ATHENS — The 2500th anniversary of the naval battle of Salamis will be the focus of an international online event on September 20, organized jointly by the Texas-based Hellenic Cultural Center of the Southwest (HCC-SW) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' General Secretariat for Public Diplomacy & Greeks Abroad.

The schedule of the event includes:

– Welcome speeches by Ioannis Chryssoulakis, professor emeritus, secretary-general for Public Diplomacy and Greeks Abroad of the Ministry of Foreign Afairs and Yiannis Remediakis, president of the HCC-SW.

– Opening remarks by Dimitrios Iliopoulos, retired ambassador and former EU Representative to the International Organizations in Geneva (UN) and the Hague, member of the Board of the Hellenic Institute of Strategic Studies (HELISS).

The keynote speaker will be Zisis Fotakis, assistant professor of naval history at the Hellenic Naval Academy, while a discussion on the significance of the naval battle of Salamis will also be held with the participation of US students.

The event is part of the "Thermopylae-Salamis 2020" anniversary framework, which is an intitiative of the Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation in collaboration with the Ministries of Culture and Interior, under the patronage of Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

HCC-SW is a nonprofit organization founded in 2006, which promotes Hellenism in the greater southwest area of the US.