Despite the Greek Consulate in Adelaide extending a formal invitation to the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia to attend the Greek National Day celebrations which will be held next Sunday, 22 March, the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia has declined to attend the event, announcing it will be holding separate celebrations a week later.
According to Consul General of Greece in Adelaide, Giorgos Psiahas, the Greek National Day event will be held at the War Memorial Drive in Adelaide, together with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and every member of the community is invited and welcome to attend and pay their respects to our ancestors who fought for our country.
Neos Kosmos contacted Bill Gonis, President of the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia, to confirm whether GOCSA has received an invitation by the Consul General.
Mr Gonis confirmed receipt of the invitation but said GOCSA will not be represented at the celebration. When asked to give reasoning regarding the organisation’s decision to decline, Mr Gonis hung up the phone in frustration.
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GOCSA’s Vice President Panagiotis Ppiros tole Neos Kosmos that he would confer with Mr Gonis to decide on whether to issue an official response regarding the group’s decision to not come together with the Archdiocese and the Greek Consulate in order to honour the Greek heroes of Greek Independence as a united community. He then proceeded to accuse Neos Kosmos of bias and support of the Archdiocese over GOCSA and warned us that should he and Mr Gonis send us a response “you had better not alter our words otherwise there will be consequences.”
Taking Mr Ppiros’ severe accusations into account, we asked him to forward GOCSA’s official response in writing in both English and Greek so that we can publish it verbatim.
Two weeks have passed, and our newspaper has yet to receive GOCSA’s official response.
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However, according to their own press release, they will be hosting their own Greek National Day celebrations a week later, on Sunday, 29 March, 2020.