Greece 2021 committee launched
The committee which will plan and oversee preparations to mark the bicentenary of the 19th-century revolt against Ottoman Turkey that led to the creation of the modern Greek state was officially launched Thursday with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis heralding the upcoming events as an opportunity to reframe Greeks’ “national self-understanding.”
The event, which took place at the Greek Parliament, was attended by President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Archbishop Ieronymos, party officials, diplomats and Hellenic Army officials.
The celebrations, the conservative premier said, “will present Greece with a great opportunity to regroup itself at home and, at the same time, reintroduce itself with its modern identity to Europe and the rest of the world.”
“If 1821 marked the beginning, 2021 marks a turning point on the path to the fourth industrial revolution, AI and the challenges that lie ahead,” said Mitsotakis, referring to economic inequalities, migration and climate change.
In her comments, the head of the Greece 2021 committee, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, said that the 200th birthday of the modern Greek state is “an ideal opportunity for a recap, an exercise in self-knowledge on a national as well as personal level.”
“Here is an opportunity to recognize what we achieved but, also, what we lost; to determine where we stand and where we want to go,” said Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, former head of the Athens Olympics Organizing Committee.
