Greece celebrated 200 years since the start of its struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire on Thursday with a ceremony to mark a new beginning after years of financial crisis that had to be pared back due to coronavirus restrictions.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne whose father Prince Philip was born in Corfu as part of the Greek royal family, and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin attended the annual independence day parade. Although the French President Emmanuel Macron pulled out because of COVID-19 lockdowns of France, the French government was represented by Defense Minister Florence Parly.
Soon after taking power in 2019, the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the celebrations as a symbol that Greece was back after a decade-long financial crisis that left half of young Greeks unemployed and sent some 500,000 people abroad in search of work.
“The challenge for our generation, 200 years after the ‘Revolution of National Rebirth,’ is to make it a ‘Revolution of National Reinvigoration’,” Mitsotakis said in televised remarks. After almost 400 years under Ottoman Turkish rule, Greek revolutionaries launched an uprising in 1821, and with help from foreign sympathizers from countries including Britain, France and Russia, won their independence in 1832.
Saluting the resilience of the Greek people during the “desperately difficult years” of the economic crisis, Prince Charles said the world needed to rebuild after COVID-19, which has plunged Greece back into deep recession. He added: “perhaps we can take some inspiration from the courage, determination and the ambition of 1821.”
Upon the occasion of the celebration of Greece's independence the Chairman and Executive Director of IENE Costis Stambolis said, "This year's celebration is remarkable by all counts because it gives us the opportunity to reflect on past achievements but also makes us think of the serious challenges ahead. The exploitation and utilisation of Greece's energy resources played a crucial role in its economic and social development, especially over the last 100 years ors so. The energy sector not only continues to play a central role in the development of the country but it has emerged as a key factor of geopolitical stability."
He further added, "Greece may have won its independence two centuries ago but has not managed to achieve energy independence. This still remains largely illusive. For Greece and for a number of other countries which find themselves in difficulties arising from both natural causes and from geopolitical threats energy independence, or at least lessening their energy import dependence,must remain a priority. This is a rather difficult, if not impossible,goal but is worth pursuing nevertheless as its realisation, even partly, can only invigorate the country and its people".
