The Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV) has promptly moved to clarify its political position following an article published in Greece purportedly mistranslating the Community’s president Bill Papastergiadis.
Referring to a piece featured in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 3, Papastergiadis told Neos Kosmos the Greek media had misquoted him, resulting in what he said being an apparent favouring of one political party in reference to the Greek general elections on January 25.
“The way it was translated in Greek was that the Greek Community of Melbourne was expressing an opinion about the economic and political consequences of an election of SYRIZA and the effect of property values.
“[The] clarification was that neither the Greek Community nor me as president of the Greek Community are in the business of involving ourselves in the political election process, nor advising on political and economic consequences in Greece – these are matters for the Greek people, and we wanted that clarified.”
Papastergiadis affirmed the key roles and focuses of the GOCMV relate to language, culture and social matters, not politics, which have been the cornerstone of its solid bipartisan relationship in both Australia and Greece, but emphasised it will be politically critical where appropriate.
“That doesn’t mean that where appropriate we aren’t critical of policies and platforms of respective parties, whether they’re in Australia or Greece. That is government, we’re inactive in particular areas, but that’s not playing a political role.”
Despite the apparent misinterpretation, Papastergiadis didn’t receive any backlash, he said.