General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
Turkey’s plans to turn the ancient revered Greek Orthodox Churh of Aghia Sophia in Constantinople into a mosque has left Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios unhappy and complaining it will further the division with Greece as tension soars between the countries.
“What can I say as a Christian clergyman and the Greek patriarch in Istanbul? Instead of uniting, a 1,500-year-old heritage is dividing us. I am saddened and shaken,” said Vatholomaios, who is spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
He was speaking to Turkish columnist Asli Aydintasbas for the Washington Post about the scheme that was hatched by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding to provocations with Greece as he moves to have ships drill off Greek islands.
The seat of the Orthodox Church resides in the city still, 567 years after it fell to the Turks in 1453, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire, and effectively the end of the Roman Empire, a state which dated back to 27 BC and lasted nearly 1,500 years.
The 6th Century Christian cathedral was turned into a mosque after that but in 1935 the secular founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk – in power when Smyrna fell in 1922 – turned it into a museum, which has been since, becoming a popular tourist attraction, often drawing more than 3.5 million visitors annually.
The cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and draws visitors of all faiths for its majestic design, although Turkey has put minarets around outside.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst.
LONDON (AP) — The British Museum on Thursday appointed National Portrait Gallery chief Nicholas Cullinan as its new director, as the 265-year-old institution grapples with the apparent theft of hundreds of artifacts and growing international scrutiny of its collection.
ATHENS - The European Union needs to get involved in the case of the two-year jail sentence given ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri who was elected Mayor of the seaside town of Himare and said the trial was a farce to get him and protect Prime Minister Edi Rama’s business friends.
Brace yourself for what could be another scorching summer in Greece as scientists are anxious that a warm winter - the warmest January recorded - and climate change will continue to bring weather anomalies.
Mykonos’ run has been going on for a long time, bringing hordes of tourists, but it’s being cut down by its reputation for being rowdy, expensive, overcrowded and gouging diners while businesses evade taxes.