip-off that the fugitive was in
Greece and usually stayed on yachts. They located Bianco's flat and, after
discrete surveillance of the people entering and exiting the building, they
found him on the yacht at Aktio.
New European Left Forum focuses on Euromediterranean cooperation
The issue of Euromediterranean cooperation was the focus of a session of
the New European Left Forum, held in Zappeion Hall in Athens this morning,
at the initiative of the Coalition of the Left, and with the participation
of 25 parties from various coun tries.
In their addresses, Coalition leader Nikos Constantopoulos and Greek EU
Energy Commissioner Christos Papoutsis referred to the conditions for the
formulation of a comprehensive plan for development and security in the
Mediterranean, which will include settlements of the Cyprus and Middle East
issues.
Mr. Constantopoulos said the basic elements comprising such an endeavour
were given: Peaceful conflict resolution, respect for the right of every
nation to adopt its own development model, protection of the environment,
respect for international law, equality between the sexes, bridging
inequalities, democracy, and protection of human rights.
The Coalition leader announced the holding of a two-day conference on the
Cyprus issue on December 10 and 11, with the participation of Greek Cypriot
and Turkish Cypriot parties "believing in the rapprochement between the two
communities".
Mr. Papoutsis said in his address that issues of Euromediterranean
cooperation were currently "at a crucial turn".
"The relationship between Europe and the Mediterranean is of strategic
importance, particularly in view of European Union enlargement," he
stressed, adding, however, that factors such as the rise of internal
tension in the countries of northern Africa and southeast Europe, religious
fanaticism and economic problems hindered the progress of this relationship.
He expressed the view that the EU must boost its bilateral transactions
with individual Mediterranean countries, and assist in the "internationalisation"
of the very small and medium size enterprises which are a distinguishing
feature of their economies.
Referring to other concerns regarding the European Union, representatives
of left-wing and socialist parties taking part in the forum stressed that
its main pursuits should be the safeguarding of its social phase and the
developmental strategy and policy on employment issues. Without these two
conditions, the necessary monetary unification would not achieve its aims,
they said, and this was the point where the forces of the Left were called
upon to play a catalytic role.
The Forum called for the power to be given to the EU to levy the minimum of
common environmental taxes -dubbed "green" taxes-, by decisions of
increased majority, in order to enable the Union to apply the recommendations
of the Rio Earth Summit regarding stabilisation of carbon dioxide
emissions.
Women taking part in the Forum called for a boosting of women's participation
in decisions regarding the strengthening of relations between states.
Apart from Greece, the countries represented at the conference were Britain,
France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Esthonia, Ireland, Spain,
Italy, Norway, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Egypt, Cyprus, Albania, Algeria,
Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Israel, USA and Russia.
Tsohatzopoulos says Aegean tension deliberate
Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos has accused Turkey of deliberately
maintaining tension in the Aegean in pursuit of a change in the status
quo.
"The tension in the Aegean exists because it is Turkey's political option
to deliberately challenge stability, dispute our territorial rights, and
seek a change in the status quo in the Aegean. It is a purely political
issue and primarily concern Turkey ," he said in an interview with the
newspaper Ethnos yesterday.
He also expressed the view that Turkey's proposals for dialogue on all
issues aimed to create false impressions, and that its aggressive policy
was confirmed by the armaments programme it is implementing.
"Vis-a-vis these attempts, Greece is formulating a defence strategy
guaranteeing its defence sufficiency and the deterrent capability of its
armed forces, including that of immediate response in the case of practical
challenge to our rights or any aggre ssive act on the part of Turkey," he
added.
He reiterated that Greece will not stand idle in case Turkey attempted to
use violence against Cyprus, and expressed the view that, despite threats
to the contrary, Turkey would not undertake any offensive action against
Russian vessels transporting the ordered S-300 surface-to-air missiles to
Cyprus.
He attributed Turkey's milder stance currently to the fact that focus will
now be shifted to confidence building measures in the Aegean.
Defence Minister begins five-day visit to China
Defence minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos left for a five-day official visit to
China yesterday, at the invitation of his counterpart Chi Haotian. Tomorrow,
Mr. Tsohatzopoulos will visit the Great Wall, the headquarters of the Third
Army Division and the insta llations of the China North Industry Corporation,
a manufacturer of military equipment.
On Wednesday, the Greek defence minister is scheduled to meet Chinese Prime
Miniter Li Peng, while on Thursday he will be hosted to dinner by the
Chairman of the Science and Technology Council of China's defence industry,
Lt.Gen Kao Gan Chuan.
Greek cinema to receive 'generous support'
Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos yesterday announced that Greek cinema
production would receive generous support, and that the Thessaloniki Film
Festival would be upgraded, and would feature a foreign films competitive
section as of next year.
Speaking at a press conference in the northern port city on the occasion of
the ongoing festival, he also specified that the event would also feature
the entire Greek cinema production. Referring to the envisaged increased
support measures for Greek ci nema, he said that theatres screening Greek
films would receive tax rebates ranging from 30 to 50 per cent.
Greek First Division soccer results
AEK-Panahaiki 5-1 Panathinaikos-Proodeftiki 5-0
Ionikos-Olympiakos O-1 Heraklis-Kavala 3-2
OFI-Apollon 2-1 Xanthi-Panionios 2-0
Pyrgos-PAOK 1-2 Athinaikos-Veria 1-0
Kalamata-Ethnikos 0-1 Standings-points:
AEK 28, Panathinaikos, Olympiakos 27 Ionikos 24 Heraklis 20, PAOK 19,
Apollon, Xanthi 17, OFI 14, Panahaiki, Panionios 13
WEATHER
Cloudiness and rain is forecast throughout the country today with possible
local storms. Gradual improvement is expected in the evening, moving from
west to north. Athens and Thessaloniki will be overcast and rainy with
possible storms. Temperature in Athens will be 19C and in Thessaloniki
15C.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Friday's closing rates - buying US dlr. 271.560
Pound sterling 458.205 Cyprus pd 529.530
French franc 46.451 Swiss franc 191.158
German mark 155.536 Italian lira (100) 15.865
Yen (100) 216.157 Canadian dlr. 191.139
Australian dlr. 188.857 Irish Punt 405.629
Belgian franc 7.541 Finnish mark 51.570
Dutch guilder 138.052 Danish kr. 40.866
Swedish kr. 35.712 Norwegian kr. 38.347
Austrian sch. 22.107 Spanish peseta 1.842
Port. Escudo 1.523
(C.E.)
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