January

The year began as always for Hellenes with Theophania, the blessing of the waters on January 7, when young men, mainly, and increasingly now women, dive into the waters across Victoria to retrieve the cross, and Neos Kosmos called Frankston, the Lourdes of Greek Orthodoxy for a day on January 8, as thousands of Greek Australians amassed to the beachside suburb to participate in one of Orthodoxy’s holiest days.

January 28: Grand Slam is on for ‘Greek tennis god’

Keeping with the spiritual theme, Neos Kosmos pronounced Stefanos Tsitsipas a “Greek tennis god” after he cut a sway through the Australian Open, defeating Quentin Halys, Rinky Hijikata, Tallon Griekspoor, Jannik Sinner, Jiří Lehečka, and Karen Khachanov on his way to the final.

The final was Tsitsipas’ second Grand Slam final following the 2021 French Open.

However, Tsitsipas lost to Novak Djokovic again, as he did in the French Open. Hubris, or matiasma (evil eye)? Or, simply put, Djokovic is a tennis freak that no one can beat. Had Tsitsipas won, he would have clinched the world No.1 ranking for the first time.

February

In February, after two years of Covid-19 lockdowns, Melbourne’s and Sydney’s Greek festivals were on again. The most prominent Greek street festival outside Greece, the Antipodes Festival, followed a week after the Sydney Greek Festival. Hundreds of thousands enjoyed diverse Greek music and food and participated in the panegyric rituals that define Greek Australia.

February 4: Greece’s Golden girl arrives in Melbourne

Greek champion athlete walk-racer Antigoni Ntrismpioti dominated Neos Kosmos‘ front pages in February after landing in Melbourne to compete in the Australian 20km Race Walking Championships. Ntrismpioti made history in August 2022, winning two gold medals in race walking at the European Championships in Munich.

She was crowned champion of the 20km race just four days after winning first place in the 35km event. The 38-year-old ‘golden girl’ from Karditsa is the first Greek female athlete to achieve a double title at a single championship. Ntrismpioti was beaten to the post by Australian Jemima Montag to come second.

March

While March 25 marks the annual celebration of the start of the War of Independence of 1821 against the Ottoman yoke, and the Neos Kosmos front pages were evidence of the various celebrations across Australia by the Greek Diaspora. However, it was the Tempi train crash in Thessaly, Greece’s deadliest rail disaster in Greek history, that marks the month in which officially 57 university students died.

March 4: Train tragedy sinks Greece into national mourning

The collision between two trains in Thessaly sparked national outrage and revealed deep-rooted negligence in Greece’s railway system.

Neos Kosmos, on the first March front page, reported on the grief-stricken families blaming decades of governmental neglect for the tragedy. Protesters in Athens and Thessaloniki expressed anger at the rail operator and past administrations for failing to address systemic issues.

The collision’s investigation pinned partial blame on a station master in Larissa, leading to charges of negligent homicide. The incident claimed 57 lives, injured many, and prompted a nationwide reflection on the dire state of the country’s rail infrastructure.

April

Easter fell in April in 2023, and of course, Neos Kosmos ran stories and front pages on it; however, the most dominant story of the month and one that continues, was the vote for the Diaspora and criticism of the government by the Diaspora for making it nigh impossible to vote from abroad. However, it was the first time a Greek government made it possible for Greeks abroad to vote in national elections from their host nations.

April 8: Greek Diaspora’s a vote to nowhere

Neos Kosmos highlighted how, for the Greek national elections in May, only 177 applications for absentee ballots had been received by April from Australians with Greek citizenship. It was the first time that Greece would allow citizens living abroad to vote in national elections without travelling back to their jurisdictions to cast a ballot.

Registering to vote in Greece’s May 21 election proved complicated for Greek Australians with dual citizenship. Numerous individuals have voiced their frustrations to Neos Kosmos, citing the application’s complexity as a significant barrier to participation.

Adding to the difficulties, voters who are unable to navigate the electronic registration process must seek help from the consular authorities of their residing country.

However, as Neos Kosmos showed, the electronic modes used, and the hoops were those conditions imposed by the parliament and championed by socialist SYRIZA. Voting thus became arduous.

May

May continued to report and analyse the new Greek voting legislation allowing Greek citizens abroad to vote without heading back to cast a ballot. However, given the coronation of a new monarch in England and King Charles III’s Hellenistic lean-to, Neos Kosmos featured his coronation on the front page, as his love of Byzantine music and followed with opinion.

May 6: Greek Orthodox music to accompany the coronation of King Charles III

The coronation of King Charles III was a global affair, with over 2,200 attendees from 203 countries converging at Westminster Abbey. The ceremony took the front page of Neos Kosmos on May 6 because of the tribute to the King’s father’s Greek heritage in the form of Orthodox music played at the coronation.

King Charles had a notable Greek presence, a nod to his father’s origins. Moreover, including Greek Orthodox music in the ceremony highlights the monarch’s deep-seated connection to Orthodoxy, honouring his familial ties to Greece, which span generations.

June

Some of the stories that dominated June include a predicted massive tourism boon in Greece and the continued rise of Ange Postecoglou, the first Aussie to manage in the Premier League, joining Tottenham Hotspur after Celtic. However, a dreadful story of tragedy led to the drowning death of possibly hundreds of refugees in the Mediterranean. Greek coastguard saved up to 108 people and feared hundreds of dead.

June 17: National mourning in Greece

The front page of Neos Kosmos highlighted a tragic shipwreck that claimed at least 78 migrant lives. Greek rescuers continued searching for survivors amid fears that hundreds, including children, may have drowned.

Greece mourned for three days, uncertain of the exact number aboard the capsized boat that held between 400 to 750 people departing from Libya. Of the 104 survivors rescued by Greek authorities, tragic accounts reveal that those on board declined attempts at assistance.

July

July saw significant stories, such as how Greek schools won over the Victorian government’s proposed tax on independent and Catholic schools. Yet, devastating fires engulfed Greece in a scorching summer and captured the world’s gaze.

July 29: Unprecedented wildfires sweep through Greece

During what was a scorching summer, Greece grappled with relentless wildfires, prompting mass evacuations, an ammunition depot explosion, and tragic loss of life. These fires, amid an ongoing heatwave, broke records by unleashing an unprecedented surge of carbon emissions. Multiple islands, including Corfu, Evia, and especially Rhodes, saw evacuations. Rhodes experienced its worst wildfire and the largest evacuation in Greek history.

Five significant fires claimed five lives, including two firefighting pilots, and injured 74 firefighters across more than 500 blazes nationwide. The situation intensified when a fire in the Magnissia region caused explosions at an ammunition storage site, prompting evacuations across surrounding villages and becoming one of the most dangerous among 124 wildfires on that crucial Thursday.

These catastrophic wildfires, alongside an ammunition depot explosion and record-breaking emissions, inflicted severe damage on Greece’s environment and communities. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis highlighted the urgent need for climate action and fire prevention policy reforms. As Greece confronted this environmental crisis, the world stood in solidarity, hoping for a swift containment of the inferno and a rapid recovery for affected areas.

August

Throughout August, fires raged in Greece. Neos Kosmos also continued to back the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and her faction rebuked Victorian politician Kat Theophanous for commenting on the commemoration of the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey in 1974. However, the biggest story for the month was the surrogacy scandal over a Crete-based clinic. Hundreds of families were caught up in the scandal.

August 24: Human trafficking, illegal adoptions, and heartbroken Aussie families

A Greek surrogacy clinic in Crete was involved in a major scandal involving human trafficking and illegal adoptions that shocked Australian families. The clinic’s alleged exploitation of vulnerable women from various countries, coercing them into egg donation and surrogacy, led to a criminal operation’s dismantling by Greek authorities.

Around 150 Australian families were left devastated when the clinic closed, unable to access their newborns amid accusations of trafficking.

Despite diplomatic efforts, legal complexities and inadequate record-keeping practices within the clinic created a distressing situation for affected families, waiting for DNA tests to confirm relationships and facing uncertain prospects.

September

September was full of important stories, ranging from innovations in dementia tools and miracle babies surviving congenital disabilities to the victory of Collingwood Football Club in the AFL. However, climate change was the most important front page. Having suffered a summer of fire, Greece was now hit with devastating floods.

September 9: Greece is drowning

Greek rescue teams launched, deploying divers, lifeboats, and helicopters to reach numerous villagers in central Greece. The storm claimed six lives, including two elderly women and a shepherd swept away by the floodwaters.

The fire service reported the grim discovery of the bodies. In contrast, emergency services and the army collaborated to evacuate stranded residents. Additional villages faced evacuation due to flood damage to a dam.

The deluge struck Thessaly, approximately 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Athens. Volos, a port city, inland towns like Karditsa and Trikala, and several villages bore the brunt of flooding caused by a year’s worth of rain in just 24 hours.

October

October, as always, featured many stories of heroism as Greeks globally commemorated the No or Oxi Day on October 28 when the Greeks beat back the Italian invading armies of Mussolini in 1940. There was also the rise of Stefanos Kasselakis, the Wall Street financier, as the leader of the main left opposition party in Greece and the first openly gay leader in Greek politics.

October 9: Orthodox and Muslims urge communities to say ‘Yes’ to the Voice

This front page focused on the October referendum regarding the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the country’s constitution. It highlighted support for the “Yes” vote from various religious and ethnic communities, including the Greek, Muslim, Jewish, Anglican, Hindu, and Sikh communities.

The Prime Minister acknowledged this support and emphasised the referendum’s significance as a unifying moment for the nation.

However, polls revealed declining support for the proposed amendment.

Divisions among Australians were exacerbated, with some advocating for a treaty with Indigenous peoples instead.

November

Much happened in November, both in the community and abroad, and the sudden death of renowned composer Stelios Tsiolas impacted the Greek Australian community.

There was also analysis and discussion over the over-bureaucratic processes that inhibit Greeks from securing a passport and the annual Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HACCI) awards. However, Greek studies and language were again threatened by a need for enrolments and rationalisations at Northcote High School and Macquarie University.

November 11: Giles; Ethnic media’s ‘critical’ role, language preservation, aged care and… Ange

Commonwealth Minister for Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles underscored his advocacy for language retention, support for aged care workers, and backing for multicultural media.

Minister Giles championed the cause of multilingual media, expressing concerns about the potential loss of languages within multicultural communities. He emphasised the critical role of independent multicultural media during crises and in reaching audiences overlooked by mainstream channels.

The Minister acknowledged the risk faced by Modern Greek at Macquarie University, drawing attention to the success of saving the Greek department at La Trobe University through community efforts. He underscored the importance of language retention for culture and expressed worries about the disappearance of languages from educational syllabi.

December

One of the big stories for a break in December was the proposed postal vote legislation, which will pass through the Greek parliament, allowing Greek citizens abroad to postal vote in European elections. There was also the death of renowned Greek writer Vassilis Vassilikos, at 89, best known for his 1967 political novel Z, which became a film.

December 2: Sunak’s Greek PM snub seen as a sign of ‘petulance’

During a visit to Australia, Margaritis Schinas, the Vice President of the European Commission, weighed in on the escalating tension between British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The conflict arose over the Parthenon Marbles, with Sunak accusing Mitsotakis of breaking an agreement not to raise the issue during a planned meeting. Sunak cancelled the meeting, prompting criticism from various quarters.

Schinas, expressing disbelief at the situation, labelled Sunak’s actions as “un-British,” highlighting the refusal to engage with someone due to potential disagreement. He advocated for the Marbles’ return to their origin, asserting they rightfully belong in the Acropolis Museum.

Overall, it underscored a diplomatic dispute over cultural heritage, with Schinas and stakeholders advocating for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece while criticising Sunak’s handling of the matter as contrary to diplomatic norms.