A total of 22 heads of state will attend the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s inauguration ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on Monday, presidential sources said.

According to the Independent Balkan News Agency, along with the 22 state leaders, vice presidents, high-ranking politicians, bureaucrats and ministers from different countries.

The Turkish president will be sworn-in at the parliament at 4:30 p.m. local time. Following this, he will visit Anitkabir, the mausoleum of the founder of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

At 6 p.m., Erdogan’s inauguration ceremony will be held at the Presidential Complex, and 22 heads of state and 28 foreign dignitaries — including prime ministers, vice presidents, parliament speakers and ministers — will attend.

European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos will be among the guests.

A German neo-Nazi involved in a group which murdered 10 people, including a Greek, received a life sentence on Thursday.

Beate Zschape, 43, was convicted of murder in a long-running trial which exposed huge flaws in Germany’s policing and intelligence services.

She was the sole surviving member of the so-called National Socialist Underground (NSU) which went on a seven-year crime wave between 2000 and 2007, involving itself in murder, attempted murder, robbery and bombings.

Almost all of the NSU’s ten victims were immigrants, mostly of Turkish origin. Among its victims was Theodoros Boulgarides, a 41-year-old father of two who was shot dead in Munich in June 2005. He was the group’s seventh victim.

Many of the victims’ families later hit out at the police, claiming there were insinuations their loved ones had been involved in crime rather than being victims of a racist gang.

Charles de Gaulle may have famously said of France: “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?” but Greece is increasing sales of its famous feta to the cheese-loving country.

Data from the Greek embassy in Paris this week states that exports of cheese to France grew by more than 11 percent in 2017, with sales of feta in particular accounting for almost all of the €21.8 million ($25.6 million) export value.

The sheer volume of these multi-million-euro exports is impressive, with Greece sending well over 4,000 tons of feta to France in 2017 — this was a huge 50 percent increase on 2016, the Greek embassy report stated.

Greek feta exports have faced challenges from outside the EU in the form of copies. In recent months, professors, journalists and consumers have banded together to found a ‘Friends of Feta Club’ to promote the Greek cheese’s EU status as protected designation of origin (PDO).

Feta has been designated a PDO by the European Union, after several legal challenges by other EU countries. The designation — for cheese produced at specific regions in Greece and with specific ingredients — is legally binding only within the EU, not internationally.

A Pontic Greek monastery in Turkey’s Black Sea region is open for tourism after being restored, local authorities have said.

The Virgin Mary Monastery in Kayadibi village, located in the province of Giresun’s Sebinkarahisar district, is second only to the famous Sumela Monastery at Mela Mountain in Trabzon.

Carved into a rocky cave on a route connecting the Black Sea with central Anatolia, it is providing a second location for the growing number of tourists from Greece and Russia exploring the region’s Orthodox past.

Previously, the principal elements of the monastery complex — the church, dormitory, classroom and font — had been ruined. However, a two-year restoration project has seen some of the features restored.

For generations ethnic Greeks called Pontic Greeks lived along the shores of what is now known as the Black Sea.

However, from 1914-1923 their prosperity and peaceful way of life came to a tragic end when over 353,000 of them perished during the Greek Genocide at the hands of the Ottomans and later Turkish nationalists.

Many of the region’s Orthodox monasteries and churches were abandoned, and it is only in recent years that some religious services have been permitted by the Turkish government.

“We will never forget those who… opened their arms to the coup plotters who escaped from our country,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday during the second anniversary of the failed coup attempt against him.

Turkey commemorated the botched coup attempt of July 15, 2016 with a mass rally and Erdogan pledging that he will not forget those who harbored the coup plotters, likely implying Greece for recently releasing from custody eight Turkish officers who fled Turkey.

“We will never forget those who took a stance without any authority and opened their arms to the coup d’état plotters who escaped from our country,” the Turkish president told the crowd that had gathered near the ‘July 15 Martyrs’ Bridge’ on the two-year anniversary of the failed coup . “I say it clearly, we know who, when and what stance they kept. And we’ve got to know who is collaborating with whom,” he added sharply.

“The coup showed us who our friends are during difficult times. We have a good memory. We may seldom speak of what we have gone through, but we never forget. The coup showed us their hypocrisy. We know who prayed for us that night and who prayed for the success of (Fethullah) Gulen’s movement. In the end, we will remember the silence of those who we considered our friends,” Erdogan continued.

“We will continue our struggle (…) at home, as well as abroad,” the Turkish president said, adding: “We know those who were hoping for the coup, the Gulenists, and then changed their attitude and were disappointed.”

FYROM premier Zoran Zaev has told the media he believes Russia, via sympathetic “Greek businessmen”, has been funding unrest in his country to prevent the ‘North Macedonia’ deal with Greece.

In a report by Buzzfeed, Zaev was quoted as saying: “The Russian representatives who were here, and also others from Moscow, [don’t] hide themselves that they are against our integration in NATO.”

“Part of them are connected with media, part of them … encourage the young people to protest in front of the parliament, to attack policemen … It’s very obvious.”

Zaev has faced street protests over the deal with Athens and has seen opposition in parliament and from the presidency to ratifying the agreement which could see the country renamed ‘North Macedonia’.

He did not name exactly who was involved in the alleged payments, but said amounts worth $13,000 to $21,000 had been made to certain FYROM citizens ahead of a referendum on the name deal later this year.

The prime minister said the information came to light after police made arrests amid unruly demonstrations outside parliament in Skopje in June.

His comments follow a NATO invitation to the former Yugoslav republic to start membership talks with the alliance.

Zaev’s claim also emerged as reports last week say Greece expelled two Russian diplomatic figures because they were funding opposition to the ‘Macedonia’ deal among communities, particularly in northern Greece.

Greece and Turkey are frequently rivals in and out of the sporting arena, but a whitewash of Turkey’s water polo side by their Greek opponents on Monday has set social media ablaze.

The mismatch at the 2018 Men’s European Water Polo Championship in Barcelona saw a rampant Greece lead by 11 goals at half time, eventually restricting their Turkish opponents to a solitary score and running out eventual 27-1 winners.

According to a report in Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News, social media users rounded on the team, with one demanding to know if the Turkish side could even swim.

Another Twitter user sarcastically suggested the “strong current” in the swimming pool may have impeded the Turkish team’s performance.

Running until July 28, Greece is in the Group C qualifying stage with Turkey, Croatia and the Netherlands. If Turkey repeats such a sub-par performance it faces the possibility of missing out on qualification or a play-off spot.

Turkey has ended the nationwide state of emergency that was imposed two years ago after a failed coup attempt.

More than 120,000 people in the police, military, academia, media and civil service have been detained or dismissed from their jobs over their alleged links to Fethullah Gülen, an exiled preacher based in the US whose supporters Ankara blames for the coup.

Critics say the use of the emergency powers went beyond Gülenists linked to the coup.

About a quarter of Turkey’s judges have either been dismissed or detained, a vast realignment of the judiciary that has prompted outrage and concerns that it is no longer independent.

Thousands have been tried, with many sentenced to life, for involvement in the coup and 100 people have been extradited to Turkey at the behest of the country’s intelligence service, the MİT.

The decision to end the state of emergency comes weeks after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won re-election.

During the campaign, opposition candidates said that the first thing they would do if they won would be to end the state of emergency.

A mysterious 2,000-year-old papyrus covered in mirror writing, including ancient Greek, had baffled scientists for years. Now researchers in Switzerland think they have solved the riddle of the strange document.

The papyrus papers at the University of Basel formed part of a collection which had been stored in Switzerland since the 16th century. Two parts of the 65-page collection were an indecipherable mystery until scientists recently found it was layers of writing stuck together.

Now University of Basel experts, using infrared and ultraviolet scans, believe the Greek-language papyri are a medical text, likely written by an influential Roman doctor called Galen.

Sabine Huebner, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Basel, said: “This is a sensational discovery. The majority of papyri are documents such as letters, contracts and receipts. This is a literary text, however, and they are vastly more valuable.”

“We can now say that it’s a medical text from late antiquity that describes the phenomenon of ‘hysterical apnea’,” says Huebner. “We therefore assume that it is either a text from the Roman physician Galen, or an unknown commentary on his work.”

After Hippocrates, Galen is regarded as the most important physician of antiquity.

Huebner made the discovery in the course of an editing project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

For three years, she has been working with an interdisciplinary team in collaboration with the University of Basel’s Digital Humanities Lab to examine the papyrus collection, which in the meantime has been digitized, transcribed, annotated and translated.

The project team has already presented the history of the papyrus collection through an exhibition in the University Library last year. They plan to publish all their findings at the start of 2019.

The victim of a highly publicized assault by a French presidential aide during a May 1 demonstration in the French capital is said to be a Greek national.

A report in the French magazine Closer claims that the protester who was assaulted by Alexandre Benalla, an assistant to French President Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff, was arrested and was questioned for four hours.

Closer reports that he gave a false identity, giving the name of a Greek basketball player before he was released.

Greek diplomatic sources in France have yet to confirm the report.

Benalla, who disguised himself by wearing a helmet, appears in a video of the incident that took place in a popular tourist spot at Place de la Contrescarpe in the fifth district of Paris, where about 100 people had gathered on 1 May.

He is seen attacking the protester who had been carried a short distance by police before being left alone on the ground.

Benalla can be seen grabbing the young protester around the neck, hitting him in the head and apparently stamping on his stomach when he falls to the ground.

Offcials in Paris say that Benalla, whose main duty was to arrange security for the president’s engagements, is to be dismissed.

Superstar George Michael committed suicide, his lover claims, according to an exclusive report in the British tabloid The Sun.

The paper says it has seen emails from Fadi Fawaz, according to whom the singer, 53, died on Christmas Eve, his late mum’s birthday, and not Christmas Day 2016 as was thought.

Fadi claims contradict the official version of events, according to which George Michael’s death was put down to natural causes.

According to Fadi’s e-mails, George Michael killed himself, adding: “It took five attempts.”

He lay dead for 24 hours after he killed himself.

Fadi, 45, who had a stormy five-year relationship with the pop star, made the claims in emails seen by The Sun. He wrote: “I’m sick and tired of people asking me what happened on Christmas Day.

“Well let me tell you, George died on his mother’s birthday, so that might answer a few questions.

“Not to mention it took five attempts to manage to end his life. I think it’s important for the story.”

In March 2017 senior coroner Darren Salter said George died of natural causes and had dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver. No time of death was ever set out by police or the coroner.

The results of a post mortem were never made public at the request of the family.

Flags at the European Commission headquarters have been flying at half mast since Wednesday, in solidarity with the victims of the deadly fires in Greece.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who spoke with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and President of the Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos on Tuesday, said that the Commission will make every possible effort to help Greece and the Greeks.

European Council President Donald Tusk similarly stressed that Europe will stand by Greece during these difficult hours.

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides is in Athens to liaise with Greek authorities and coordinate EU assistance in fighting Attica’s fires.

Cyprus, Spain, Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy and Romania responded immediately to offer Greece assistance in fighting the deadly fires in Attica, via the European Civil Protection Mechanism.

Source: AMNA

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians has spoken of his sadness following the fire in east Attica that has claimed the lives of 81 people.

“We are overwhelmed by the dramatic developments,” he said.

“We pray that God will bring an end to this immense human and ecological destruction—which undoubtedly has immeasurable consequences—and will give strength to the victims’ relatives, as well as to all those injured and wounded,” he adds.

The statement in full:

“We are overwhelmed by the dramatic developments in the region of Attica, which we have followed from the very first moment, and are a result of the large wildfires that have destroyed human lives, the properties of residents and incinerated the vital forest wealth of Attica.

Our prayers during these difficult hours are intensified and joined together with those of His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, the Metropolitans of the stricken regions and all those who are affected.

We pray that God will bring an end to this immense human and ecological destruction—which undoubtedly has immeasurable consequences—and will give strength to the victims’ relatives, as well as to all those injured and wounded.

We also share concern for the inhabitants of Crete and other regions of Greece, who, too, are plagued by fires, and we express the deep sympathy and support of the Mother Church.”

The Royal Family of the United Kingdom sent their sympathies to Greece after the fires that destroyed a big part of East Attica.

Queen Elizabeth sent a message to Greece’s President Of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos:

“Prince Philip and I offer our deepest sympathies to the people of Greece in the wake of the devastating fires in Attica and across Greece.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims of this terrible tragedy and to all those who have lost their homes.
“I pay tribute to the courage and dedication of the Greek emergency services and the volunteers that have provided support.”

Charles, Prince of Wales, sent the following message to the president:

“Having been with you in Athens only recently, and recalling the joy of our visit and the welcome we received from the Greek people, we can only assure you of our affectionate thoughts and special prayers at such a heartbreaking time.”

Hundreds of Turkish citizens rallied outside the historic building housing the Consulate General of Greece in Izmir in solidarity to fire-stricken Greece.

Greece’s Consul General Argyro Papoulia posted pictures of the crowd that gathered outside the consulate on Thursday night with candles, placards and flowers in a show of support.

They also held a banner that read “Hold on neighbors”, copying a front-page headline run by the Greek newspaper “Eleftherotypia” on August 17, 1999 following a disastrous earthquake in Turkey.

Messages of support for Greece from Turkey have also flooded the social media, where the hashtag #Yunanistan (the Turkish name for Greece) was among the top global trends and the hashtag “get well soon neighbor” was a top trend in Turkey.

Source: AMNA

German politicians and Greek expatriates in Germany alike showed their solidarity to the victims of the deadly East Attica fires by donating essential goods and money.

At a political level, Germany’s Green Party (Grüne) through MP Lisa Badum and current Vice-President of the Bundestag Claudia Roth called on the German people to donate funds  for the fire victims in Greece.

In a press release issued by Badum and Roth, they wrote, “…the consequences of the violent destructive fires that cost the lives of at least 86 people and rendered many people homeless, have shaken us. Many Greek men and women are confronted with debris… What is needed now is also a message of European solidarity. It requires specific, non-bureaucratic assistance to Greece, particularly for the people of Kineta, Rafina and Mati, which has been destroyed by 98 percent.”

Greek communities in Germany have also been active in donating money and essential goods for the relief of the fire-stricken people of East Attica and Kineta. The Federation of Greek Communities in Germany calls on all communities to contribute financially to the Greek Red Cross relief account.

Communities and churches in Wuppertal, Siegburg, Bielefeld, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Bonn, Brill have already collected funds and goods to send to Greece for the needs of the fire victims.

The number of Greek migrants in Germany has gone up by 100,000 in the past eight years of the economic crisis, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) says.

In 2009, the year when the crisis broke out in Greece, the number of people with Greek roots in Germany amounted to 341,000. Nine years later, in 2017, their number increased by 28 percent, to 438,000, according to Destatis.

The population group with Greek roots in Germany consists of 243,000 men and 196,000 women. Of the total, 278.00 were born in Greece and 160.000 in Germany. 73,000 are up to 14 years old, 300,000 are between 15 and 64 and 65,000 are over 65 years old.

Of the 438,000 people with Greek births, 273,000 have at least a high school diploma, 88,000 are of preschool or school age and 75,000 do not have a high school diploma. Also, 52,000 have dual Greek and German citizenship.

Finally, of the 438,000 people with a Greek background, only 11,000 live in the area of the former East Germany. Of those living in the former West Germany, 140,000 are in North Rhine-Westphalia, 96,000 in Baden-Wurttemberg, 90,000 in Bavaria, 39,000 in Hessen, 28,000 in Saar and 13,000 in Berlin.

Turkey’s president said Saturday the country will freeze the assets of two United States officials in retaliation for sanctions against Turkey‘s justice and interior ministers over the detention of an American pastor.

Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had been “patient” since the U.S. Treasury sanctions imposed Wednesday, but ordered authorities to “freeze the assets of America’s justice and interior ministers in Turkey, if there are any.”

It is unclear who that would affect, due to differing Cabinet roles in the United States than in Turkey, or if the intended officials even have any holdings in Turkey.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul mocked the sanctions this week, saying they have no assets in the U.S, but the sign of deteriorating Turkish-American relations sent Turkey’s national currency — the lira— tumbling.

Erdogan called the sanctions a “serious disrespect towards Turkey” and accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for demanding the release of evangelical pastor Andrew Craig Brunson while ally Turkey tries him over alleged links to terror groups.

Shocking images have shown the moment an explosion ripped across a highway in Italy.

The blast took place on Monday afternoon, near the airport in the city of Bologna. Twitter users at the scene were quick to upload footage of the blast which shook nearby houses.

Italian police have so far only said they are responding to an accident.

#incidente #esplosione #bologna pic.twitter.com/GPmzNrbKUT

— Antonio Laccetti (@antoniolaccetti) August 6, 2018

Two Greek museums are in the running for a European award which recognizes short videos produced to showcase their exhibits, storytelling and research.

The Diachronic Museum in Larissa’s video ‘Tracing the footsteps of human society’ and ‘I am the Lion of Kythera’ by the Archaeological Museum of Kythera are among those from 49 museums across 20 European countries being reviewed by jurists.

Winners of the the Museums in Short Award 2018 will be revealed on Aug. 31 in Piran, Slovenia.

The jury, an international group of museum, media and video professionals, selected 12 finalists, divided in three categories: promotional (trailers communicating museums, their exhibitions or events), exhibits (short video realized for permanent or temporary exhibition) and storytelling (short narratives in video format – fictional documentaries, interviews, motion graphics and animations).