Greece kicks off events to celebrate bicentenary of independence war
- Dignitaries from Britain, Russia and France including Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, began arriving in Athens on Wednesday
- As Greece struggles with a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths, the public will not be allowed to attend the parade, which will be broadcast live
Greece on Wednesday kicked off two days of celebrations to mark the bicentenary of the start of the country’s war of independence, although events are far more muted than originally planned due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Dignitaries from Britain, Russia and France — the great powers that provided vital help to the nation’s bid for independence from the Ottoman Empire — as well as from Cyprus began arriving in Athens on Wednesday. Celebrations are to culminate in a military parade, accompanied by air force overflights, in central Athens on Thursday, Greece’s Independence Day.
But with Greece struggling with a renewed surge in coronavirus cases and deaths, the public will not be allowed to attend the parade, which will be broadcast live by state television.
Despite being under lockdown-type measures since early November, the country has seen spiralling coronavirus infections, with record numbers of patients intubated in intensive care units and dozens of daily deaths. As of Wednesday evening, the overall pandemic death toll had reached 7,649 and there were about 245,000 total confirmed infections in the country of around 11 million.
On Thursday, major avenues in the centre of the capital will be closed to traffic for the parade, while thousands of police were being deployed for security. Authorities have banned seven rallies and protests that had been planned in Athens on Thursday.
The parade is to be attended by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, French Defence Minister Florence Parly, and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.
On Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was hosting the visiting dignitaries at Greece’s newly renovated National Gallery, an establishment founded in 1900 that has been shut for the past eight years for renovations and the construction of a sizeable extension. The Athens gallery holds about 20,000 works of art from the post-Byzantine era onwards.
