Aegina: celebration of the anniversary of the swearing in of Ioannis Capodistrias 2021

The president of the 2021 Committee of the Municipality of Aegina, Mr. Manolis Kottakis, speaking today to Aegina Portal, offered a first assessment of the work and activity of the committee. He also mentioned what the committee is programming for the coming period. https://www.aeginaportal.gr/aftodioikisi/epitropes/29687-o-manolis-kottakis-kanei-ena-proto-apologismo-tis-epitropis-2021-tou-dimou-aiginas-kai-parousiazei-ton-programmatismo-tis-epomenis-periodou.html On the occasion of the celebration of the arrival and swearing-in of Ioannis Capodistrias on our island, I want to give a briefing on what the Municipality of Aegina and the local committee for 2021 has done up to now, and what we are planning, bearing in mind that everything remains unsettled because of developments with the pandemic. “The Phoenix” on the numismatic programme of the 2021 National Committee. The committee started work in July 2020 and between then and now we have succeeded in having the “Phoenix”, the Greek State’s first coin included on the official numismatic programme of the 2021 National Committee. In this way our island attracted publicity through the “Phoenix” also, in all of Greece. The Capodistrian buildings on the television channel of the Parliament We also managed through the television channel of the Parliament to have an exceptional programme screened with participation from Mrs. Theologidiou, father Emmanuel Giannoulis and Giorgos Bitros, … Continue reading

Ο κ. Δημήτρης Μούρτζης για θέματα που αφορούν στην επίσκεψη του Προέδρου κ. Προκόπη Παυλόπουλου.

Δηλώσεις για θέματα που αφορούν στην επίσκεψη στην Αίγινα, του προέδρου της Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας κυρίου Προκόπη Παυλόπουλου, λίγες ημέρες πριν, έκανε ο δήμαρχος Αίγινας κύριος Δημήτρης Μούρτζης, κάνοντας αναφορά σε διάφορα σχετικά ζητήματα, τόσο για την ουσιαστική πλευρά της πρόσκλησης και της επισκέψεως του Προέδρου, όσο και για οργανωτικά ζητήματα, αλλά και το οικονομικό. Δείτε περισσότερα στο σχετικό βίντεο από το Aegina Portal. … Continue reading

Upgrading 26th January

In 2012, through Greek Presidential Decree 7/31/1/2012, 26th January was proclaimed a Public Holiday of Local Significance (for the municipality of Aegina). This is the day when, following the decision of the Third National Assembly at Troezen, Ioannis Capodistrias was sworn in at the cathedral of Aegina in 1828 as modern Greece’s first governor. This decision, taken by the fighters of the Revolution in the face of opposition from the Great Powers, enabled Capodistrias and his government to embark on the mammoth task of organizing, from Aegina, the rebirth of Greece. Quite a few people, not all of them Aeginetans, (1, 2 [particularly from minute 12]) think that this day should not only be celebrated locally but that it should be instituted as a “national day”, given that this was the first modern Greek government not imposed by “foreign powers” but emerging directly out of the seven-year-long struggle for independence and the decision of the National Assembly at Troezen in 1827. Coincidentally, 26th January is Australia’s national day, but the day’s significance is controversial because it is the day that “European colonization” of Australia commenced with the establishment of a British prison at Port Jackson (today’s Sydney) in 1788. A … Continue reading

DIMITRIS KAZAKIS: 26th January as a national day for Greece

The views of the economist Dimitris Kazakis on the importance of 26th January

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(The interview was taken by Wayne Hall)

– Mr. Kazakis, you know that the foundation of the Greek state on 26th January 1828, the swearing-in of Capodistrias as Greece’s first governor, is something that has been celebrated – and is celebrated – only as a local festival in Aegina.

– Yes, it is well-known that on the 26th January 1828 governor Capodistrias established himself permanently in Greece with his headquarters in Aegina, founding the first government of the Greek state, following on the decision of the National Assembly at Troezen, with the difference that despite the fact that it represents a very serious development – it was the outcome of seven years of struggle for Greek national independence – nevertheless – this is the anomaly – it is regarded as a local festival and not a national festival.

– Do you, like Mr. Koukos, believe that it could and should be a national festival?

– Yes, certainly because it is the only founding of the Greek state that was not imposed by the foreign powers. It was imposed by the struggle of the Greeks, with all its contradictions, because it was the result of the agreement of the National Assembly at Troezen whereas, for example, the official founding of the Greek with the advent of Othon, was the result of intervention by the British and French as protective powers that brought the Bavarian Regent to be king of Greece.

-There has been an attempt – there was an attempt last year – to organize a function by the United Popular Front – to promote this day 26th January. It was abandoned, finally, and it was not unexpected that it should be abandoned, because there is resistance in Nafplion to this recognition. Anyway, do you think that it is feasible and desirable to try to…

-We can try, either in Aegina or in Nafplion. In either place, emphasizing and highlighting the need to add 26th January as another national anniversary, a very significant national anniversary in today’s conditions, because it is the anniversary of national independence. National independence was achieved, officially, institutionally, with the foundation of the Greek state following the decision of the National Assembly at Troezen. It has great importance in present conditions where the country’s national sovereignty has been abandoned and ceded unconditionally and irrevocably by its governments, and that is why it is of great importance – particularly now – for this anniversary to be added.

-And are you willing to try together with us to persuade the people of Nafplion of this?

-I think that we can try to do this. I don’t think that we will have a problem with the people of Nafplion. We have to do with special interests which exist, as we know, everywhere. Cliques that try to transform everything into their own particular property so as to have the corresponding political and economic benefits.

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