Secretary General for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy Prof. John Chrysoulakis’ interview with Australian newspaper THE GREEK HERALD and journalist Argyro Vourdoumpa (6.12.2022)

“‘A modern policy for Greeks abroad is a strategic choice’: Secretary General for Greeks Abroad”

Friendly,
knowledgeable about what is happening in Australia’s Greek diaspora and
open to new ideas and dialogue – the Secretary General for Greeks
Abroad, John Chrysoulakis, hosted The Greek Herald in his office in
Athens, Greece and spoke to us about the actions of the General
Secretariat so far, his plans for further engagement with the diaspora
and the possibility of visiting Australia early next year.

GH: How would you describe Australia’s Greek diaspora in one sentence?

First
of all, I warmly thank your reputable newspaper, The Greek Herald, for
the opportunity to communicate once again with my expatriate friends in
Australia.

It is really difficult
to describe in one sentence such a successful example of the diaspora
as the Greeks in Australia. The Greek diaspora of Australia, despite
being spatially remote, are one of the most vibrant cells of Hellenism
outside the borders of Greece, with dynamism, creativity and an
established path.

It is a model
community with members who have fully integrated and are making progress
in the host country, while maintaining the flame of our culture and
heritage, transferring and diffusing their universal values and taking
an active role in the promotion of our country and in the promotion of
Greek interests before international public opinion.

For
all these reasons, on behalf of the Greek state and the Greek
government, we warmly thank our brothers in Australia for everything
they have achieved, which fill us with pride, while at the same time
reminding us in the most emphatic and positive way of our great
responsibility and our fundamental duty to maintain and strengthen ties
with the Greek community.

GH: In
recent years, the Greek government, through various actions and through
your own multifaceted activity, has come closer to the Hellenism of
Australia. If we asked you to name your three most important actions so
far, what would they be?

I will
start by referring to actions of the General Secretariat for Greeks
Abroad and Public Diplomacy aimed at preserving and disseminating the
Greek language, an issue on which we are particularly sensitive and is
one of the main axes in the formulation of our policy and in the
exercise of our work. We have proven this in practice, through many
initiatives that we have undertaken within the framework of our
responsibilities, through supportive actions and collaborations with
academic and institutional bodies of the Greek diaspora, of course in
Australia.

The Greek language,
vehicle and carrier of Greek thought and culture, has been continuously
for millennia a fundamental cohesive element and quintessence of our
identity. In particular, for the Greek diaspora, especially for those
who were born or grew up in another country, such as distant Australia,
the Greek language is still considered as the “mother tongue”,
regardless of the language of everyday life, socialization or primary
education. This is because Greek is identified with Hellenism, its
culture and roots and is a primary, structural element of the
indestructible relationship with the mother-Homeland. Let us remember
what our Nobel laureate poet, Odysseas Elytis, said: “Language is not
only a means of communication. It carries the soul of our people and the
history of Greece and all its nobility.”

One
of our most important initiatives in this regard is the creation of the
digital platform Staellinika.com. it is an innovative and easy-to-use
digital tool for learning the Greek language, but also for familiarizing
users with Greek history and mythology. The application resulted from
our successful collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and
the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon
Fraser University in Vancouver. We have over 35,000 registered users and
2 million visitors in more than 150 countries.

The
program is already used individually or at school level and in
Australia. Our desire is for it to become as widely known as possible to
the Greek community. I also make it known at every opportunity of my
contact with the Greeks abroad. I hope that we will soon come to
officially present it to schools in Australia, as it has already been
done in other countries, in order to expand its circle of users even
more.

Answering further your
question, I will also note the collaborations we have developed with
academic institutions and I will dwell indicatively on our fruitful
cooperation with two important universities in Australia. Among other
actions, this summer we supported the organization of the 8th
International Summer University “Greek language, culture and media” in
Kastellorizo, by the University of Ioannina in collaboration with the
program of Modern Greek Studies of Macquarie University, with which we
have developed a wider cooperation. In November I will participate in an
event for the announcement of the findings of the Summer University and
the presentation of the collective volume “language and freedom of
expression”, a partnership between Greece and Australia, published in
Sydney and which includes my text.

Moreover,
in May I participated in the 3rd Conference on the Greek diaspora on
“synchronic and diachronic aspects of the Greek diaspora”, which was
organised by Charles Darwin University in collaboration with the
University of Macedonia and the University of the Aegean.

Another
action of ours that I would like to dwell on and fills me with joy and
optimism, is the resumption of hospitality programs for our young and
young expatriates, which we successfully reactivated this year after a
short break due to the pandemic. As you may know, in collaboration with
the Greek community of Melbourne and the Christian Youth Association of
Thessaloniki. in July, we organised a youth hosting program for Greeks
abroad from Melbourne, Thessaloniki and northern Greece.

The
young people who participated had the opportunity to get to know up
close, both modern and ancient Greece, the cultural and archaeological
wealth of our country, to visit sights, to enrich their knowledge and
feel proud of their place of origin and, of course, to improve their
Greek.

I will also refer to a
promising collaboration that we started with The Sydney Festival. This
prominent institution completes this year forty years of presence and
rich cultural events to promote the diverse manifestations of Greek
culture. It has become a cultural event of recognised prestige for the
Hellenism of Australia – and not only – and, as I have already mentioned
in my meetings, we stand by it at every step, looking forward to the
development of a productive cooperation.
G.H: You have mentioned many
times that you want to “activate” the diaspora. What do you mean by
this and how do you intend to do so?

The
Greeks abroad, I want to repeat emphatically, constitute one of the
important, comparative advantages of Greece in international
competition. Nowadays and in the field of international relations, the
countries that have a strong diaspora are considered strong. This is
easily understood, if one observes the exploitation of the Diaspora by
countries such as Israel, China and India. On the other hand it takes
into account the fact of the active participation of Greeks in the
political and social life of the local foci of Diaspora Hellenism. We
not only have this comparative advantage, but also the will, at
political and national level, to exploit it in the best possible way.

I
remind you that the implementation of a modern policy for Greeks abroad
is a national and strategic choice and is largely part of the call from
the beginning of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis to join in a
broader, nationwide reconstruction effort. Therefore, the” activation ”
of the diaspora is a matter of paramount importance for us. The policy
to achieve this goal is multi-faceted, while it acquires an even more
complex and multidimensional character in the contemporary conditions
that are co-shaped by the factors of digitization, globalization and the
policies of the diaspora networks.

It
is obvious that I cannot cover such a broad topic, so I will limit
myself to indicative references to only some of the parameters that
compose it.

Our primary goal is
to connect our expatriates with each other, but also with the
Metropolitan Centre through the creation of successive and concentric
networks, academic, business, artistic/cultural, youth, etc. This
interconnection can and should be mutually beneficial, both for the rich
potential of our diaspora and for the Metropolitan Centre.

Another
parameter of our planning concerns the creation of incentives for the
active participation of expatriates in the country’s recovery. In my
meetings with the Greek community, I make sure to provide information on
the policies of the Greek government to attract investment and the
policies to support young workers. Greece has already attracted
significant investments of extroversion, innovation and high added
value, resulting in high quality jobs. These investments will continue
to increase as long as the country’s consistently positive course
reinforces the sense of confidence that has been created over the past
three years regarding the long-term prospects of the Greek economy.

However,
it should be noted at this point that the activation of the Greek
diaspora could not be achieved without the active participation of our
fellow citizens outside the borders in the country’s Commons, with the
satisfaction of the chronic and fair demand for the granting of the
right to vote to the Expatriates. The Greek government, considering that
the strengthening of the ties of our expatriates with the Metropolitan
Centre is a national and political priority, in one of its first
initiatives and honouring its commitments, proceeded to regulate the
issue with the passage of Law 4648 in December 2019. This is because all
Greeks must have a say in what is happening in Greece.

It
should be noted here that, although for reasons dictated by the need
for political consensus in its passage, the law still places some
restrictions, it is undoubtedly an important first step. Our aim is soon
in the future to remove the last obstacles and Greeks abroad, all our
expatriates, to be able to vote all from their place of residence.

In
addition, by Law 4781 of 2021, care was taken for the “reopening of the
Council of Hellenes Abroad”, which has as its mission the institutional
and collective expression of all the forces of Hellenism outside the
borders, acting as an advisory body of the Greek state on issues
concerning expatriates.

I could
not fail to mention in closing the substantial improvement of the
quality of the services provided by the Greek consulates to our
expatriates, through the digitization processes. These are services that
you know and now make use of, such as the myConsulLive service, the
Virtual Assistance digital assistant service using artificial
intelligence and the direct registration of registry events that occur
abroad, in the information system “Citizens’ Register”. All these
services solve chronic bureaucratic problems faced by our expatriates
and according to the messages we receive, they substantially support
them in the settlement of their registration and other issues,
ultimately strengthening their trust and relationship with the
motherland.

G.H: Recently many
young people from the diaspora, including a group from Melbourne,
visited Greece. We can look forward to more such programs in the near
future?

I have repeatedly
stressed that the new generation of expatriates is a valuable chapter of
ecumenical Hellenism and as such should be a priority in the planning,
planning and implementation of each of our policies. For this reason, we
are already organising programs for expatriate youth, according to
international standards, which are successfully followed by other
countries with a strong diaspora.

Hosting
our expatriate youth from Melbourne this summer was just a fresh start.
I express the certainty that next summer we will have the pleasure of
implementing a multiple number of hospitality programs. We encourage the
young people of our diaspora to visit Greece to get acquainted with the
values of the Greek culture and the spiritual traditions of the country
of their ancestors, to enjoy the natural beauties of our homeland and
its unparalleled hospitality.

As I
mentioned at the Summer University in Kastelorizo, we want Greeks,
wherever they are, to feel close to their homeland. We want their
children to know their roots and the unique wealth they have inherited.
We want them to be able to participate in Greek education. We want the
bright light of Greek culture to be passed on to the generations to
come. We want our homeland to continue to be the beacon of values and
love for man throughout the world.

The
messages that came to us this year were very positive and we look
forward to the fruitful cooperation with both the Greek communities in
Australia, as well as the Church, academic institutions, educational and
other institutions for the further development of the hospitality
programs of young expatriates in Greece. For our part, in cooperation
with other competent bodies, we are open to suggestions, ideas and
requests to respond in the best way to the expectations and dreams of
our young expatriates from their contact with the motherland.

G.H:
Nevertheless, there are issues that have been raised for discussion,
such as the double taxation agreement, which have been launched but are
still pending.

The Greek
government knows that the issue of double taxation is of serious concern
to our Greek diaspora in Australia. As the governor of The Independent
Public Revenue Authority, George Pitsilis, stated speaking with
representatives of the Greek diaspora of Australia at the beginning of
the month in Sydney, discussions are underway by the Ministry of Finance
and AADE with the Government of Australia for the conclusion of a
double taxation agreement between Greece and Australia.

If
such an agreement is signed, it is expected to have a positive impact
on the Greek diaspora here, as 82.000 Australian nationals are TFN
holders in Greece, 30.000 of them have Greek citizenship, while another
51.000 who have Australian citizenship are estimated to also be
descendants of our expatriates.

This
is, undoubtedly, a very important issue that concerns both our
expatriates and Australian entrepreneurs who wish to live or invest in
Greece, but also Greek companies or Greek investors who wish to do
business in Australia. Indicative of the importance attached to the
issue is the fact that there was an exchange of official correspondence
between the two countries at the highest level, including letters
between the two prime ministers, expressing a mutual strong commitment
to conclude the agreement as soon as possible. Let me remind you that
Greece has concluded similar mutually beneficial contracts with 57
countries and the conclusion of the negotiations is a constant pursuit
and a high priority issue of the Ministry of Finance.

G.H: Is a visit to Australia in your immediate plans?

Visiting
Australia has been very high on my priorities since I took office.
Unfortunately, for various reasons, most notably the restrictions
imposed by the health crisis at the time of the pandemic, it was not
possible to make this visit.

However,
as I mentioned above, I have regular and substantial communication with
many expatriates from Australia, with academics, with young people,
students and, of course, with the organised, expatriate communities.

Thanks
to technology, I have held a large number of online meetings with our
compatriots, we have chatted, we have developed cooperation and it is a
pleasure for me to welcome them in my office in Athens when they visit
Greece – something that happens regularly.

I
hope that during the first months of the new year, perhaps in February
or March 2023, I will have the pleasure and honour to visit Australia, a
visit that will be a milestone for me in the exercise of my duties and
at the same time will bring me in direct contact with all the dynamism
that the Hellenism of Australia exudes.

G.H: What’s your message to Australia’s Greek diaspora?

The
vital forces maintained by the Greek diaspora in Australia, which
remains always ready for action and progress, guided by the values of
Hellenism, are indeed impressive. I express to you our sincere interest
and love. We are always at your side, to listen to you, to respond to
your needs and to assist your work with all our forces.