Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-07-24

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

CONTENTS

[01] Prodection of environment matter of democracy

[01] Prodection of environment matter of democracy

?The protection of the environment is henceforth a matter of democracy,? Papoulias said in his message.

?When we speak today on the quality of democracy, we can only have in mind an ecological democracy which will have at its epicentre the protection of nature,? the president said.

He refererred to the forest fires ravaging the country, noting that in the effort to extinguish them, ?human lives were sacrificed, lives of our fellow-citizens, who placed the collective good above the individual one.? He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and his deep grief and expressed the hope ?for there to be no more victims in the fires.?

Papoulias noted that ?present here among us are protagonists of the anti-dictatorship struggle, most of them unknown, who did not know great honours and did not enjoy privileges and rewards.?

The president also referred to the Cyprus issue. ?Thirty-three years have passed since the tragedy of Cyprus which led to the collapse of the junta. And this tragedy is continuing, because the occupation troops remain there, symbols of an illegal invasion which was never punished by the international community. The thought of all of us is always with Cypriot Hellenism which suffered from the partition. Our hope remains the reunification of the island with a permanent, just and viable solution,? President Papoulias said.

More than 2,000 people attended the reception, among them Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his wife Natasha, foremer presidents of the republic Christos Sartzetakis and Kostis Stephanopoulos, main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) leader George Papandreou, Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) leader George Karatzaferis, former prime minister Costas Mitsotakis and most of the government ministers.

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