We are particularly pleased to welcome the exhibition «Thessaloniki – Venice: Traces of People, Roads of History», organized by the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice. The fruitful partnership of the second largest Municipality of our country and of an internationally renowned Greek scientific research center was expected to bear fruit, like the ones we are experiencing today.
Archival evidence that functioning as traces of the past but also as a trigger for deepening, for reaching to conclusions but also for bearing new creation, prove the dynamics of the Greek presence in Venice and the impact of the Venetian presence in the core of Northern Greece, that is Thessaloniki. The people who kept moving in a wide area between the two cities, in a period of four centuries, were bringing with them their own cultural capital; they collaborated, formed mixed families, and progressed on the opposite Adriatic coast. They created nuclei of Hellenism and places that today we include in our common history.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in particular, the General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and for Public Diplomacy, faithful to its aims for the development of the ties of Greeks abroad with their homeland and among themselves, the preservation of their cultural identity in the Diaspora and of course the study of their history, welcomes such initiatives that bring history to light. Moreover, it facilitates and promotes joint actions that reveal aspects of the historical past and can serve as roadmaps for our common European present.
With these thoughts and the certainty that this initiative will launch wider cooperation at all levels between the two countries, I welcome the opening of the exhibition and congratulate its co- organizers as well as those who worked hard for the excellent result.
John Chrysoulakis
Secretary General for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy Ministry of Foreign Affairs