2016 Jan 16, In Greece some
3,000 workers marched through the streets of Athens to protest
against the leftist-led government's planned pension reform which
the country's international creditors have demanded as part of its
third bailout.
(Reuters, 1/16/16)
2016 Jan 20, Greek farmers used
tractors to block a northern highway and hundreds more prepared to
close other roads to protest unpopular draft pension reforms that
will further cut incomes in the austerity-weary country.
(AP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 21, In Greece at least
six thousand lawyers, doctors, engineers and other professional
groups marched peacefully through central Athens to protest drastic
new income cuts under planned pension reforms.
(AP, 1/21/16)
2016 Jan 21, After a night on
the Greek-Macedonian frontier in sub-zero temperatures, some 2,000
mainly Syrian refugees resumed their tortuous trek to northern
Europe that was temporarily blocked by a border closure by Skopje.
(AFP, 1/21/16)
2016 Jan 22, At least 46
people, including 17 children, drowned when their boats capsized off
two Greek islands near the Turkish coast.
(Reuters, 1/22/16)(SFC, 1/23/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 27, In Greece ferries
were docked at ports as sailors kicked off their second 48-hour
strike this week, adding to a groundswell of public discontent over
plans to reform the country's struggling pension system.
(Reuters, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, Greek authorities
recovered a total of 7 bodies, including those of 2 children, from
the sea off the eastern Aegean island of Kos after a boat carrying
migrants or refugees sank early today.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 28, The bodies of 24
migrants, including 10 children, were discovered off the Greek
island of Samos. Eleven people from a dinghy carrying 45 people were
still listed as missing.
(AFP, 1/28/16)
2016 Feb 3, Greek journalists
walked off the job ahead of a general strike set to disrupt services
across the country to protest pension reforms that are part of the
country's third international bailout.
(AP, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 4, Greek police fired
teargas at protesters hurling stones at them during brief clashes on
the sidelines of a mass rally against pension reforms in central
Athens.
(Reuters, 2/4/16)
2016 Feb 11, Three Greek navy
personnel were killed after their helicopter crashed into a small
islet in the Aegean Sea during an exercise.
(AFP, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 12, Greek riot police
fired tear gas at farmers protesting against pension reform plans
who hurled stones at the agriculture ministry in central Athens
ahead of a major demonstration outside parliament scheduled for
later in the day.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 12, EU member states
gave Greece a three-month ultimatum to remedy "deficiencies" in
controlling the influx of migrants or face border controls with the
rest of the Schengen passport-free zone.
(AFP, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 16, Greece’s Defense
Minister Panos Kammenos said four of five new migrant registration
centers are "ready to function and welcome refugees".
(AFP, 2/16/16)
2016 Feb 19, Bulgarian truckers
sealed off all six checkpoints along the country's land border with
Greece to protest at weeks of intermittent blockades by Greek
farmers that have disrupted road traffic.
(AFP, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 22, Greece filed a
formal protest with Austria over its decision to call a meeting of
Balkan states on the migrant crisis without including Greece.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 23, Greek police
started removing migrants from the Greek-Macedonian border after
additional passage restrictions imposed by Macedonian authorities
left hundreds stranded while more were ferried from islands to
Greece's main Piraeus port. Greece began sending back to Athens by
bus hundreds of Afghans trapped on the border with Macedonia
(Reuters, 2/23/16)(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 24, Greek Migration
Minister Yannis Mouzalas said decision by Balkan states to limit the
flow of migrants through the region is creating a 'mini humanitarian
crisis' in Greece.
(Reuters, 2/24/16)
2016 Feb 25, In Greece a
clampdown at the Macedonia border led to massive crowds waiting on
the border. About 2,800 people were there and only 100 were allowed
to cross in the morning.
(AP, 2/25/16)
2016 Feb 25, NATO envoys set
out how ships already sent to the Aegean will pass reconnaissance to
Turkish and Greek coastguards and the EU border agency Frontex, as
well as returning to Turkey any migrants in distress that NATO crews
rescue.
(Reuters, 2/25/16)
2016 Feb 27, In Greece Iraqi
and Syrian migrants and asylum-seekers protested peacefully on the
Greek-Macedonian border since, demanding admission into Macedonia.
(AP, 2/27/16)
2016 Feb 29, Macedonian police
fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of migrants who stormed the
border from Greece as a deeply divided Europe traded barbs over the
biggest humanitarian crisis in decades.
(Reuters, 2/29/16)
2016 Mar 1, Greece said it has
asked the EU for nearly half a billion euros in emergency funds to
help shelter 100,000 refugees. There were currently some 25,000
refugees and migrants on Greek soil and around 1,000 continued to
arrive on a typical day.
(AFP, 3/1/16)
2016 Mar 2, The EU launched a
new aid program worth an initial 700 million euros that mirrors the
kind of disaster relief it offers developing nations. Greece, the
main gateway to Europe, would initially be the main beneficiary of
the emergency scheme. The number of migrants awaiting passage to
central and northern Europe swelled on Greece's border with
Macedonia as the frontier remained shut.
(Reuters, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 2, Macedonia allowed
some 200 refugees to cross its border with Greece, as 10,000 more
were left waiting in miserable conditions.
(AFP, 3/2/16)
2016 Mar 5, In Greece some
13,000 refugees were crammed in unhygienic conditions on the border
with Macedonia, with all eyes on a key EU-Turkey summit on March 7
that is seen as the only viable solution to the crisis.
(AFP, 3/5/16)
2016 Mar 13, Greece increased
efforts to move thousands of migrants near the border with Macedonia
to sheltered camps, as the spread of infection became a concern with
one person in a sprawling tent city diagnosed with Hepatitis A.
(Reuters, 3/13/16)
2016 Mar 14, Around 2,000
migrants from a camp in northern Greece got around a border fence
and crossed into Macedonian territory.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 15, Macedonia dumped
about 1,500 migrants and refugees back into Greece overnight after
they forced their way across the border, as European nations
continued to pass the buck in a migration crisis that risks tearing
the EU apart.
(Reuters, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 23, More aid agencies
helping refugees and migrants arriving in Greece said they were
joining a boycott of detention centers, angered at an EU deal they
say runs roughshod over human rights.
(Reuters, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 26, Greece said it has
begun emptying the main migrant camp on its Macedonia border, as the
huge tide of refugees flooding into the country slows to a trickle
following the EU-Turkey deal.
(AFP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 27, In Greece hundreds
of migrants, egged on by activists, protested near the fence
separating Macedonia from Greece, demanding that the border be
opened to allow them to continue their journey into central Europe.
(AP, 3/27/16)
2016 Apr 4, Greece shipped 202
migrants back to Turkey, the first wave of deportations under a
hugely controversial deal aimed at easing Europe's worst postwar
migration crisis.
(AFP, 4/4/16)(Econ, 4/9/16, p.52)
2016 Apr 8, Greece deported a
second batch of more than two hundred migrants to Turkey under a
controversial EU deal to stem mass migration as Germany announced a
sharp drop in asylum claims.
(AFP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 8, Greece signed an
agreement to sell a 67 percent stake in operating its biggest port
to China's Cosco group, a significant step in the debt-crippled
country's ambitious privatization drive. Dockworkers protesting in
central Athens against the sale clashed with riot police who
responded with tear gas..
(AP, 4/8/16)
2016 Apr 9, Four migrant women
and a child drowned off the Greek island of Samos in the first
deaths in the Aegean Sea since a controversial EU-Turkey deal took
effect three weeks ago.
(AFP, 4/9/16)
2016 Apr 10, Greece said police
on the Macedonian side of their joint frontier used teargas, rubber
bullets and stun grenades to push back the migrants. Macedonian
authorities would only confirm they used teargas.
(Reuters, 4/10/16)
2016 Apr 11, Fresh protests
broke at a flashpoint border crossing, as Greece and Macedonia
blamed each other for an incident in which tear gas and rubber
bullets were fired on migrants trying to breach the closed border to
get to western Europe.
(AFP, 4/11/16)
2016 Apr 13, Macedonia police
fired tear gas and stun grenades at migrants staging a protest at
the country's border fence with Greece.
(AFP, 4/13/16)
2016 Apr 16, Pope Francis
brought a message of hope to thousands of people facing expulsion
from Greece as he slammed the world community for failing to end the
wars fueling the crisis. Francis returned hom with three families of
Syrian refugees.
(AFP, 4/16/16)(Reuters, 4/16/16)
2016 Apr 16, Just 41 people
were saved by a passing merchant ship and brought to Greece. Up to
500 people are believed to have died, when an overcrowded boat sank
in the southern Mediterranean.
(Reuters, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 21, In Greece two men
who were among 41 people picked up over the weekend from a boat
found adrift in the Mediterranean Sea described surviving what they
say was a shipwreck last week that might have killed up to 500
people.
(AP, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 22, Foreign ministers
of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia said they will work to
improve coordination along southern Europe's migrant trial.
(AP, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 24, Greek press unions
expanded a strike to protest bailout creditor-demanded reforms of
their taxpayer-funded pension fund, leaving the country without
newspapers and news broadcasts for several days.
(AP, 4/25/16)
2016 May 5, Greek labor unions
declared a 48-hour national walkout as lawmakers debated unpopular
tax and pension reforms Greece hopes will help persuade creditors to
approve release of badly-needed bailout cash.
(Reuters, 5/5/16)
2016 May 6, Services in Greece,
from garbage collection to public transport, shut down as workers
kicked off three days of strikes to protest new bailout austerity
measures that they say will further reduce incomes.
(AP, 5/6/16)
2016 May 8, In Greece thousands
of protesters took to the streets of Athens as parliament prepared
to vote on a controversial tax and pensions overhaul which has
sparked mass opposition.
(AFP, 5/8/16)
2016 May 9, Greek lawmakers
passed unpopular pension and tax reforms that a European official
said marked a major advance in negotiations towards unlocking more
rescue funds from the country's creditors.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 17, In Greece a
ceremony marked the beginning of construction on a new pipeline
project bringing Azeri gas through northern Greece and Albania to
Italy, reducing Europe's energy dependency on Russia. The Trans
Adriatic Pipeline will run for 878 km (550 miles), from Greece's
border with Turkey to southern Italy, and includes a 105-kilometer
(65-mile) stretch under the Adriatic Sea.
(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 24, Greek police
started moving some of the 8,000 migrants and refugees stranded in a
makeshift camp on the sealed northern border with Macedonia to
state-run facilities further south.
(Reuters, 5/24/16)
2016 May 25, Greek police moved
hundreds more migrants out of Idomeni, the squalid tent city where
thousands fleeing war and poverty have lived for months, on the
second day of an operation likely to last a week.
(AfP, 5/25/16)
2016 May 27, Russian President
Vladimir Putin made his first trip to a European Union country this
year with a visit to Greece for a two-day visit expected to focus on
energy cooperation and Russian investments during talks with Greek
PM Alexis Tsipras.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 Jun 3, Four bodies were
recovered and 340 people rescued after a boat carrying migrants
across the Mediterranean Sea sank south of the Greek island of
Crete. Survivors later said 648 or 650 men, women and children were
on the ship. Some 320 migrants and refugees were feared to have
drowned.
(AP, 6/3/16)(Reuters, 6/7/16)
2016 Jun 16, In Greece the Holy
and Great Council of Orthodox Christianity convened in Crete and
continued to June 26. The Churches of Antioch, Russia, Bulgaria, and
Georgia did not participate.
(http://tinyurl.com/jcuptso)(Econ, 6/18/16, p.57)
2016 Jul 6, In Greece most
workers on the the Athens public transport system walked off the job
in a 24-hour strike to protest privatizations that are part of the
country's international bailout conditions.
(AP, 7/6/16)
2016 Jul 13, Greek authorities
recovered 4 bodies and rescued six people after a boat full of
migrants overturned off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos.
(AP, 7/13/16)
2016 Jul 16, Turkish military
helicopter landed in Greece carrying eight officers seeking asylum
after a coup bid. Greece arrested all eight men.
(AFP, 7/16/16)(Reuters, 7/16/16)
2016 Jul 21, A Greek court
sentenced eight Turkish military officers, who fled last week's
failed coup, to suspended two-month prison terms. The officers have
requested asylum and will remain in police custody until their cases
on that issue are heard in August.
(AFP, 7/21/16)
2016 Jul 25, Greek authorities
declared a state of emergency on the Aegean island of Chios, which
has been engulfed by a wildfire raging out of control.
(Reuters, 7/25/16)
2016 Aug 1, In Greece a large
blaze in its third day threatened the small seaside town of Limni. A
hotel was destroyed, along with a holiday home, a restaurant, and a
couple of outhouses on the island of Evia.
(AP, 8/1/16)
2016 Aug 30, Greece's left-wing
government launched an auction for four private national television
licenses, reducing the number from seven after a heated public
debate on corruption in the financially troubled country.
(AP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 30, More than 460
migrants and refugees arrived on Greek islands from Turkey, the
highest in several weeks, despite a European Union deal with Ankara
agreed in March to close off that route.
(Reuters, 8/30/16)
2016 Sep 2, The Greek
government said only two of the country's seven private TV stations
survived a landmark license auction that raised 246 million euros
($275 million) for the cash strapped left-wing government. The new
licenses will take effect in 90 days, but the government faced
multiple legal challenges.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Nov 3, Greek retirees
staged an anti-government rally in Athens to protest a new round of
cuts under the country's international bailout program.
(AP, 11/3/16)
2016 Nov 15, Greek riot police
used tear gas and stun grenades in Athens to disperse about 3,000
left-wing marchers protesting President Barack Obama's visit. Greek
left-wingers still resent US support for Greece's 1967-74 military
dictatorship. Obama offered solidarity with Greece over its debt and
migrant crises on Tuesday during his final trip to Europe as US
president before handing over power to Donald Trump.
(AP, 11/15/16)(Reuters, 11/15/16)
2016 Nov 16, Greek authorities
said four people believed to be migrants have been found dead on a
crippled boat in the northern Aegean Sea and another 15 survivors
have been rescued.
(AP, 11/16/16)
2016 Nov 17, Thousands of
Greeks vented frustration at their economic lot as they marched in
Athens to mark the anniversary of the bloody 1973 student uprising
that helped topple the then-military junta.
(Reuters, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 24, Greek
public-sector workers went on strike to protest labor and pension
reforms and state asset sales which the leftist-led government
agreed with the country's official creditors in exchange for bailout
loans.
(Reuters, 11/24/16)
2016 Dec 5, Officials said a
Greek court has refused to extradite the first three of eight
Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the failed July 15
military coup.
(AP, 12/5/16)
2016 Dec 6, A Greek court
agreed to extradite three Turkish servicemen who were part of an
eight-person helicopter crew that fled to Greece after a failed
military coup, a decision that came a day after it refused to send
three others back to Turkey.
(AP, 12/6/16)
2016 Dec 8, In Greece a
nationwide strike against spending cuts disrupted public transport,
state-run schools, ferries and national rail services, and left
public hospitals running with emergency staff.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 8, A Greek court
rejected Turkey's extradition request for the last two of eight
Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after a failed July military
coup.
(AP, 12/8/16)
2016 Dec 10, The Greek
Parliament passed a budget of continued austerity. Pres. Tsipras
predicted 2.7% economic growth for 2017.
(SSFC, 12/11/16, p.A4)
2016 Dec 10, Greek ferry
workers ended a nine-day strike, saying they did not wish to disrupt
the holiday season, but promised to resume action if the government
did not back off tax hikes for ferry workers.
(AP, 12/10/16)
2016 Dec 12, British and Greek
authorities said they have dismantled an international ring
suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants to Britain and other
European countries using falsified travel documents. 24 suspects
were arrested last week in the Athens area, and another nine in
Glasgow, Northampton and Manchester in Britain.
(AP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 14, Euro zone lenders
put on hold the implementation of a short-term debt relief deal for
Greece after the Greek government proposed to make a one-off payout
to pensioners in December.
(Reuters, 12/14/16)
2016 Dec 21, A Greek state food
safety agency said several soft drinks and food products mostly made
by multinational companies have been withdrawn from sale in greater
Athens after an anarchist group said it had injected packages and
plastic bottles with chlorine and hydrochloric acid. A group calling
itself "Green Nemesis" posted the threat on the internet on Dec 19,
saying it intended to cause financial damage to the companies.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 26, In Brazil Kyriakos
Amoiridis (59), the Greek ambassador to Brazil, was last seen. His
wife Francoise reported him missing on Dec 28. On Dec 29 his
burned-out rental car was found with a body inside. On Dec 30 police
said Françoise and police officer Sergio Moreira had arranged and
possibly carried out the killing of Amiridis in a home where the
diplomat and his wife were staying in a poor section in the northern
suburb of Rio as Officer Sergio Moreira (29) confessed that he
killed the ambassador.
(AFP, 12/30/16)(Reuters, 12/30/16)(Reuters,
12/31/16)
2017 Jan 11, Aid agencies said
dozens of migrants are at risk of freezing to death in Europe after
heavy snowfall and bitterly cold temperatures hit Greece and the
Balkans. The UN Missing Migrants Project has recorded 11 migrant
deaths in the Mediterranean since the start of the year. The recent
cold snap was blamed for at least 73 deaths.
(AP, 1/11/17)(SFC, 1/12/17, p.A2)
2017 Jan 26, Greece's Supreme
Court ruled against the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers who
fled to Greece in July after a failed coup attempt in Turkey, a
decision which angered Ankara and further strained relations between
the two neighbors. Turkey issued an arrest warrant for the eight
former army officers.
(Reuters, 1/26/17)(AFP, 1/26/17)
2017 Jan 27, Turkey's top
diplomat threatened punitive measures against Greece, including
scrapping an agreement on the return of migrants, after the Greek
Supreme Court ruled against extraditing eight Turkish officers who
escaped from their country by helicopter after the failed coup
attempt.
(AP, 1/27/17)
2017 Jan 30, In Greece a
migrant was found dead in his tent on Lesbos island, the third death
there in a week, raising alarm about the grim living conditions in
Greek camps.
(Reuters, 1/30/17)
2017 Feb 8, In Greece hundreds
of firefighters in uniform took to the streets of Athens, saying
roughly one third of their jobs are at risk due to hiring
restrictions placed on the public sector by Greece's international
bailout conditions.
(AP, 2/8/17)
2017 Feb 12, Greek soldiers
successfully defused a World War II bomb in Thessaloniki, after
evacuating tens of thousands of people from the area.
(AFP, 2/12/17)
2017 Feb 16, Greek authorities
seized 1.3 tons of marijuana in a truck crossing into the country
from Albania, a major illegal drugs producer.
(AP, 2/17/17)
2017 Feb 20, Greece agreed to
compromise on new bailout reforms in a bid to break a deadlock with
its EU-IMF creditors that has sparked fears of a new Grexit crisis.
Greece agreed to legislate new reforms to come into effect in 2019.
In return, Greece's creditors agreed to send their bailout
inspectors back to Athens next week for further talks to complete a
long overdue review of Greece's progress in its bailout program.
(AFP, 2/20/17)(AP, 2/24/17)
2017 Mar 6, Greek authorities
said they have seized more than half a million illegally made
amphetamine pills, their largest haul to date and thought to be
destined for the Middle East.
(Reuters, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 16, The militant Greek
group Conspiracy of Fire Cells claimed responsibility for a parcel
bomb mailed to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The
parcel had been intercepted by the German finance ministry's mail
department. On March 20 Greek counterterrorism officers uncovered
eight more similar parcel bombs.
(Reuters, 3/16/17)(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 27, Fraport Greece
said the European Union is clearing a 280 million euro loan from the
European Investment Bank to the company, which won the tender to
upgrade and operate 14 regional Greek airports.
(AP, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 30, The European Court
of Human Rights (ECHR) accused Greece of failing to protect migrant
workers who had been subject to "forced labor" and shot at by
security guards when they protested over unpaid wages. It ordered
Athens to pay 16,000 euros each to the workers whose case had
triggered outrage across the country.
(Reuters, 3/30/17)
2017 Mar, In Europe some 62,000
asylum seekers were stranded in Greece. Another 7,000 were stranded
in Serbia.
(Econ, 3/18/17, p.57)
2017 Apr 4, Thousands of
elderly Greeks protested peacefully against more pension cuts, as
cash-strapped Greece remained locked in talks with lenders on
further austerity and unpopular labor reforms.
(Reuters, 4/4/17)
2017 Apr 8, In Greece Documenta
14, one of the world's premier art events opened in Athens, bringing
a much-needed spotlight, artistic inspiration and visitor boost to
crisis-hit Greece's run-down capital. The contemporary art
exhibition is held every five years in Kassel, Germany. The opening
in Germany was set for June.
(AFP, 4/8/17)(Econ, 4/8/17, p.76)
2017 Apr 25, A Greek court
ruled against the extradition of three of eight Turkish soldiers who
fled to Greece last July following a failed coup attempt against the
Ankara government.
(Reuters, 4/25/17)
2017 May 1, Greek trade unions
marked May Day with a 24-hour nationwide strike and protests against
looming new cuts demanded by the country's creditors in return for
bailout cash.
(AFP, 5/1/17)
2017 May 2, Greece struck a
deal with rescue creditors toward getting the bailout cash it needs
to avoid another brush with bankruptcy this summer, though it leaves
long-suffering Greeks facing years more austerity.
(AP, 5/2/17)
2017 May 7, In Greece hundreds
of people gathered in central Athens to protest against plans to
increase Sunday trading hours in a rally organized by unions and
communist groups. Shops in Greece are currently compelled to open on
the first Sunday of every month in a step imposed three years ago by
the country's creditors.
(AFP, 5/7/17)
2017 May 13, In northern Greece
four people were killed and 10 more were injured when a train
derailed and ripped through a house late today.
(Reuters, 5/14/17)(SSFC, 5/14/17, p.A4)
2017 May 13, Chinese President
Xi Jinping offered visiting Greek PM Alexis Tsipras strong support,
saying the two countries should expand cooperation in
infrastructure, energy and telecommunications.
(Reuters, 5/13/17)
2017 May 18, In Greece
protesters took to the streets of central Athens for the second day
running, hours before lawmakers voted in parliament on measures that
will impose additional income losses for many Greeks for another
three years. Parliament approved a new package of reforms demanded
by the EU and the IMF. Unemployment in the country was around 23%.
(AP, 5/18/17)(Econ 5/27/17, p.47)
2017 May 29, In Greece
Constantine Mitsotakis (98), a former conservative prime minister
(1990-93) died. His political career spanned more than half a
century.
(AP, 5/31/17)
2017 Jun 7, Greek authorities
said Colombian organized crime rings were behind a string of heists
involving costly medical diagnostic equipment stolen from hospitals
in Greece and another 11 European countries. Police said three
suspects are being sought in Colombia in connection with four thefts
in Greece last month.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 Jun 10, In northwestern
Greece a lignite mine began collapsing in the village of Anargyroi
forcing all 182 inhabitants to leave their homes. The mine was shut
down on June 3 for safety reasons. The government had warned six
years earlier that the mine poised a threat.
(SFC, 6/12/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 12, An earthquake with
a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook western Turkey and the Greek
island of Lesbos, injuring at least 10 people and damaging
buildings.
(AP, 6/12/17)
2017 Jun 15, the 19-country
eurozone agreed late today to release a further 8.5 billion euros
($9.5 billion) from its current, third bailout after the Greek
government delivered on an array of reforms.
(AP, 6/16/17)
2017 Jun 15, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu promised to promote plans for an ambitious
Mediterranean undersea natural gas pipeline project, in a bid by his
country to become a key European energy supplier. Israel hoped to
export much of its newly discovered natural gas to Europe by a
proposed 2,200-km (1,350-mile) undersea pipeline to Cyprus and
Greece.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 19, Greece's PM Alexis
Tsipras told visiting Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim that
airspace violations over the Aegean must stop as they increase the
risk of a military accident in the sea between the two uneasy
neighbors and NATO allies.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 22, In Greece mounds
of rubbish festered in soaring temperatures in Athens as thousands
demonstrated in support of refuse collectors demanding the renewal
of their contracts.
(AFP, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 29, Hundreds of
striking Greek sanitation workers ended a 10-day strike in Athens
over jobs as steaming mountains of garbage piled up across the
country and temperatures soared.
(Reuters, 6/29/17)
2017 Jul 7, In Greece Bakari
Henderson of Austin, Texas, was killed early today on the island of
Zakynthos following a fight at a bar in the rowdy tourist district
of Lagana.
(AP, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 11, Greek police
arrested a 33-year old Serb over the murder of a young American
tourist on the Greek island of Zakynthos last week, bringing the
number of people detained in the case to nine. Six Serbs, one Greek
and a British national were arrested last week and have been charged
with murder.
(Reuters, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 12, The EU Commission
proposed to end the so-called "excessive deficit procedure" on
Greece following a sharp improvement in the country's finances after
years of spending cuts and tax increases and a recession that wiped
out a quarter of the economy and caused unemployment and poverty to
swell.
(AP, 7/12/17)
2017 Jul 21, A magnitude 6.7
earthquake killed two people on the Greek holiday island of Kos,
also causing disruption in the Turkish tourist hub of Bodrum, where
80 people were injured. A Turkish and a Swedish tourist, aged 39 and
22 years, died when the roof of a popular bar collapsed.
(Reuters, 7/21/17)(AFP, 7/21/17)
2017 Jul 25, Greece returned to
the debt markets for the first time in three years, with reports
saying it was on track to raise funds at a lower cost, marking a
symbolic victory for the beleaguered eurozone nation.
(AFP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 26, In Greece a
Russian man (38) wanted in the United States on suspicion of
masterminding a money laundering operation involving at least $4
billion through bitcoin transactions was ordered held in custody
until a US extradition request can be examined. The combined value
of bitcoins in circulation reached $40 billion with per day
transactions approaching 300,000 on average.
(AP, 7/26/17)(Econ 7/29/17, p.61)
2017 Jul 27, The European
Commission announced a new emergency support package for Greece to
help it deal with the refugee crisis that has seen tens of thousands
of migrants and refugees stuck in the country.
(AP, 7/27/17)
2017 Jul 28, In Greece Tassos
Mantelis (72) was found guilty of money laundering over contracts
between the Greek unit of Siemens and then state-controlled telecoms
group OTE. Mantelis, who was alleged to have committed the offense
while he was transport minister from 1996-2000, was found guilty of
money laundering and handed an eight-year suspended sentence.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Aug 1, A high court in
Greece convicted Andreas Georgiou (57), the country's former
statistics chief, to two years in prison for breach of duty, after
finding him guilty of breaching regulations of the National
Statistical Authority by failing to inform its governing board about
the release of budget deficit data in 2010.
(AP, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 11, Greek authorities
seized roughly two tons of Albania-grown marijuana on an
Italian-flagged yacht destined for the Aegean Sea islands.
(AP, 8/11/17)
2017 Aug 14, In Greece
firefighters battled to contain a wildfire near Athens after it
spread overnight to three towns some 45 km (30 miles) northeast of
the capital and damaged dozens of homes.
(Reuters, 8/14/17)
2017 Aug 15, Greek firefighters
struggled to control blazes for a third successive day, as flames
fanned by high winds forced people to flee homes near the capital.
(AFP, 8/15/17)
2017 Aug 31, Macedonia called
on Greece to recognize the "new reality" in the country and support
its bid to join the EU and NATO, a move that would require
overcoming the row over the country's name. Macedonia’s Foreign
Minister Nikola Dimitrov and Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias told
reporters that their governments were committed to working on good
relations and regional cooperation.
(Reuters, 8/31/17)(AP, 8/31/17)
2017 Sep 6, Greek asylum
service employees on short-term contracts launched a two-day strike
to protest months-long delays in their salary payments.
(AP, 9/6/17)
2017 Sep 7, French President
Emmanuel Macron kicked off his first official visit to Greece with a
call for concerted efforts to tackle climate change.
(AP, 9/7/17)
2017 Sep 10, In Greece the
45-year-old vessel Agia Zoni II sank near the island of Salamis
while under anchor. Oil soon spilled from the sunken tanker and
drifted to other parts of the Saronic Gulf in Athens.
(AP, 9/13/17)
2017 Sep 14, The Greek
government entered a process of arbitration with a Canadian gold
mining company, days after Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold threatened
to suspend its investments in the country over what it said were
delays in the issuing of permits.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 15, Greek authorities
banned swimming along a long line of popular Athens beaches
following extensive sea pollution from the sinking of a small oil
tanker five days ago, which prompted a large containment and cleanup
operation.
(AP, 9/15/17)
2017 Sep 22, Greece's top
administrative court approved the first forced deportation of two
Syrian refugees, setting a precedent for hundreds of similar cases.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 22, In Greece Celia
Lois Hollingworth (63) was reported missing by the British embassy.
The next day a woman's gnawed body was discovered in a remote hilly
area.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Oct 4, A Greek court ruled
to extradite Russian cybercrime suspect Alexander Vinnik to the US,
where he is wanted in connection with a $4 billion bitcoin fraud
case.
(AP, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 10, The Greek
parliament passed a law to make it easier for people to change their
legally recognized gender, a move that angered the Church but was
welcomed as long-overdue by human rights groups.
(Reuters, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 18, Two Macedonian
nationals wanted by Interpol were arrested in Greece over their
alleged involvement in a wiretap scandal that brought down
Macedonia's government.
(AP, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 28, Greek police
arrested a 29-year-old suspect in a bomb attack last May on Lucas
Papademos, one of the country's former prime ministers (2011-2012).
(AP, 10/28/17)
2017 Oct 30, Montenegro’s
defense minister said the Greek and Italian air forces will protect
the airspace over the newest NATO-member state. Montenegro joined
NATO in June as the military alliance's 29th member.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Nov 3, The Greek coast
guard rescued 15 people after a boat carrying migrants from Turkey
sank off the island of Kalymnos. At least three people died and
several more were believed to be missing.
(AP, 11/3/17)
2017 Nov 9, A political row
erupted in Greece after Dimitris Koufontinas (59), a key far-left
assassin implicated in deadly attacks on US, British, Turkish and
Greek targets, was given a two-day leave from prison.
(AP, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 13, In Greece hundreds
of four-wheel motorbike owners, most from Greek holiday resorts,
blocked traffic outside the country's Transport Ministry in Athens
to protest a proposed ATV vehicle ban.
(AP, 11/13/17)
2017 Nov 14, Greece declared a
state of emergency on the island of Symi after a sudden downpour
swept cars into the sea, damaged homes and cut off electricity and
water supplies.
(Reuters, 11/14/17)
2017 Nov 15, In Greece flash
floods killed at least 20 people. Most of the fatalities occurred in
Mandra, a working-class district on the western outskirts of Athens.
Days later two people remained missing.
(AP, 11/16/17)(SFC, 11/17/17, p.A2)(AFP,
11/18/17)(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 17, In Greece more
than 10,000 protesters marched to the US Embassy in Athens to mark
the anniversary of the 1973 crackdown on a student uprising against
the military dictatorship then ruling the country. Police clashed
with hooded youths in Athens after thousands marched to mark a
bloody 1973 student uprising.
(AP, 11/17/17)(Reuters, 11/18/17)
2017 Nov 21, The leaders of
Cyprus, Egypt and Greece met in Cyprus and pledged closer
cooperation on migration. They also sought to get the European Union
more actively engaged in efforts to get a grip on migration, much of
which stems from war-torn Syria and Libya.
(AP, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 27, Greek authorities
raised to 23 the death toll from the Nov. 15 heavy flooding near
Athens, after one more body was found and an injured woman died in
hospital.
(AP, 11/27/17)
2017 Nov 27, Amnesty Int’l.
urged Greece's government to halt the sale of thousands of artillery
shells to Saudi Arabia, saying the weapons could be used against
civilians in the ongoing war in Yemen. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras
strongly defended deal.
(AP, 11/27/17)
2017 Nov 28, Greek police found
bomb-making equipment and detonators in raids in Athens and were
questioning nine people over suspected links to a banned militant
group in Turkey ahead of an expected visit by Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan next week.
(Reuters, 11/28/17)
2017 Nov 29, Greek police used
tear gas to hold back dozens of protesters trying to disrupt
foreclosed property auctions that resumed after a hiatus of several
months.
(AP, 11/29/17)
2017 Dec 2, Greek police
arrested a Serbo-Croatian man (33) suspected of being involved in an
international smuggling ring importing drugs from Latin America to
Europe, after seizing 136 kg (300 pounds) of cocaine from his Athens
apartment. Authorities were also seeking a 35-year-old Serb man
believed to be an accomplice.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 4, A Greek court
ordered the detention of nine Turkish citizens pending trial for
terrorism-related offences, including links to a banned militant
group behind a series of suicide bombings in Turkey.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 5, Greek demonstrators
in Athens broke into the Labor Ministry and clashed with riot police
outside the prime minister's office, in protest against a new
agreement between the country and bailout creditors that includes
limiting the right to strike.
(AP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 5, Mayors and
residents of Greece's Aegean islands, which are sheltering more than
15,000 refugees and migrants, called for the government to relocate
people from overcrowded camps into centers on the mainland.
(AFP, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 6, Greek police fired
teargas at youths marching in Athens to mark the ninth anniversary
of the killing of a teenager by police, an incident that sparked
Greece's worst riots for decades. Alexandros Grigoropoulos (15) was
shot dead in 2008.
(Reuters, 12/6/17)
2017 Dec 8, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with members of Greece's Muslim minority,
ending a landmark visit to Greece that sharply divided opinion in
the country and saw tensions in relations resurface.
(AP, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 14, The defense
ministers of Cyprus, Egypt and Greece agreed to step up cooperation
in combating drug, weapons and people trafficking in the east
Mediterranean and to share information on countering the threat of
terrorism.
(AP, 12/14/17)
2017 Dec 18, A court in
northern Greece sentenced 23 people to prison terms ranging from
eight to 1,489 years for smuggling Iraqi and Syrian refugees into
the country from the Turkish border in 2015 and 2016.
(AP, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 19, Greece’s Hellenic
Food Authority issued an announcement calling on consumers in Athens
and the northern city of Thessaloniki not to buy 1.5 liter bottles
of Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Light, 1 liter cartons of Delta brand
milk and packages of Yfantis processed sausage from Dec. 20-25. This
followed a threat by members of a group calling itself "Blackgreen
Arsonists" to contaminate certain packaged food products with
hydrochloric acid during the Christmas period.
(AP, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 22, Macedonia's
left-wing prime minister said he is ready to renounce his country's
claim to the legacy of Alexander the Great to help solve a
26-year-old dispute with neighboring Greece over the country's name.
(AP, 12/23/17)
2017 Dec 31, Greece dismissed
Turkish anger over its decision to grant asylum to a soldier who
Ankara accuses of involvement in the abortive coup against President
Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016. The soldier was one of eight who fled
after the July 15 coup attempt.
(Reuters, 12/31/17)
2017 Dec 31, In Greece a
homeowner found a young tourist couple dead in the house they were
renting on the western island of Kefalonia. Initial indications
pointed to a double suicide.
(AP, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 5, A Greek court ruled
that two Macedonian men arrested on an international warrant issued
by their country on charges related to a wiretapping scandal should
be extradited.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 8, Greece won a
temporary injunction suspending the asylum status granted to a
Turkish soldier who fled with seven others to the country after a
botched coup attempt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in
2016.
(Reuters, 1/8/18)
2018 Jan 11, Macedonia and
Greece agreed to form working groups led by foreign ministers to
hold talks on a solution to the 25-year dispute over the name of the
ex-Yugoslav Republic.
(Reuters, 1/12/18)
2018 Jan 12, In Greece police
fired tear gas in brief clashes with protesters and strikes halted
ferries and disrupted public transport, as unions stepped up
protests against a new austerity bill that will limit the right to
strike and speed up property foreclosures.
(AP, 1/12/18)
2018 Jan 15, Greek labor unions
went on strike to protest further creditor-demanded austerity
measures due to be voted on in Parliament. Strikes shut down all
public transport in Athens.
(AP, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 16, The leaders of
Cyprus, Greece and Jordan pledged a new partnership with tighter
cooperation on fighting terrorism, and rallied international support
for countries hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the
war in Syria.
(AP, 1/16/18)
2018 Jan 21, Over 100,000
Greeks have gathered in the northern city of Thessaloniki to demand
that neighboring country Macedonia change its name because it is
also the name of the Greek province of which Thessaloniki is the
capital.
(AP, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 30, In Greece Israel's
Pres. Reuven Rivlin and Greece's PM Alexis Tsipras attended a
foundation ceremony for a Holocaust memorial museum in Thessaloniki,
which lost 97 percent of its Jewish community in German World War II
death camps.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Feb 2, A Greek court ruled
against the extradition of a Turkish man wanted by Ankara over links
to a banned militant group blamed for suicide bombings in Turkey.
The court said Mehmet Dogan (60), although still being held in
Greece, had been granted political asylum in France.
(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 4, In Greece well over
100,000 protesters from across the country converged on Athens' main
square to protest a potential Greek compromise in a dispute with
neighboring Macedonia over the former Yugoslav republic's official
name.
(AP, 2/4/18)
2018 Feb 8, Greece launched a
seven-year bond auction with a starting rate of 3.75 percent, in the
first major step this year toward a return to financing itself on
international markets.
(AP, 2/8/18)
2018 Feb 11, Greek firefighters
found a Macedonian man and woman frozen to death at the summit of
Mount Kaimaktsalan. The man (35) and the woman (28) went missing a
day earlier. They had reportedly set off again for the summit a 2nd
time, believing, apparently erroneously, that one of their group was
missing.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 19, In Greece
seventeen Turkish nationals landed on a beach on an island close to
Turkey. Greek media said they had asked for political asylum.
(Reuters, 2/20/18)
2018 Feb 20, A Greek court in
the northern city of Thessaloniki convicted Jamal Owda (20), a
Palestinian man, of running a major migrant-smuggling ring and
sentenced him to 13 years in prison.
(AP, 2/20/18)
2018 Feb 21, Macedonian
authorities began replacing road signs on the country's main highway
named by the previous government after the ancient warrior king
Alexander the Great, in a goodwill gesture toward neighboring
Greece.
(AP, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 22, The Greek
parliament voted to investigate politicians, including former prime
ministers, over allegations of bribery by the Swiss drugmaker
Novartis.
(Reuters, 2/22/18)
2018 Feb 27, Police in northern
Greece confiscated 105 kg of marijuana from neighboring Albania and
arrested an Albanian national (26) suspected of smuggling the drugs
in his car near the Krystallopigi border.
(AP, 2/27/18)
2018 Feb 28, The Greek
government eased capital controls put in place during the summer of
2015 when the country's future in the euro currency was in the
balance.
(AP, 2/28/18)
2018 Mar 1, Macedonia, in a
goodwill gesture to neighboring Greece, removed a prominent statue
of the ancient Greek warrior-king Alexander the Great from its main
airport terminal.
(AP, 3/1/18)
2018 Mar 2, In Greece more than
a dozen youths carrying hammers and iron bars attacked shops in
central Athens, damaging several storefronts. This was part of a
continuing campaign in support of a jailed bombing suspect accused
of last year’s wounding of former PM Lucas Papademos.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 2, Museums and
archaeological sites in the wider Athens area and on the Greek
island of Crete were shut for the day because of a strike by guards
over a benefits dispute with the Culture Ministry.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 2, Turkey arrested two
Greek soldiers for allegedly entering a Turkish military zone and on
suspicion of attempted espionage. Greece said the two soldiers on a
patrol of the Greek-Turkish border accidentally strayed into Turkey
because of bad weather.
(AP, 3/2/18)
2018 Mar 4, Greece's coast
guard said it has seized about 1.3 tons of processed cannabis,
hidden aboard a foreign flagged fishing vessel intercepted off the
southern island of Crete.
(Reuters, 3/4/18)
2018 Mar 6, Greece rejected a
Turkish extradition request for Naci Ozpolat (48), the second of
nine Turkish citizens who were arrested on terror charges in Athens,
days before a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 6, Greece's
anti-terrorism squad arrested five men suspected of participating in
a far-right criminal group and of involvement in arson attacks and
explosions.
(Reuters, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 6, Greek train routes
were suspended for the day as railway workers staged a 24-hour
strike to protest the privatization of the rolling stock maintenance
company and a lack of staff.
(AP, 3/6/18)
2018 Mar 10, In Greece
anarchists clashed with riot police after some 2,000 protesters from
across the Balkans marched in the northern city of Thessaloniki
against nationalism in the region. Far-right activists had burned
down an anarchist collective's premises in Thessaloniki in January.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 14, A Greek court
rejected a Turkish extradition request for Halaz Secer (21). She was
among nine suspected Turkish militants arrested in Athens ahead of
an official visit by Turkey's president late last year.
(AP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 14, Greece raised
812.5 million euros ($1 billion) in a 12-month treasury bill
auction, the country's latest step toward regaining market access.
(AP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 15, Greek police said
they have arrested 11 people on suspicion of running a smuggling
ring transporting hundreds of refugees and migrants from the
Greek-Turkish land border to the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki
over the past year.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 15, A Greek court
sentenced a university lecturer (46) to two life terms in prison for
fatally poisoning his wife and her grandmother with arsenic. The
court ruled that the geology lecturer at the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki gradually poisoned his 34-year-old wife and her
85-year-old grandmother in August 2013.
(AP, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 16, A Greek court
dismissed a Turkish demand for the handover of eight Turkish
soldiers accused by Ankara of having played a direct role in the
abortive coup against President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 3/16/18)
2018 Mar 17, Greek coast guard
officials said at least 16 people, including five children, drowned
when the small boat they were on capsized off Agathonisi island.
(Reuters, 3/17/18)(SSFC, 3/18/18, p.A4)
2018 Mar 19, A court in
northern Greece convicted a Syrian refugee (33) of having been a
fighter with the Islamic State group in Syria and sentenced him to
eight years' imprisonment. The man entered Greece as a refugee from
Turkey with his wife and two children in 2016.
(AP, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 21, Greece's highest
court rejected government-proposed reforms as unconstitutional. The
Greek Orthodox church, whose constitutionally recognized role as
Greece's prevailing religion, opposed plans it fears could dilute
its influence.
(AP, 3/21/18)
2018 Mar 21, Greek authorities
arrested a British citizen (38) and seized 11 kg of heroin hidden in
his luggage at Athens International Airport.
(Reuters, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 24, Greek authorities
found the bodies of two men believed to be migrants in an abandoned
building outside the town of Alexandroupolis. They appeared to have
been killed in a fight.
(AP, 3/26/18)
2018 Mar 27, Europe's bailout
fund approved a 6.7 billion euro ($8.32 billion) loan installment to
Greece as part of its third international rescue program, with
payment of the first 5.7 billion euros expected this week.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Mar 28, The Athens-based
Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN) said attacks by organized
groups against migrants, refugees and activists have been creeping
up in Greece, and called for zero tolerance towards racist violence.
(Reuters, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 30, A Greek lawyer
representing Maria Efimova, a Russian woman who blew the whistle on
alleged wrongdoing at Malta-based Pilatus Bank, said his client
fears for her life if she is extradited to Malta. Efimova was
identified by slain investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia
as one of her sources. Galizia, killed in a car-bomb attack in Oct.
2017, had reported that the Maltese prime minister's wife was the
ultimate beneficiary of funds in a secret company in Panama,
including funds from Azerbaijan transferred through Pilatus Bank.
(Reuters, 3/30/18)
2018 Mar 30, In Greece a man
(58), his daughter (23) and an unnamed accomplice were arrested late
today over the abduction of a man (47) and his sister (48), the
older suspect's cousins, beginning July 27 in the city of Serres.
The brother and sister, described as "cognitively impaired," were
held prisoner for over eight months near Thessaloniki and forced,
under threats of violence, to transfer large amounts to their
captors' bank accounts.
(AP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 4, Greece's defense
minister described Turkey as an "enemy that continues to provoke us"
and announced that he has ordered additional military personnel to
move to islands in the eastern Aegean Sea.
(AP, 4/4/18)
2018 Apr 12, A Greek Mirage
2000-5 air force fighter jet crashed into the Aegean Sea after
returning from a patrol, killing the pilot.
(AP, 4/12/18)
2018 Apr 14, Thousands of
Greeks turned up at a rally and march in central Athens organized by
the Communist Party to protest the US-led airstrikes against Syria.
(AP, 4/15/18)
2018 Apr 17, A European high
court on ruled that migrants reaching the Greek islands who apply
for asylum will be allowed to travel to the mainland while their
applications are being processed.
(AP, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 18, Greek police said
they have caught the suspected head of a European organized crime
ring specializing in burglaries, robberies and extortion in France
and Greece. Another 17 suspected members of the crime ring were
arrested in France for burglaries in Brittany and Normandy.
(AP, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 18, Greek ferries
remained docked at the country's ports as seamen, marine engineers
and ship cooks walked off the job for 24 hours to protest against
planned government reforms which they say will further hurt their
labor rights. The Panhellenic Seamen's Federation, announced in the
afternoon it would extend the strike for a further 24 hours.
(Reuters, 4/18/18)(AP, 4/18/18)
2018 Apr 19, Greece's highest
court approved the release from custody of one of eight Turkish
servicemen who have applied for asylum in Greece after fleeing
Turkey following a failed 2016 coup in the neighboring country.
(AP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 23, Greek police
cleared the square at the main port of Mytilene early today
following a nightlong standoff during which far-right protesters
hurled flares and firecrackers at the migrants and set fire to trash
bins.
(AP, 4/23/18)(AFP, 4/23/18)
2018 Apr 25, In Greece
thousands of protesters took to the streets in Athens and other
cities, vowing to challenge ongoing bailout-related austerity
measures after the rescue program ends in a few months.
(AP, 4/25/18)
2018 May 1, Thousands of Greeks
are marching through central Athens in at least three separate May
Day demonstrations.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 2, Greek government
officials vowed to reduce severe overcrowding at migrant camps on
local islands, amid mounting protests that the migrant crisis has
hurt the vital local tourism industry for a fourth successive
summer.
(AP, 5/2/18)
2018 May 8, The leaders of
Cyprus, Israel and Greece said they're determined to push ahead with
plans for a pipeline that would supply east Mediterranean gas to
Europe as the continent seeks to diversify its supplies.
(AP, 5/8/18)
2018 May 19, In Greece a mob
attack on Yiannis Boutaris (75), the mayor of Thessaloniki, was
carried out in an apparent venting of nationalist sentiment.
Authorities on May 21 charged four men of grievous bodily harm and
breach of the peace.
(AP, 5/21/18)
2018 May 20, Macedonia's main
opposition party, the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, said it was against
changing the country's name to Republic of Ilinden Macedonia,
undermining prospects for a solution of a decades-long dispute with
Greece.
(Reuters, 5/20/18)
2018 May 31, Iran's soccer
federation suspended all relations with its Greek counterpart after
a friendly between the two nations scheduled in Istanbul was
abruptly cancelled amid ongoing Greece-Turkey tensions.
(AP, 6/1/18)
2018 Jun 4, A Greek lawyer
representing eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece seeking
asylum after the 2016 failed coup in Turkey says all his clients
have been freed pending a ruling on their applications.
(AP, 6/4/18)
2018 Jun 6, In Greece
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's
Orthodox Christians, arrived on the island of Spetses to host a
two-day environmental conference to seek backing from other
religious leaders in a global campaign to take action against
climate change.
(AP, 6/6/18)
2018 Jun 7, Turkey said it has
suspended its migrant readmission deal with Greece, days after
Greece released from prison four Turkish soldiers who fled there
after a 2016 attempted coup.
(Reuters, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 8, In Greece six
people were killed and two critically injured when a minivan
carrying Iraqi and Syrian migrants crashed into a wall and
overturned on a northern motorway. There were 16 people traveling in
the minivan.
(Reuters, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 12, Greece and
Macedonia agreed that Macedonia will change its name to Republic of
North Macedonia. A binding agreement is expected to be signed this
weekend.
(AP, 6/13/18)
2018 Jun 14, Greek lawmakers
approved the last batch of economic reforms required by creditors,
as the country approaches the end of its international bailout.
(Reuters, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 14, Greece's Supreme
Court ruled against the extradition of Maria Efimova. a Russian
whistleblower at the center of a Maltese corruption scandal. Efimova
was employed for three months in 2016 by Pilatus Bank and is accused
by the bank of embezzlement. She denies the charges.
(Reuters, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 17, The foreign
ministers of Greece and Macedonia signed an accord to rename the
former Yugoslav republic the "Republic of North Macedonia," despite
a storm of protest over a deal seen as a national sellout by some on
both sides. This potentially paved the way for Macedonia's admission
to the European Union and NATO. Greek protesters clashed with riot
police, who beat them back with tear gas after a historic
Greek-Macedonian deal to end a 27-year name row.
(Reuters, 6/17/18)(AFP, 6/17/18)
2018 Jun 19, In Greece unknown
vandals smashed replicas of Roman-era Egyptian gods on the site of
an ancient sanctuary north of Athens. The original statues are kept
in the archaeological museum of Marathon.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, The Macedonian
parliament formally ratified a landmark name agreement with Greece,
paving the way for Skopje's admission to NATO and the opening of
accession talks with the European Union.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 21, In Greece activist
Artemis Sorras appeared in court pending trial on criminal fraud
charges. He was arrested over the weekend in Athens after more than
a year in hiding. Sorras had urged Greeks not to pay their taxes,
claiming he had access to enough money to pay off the country's
enormous debt.
(AP, 6/21/18)
2018 Jun 22, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras said his country was "turning a page" after eurozone
ministers declared its crisis over as they granted Athens debt
relief under a bailout exit strategy.
(AFP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jun 22, Greece's dominant
Aegean Airlines said it has signed a 5 billion-euro ($5.8 billion)
deal with Airbus to buy up to 42 new A320 neo passenger aircraft.
Aegean was founded 19 years ago and serves 150 destinations in 44
countries.
(AP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jun 22, The defense
ministers of Cyprus, Israel and Greece said their countries must
forge deeper military ties to improve security and more effectively
counter common threats in a turbulent region.
(AP, 6/22/18)
2018 Jun 28, An Athens court
cleared two Greeks convicted a year ago of belonging to a nihilist
terrorist group. Irianna and Pericles had been found guilty on the
basis of partial DNA evidence from weapons, and their friendship
with convicted group members.
(AP, 6/28/18)
2018 Jul 4, Greek authorities
agreed to extradite to France Lasha Shushanashvili (57), the
Georgian suspected head of an international crime ring specializing
in robberies and burglaries.
(AP, 7/4/18)
2018 Jul 5, A Greek committee
granted asylum to a Turkish soldier who fled to Greece with seven
other officers after a failed coup attempt against Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 5, Macedonia's
parliament ratified a historic deal with neighboring Greece for the
second time in two weeks, after the Macedonian president temporarily
blocked the agreement.
(AP, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 6, In Greece Vassilis
Papageorgopoulos, a former mayor of Thessaloniki (1999-2010), was
convicted of money laundering related to the embezzlement of city
funds and sentenced to eight years in prison.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 6, Macedonia's
president insisted that he will not sign off on a deal with Greece
to change his country's name, even after parliament ratified the
agreement for a second time.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 11, Greece said it
will expel two Russian diplomats suspected of meddling in the
politically sensitive issue of Macedonia. Russia said it would
respond in kind to the Greek move.
(Reuters, 7/11/18)
2018 Jul 13, A Greek court
agreed to extradite to France a Russian cybercrime suspect who also
is wanted on criminal charges in the United States and Russia.
Alexander Vinnik (38), a former bitcoin operator, was arrested in
Greece last year on a US-issued international warrant.
(AP, 7/13/18)
2018 Jul 19, Greek police boats
began searching along the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border
for a Turkish woman and her three young children missing since the
boat they were using to cross the border capsized.
(AP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 23, In Greece a
swift-moving forest fire burned through a mountainous area west of
Athens, prompting residents to flee as smoke from the blaze turned
the sky over the Greek capital a hazy orange. Hundreds of people
were trapped in the eastern resort of Mati as flames whipped around
them. The death toll reached 91 as another victim died on August
6. In December death toll from the fire rose to 100 as another
victim died of severe burns.
(AP, 7/23/18)(Reuters, 7/24/18)(AP,
7/25/18)(Reuters, 7/28/18)(AP, 8/6/18)(AP, 12/15/18)
2018 Jul 23, In Greece a
Pakistani man (29) was stabbed to death. He was with three
compatriots heading illegally toward Greece's northern border with
Macedonia. On August 3 police announced the arrest of eight migrants
on suspicion of the murder. The eight, six Afghans and two
Pakistanis, allegedly robbed the four near the border.
(AP, 8/3/18)
2018 Jul 24, Greek authorities
said wildfires raging through seaside resorts near Athens torched
homes, cars and forests, killing at least 80 people.
(AP, 7/24/18)(AP, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 27, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras said he took full political responsibility for a devastating
wildfire which has killed at least 87 people and led to opposition
accusations over the government's failure to protect lives.
(Reuters, 7/27/18)
2018 Jul 28, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras faced mounting criticism after wildfires that killed at
least 88 people plunged Greece into grief just as it was healing
from years of painful bailouts.
(Reuters, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 29, Greek fire
services said three more people were confirmed killed by the
wildfires that have devastated seaside resorts near Athens, bringing
the death toll in the disaster to 91.
(AFP, 7/29/18)
2018 Jul 31, In Greece port
police said the bodies of two people thought to have fled into the
sea to escape the wildfires that ravaged coastal towns near Athens
last week have been recovered. Confirmation that the pair were
victims of the fire would bring the disaster's death toll to at
least 93.
(AFP, 7/31/18)
2018 Aug 1, German lawmakers
approved the payment of a final bailout loan instalment to Greece
worth 15 billion euros ($17.6 billion). Greece's third successive
international bailout ends in late August.
(AP, 8/1/18)
2018 Aug 2, The Greek chapter
of Medecins Sans Frontieres said more than 10,000 migrants and
refugees arrived in Greece from Turkey through the northern Evros
river crossing in the first half of 2018.
(Reuters, 8/2/18)
2018 Aug 3, Police in Greece
raided an office in the greater Atherns area and arrested four
Bulgarian women after a criminal ring allegedly arranged to sell
officers a 4-day old infant. Nine people were arrested on suspicion
of running the criminal ring that sold newborn babies to childless
couples.
(SFC, 8/7/18, p.A2)
2018 Aug 6, A eurozone rescue
fund said it has paid its final 15 billion-euro ($17.3 billion)
bailout loan to Greece, after objections by Germany delayed the
payment a few weeks.
(AP, 8/6/18)
2018 Aug 7, Greece's PM Alexis
Tsipras said the demolition of 3,200 buildings will start
immediately in the Attica region, which includes the capital Athens,
in response to the death of dozens of people who were unable to
escape a maze of poorly planned streets in the country's worst
wildfire disaster.
(AP, 8/7/18)
2018 Aug 9, In Greece the death
toll from the July 23 fire at the seaside resort of Mati rose to 93,
after a 78-year-old woman in intensive care died of her injuries.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 11, Greek health
officials said the death toll from the July 23 fire at the seaside
resort of Mati has risen to 94 after a woman (57) in intensive care
died of her injuries.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 15, Greece hailed a
"day of joy" as two Greek soldiers held in a Turkish prison for more
than five months on espionage charges were released in a surprise
move by Ankara.
(AP, 8/15/18)
2018 Aug 17, The German
government said Greece has agreed to take back migrants who apply
for asylum there and later turn up at Germany's border with Austria.
(AP, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 20, The EU welcomed
the end to Greece's 8-year bailout program and said it hopes it is
the beginning of a new era for the debt-laden eurozone member state.
One in five Greeks remained unemployed, with few receiving state
benefits.
(AP, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 21, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras said the country had good reason to expect better days ahead
after formally exiting its last financial bailout, putting an
epilogue to a dramatic nine-year debt crisis.
(Reuters, 8/21/18)
2018 Aug 22, Athens-based Lotus
Shipping said a tanker vessel has gone missing off the coast of
Gabon in West Africa, an area notorious for piracy, and no word has
been heard from its crew for a week. The Georgian government said 17
of its citizens were on board the Pantelena serving as crew.
(Reuters, 8/22/18)
2018 Aug 28, Greek police said
authorities have arrested two aid workers and are investigating a
total of 30 from the same organization on the island of Lesbos on
suspicion they smuggled migrants into Greece, spied and laundered
money.
(Reuters, 8/28/18)
2018 Sep 3, Greek ships
remained docked at the country's ports as seamen started a strike to
demand the restoration of wages and labor rights, following the
expiry of Greece's third bailout program last month. The strike has
left tens of thousands of travelers stranded on the country's
popular island destinations.
(Reuters, 9/3/18)(AP, 9/3/18)
2018 Sep 4, Greek ferry crews
have ended a strike that left tens of thousands of travelers and
islanders stranded for more than a day after ferry operators offered
them a 2-percent pay increase after an eight-year freeze because of
Greece's debt crisis.
(AP, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 7, In Greece workers
at a camp for migrants on the island of Lesbos said they will go on
strike to protest overcrowding, as the government conceded
conditions were "near impossible." More than 8,300 people occupy the
Moria camp, which has room for only 3,100.
(AFP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 8, In Greece US
Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross opened a trade fair in Thessaloniki. An
estimated 6,000 people attended a rally near the international trade
fair in opposition to an agreement with neighboring Macedonia to end
a long dispute over the latter's name. Eight people were arrested.
(AP, 9/9/18)(SSFC, 9/9/18, p.A4)
2018 Sep 14, Greece's supreme
court approved a Russian extradition request for Alexander Vinnik
(38), a bitcoin fraud suspect. The Greek supreme court also has
accepted an extradition request from the United States, where Vinnik
is accused of allegedly laundering billions of dollars with bitcoin.
(AP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 16, Greek police
reported that the number of migrants detained for entering Greece
illegally has risen sharply so far this year.
(AP, 9/16/18)
2018 Sep 30, Greek authorities
reported three missing people on Evia island after a rare and
powerful Mediterranean storm dumped heavy rain on the region.
(AP, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 9, Greek Coast Guard
Lieutenant Kyriakos Papadopoulos (44) died late today of a heart
attack. He is credited with having rescued more than 5,000 refugees
fleeing in small rubber boats across the sea at the height of
Europe's migrant crisis in 2015.
(AP, 10/10/18)
2018 Oct 13, In northern Greece
a speeding car carrying migrants collided with a truck, killing 11
people.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 17, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras took over as foreign minister following the resignation of
Nikos Kotzias, who quit amid reports of a growing rift with a
coalition partner over a June 2018 deal with Macedonia to end the
name dispute.
(Reuters, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 29, Greek youths
clashed with police in central Athens as a protest against education
reform turned violent when it reached parliament's Syntagma square.
(Reuters, 10/29/18)
2018 Oct 31, In Greece John
Macris (46), a Greek-Australian married to a model who appeared on a
Greek reality TV show, was shot and killed as he left his home in
Voula in his car this evening in a seaside suburb of Athens.
Australian media have described Macris as having been involved in
Sydney's organized crime scene.
(AP, 11/1/18)
2018 Oct 31, Albanian police
said they have arrested five people suspected of trafficking
migrants from Greece to Montenegro following a months-long
investigation.
(AP, 10/31/18)
2018 Nov 1, Greek authorities
arrested eight suspected members of a criminal organization that
smuggled migrants from Greece to Italy by yacht.
(AP, 11/2/18)
2018 Nov 13, Greece's culture
ministry said archaeologists have located the first tangible remains
of the lost ancient city of Tenea that, according to tradition, was
first settled by Trojan war captives after the Greek sack of Troy.
The remains dated from the 4th century BC to late Roman times.
(AP, 11/13/18)
2018 Nov 15, Greek authorities
said about 74,000 asylum-seekers are now living in the country, and
efforts are underway to expand housing for them and improve
conditions at island camps for migrants who arrive by sea.
(AP, 11/15/18)
2018 Nov 22, A Greek court
convicted and sentenced six of the nine suspects in the fatal
beating of American tourist Bakari Henderson at an island resort in
July 2017, finding them guilty of reduced charges in a move that
angered the victim's parents.
(AP, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 26, In northern Greece
four migrants were killed late today by a train near the land border
with Turkey. Blankets were found by the lines at the point of
impact, suggesting that the migrants had wrapped up for sleep.
(AP, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 28, In Greece train
and island ferry services were suspended and most Athens public
transport was idle as the country's biggest labor union held a
strike against persisting austerity measures.
(AP, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 28, In Greece a Syrian
man was killed overnight and six more people injured when a car used
by a smuggling gang that was crammed with nine people crashed on a
northern highway near the town of Kavala.
(AP, 11/28/18)
2018 Nov 29, Hundreds of
schoolchildren took part in rival protests in Greece over the
country's name deal with Macedonia aimed at ending a three-decade
dispute but which has sparked controversy.
(AFP, 11/29/18)
2018 Nov 30, A Greek court
acquitted 21 people accused of raiding prospective gold mining
facilities that some see as a welcome foreign investment but many
local residents strongly oppose on environmental grounds. About 40
masked people attacked the facilities at Skouries in the Halkidiki
peninsula in northern Greece in February 2013.
(AP, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 5, Greece intercepted
a Syrian ship sailing for Libya. The Noka was escorted to Heraklion
port on the Greek island on Dec. 8, where the authorities unloaded
its entire cargo and found about six tons of processed cannabis and
3 million super-strength "Captagon" amphetamine pills worth more
than 100 million euros ($113 million).
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 6, Demonstrators in
Greece threw firebombs and pelted police with rocks as marches on
the 10th anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager
degenerated into violence.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 7, Russia's Pres.
Vladimir Putin held Kremlin talks with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and
overcome a rift over the expulsions of diplomats that have strained
their traditionally friendly ties.
(AP, 12/7/18)
2018 Dec 13, In northern Greece
three men died and three were injured after a car carrying migrants
crashed and caught fire in Kavala.
(AP, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 17, In Greece a bomb
blast early today damaged a building in Athens housing the
headquarters of the private radio and television network Skai, but
there were no casualties.
(AFP, 12/17/18)
2018 Dec 19, The Greek Supreme
Court ordered the extradition to France of Russian Alexander Vinnik,
who headed the Bitcoin exchange BTC-e, on suspicion of money
laundering.
(AFP, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 19, In Cyprus Jordan's
foreign affairs minister said his country is seeking closer ties
with Greece and Cyprus as part of a strategy to bolster regional
peace and security and promote economic cooperation.
(AP, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 22, Balkan leaders
from Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia gathered in the Serbian capital of
Belgrade as part of a regular regional initiative to foster
cooperation on an array of issues such as migration and trade.
(AP, 12/22/18)
2019 Jan 3, In Greece two men,
67 and 64 years old, along with the older man's wife, went missing
after setting out from Keratea in a pouring rain. Their bodies were
later found separately in a creek that had turned into a raging
river southeast of Athens.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 9, Greek authorities
said they have broken a drugs ring importing narcotics into the
country as dehydrated 'superfood' berries implanted with cocaine.
(Reuters, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 11, Greek police fired
teargas to disperse hundreds of teachers protesting against
government plans to change hiring procedures in the public sector.
(Reuters, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 11, Macedonia's
parliament approved a deal with Greece that would rename the country
North Macedonia. Greece's parliament is expected to vote on it
before March.
(AP, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 13, Greece's defense
minister Panos Kammenos announced his resignation and said his
right-wing Independent Greeks party is quitting the government after
meeting with PM Alexis Tsipras. The government now needs the backing
of six lawmakers from opposition parties or independents to avoid a
snap election.
(AP, 1/13/19)(AP, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 11, Greece told German
Chancellor Angela Merkel it had grounds to pursue a legal claim for
billions of euros in reparations for the Nazi occupation of the
country in World War Two.
(Reuters, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 14, Greek riot police
used tear gas to disperse state schoolteachers protesting violently
in Athens, days after the country's public order minister accused
officers of indiscriminately attacking teachers in similar
circumstances.
(AP, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 16, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras very narrowly won a confidence vote after his right-wing
partner left the governing coalition to protest an agreement to
normalize relations with Macedonia. A nationwide poll this week
found 70 percent of respondents oppose the agreement.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 17, In Greece striking
school teachers and other civil servants shut down central Athens
for hours during a protest of new hiring criteria for teachers that
were under consideration in parliament.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 17, Greek police
arrested a man trying to sell antiquities excavated by grave robbers
that dated back to the third century BC.
(SFC, 1/23/19, p.A2)
2019 Jan 20, In Greece police
fired tear gas to disperse protesters outside parliament as tens of
thousands rallied in Athens to protest against a name deal with
Macedonia.
(Reuters, 1/20/19)
2019 Jan 25, Greece ratified a
landmark accord that changes the name of neighboring Macedonia,
ending a decades-old dispute with its neighbor and opening the way
for the ex-Yugoslav republic to join the European Union and NATO.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 28, Greece announced
plans to return to bond markets and increase the minimum wage, amid
protests against bailout-era measures by farmers who used tractors
to block the country's main highway. PM Alexis Tsipras announced an
11-percent rise in the minimum wage, the first after a decade of
austerity and months ahead of legislative elections.
(AP, 1/28/19)(AFP, 1/28/19)
2019 Feb 5, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras visited Turkey where he will meet Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan for talks to ease tensions over bilateral disputes
and the long-running Cyprus problem.
(AFP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 5, Turkey put up
bounties for the capture of eight Turkish servicemen who fled to
Greece following a failed coup in 2016.
(AP, 2/5/19)
2019 Feb 13, Greek police said
seven men have been arrested in northern Greece after police seized
bundles of fake US $100 bills stashed in a warehouse with a total
face value of $200,000.
(AP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 28, In Greece Lawyer
Zoe Konstantopoulou said Alexander Vinnik (39), a Russian suspected
of bitcoin fraud, has been on a hunger strike for three months,
during which time he has lost about 30 percent of his body weight.
She aired a video of a gaunt-looking Vinnik she said was shot last
week.
(AP, 2/28/19)
2019 Mar 5, Greece successfully
launched its first 10-year bond auction since 2010, as it seeks to
gradually regain the confidence of international investors and wean
itself off bailout funds.
(AP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 13, Greece opened its
biggest land registry office in Athens, home to nearly half of the
Greek population. Greece, the only European country without a proper
register of land ownership, was confident it will finally have one
in place by 2021 after spending hundreds of millions of euros on a
project that began more than 20 years ago.
(Reuters, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 14, Greece reported
that its unemployment rate, the highest in the 28-country European
Union, climbed slightly to 18.7 percent in the final quarter of
2018.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 15, Greece backed
calls by Bolivia's left-wing President Evo Morales for a negotiated
settlement to the severe political and financial crisis in
Venezuela, in what marks a different approach to that pursued by key
European allies.
(AP, 3/15/19)
2019 Mar 29, Greece's
parliament approved a bill to protect borrowers from foreclosures on
their primary homes after tense negotiations with the country's
international creditors.
(Reuters, 3/29/19)
2019 Mar 31, Fashion magazine
Vogue hit the newsstands in Greece, relaunched after a seven-year
absence as publishers bet that the country's economic recovery after
a debt crisis will revive an appetite for glossy fashion and
lifestyle prints.
(AP, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 2, The leaders of
Greece and North Macedonia hugged, took selfies and signed a new
agreement for air patrols in a display of newly-friendly relations
since a nearly three-decade name dispute was settled earlier this
year.
(Reuters, 4/2/19)
2019 Apr 5, Greek authorities
said they have arrested and charged a Bulgarian man over the
suspected contract killing of John Macris (46), a Greek-Australian,
who was fatally shot outside his home in an Athens seaside suburb
last year. The suspect's brother was also wanted on suspicion of
having helped plan the murder.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 5, Greek police fired
tear gas to disperse migrants who had gathered in a field near the
country's border with Northern Macedonia in the hope of making their
way illegally up through the Balkans toward northern Europe.
Migrants in Athens also blocked the city's main train station in
demonstrations that authorities said had been triggered by false
reports on social media that restrictions on travel to northern
Europe had been lifted.
(Reuters, 4/5/19)(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 6, In northern Greece
hundreds of protesting migrants clashed with police for a third
straight day, with migrants throwing rocks at officers who responded
with tear gas and stun grenades.
(AP, 4/6/19)
2019 Apr 8, A Greek marine
conservation group said the Aegean Sea has seen a "very unusual"
spike in dolphin deaths over the past few weeks, adding that the
rise could be linked to massive Turkish naval exercises in the area.
(AP, 4/8/19)
2019 Apr 11, A team of Greek
and Spanish doctors announced the birth of a baby using DNA from
three people after a controversial fertility treatment that has
provoked intense ethical debate. A similar DNA-switching technique
was used in Mexico in 2016 to avoid transmission of a mother's
hereditary illness to her child.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 19, Greek police
stopped a truck with stolen license plates and found 59 undocumented
migrants inside. The migrants told police they had paid 1,500 euros
($1,690) each to a trafficker in Turkey who helped them cross into
Greece by boat, before boarding the truck.
(AP, 4/20/19)
2019 May 10, Greek far-left
extremist Dimitris Koufodinas (61), serving 11 life terms for a
string of murders, vowed to continue "until the end" a hunger strike
if his bid to get a new leave from prison isn't granted. Koufodinas
is the chief hit man for the November 17 group that killed 23 people
from 1975-2000.
(AP, 5/10/19)
2019 May 15, Greek lawmakers
approved tax breaks and bonuses for pensioners in the crisis-hit
nation days before elections, rowing back some austerity mandated by
international bailouts.
(Reuters, 5/15/19)
2019 May 15, Α Greek court
acquitted nine Turkish citizens of terrorism-related offences,
citing a lack of evidence. Greek police had arrested the eight men
and one woman in dawn raids in central Athens, days before a state
visit by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to Greece in December
2017.
(Reuters, 5/15/19)
2019 May 22, Bulgaria and
Greece launched the construction of a pipeline to transport Azeri
gas to Bulgaria to ease its almost total dependence on Russian gas
supplies. Prime Ministers Boyko Borissov and Alexis Tsipras, oversaw
the formal start to construction of the 182-km (114 miles) link.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 27, Greek markets
reacted positively to PM Alexis Tsipras' call for snap general
elections following a resounding defeat of his left-wing Syriza
party in European and local elections.
(AP, 5/27/19)
2019 Jun 11, In Greece two
children, four women and a man drowned when a boat carrying them
overturned off the island of Lesbos.
(Reuters, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 18, Greek PM Alexis
Tsipras demanded that the European Union issue a reprimand to Turkey
for its "illegal" gas exploration in Cyprus, after Ankara defied
calls for it to cease drilling in the region.
(AFP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jul 2, In Greece Suzanne
Eaton (59), an American scientist, disappeared while at a conference
in Chania, Crete. Her body was found on July 8 in a tunnel formerly
used as a storage site during World War II. On July 16 a Greek man
from Crete (27) was charged with murder and rape in the killing.
(SFC, 7/10/19, p.C1)(Reuters, 7/16/19)(AP,
10/13/20)
2019 Jul 7, In Greece the New
Democracy party of conservative opposition leader Kyriakos
Mitsotakis (51) won 39.8% of the vote in parliamentary elections
compared to 31.5% for the left-wing Syriza party of PM Alexis
Tsipras (44).
(SFC, 7/8/19, p.A3)
2019 Jul 16, Greece's
newly-elected conservative government scrapped plans to remove
priests from the state payroll, reversing a decision by its leftist
predecessor that aimed to carve a clearer distinction between church
and state.
(Reuters, 7/16/19)
2019 Jul 18, It was reported
that Greece has arrested a doctor, two medical staff members, and a
translator at a state-run camp for migrants and refugees on Samos.
They were accused of issuing medical notes for non-existent
conditions to exempt migrants from deportation. Five other doctors
were arrested as alleged accomplices along with one migrant man.
(AP, 7/18/19)
2019 Aug 7, Greek Energy
Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said Greece, Israel, Cyprus and the
United States have agreed to enhance cooperation in energy, cyber
and infrastructure security following a meeting of the ministers
from the four countries in Athens.
(AP, 8/7/19)
2019 Aug 9, Greek sculptor
Takis (93), whose kinetic artworks were admired at major art museums
around the world in a career spanning over 70 years, died.
Panagiotis Vassilakis used technology, magnetism and light to create
his pioneering art which also drew on influences from classical
sculpture and modernist abstraction.
(Reuters, 8/9/19)
2019 Aug 14, Greek firefighters
backed by water-dropping planes and helicopters battled a wildfire
burning through a protected nature reserve on the island of Evia for
a second day. Hundreds of people had been evacuated from four
villages and a monastery in the area.
(AP, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 18, In Greece
Metropolitan Amvrosios of Kalavryta (81), a fiery conservative
Orthodox bishop known for criticizing, often in intemperate terms,
those who he believed acted in a "non-Christian" or "non-Greek" way,
including gays, migrants and politicians, resigned.
(AP, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 21, Greece said it
won't endanger its relations with the United States by aiding an
Iranian supertanker sought by the US but released by Gibraltar
that's currently in the Mediterranean Sea, believed heading for a
Greek port.
(AP, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 26, PM Kyriakos
Mitsotakis said Greece is fully lifting its remaining capital
controls, in a move signaling the economy's continuing return to
stability after the tumult of three international bailouts since
2010.
(Reuters, 8/26/19)
2019 Sep 20, Greek authorities
said a perpetually overcrowded refugee camp on the island of Lesbos
can't accommodate any more newly arrived asylum-seekers after the
number of people already housed exceeded the camp's intended
capacity by 400%.
(AP, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 27, Greek authorities
said boat carrying migrants sank in the eastern Aegean Sea, killing
seven people.
(AP, 9/27/19)
2019 Sep 29, In Greece a fire
broke out at a container inside a crowded refugee camp on the island
of Lesbos close to Turkey and then the refugees clashed with police.
(Reuters, 9/29/19)
2019 Sep 30, The Greek
announced plans to deport 10,000 migrants by the end of next year,
following a deadly fire and clashes at its biggest migrant camp
which is massively overcrowded. The UN called for migrants crammed
into a squalid camp on the Greek island of Lesbos to be immediately
transferred to the mainland, following a fire in which a woman and a
child were killed.
(Reuters, 9/30/19)(The Telegraph, 9/30/19)
2019 Oct 5, The United States
and Greece signed a revised defense cooperation pact, which
Americans officials described as critical to responding to new
security challenges in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
(AP, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 7, Greek authorities
began expanding a program to transfer migrants and refugees from
overcrowded camps on the islands to the mainland amid concern that
the number of arrivals from nearby Turkey could continue to rise.
(AP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 8, Egypt, Cyprus, and
Greece condemned an "unlawful and unacceptable" bid by Turkey to
drill inside waters where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights.
(AP, 10/8/19)
2019 Oct 21, In Greece
municipal workers in Athens launched a series of strikes that caused
garbage to pile up on the streets of the capital.
(AP, 10/21/19)
2019 Nov 1, Brazilian police
raided the offices of a Greek company as they investigate an oil
tanker carrying heavy Venezuelan crude that was allegedly spilled at
sea, tarring thousands of kilometers of Brazil's coastline over the
past two months. Police said oceanographic and geolocation data
showed that the Greek ship was the only one navigating near the
origin of the spill between July 28 and 29, after docking in
Venezuela on July 15. The next day Delta Tankers, which manages the
Greek-flagged Bouboulina ship, reiterated the vessel sailed from
Venezuela in laden condition on July 19, heading directly, with no
stops at other ports, for Melaka, Malaysia, where the tanker
discharged its entire cargo without any shortage.
(Reuters, 11/1/19)(Reuters, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 9, Greek authorities
announced they had arrested three people and detained a further 15
in a "wide sweep" by the police's counterterrorism squad on
suspected left-wing extremists that also yielded an arms cache.
(AP, 11/9/19)
2019 Nov 11, Greek police fired
teargas at students protesting against the shutdown of a prominent
Athens university that authorities raided at the weekend to
confiscate materials they said were typically used in violent
demonstrations.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 11, China and Greece
agreed to push ahead with a 600 million euros investment by COSCO
Shipping into Greece's largest port, Piraeus, as part of efforts to
boost its role as a hub in rapidly growing trade between Asia and
Europe.
(Reuters, 11/11/19)
2019 Nov 17, Thousands of
Greeks, including former PM Alexis Tsipras, marched through central
Athens this evening to mark the anniversary of a violently quashed
student uprising in 1973 that helped topple a military junta.
(Reuters, 11/17/19)
2019 Nov 20, Greece announced
plans to overhaul its migration management system, replacing
overcrowded refugee camps on the islands with smaller detention
facilities and moving some 20,000 asylum seekers to the mainland
over the next few weeks.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 25, Officials said at
least seven people have died as heavy rain slammed the Riviera
coasts of France and Italy, trapping travelers in their cars, as
well as parts of western Greece.
(AP, 11/25/19)
2019 Dec 6, Greece said it was
expelling the Libyan ambassador, angered by an accord between Libya
and Turkey signed on Nov. 27 that maps out a sea boundary between
the two countries close to the Greek island of Crete. Libya called
the move unacceptable. Turkey dismissed it as outrageous.
(Reuters, 12/6/19)
2019 Dec 10, The Greek
government said it has lodged objections to the United Nations over
an accord between Libya and Turkey mapping out maritime boundaries
as a violation of international law.
(Reuters, 12/10/19)
2019 Dec 12, Turkey sent its
accord with Libya on a maritime boundary between the two countries
to the United Nations for approval, despite objections from Greece
that the agreement violates international law.
(Reuters, 12/12/19)
2019 Dec 13, The UN Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention said that despite some improvements,
Greece was still in violation of certain international obligations
in how and where people are imprisoned.
(AP, 12/13/19)
2020 Jan 7, President Trump met
with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the White House. A major focus
of the visit was to get the word out that Greece is open for
business for American investors and convey that the country has
reduced regulatory red tape.
(CBS News, 1/7/20)
2020 Jan 11, Greece's coast
guard said 12 migrants have been found dead in the Ionian Sea and 21
others have been rescued after their boat took in water and sank.
Searchers looked for more survivors.
(AP, 1/11/20)
2020 Jan 16, Greek authorities
found more than a ton of processed cannabis camouflaged among a
shipment of date paste headed by sea from Lebanon to Libya.
(AP, 1/23/20)
2020 Jan 16, Cyprus, Greece,
Israel, Italy, Jordan and Palestine established a bloc called the
East Mediterranean Gas Forum.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastMed_Gas_Forum)
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.50)
2020 Jan 17, Greece warned it
may try to block any Libyan peace deal that doesn’t resolve a
dispute over regional maritime borders, as PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis
met with military commander Khalifa Haftar ahead of a Berlin
conference on the country’s future. Haftar held talks in Athens two
days ahead of a peace conference in Berlin, which he and the head of
Tripoli's UN-recognized government Fayez al-Sarraj are expected to
attend.
(AP, 1/17/20)(AFP, 1/17/20)
2020 Jan 22, Greece's merchant
marine ministry said eight crew members of a Greek-flagged tanker
ship have been freed more than 20 days after being kidnapped by
gunmen off the coast of Cameroon. Pirates hade kidnapped the crew on
Dec. 31 from the Happy Lady tanker, which had been lying at anchor
two nautical miles (2.3 miles, 3.7 km) outside the port of Limboh.
(AP, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 23, Greece's migration
and asylum minister said the “anxiety and indignation” of Greek
island residents living at the forefront of a migration crisis are
justified. Residents and business owners on the islands of Lesbos,
Chios and Samos have held two days of protests and went on strike to
demand that the government tackle severe overcrowding at migrant
camps that are all grossly over capacity.
(AP, 1/23/20)
2020 Jan 23, A Greek high court
rejected Russian bitcoin fraud suspect Alexander Vinnik's final
appeal against his extradition to France, ending a more than
two-year legal tug-of-war between three countries seeking to put him
on trial.
(AP, 1/23/20)
2020 Feb 6, Greek officials
said they have detected their first case of African swine fever at a
breeding farm in the north of the country this week. African swine
fever is harmless to humans but it is highly contagious and deadly
in pigs. It has spread from Africa to Europe and Asia and has
already killed hundreds of millions of pigs, affecting global meat
markets.
(Reuters, 2/6/20)
2020 Feb 6, Greek police
arrested seven people and searched for two others on suspicion of
planning or carrying out attacks on migrants on the island of
Lesbos.
(SFC, 2/8/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 17, Greece acted to
placate locals incensed over government plans to build new migrant
detention centers on outlying islands, saying it was open to a
compromise on their location.
(Reuters, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 24, In Greece protests
group on three eastern islands began setting up roadblocks aimed at
stopping the government from building new migrant detention centers.
(SFC, 2/25/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 26, Algeria and Greece
reported their first cases of the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 27, Greek islanders on
Lesbos and Chios gathered for a fourth consecutive day to protest
government plans to build new migrant detention centers.
(SFC, 2/28/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 28, Turkey's President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's borders with Europe were
open, making good on a longstanding threat to let refugees into the
continent as thousands of migrants gathered at the frontier with
Greece.
(AP, 2/29/20)
2020 Feb 28, Refugees in Turkey
headed towards European frontiers after an official declared that
borders had been thrown open, a response to the escalating war in
Syria. Greece began to forcibly turn back migrants.
(Reuters, 2/28/20)(Econ., 3/7/20, p.47)
2020 Mar 1, Greek army and
police patrols using tear gas and stun grenades to thwart attempts
overnight by thousands to push into the country. Thousands of
migrants and refugees massed at Turkey's western frontier, trying to
enter Greece by land and sea after Turkey said its borders were open
to those hoping to head to Europe.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 2, A child died when a
boat full of migrants heading to a Greek island capsized, part of a
wave of thousands trying to push through Greece's land and sea
borders after Turkey declared the way was open for migrants and
refugees to enter Europe. Over the last two days some 1,200 migrants
arrived on Lesbos, already overcrowded with migrants.
(AP, 3/2/20)(Econ., 3/7/20, p.48)
2020 Mar 2, The United Nation's
refugee agency said that Greece had no right to stop accepting
asylum applications as Athens struggled with a sudden increase of
arrivals at its border of Middle East refugees and migrants from
Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 3, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Greek authorities of inhumanely
treating migrants trying to cross the border, claiming that two
people were killed by Greek security forces a day earlier while
another was seriously wounded. Greece denied the accusation.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, A man (43) was shot
dead as he tried to cross from Turkey into Greece. Five others were
treated for gunshot wounds. Greece dismissed reports of the shooting
as "fake news".
(Reuters, 4/3/20)
2020 Mar 5, Turkey said it
would deploy special forces along its land border with Greece to
prevent Greek authorities pushing back people trying to cross into
Europe, after Turkey declared its previously guarded gateways to
Europe open.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 6, Clashes between
Greek riot police and migrants attempting to cross the border from
Turkey erupted anew as European Union foreign ministers took aim at
what they called “Turkey's use of migratory pressure for political
purposes".
(AP, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 10, Turkish officials
said at least three migrants had been shot and killed while trying
to enter Greece in the past two weeks. Several migrants said in
interviews that they had been captured, stripped of their belongings
and expelled from Greece without being giver a chance to claim
asylum.
(SFC, 3/11/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 13, In Greece Katerina
Sakellaropoulou (63) was formally sworn in as the country's first
female president.
(SFC, 3/14/20, p.A4)
2020 Mar 13, Greece said it
will close all its museums and archaeological sites, including the
entire Acropolis that looms over Athens, until the end of the month
due to the impact of the coronavirus. Greece had 117 confirmed cases
and one fatality.
(AP, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 13, Finland, France,
Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal agreed to take in at least 1,600
migrant children in Greece traveling without their parents.
(SSFC, 3/15/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 14, Greece said it
would suspend all flights that were still operating to and from
Italy, after reporting two more fatalities from a coronavirus
infection, raising the total number of deaths in the country to
three. Greece had 190 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/14/20)
2020 Mar 16, In Greece a
migrant juvenile died in a fire inside the Mora camp on the island
of Lesbos.
(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 18, Clashes broke out
on the Greek border with Turkey before dawn, after about 500
migrants attempted to break down a border fence and enter Greece.
(AP, 3/18/20)
2020 Mar 19, The Greek
government ordered hotels across the country toclose from March 23
until April 30th to help stem the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.42)
2020 Mar 19, Greek police
arrested 11 people and seized grenade launchers and other weapons in
raids against suspected members of the Revolutionary people's
Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left Turkish armed group.
(SFC, 3/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 21, In Greece 598
migrants, arrested while crossing to three Greek islands from the
Turkish coast, arrived at a facility in northern Greece where they
were required to remain pending deportation.
(AP, 3/21/20)
2020 Mar 23, Greece's largest
carrier Aegean Airlines said it will suspend all of its
international flights from March 26 to April 30 as a result of the
spread of the coronavirus and flight restrictions.
(Reuters, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 26, European Union
diplomats said the EU will launch a new Mediterranean naval and air
mission in April to stop more arms reach warring factions in Libya,
with Greece agreeing to take in any migrants rescued at sea. The new
mission, named Irini, will replace the EU's current military
mission, known as Operation Sophia.
(Reuters, 3/26/20)
2020 Mar 28, Greece confirmed
95 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,061 since the
country's first recorded infection on Feb. 26.
(Reuters, 3/28/20)
2020 Apr 2, Greece quarantined
a migrant camp after 20 asylum seekers tested positive, its first
such facility hit since the coronavirus outbreak. Greece reported at
least 53 people dead and at least 1,544 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Police said they had imposed fines for 15,741 violations for
breaking lockdown rules since March 23.
(Reuters, 4/2/20)(AP, 4/3/20)
2020 Apr 4, The European
Commission over the last 24 hours approved a series of
multi-billion-euro state support packages for Greece, Poland and
Portugal to help soften the economic impact of the coronavirus
through grants and loan guarantees.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 15, Greece said it is
extending a temporary ban on all flights to and from Italy, Spain,
Turkey, the U.K. and the Netherlands by a month to May 15 to prevent
the spread of the coronavirus. Exceptions included cargo and
humanitarian flights.
(Bloomberg, 4/15/20)
2020 Apr 21, In Greece dozens
of migrants in a hostel tested positive for the novel coronavirus,
hours after the government said it would open some public services
on April 27 as part of a gradual easing of the nation's coronavirus
lockdown. Greece has registered 2,245 infections since its first
case surfaced in late February. The death toll is 116.
(Reuters, 4/21/20)
2020 Apr 29, A Canadian
military helicopter crashed in the Mediterranean off the coast of
Greece The military helicopter was taking part in a NATO operation
and crashed into the sea between Greece and Italy. Debris from the
crash and one body were located, leaving the five others aboard the
aircraft missing. On May 2 NATO search and rescue efforts turned to
search and recovery as the five missing were presumed dead.
(AP, 4/30/20)(Reuters, 4/30/20)(SSFC, 5/3/20,
p.A3)
2020 May 6, Greek police said
about 150 protesters prevented buses carrying 57 asylum-seekers from
Lesbos to the mainland from reaching a rented hotel in the northern
region of Pella. Protesters set fire to a room on the ground floor
of the hotel.
(SFC, 5/7/20, p.A2)
2020 May 11, Turkey was
denounced by ministers of five countries for drilling in an offshore
area where Cyprus has exclusive economic rights. Cyprus, Greece,
Egypt, France and the UAE also protested a maritime border
delineation and military cooperation agreement that Turkey signed
last year with Libya's UN-backed government.
(SFC, 5/13/19, p.A3)
2020 May 16, Greeks flocked to
the seaside when more than 500 beaches reopened, as the country
sought to walk the fine line between protecting people from COVID-19
while reviving the tourism sector that many depend on for their
livelihoods.
(Reuters, 5/16/20)
2020 May 17, Thousands of
Greeks returned to church after weeks of staying away as a ban on
mass gatherings was eased.
(Reuters, 5/17/20)
2020 May 25, Greece restarted
regular ferry services to its islands. Cafes and restaurants
reopened for business as the country accelerated efforts to salvage
its tourism season.
(SFC, 5/26/19, p.A7)
2020 Jun 15, Greece welcomed
visitors with passengers on flights from other European countries
not having to undergo compulsory coronavirus tests.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 28, Greece reported 10
new coronavirus cases and no new deaths for a total of 3,376
confirmed cases and 191 deaths.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Jun 29, Greece eased
coronavirus lockdown measures and allowed movie theaters, casinos
and children's summer camps to reopen.
(SFC, 6/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 6, Egypt and Greece
signed a maritime deal that sets the sea boundary between the two
countries and demarcates an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas
drilling rights. The deal is a response to a similar agreement
between Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli-based government last year that
has spiked tensions in the East Mediterranean region.
(AP, 8/6/20)
2020 Aug 10, The Greek
government imposed a midnight closing time on bars, cafes, clubs and
restaurants from August 11 to August 23 to help stem increasing
coronavirus cases.
(SFC, 8/17/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 11, Greece asked the
EU to hold an emergency meeting of the group's foreign ministers to
press for sanctions against Turkey amid a new and dangerous tussle
with its regional foe over energy and sea rights in the eastern
Mediterranean.
(The Telegraph, 8/12/20)
2020 Aug 11, Turkey vowed to
press ahead with searching for oil and gas in the eastern
Mediterranean Sea, saying it plans to issue new exploration licenses
for the area despite an escalating dispute with Greece over drilling
rights.
(AP, 8/11/20)
2020 Aug 12, Greek and Turkish
frigates collided in the eastern Mediterranean raising tensions
between the two countries over disputed waters.
(Econ., 8/22/20, p.49)
2020 Aug 12, Greece announced
262 new coronavirus infections, its highest daily number since the
outbreak began. Total confirmed cases reached 6,177 with 216 deaths.
(SFC, 8/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 13, Greek authorities
quarantined the country's third largest migrant camp on the Aegean
Sea island of Chios until August 25 after an asylum-seeker and a
staff member were diagnosed with COVID-19.
(SFC, 8/14/20, p.A6)
2020 Aug 15, It was reported
that the Greek government has secretly expelled more than 1,000
refugees from Europe’s borders in recent months, sailing many of
them to the edge of Greek territorial waters and then abandoning
them in inflatable and sometimes overburdened life rafts.
(NY Times, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 26, Greece and Turkey
vowed to defend their competing claims in the eastern Mediterranean
as the NATO allies remained locked in a tense dispute over offshore
energy exploration rights.
(AP, 8/26/20)
2020 Sep 7, Greece said it will
be bolstering its military with new armament programs, a boost to
military personnel and the development of the country’s defense
industry. A tense stand-off with neighboring Turkey has led to
concerns of open conflict between the two NATO allies.
(AP, 9/7/20)
2020 Sep 8, A major fire
erupted late today and swept through the notoriously overcrowded
Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving thousands
of people in need of emergency shelter. 36 people have tested
positive at the camp for COVID-19. A 2nd fire on Sept. 10 destroyed
nearly everything that had been spared in the first fire.
Authorities said both fire were deliberately started.
(AP, 9/9/20)(NY Times, 9/10/20)(SFC, 9/11/20,
p.A2)
2020 Sep 11, Thousands of
refugees and migrants left without shelter on the Greek island of
Lesbos after fires destroyed the overcrowded Moria camp held a brief
protest on a road to the island's main town, demanding to be allowed
to leave.
(AP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 12, Greece's PM
Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to buy 18 French Rafale fighter
jets, most of the "slightly used," plus four helicopters and
advanced weapons to go with them.
(Econ., 9/19/20, p.51)
2020 Sep 15, The Greek
government called on the EU to jointly run new refugee camps on
Greece's eastern islands as part of a planned overhaul of the EU's
migration policies.
(AP, 9/15/20)
2020 Sep 15, Germany agreed to
take in 1,553 people from 408 families now living in Greece. Germany
had already agreed to take in around 1,200 other asylumn seekers
housed in Greece.
(SFC, 9/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Sep 17, Greek police began
moving hundreds of migrants to an army-built camp on the island of
Lesbos after a fire destroyed an overcrowded facility, leaving them
homeless for days.
(AP, 9/17/20)
2020 Sep 19, A storm pounded
parts of central Greece, creating flooding that killed two people,
left 1 missing and forced emergency workers to rescue more than 600
people.
(AP, 9/19/20)
2020 Sep 21, Greece reported
453 new cases of COVID-19 infections, a new daily record since the
start of the outbreak in the country. On the island of Lesbos 243
asylum seekers tested positive at the new camp at Kara Tepe.
(Reuters, 9/21/20)(SFC, 9/22/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 22, In Greece judicial
authorities received instructions to pursue the prosecution of
anti-mask activist with fast-tracked trials and penalties for
convictions of up to a year in prison.
(SFC, 9/23/20, p.A6)
2020 Sep 25, Greek police
seized 500,000 ecstasy pills, with street value of 10 million euros,
and arrested three people in Thessaloniki.
(AP, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 28, Greek authorities
said 12 crew members on the Mein Schiff 6, a Maltese-flagged cruise
ship carrying more than 1,500 people on a Greek islands tour, have
tested positive for coronavirus and have been isolated on board.
Health inspectors the next day said that an emergency docking order
for a cruise ship near Athens can now be lifted after crew members
suspected of having been infected with COVID-19 tested negative.
(AP, 9/28/20)(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Oct 6, A neo-fascist party
in Greece, Golden Dawn, was found guilty of running a criminal
organization. A criminal court tied the party to multiple attacks,
including the fatal stabbing of a left-wing rapper in 2013.
(NY Times, 10/7/20)
2020 Oct 10, It was reported
that Egypt’s Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has ratified a maritime
deal setting its Mediterranean Sea boundary with Greece and
demarcating an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling
rights, in a move that has angered Turkey.
(AP, 10/10/20)
2020 Oct 11, Police in Greece
found 102 kilograms (225 pounds) of heroin in a vacation-rental
apartment in central Athens.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 14, A Greek court
sentenced Nikos Michaloliakos and five other former lawmakers of the
extreme-right Golden Dawn party to 13 years in prison, imposing the
near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organization blamed for
numerous violent hate crimes. A seventh leading party member
received 10 years.
(AP, 10/14/20)
2020 Oct 16, Greece recorded
508 new confirmed coronavirus infections, topping the 500 daily mark
for the first time, as health authorities urged compliance with mask
wearing and social distancing.
(Reuters, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 19, Greece’s
government said it has finalized plans to extend a wall along its
northeast border with Turkey, over concerns that migrants may try to
stage mass crossings into the European Union country.
(AP, 10/19/20)
2020 Oct 20, Greece recorded a
new daily record of coronavirus cases, topping the 600 mark for the
first time, with younger people accounting for a majority of the new
infections. There were 667 new confirmed infections and eight new
deaths. Greece's total tally of COVID-19 cases since the start of
the pandemic has reached 26,469, with 528 deaths.
(AP, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 21, During a
trilateral regional summit in Nicosia, Cypriot President Nicos
Anastasiades, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Greek PM
Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged Ankara to end its “aggressive" actions
related to Turkish energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 22, Turkey’s Foreign
Ministry slammed a joint statement by Greece, Cyprus and Egypt that
condemns Turkish energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean and
numerous “provocations” that they maintain are threatening regional
peace.
(AP, 10/22/20)
2020 Oct 27, Greece recorded a
new daily peak of 1,259 confirmed coronavirus infections. Greece's
total tally of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic was
now 32,752, with 593 deaths.
(Reuters, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 30, A magnitude-7.0
earthquake struck in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and
the Greek island of Samos, collapsing buildings in the city of Izmir
In western Turkey. At least 93 people were killed more than 900
others injured. The quake also killed at least two people in Greece.
(AP, 10/31/20)(SFC, 10/31/20, p.A3)(AP,
11/1/20)(AP, 11/1/20)
2020 Nov 6, In Greece Friday
prayers were held for the first time in capital’s first
state-sponsored mosque, which opened this week after years-long
delays. Athens’ Muslim population numbered around half a million
people. The new mosque’s capacity was 300 men and 50 women.
(AP, 11/6/20)
2020 Nov 7, Greece began a
three-week nationwide lockdown, its second this year. Greece has now
reported 52,254 cases and 715 deaths.
(NBC News, 11/7/20)
2020 Nov 11, A Turkish fishing
boat capsized after colliding with a Greek-flagged tanker off
Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Four people on board the boat were
killed while one other person was reported missing.
(AP, 11/11/20)
2020 Nov 12, The defense
ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Israel agreed to step up military
cooperation they said will keep their armed forces better prepared,
help create more jobs and bolster security in a fraught region.
(AP, 11/12/20)
2020 Nov 13, A Greek
agriculture ministry official said the new coronavirus has been
found in mink at two farms in northern Greece. A cull of the 2,500
mink at one farm was due to begin shortly.
(Reuters, 11/13/20)
2020 Nov 17, In Greece police
detained several people and fired tear gas during scuffles in Athens
as hundreds of protesters defied a ban on gatherings of more than
three people to mark the anniversary of the crushing of a 1973
student uprising against a military junta.
(AP, 11/17/20)
2020 Nov 19, Greece said it
will shut one border crossing with Albania and conduct rapid
COVID-19 tests on all visitors at its land borders, as cases in
northern Greece continue to rise unabated.
(Reuters, 11/19/20)
2020 Nov 23, A speedboat that
appeared to have been smuggling migrants to the Greek island of
Rhodes from nearby Turkey partially sank before reaching land,
leaving one person dead.
(AP, 11/23/20)
2020 Nov 26, Greece said it
will extend its nationwide lockdown by a week until Dec. 7 as
COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country.
(Reuters, 11/26/20)
2020 Nov 28, Greece announced
limits on how much private medical facilities can charge for
coronavirus tests. The caps would be 40 euros ($48) for PCR tests
and 10 euros ($12) for rapid tests.
(SSFC, 11/29/20, p.A10)
2020 Dec 2, A search and rescue
operation was underway in the eastern Aegean Sea after a dinghy
carrying migrants either sank or overturned off the Greek island of
Lesbos. The body of one woman was recovered from the sea. Another
woman was listed as missing.
(AP, 12/2/20)
2020 Dec 18, One woman died and
another two were rescued from the sea off the eastern Greek island
of Lesbos in an incident involving an inflatable dinghy carrying
Somali migrants.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 31, Two sisters were
murdered in Albania on New Year’s Eve. The incident prompted a
judicial investigation into an alleged illegal adoption ring in
northern Greece. The victims’ sister later claimed that over the
years, the two women gave birth to more than ten babies that were
then sold to foster parents from inside the hospital.
(The Telegraph, 1/17/21)
2021 Jan 4, The center-right
government in Greece named Nicholas Yatromanolakis (44), the
country's first openly gay minister, as the new deputy minister of
culture in a Cabinet reshuffle.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Greece started
vaccinating elderly care home residents against COVID-19 in the next
phase of its inoculation campaign begun nine days ago.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 11, Turkey invited
Greece to resume talks designed to reduce tensions between the
neighbors, following this summer's dispute over maritime borders and
energy rights in the eastern Mediterranean. Greece said that it
plans to extend territorial waters along its western coastline from
six to 12 nautical miles, a move that could impact its dispute with
Turkey.
(AP, 1/11/21)
2021 Jan 14, Police in Greece
used tear gas to disperse crowds at a rally in Athens organized to
protest plans to set up a state security division at university
campuses.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 15, Amazon Inc's cloud
computing division opened its first office in Greece to support what
it said was a growing number of companies and public sector agencies
using its cloud services.
(Reuters, 1/15/21)