Australian Ambassador to Greece Mrs Jenny Bloomfield joined the Chief of Navy of Australia, Vice Admiral Ray Griggs, at Anzac Day commemorations last Thursday in Lemnos.
The Australian Embassy in Athens marked Anzac Day by laying wreaths at the Australian Memorial Moudros Harbour and the Moudros and Portianou Commonwealth Cemeteries in Lemnos.
Mrs Bloomfield said in her speech that the Anzac spirit was intertwined with Greece with a long lasting legacy of fighting together.
“From Lemnos in 1915, to the battlefields of Crete and mainland Greece in 1941, and around the world, Australians and Greeks have fought together to defend our shared ideal,” she said.
“Thousands of young Australians and New Zealanders left from Moudros Harbour on the island of Lemnos to land on the shores of Gallipoli. They had come from the other side of the world to take part in a campaign hoping to put an end to a dreadful war.”
Dignitaries at the service were the President of the Hellenic Parliament, Mr Evangelos Meimarakis, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Konstantinos Tsiaras, Deputy Chief of the Hellenic Defence Forces, Vice Admiral Alexandros Theodosiou, representatives of the Greek government and members of parliament, foreign ambassadors, veterans’ associations, the president and members of the board of the Hellenic-Australian Business Council, along with members and friends of the Greek Australian community.