Page 13 - Beholding Liberty!

attention of the international diplomatic factor, which pressed by philhellenism, as well as by its own interests, decides to solve the issue of the Greek Revolution as a serious affair that concerns international diplomacy.
In 1827 we come across Navarino, for which an acclaimed diplomat and writer, Angelos Vlachos, relates: «When I came back to Greece and went on pilgrimage to Navarino, I crossed on a boat that sea surface, that font of Greek freedom, and the shimmering waters let you see the capsized on the sea bottom hulls and masts of the once mighty Ottoman fleet. Light wind ripples on the water surface created countless bright smiles. And all that blue-gold space looked to me like a grave, I would dare to say, jovial».
In 1828 Kapodistrias arrives. A complete change of scenery. Central (Sterea) Greece is reoccupied and in September 1829 Dimitrios Ypsilantis accomplishes the last victory of the Greeks against the Turkish troops at Petra of Boeotia.
On 3-2-1830 in London it is signed the Treaty that shapes the first territory of Greece, with its border running across the line of the Spercheios and Acheloos river mouths. On 8 April 1830 the ambassadors of the three great powers forwarded a copy of the Agreement of London to the Ottoman Porte. A few days later, the Sublime Porte accepted the Agreement of London and rec- ognized, itself too, the independence of Greece.
The Hellenic Parliament, my colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, takes part in these celebrations and we will enjoy, I am sure -at the beginning cautiously, through the internet, later live- the out- standing exhibition we have already prepared, titled «Beholding Liberty! At the Hellenic Parliament, two centuries later». We have arranged it across two levels. In the Peristyle there will be presented the awakening of Hellenism, all those factors that led to the outbreak of the Revolution from 1770 to 1821 and which have to do with antiquarianism, philhellenism, with the influence of the Orthodox Church, with the need, that is, to reinstate that which was called Greece within the vast extent of the still very powerful Ottoman Empire.
In the Hall of the Trophies upstairs, namely in the Hall of Eleftherios Venizelos, we will encounter the diplomatic, military and political events from the period of 1821 to 1833, up until, that is, the first and the second recognition of the independence of Greece and the arrival of Otto. There will feature most of the important events that led to independence.
In the Peristyle the preparation, in the Hall of the Trophies the procedures, the outbreak and the completion of the Revolution.
We have at our disposal incredible material. We see it in the Press, we see it on behalf of the «Greece 2021» Committee, we see from cultural foundations, from museums, from banks, from institutions, from everybody, all this time, unfolding before our eyes this breathtaking adventure of our nation across the last two centuries. I am certain that the Greek people, despite the pandemic, especially these days, especially tomorrow, will become aware that everything, even this unbelievable experience we are living through, bows before the honour of this anniversary. We have to overcome this crisis, and we will, but we also have to ponder again, because this pondering is optimistic, how we started, against all odds and how we succeeded to become a country that participates in the European core and feel that under specific conditions, tangible, can develop and outshine by far even its present level.
We begin from tomorrow the third century of modern Greece and we begin it in a difficult oc- currence, but without defeatism. We begin it with optimism, knowing, I repeat, how difficult we
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