By Angeliki Koutantou
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece celebrated 200 years since the start of its struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire on Thursday with a ceremony that was to mark a new beginning after years of financial crisis but which had to be pared back amid coronavirus restrictions.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne whose father Prince Philip was born in Corfu as part of the Greek royal family, and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin attended the annual independence day parade.
French President Emmanuel Macron pulled out because of COVID-19 lockdowns in parts of France.
Soon after taking power in 2019, the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the celebrations as a symbol that Greece was back after a decade-long financial crisis that left half of young Greeks unemployed and sent some 500,000 people abroad in search of work.
After almost 400 years under Ottoman Turkish rule, Greek revolutionaries launched an uprising in 1821, and with help from foreign sympathizers from countries including Britain, France and Russia, won their independence in 1832.
Saluting the resilience of the Greek people during the “desperately difficult years” of the economic crisis, Prince Charles said the world now needed to rebuild after the coronavirus, which has plunged Greece back into deep recession.
He added: “perhaps we can take some inspiration from the courage, determination and the ambition of 1821.”
Thursday’s ceremonies, at a time of renewed tension with Turkey, included a flypast by Greek, U.S. and French fighter jets as well as a military parade including cavalry units and “Evzones” – presidential guards in their ceremonial kilts.
A relic of the Aghia Lavra banner, closely associated with the start of the Greek revolution, featured for the first time in the annual march.
Following a dawn ceremony at the Acropolis, the centre of Athens was heavily guarded and a giant carpet of blue and white flowers forming a Greek flag was spread out over the city’s central Syntagma square, scene of riots during the crisis.
In an address to Greek people aired by state television, U.S. President Joe Biden said the relationship between Greece and the United States would be closer than ever.
“It’s our shared commitment to liberty, human rights and the rule of law that empowers us to write our own futures whether 200 years ago or today,” he said.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by MIke Collett-White)
