Events for the Unification. The President of the Helelnic Parliament in Hania.

A meeting of the Founding Members of the Foundation was held on Saturday, December 1st.
The meeting was presided by the President of the Greek Parliament, Dimitrios Sioufas, as the honorary President of the Foundation. The meeting was also attended by the Vice Chairmen of the Foundation, Grigoris Arhontakis, Prefect of Hania and Damaskinos, Metropolitan of Kydonia & Apokoronas, the MPs of Hania, Christos Markogiannakis, Manousos Voloudakis, Stelios Nikiforakis and Emmanouil Skoulakis, the former MP of Hania Sifis Mihelogiannis, the Secretary General of the Region of Crete, Serafim Tsokas, the Governor of ATE (Agricultural Bank of Greece), Dimitris Miliakos, the Secretary General of the Foundation and President of the Bar Association of Hania, Dimitris Pontikakis, the President of the Pancretan Association, Georgios Maridakis, the Chancellor of the Technical University of Crete, Ioakim Grispolakis, the Director of the Orthodox Academy of Crete, Alexandros Papaderos.
Suggestions for the Foundation's work were made by Nikolaos Papadakis, CEO, Eleni Gardika Katsiadaki, Scientific Advisor and Director of the Research Centre for the Study of Modern Greek History of the Academy of Athens, Argiro Vatsaki, Historian and Research Programme Manager, Chara Apostolaki, Librarian, Library and Archive Manager.
The President of the Parliament mentioned that "...The Foundation's short history is closely related to the course of the Greek Parliament, fact which is strongly reflected in its Founding Charter. ...Within a seven year period numerous important achievements have been attained. An important priority is the restoration and projection of the Venizelos' residence in Halepa of Chania. I would like to assure you that the Greek Parliament will support and aid this effort".
He also underlined that within the next year important new activities will be planned and he committed himself to intensify the collaboration with the Foundation of the Greek Parliament for Parliamentarism and Democracy and announced important Parliament initiatives for the collaboration with the Foundation.
After the end of the meeting, the established event for the anniversary of the Unification of Crete with Greece started.
An introductory speech was given by the President of the Greek Parliament and the Metropolitan of Kydonia and Apokoronas read the speech of the Foundation's Chairman, Irineos, Metropolitan of Kisamos and Selino, as he could not attend the event due to health problems.
The CEO of the Foundation N. Papadakis made a brief review of the Foundation's work.
The main speaker of the event was Stamatis Filipidis, Professor Emeritus of Modern Greek Literature at the University of Crete, on the topic "Venizelos and the Unification of Crete in Modern Greek Literature". The event finished after the Foundation's associates were acclaimed: Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith, former British Ambassador in Greece, Konstantinos Svolopoulos, Academic, Nikolaos Klamaris, Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Athens, the Heirs of Ioannis Nik. Georgakakis, Zaharias Tzougarakis, former Prefect and the Technical Chamber of Rethymno.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that on Friday, November 30th, the President of the Parliament visited Eleftherios Venizelos' residence in Halepa accompanied by the CEO of the Foundation.
The President of the Parliament stated that: "We are in the house of Eleftherios Venizelos and I am here as the new President of the Greek Parliament to pay respect, honor and acknowledgement to the incomparable contribution of Eleftherios Venizelos to Crete, to Greece, to the nation, to Hellenism".