“Your Eminence,
Mr. Mayor, Ms. Ambassador, dear Salahov,
Dear Friends,
It is a moving moment for me to be here in Gelendzhik today, in a place that is full of the common history of Greece and Russia.
Mr. Mayor, please allow me to say that I feel like I am standing on a three-level bridge, a bridge between Greece and Russia. The first level is very old: it is 2.500 years since the first settlers from Megara and Athens arrived at this region. At the second level stand Cyril and Methodius, who devised the Slavic alphabet and laid the foundations for Christianity here in Russia. In fact yesterday, during the meeting with my friend and counterpart Sergei Lavrov, we agreed to hold events and highlight this significant milestone. The third level, as His Eminence said earlier, is Pontic Hellenism, part of which fled after the genocide and settled here in the hospitable Russian land.
I come to this land thirty years after another important visit here, of the then Prime Minister of Greece Konstantinos Mitsotakis. I come on behalf of his son, the current Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to convey his message that Greece stands by your side, next to you, and is grateful to you for preserving its living memory here.
I must confess that I am surprised by the dynamism of the Greek element here, without, Mr. Mayor, wanting to downplay the contribution of the other 79 ethnicities living in Gelendzhik. But I should be excused for feeling proud of my compatriots. And will you allow me, Mr. Mayor, to repeat what we both agreed, that we will make efforts so that I return here until the end of this year – a year that marks the 200th anniversary of the modern Greek state, to the creation of which Russia has had a significant contribution. We can’t afford another 30 years to pass.
Immediately afterwards, our Ambassador Ms. Nasika, who works tirelessly to promote Greek-Russian relations, a fact of which I am very proud of, will present you with a book of Greek folk songs by Fauriel which was first published in 1824-1825. We have republished it adding a translation in Russian. Why folk songs? Because not only do they express the sorrow and pain of ordinary people, but also the whole tradition of thousands of years of history, as lived and understood by the people. It is because we know very well the profoundness of the Russian soul that we seek to build a bridge that connects our souls.
Thank you very much for the honour of being here with you again.
Mr. Salahov, thank you for your hospitality.”