Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-03-08

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] Foreign ministry: 'Turkey should keep its suggestions about responsible behaviour for itself'

[02] ND leader Antonis Samaras: 'No' to congress or leadership change; Avramopoulos resigns party post

[03] 64% see Tsipras government in a positive light so far, per Marc poll

[04] Rare find of embracing Neolithic couple excavated at Diros Cave

[01] Foreign ministry: 'Turkey should keep its suggestions about responsible behaviour for itself'

Responding to press questions, Koutras said, "Nobody can indicate to Greece how the Greek government and the Greek nation overall must practice national sovereignty and the country's sovereign rights... Turkey should keep its suggestions about responsible behaviour for itself. No further comment."

[02] ND leader Antonis Samaras: 'No' to congress or leadership change; Avramopoulos resigns party post

"We lost the elections but retained our forces," he said, "even though we applied an extremely difficult but necessary policy for Greece, with cutbacks and reforms that were unpleasant for many - you do the math, with PASOK, which ruled by itself and lost 31 percentage points and was dispersed. We retained our forces and remained a ruling party... Is there any doubt we kept the country in the euro? Is there any doubt that we saved the country?"

He said when the party took over rule, the deficit was at 9.5 percent, and when it left it had a 1.5 pct surplus. "It also was faced with a recession of 7 pct and this year it is expected that Greece will register 2.5 pct growth. If we had not been stopped, we would have exited the memorandums permanently this year," he claimed.

Samaras stressed that the state of the Greek economy was dire and claimed the government was in panic, saying that the legislation the current government was passing to relieve society was already in place by his government. "We are not in a hurry to kick them out," he said, "they are doing whatever they can to leave sooner. We are here to make sure the country doesn't hit the rocks and we'll do whatever we can to prevent that."

Party-wise, he said that holding a congress would "lead the party to becoming ingrown," while he said he would now open it to new members, both at the base and at the higher echelons.

Avramopoulos resigns ND vice-presidency, criticises party for lack of self-criticism

Dimitris Avramopoulos, veteran politician and current EU commissioner, resigned his position as New Democracy(ND) vice president during the meeting, while also criticising the party line following the elections of January 25.

Avramopoulos said his duties as commissioner of "one of the strongest political portfolios in the European Commission" prevented him from retaining the honourary position of ND vice president, which he would surrender in order to allow "an official who is close on a daily basis to our party's struggle to serve." He also suggested that a younger candidate should be considered for the position, adding, "It's time to bridge generations in this party."

In his statement, the former minister said that in the national elections (that brought SYRIZA to power), "a significant section of the Greek people turned their backs on us. We cannot attribute the loss to an adversary's campaign promises, but we must recognise our mistakes and go through self-criticism. Today we must put an end to a phobic ND."

[03] 64% see Tsipras government in a positive light so far, per Marc poll

Asked, in addition, "Are you happy by the progress of negotiations so far with our European [credit] partners?," 59.6 pct said yes/probably yes, while 37.6 pct responded no/probably no. Another 2.8 pct declined to answer.

In terms of current employment distribution among those polled, the highest approval rate (83.4 pct) was registered by those who are now unemployed, followed by the self-employed/business owners (58.8 pct), civil servants (58.5 pct) and private sector employees (58.3 pct).

Most of those polled (75.4 pct) agree with the assessment that the four-month extension granted Greece by its creditors to present its economic plan alternative does not signal the end of loan memorandums, while 14.1 pct believe it does. One in ten declined to answer (10.5 pct). In addition, more than half of those polled (54.4 pct) believe that if New Democracy had won the elections, things would be worse. Another 19.4 pct said they would be better, 22.9 pct there would be no great difference and 3.3 pct declined to answer.

In terms of satisfaction with the choice of Prokopis Pavlopoulos as Greek president, 54.7 pct are happy with it, 36.3 pct are unhappy and another 9 pct declined to answer. In addition, the majority sees as positive the stance so far of Zoi Constantopoulou as Parliament president (61.6 pct, or 6 in 10 polled), while 36.3 pct saw her in a negative light and another 8 pct declined to answer.

The poll was conducted on March 3 to 5 on national level.

[04] Rare find of embracing Neolithic couple excavated at Diros Cave

The undisturbed burial was found close to a burial of another male and female who were found in a fetal position. The burials also contained broken arrowheads.

The embracing couple's skeletons were dated with the C14 method to 3800 BC while their DNA analysis confirmed the remains were those of a male and female.

Both burials are part of a Neolithic cemetery in the greater area of the Neolithic Diros Cave, in western Mani, where excavations have yielded children's, embryos' and adults' burials dated from 4200 to 3800 BC. According to most recent data and analyses, the cave appears to have been in use from Early to Final Neolithic (6000-3200 BC) and served throughout as settlement and cemetery.

At the end of the Final Neolithic (3200 BC), a severe earthquake sealed the entrance of the cave and the remains of its inhabitants inside. Excavations began after an accidental discovery by speleologists Yiannis and Anna Petrocheilos in 1958.

Excavations in the area were continued in 2014 under the honorary ephor of antiquities George Papathanassopoulos heading a committee of the Paleoanthropology Ephorate of Antiquities and the Speleological Society of Northern Greece, as well as Greek and foreign specialists. The committee is responsible for publishing the final results.

Commenting on the finds, Dr. Papathanassopoulos told ANA-MPA that he stopped the use of the cave area as a tourist attraction in the late sixties to start excavations in it in 1970 and created a small museum showing some of very abundant finds.

The two burials are in excellent condition, he said. "The type of burial in fetal position is common in the Neolithic era, but the specific double burial in embrace is one of the earliest known examples. At some point, they will be exhibited in the museum following its extension," he explained.

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article