The first effort to bring our countries closer
and create a Greek - Baltic friendship…
Introductory message
The president
of association
Antonios Lazaridis
Our association was founded
in June 2005 and is based in Edessa. The idea for its existence was born,
during my visits in Lithuania on September 2004 and on March 2005. The first
visit in Siauliai was practiced, because the European school exchange
project Socrates Comenius 1.3 gave the opportunity for this. The second
visit concerned my participation to a historical conference that was
organized in Vilnius on the subject “Our cultural heritage from the
Byzantium”.
Those visits gave me the opportunity to get closer to Lithuanians who showed particular interest for Greece, its History and Culture. After discussions with my fellow-citizens in Edessa, concerning the interest of Lithuanians for Greece, we decided to found this association. The founding members are mainly teachers and persons who are interested to deal with the distribution of Greek culture.
Off
course, we thought of how we will achieve the realization of this interest.
We thought a lot, we consulted a lot of persons and decided.....:
In order to achieve our objectives, our populations have to
communicate and also have personal contacts. With which way however? Our
countries are far from each other, and this at first sight appears
impossible. The tourist offices are working already to the direction of
realization of travels between various countries. But this is not enough for
us. It is not what we really want to happen between our countries.
To this direction, we proposed the collaboration of Municipalities, cultural associations and other institutions which are interested to realize our idea. Just after proposing, we organized our first travel in Lithuania. In August 2005 and for 13 days, 37 people traveled to Lithuania. We had with us, a dancing and a choir group, in order to present to our Lithuanian friends something from Greece. Those 13 days were unforgettable. What made this travel unforgettable? Our contact with Lithuanian people and our daily communication with them. Also, their big interest in order to serve us, show us around, make us feel like home, because they saw us as their friends. We were not just tourists. Our friends didn't see us as foreigners. We did not feel that we were used from them in any way. We felt like we were a family.
Returning from our travel, we
believed that our dream could become a reality. Some people regarded that
this was an utopia, some other as a venturous idea.
However, we are certain that when people want to realize what
they believe, they will find the way to achieve that.
It's this effort we want to present and propose you in
this form that you have on hands.
We will be happy to get to know you and become
friends....
With estimate
The president of association ...... Antonios Lazaridis
North Greece