Greece today marks National Day

Chisinau, 25 March /MOLDPRES/ - Greece today marks its National Day. It is a state situated in south-eastern Europe, in the south of the Balkan Peninsula and borders with Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Aegean Sea, the Crete Sea and Ionic Sea.

The state also includes more islands in the Aegean, Ionic and Mediterranean Seas. According to the 2011 census, Greece has about 11 million residents. Its biggest city is the capital Athens, with 3.5 million inhabitants. The Hellenic Republic is made up of nine historic and geographic regions and has an area of 132,000 square kilometres. About 80 per cent of its territory is covered with mountains, of which the highest is the Olympus Mountain with a height of 2,917 m.

Modern Greece has its roots in the antique Greek civilisation, starting from the Aegean civilisations of the Bronze Age and is considered the cradle of the western culture. It is the birthplace of democracy as form of government, of the western philosophy, Olympic Games, western literature and historiography, political sciences, great scientific and mathematical principles, western dramaturgy, including the tragedy and comedy genres.

The cultural and technological achievements of Greece influenced the entire world. Many aspects of the Greek civilisation entered the Orient via campaigns of Alexander the Great, and the Occident – through the Roman Empire. This reach heritage is partly mirrored in the 18 sites of the UNESCO world patrimony found in Greece, which ranks sixth in Europe and 13th in the world. The modern Greek state, which comprises a great deal of the historic core of the Greek civilisation, was found after the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.

The Hellenic Republic is one of the founders of the United Nations Organisation and member of the European Union, Council of Europe, NATO, OECD, OSCE and WTO.

The diplomatic ties between Moldova and Greece were set on 27 March 1992. Moldova’s ambassador to Greece has been Valentin Ciumac (starting from 1 March 2012) and Georgios Georgountzos is the Kiev-based Greek Ambassador to Moldova (starting from 6 December 2013, accredited by plurality of offices). On 1 May 2001, a Greek Honorary Consulate was opened in Chisinau, with Gheorghe Duca acting as honorary consul.

Data by the National Statistics Bureau shows that the trade turnover between the two states was of 60 million dollars on January-November 2014. Greek imports to Moldova amounted to 34.9 million dollars, whereas the exports stood at 25.2 million dollars on January-November 2014. As many as 113 Moldovan-Greek mixed companies are recorded in Moldova, and the registered capital is of more than 35.6 million lei.

(Reporter N. Roibu, Editor A. Alcaza)