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Athens, 20 July 2023

Address by President of Hellenic Parliament at 14th General Assembly of World Hellenic Inter-parliamentary Association

With a special reference to the first bill to be introduced in the new Parliament, which extends the possibility of expatriates registered in the electoral rolls to vote from their place of residence, the President of the Hellenic Parliament Constantine Tassoulas, closed his address at the opening session of the 14th General Assembly of the World Hellenic Inter-parliamentary Association (WHIA), which is being held today and tomorrow in the Senate Hall of the Parliament.

The aim of the bill, Mr Tassoulas stressed, is "not to exclude any Greek woman or man from the inalienable right to vote, which they would have had, had they been in their country on the day of the vote". He asked for the contribution of the members of the WHIA in the effort to extend this right of Greeks abroad. The President of the Parliament expressed the confidence that the draft bill "will find willing supporters in a wider range of political parties, which are willing to contribute by possibly proposing improvements, improvements in good faith."

Mr Tassoulas congratulated the members of the WHIA for the resolution to be adopted in the framework of the work of the General Assembly, with regard to "the unhealed trauma of Cyprus". As he explicitly pointed out, "I welcome you to the 14th General Assembly, today, the 20th of July, on the day of a sorrowful anniversary for Cyprus and for Hellenism. The darkest page in our modern history was played out 49 years ago today. The people of Cyprus found themselves unarmed at the mercy of the invaders".

In his address, the President of the Parliament also focused on "the contribution of the members of the World Hellenic Inter-parliamentary Association in the development of relations between the parliaments of these countries", noting that the WHIA constitutes an institutional democratic pillar and a reference point for the entire global Hellenism, which acts and participates in political events.

The President of the WHIA Leonidas Raptakis, declared the opening of the proceedings, while the address of the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was delivered by Steve Georganas, the 2nd Vice President of the Board of the Inter-parliamentary Association. Welcome remarks followed by the deputy chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign and European Affairs of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus Marios Mavridis, the President of the Parliamentary group Syriza – Progressive Alliance, Sokratis Famellos, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible for issues of Greeks Abroad, Giorgos Kotsiras, the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy Maximos Charakopoulos and the Secretary General for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy Ioannis Chrysoulakis.

A video message from the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Robert Menendez, was shown.

On the suffering that the Ukrainian people have been experiencing for 17 months now due to Russia's brutal aggression focused in his speech the First Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Ukraine, Dr Hryhoriy Nemyria. He also referred to Turkey's invasion of Cyprus, as well as to the close historical ties between Greece and Ukraine, thanking our country for its multifaceted support after the Russian invasion.