Spirit of Greece at UN 24 Mar 1980

Filed under europe | Tributes and Expressions of appreciation

THE SPIRIT OF GREECE AT THE UNITED NATIONS

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On 24 March 1980. H.E. Mr. Nicolas Katapodis, Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations, highlighted the classical spirit of Greek history and culture in a lecture and film presentation celebrating the Independence Day of Greece, in honour of its thirty fifth year as a member of the United Nations community.

Below are brief excerpts from his talk, as well as “The Mountains Look on Marathon” and “Marathon Runner”-two songs performed at the programme that were writtten by Sri Chinmoy, who has run the famous Phidippides marathon in Athens.

Mr. Nicolas Katapodis, Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations:

Shraddha

The present form of Western civilisation owes much to the ancient Greek spirit. This classical Greek spirit has carried over in to the Greece of today, and we have continued to contribute to European civilisation in many fields. I need not remind you that two of our poets were awarded the Nobel Prize in the last fifteen years. There are other poets who are also considered major poets in the European community, and there are painters, sculptors, composers and many other outstanding Greeks whose international careers are very well known. So as we were able to contribute something to Western civilisation, our hope and our wish is to go on doing this and to become contributors to Western civilisation as it is known to day and to peace in our part of the world and so in the world in general. Greece is, as you may know, a founding member of the United Nations.

Shraddha

The principles of the United Nations Charter are the cornerstone of our foreign policy. We collaborate with the United Nations in a number of fields. We have been a member of the Security Council once and we have been a member of the Economic and Social Council several times We participate also in other groups and committees and there are a number of our compatriots who work in the Secretariat.

Shraddha

There are two or three agencies which have permanent offices in Greece as well. The United Nations, as you well know, is not an abstract concept. It is the 152 countries which are its Member States. When we say that we work closely with the United Nations, we mean that we do so by being part of the United Nations. In our cooperation with the United Nations, we feel that in the last analysis the United Nations is Greece and Greece is the United Nations We believe in the United Nations and we try to be a useful and stabilizing factor in our part of the world.