A nurse was caught on the act stealing a man’s wallet via Skype from his father, in East Melbourne’s Epworth Freemasons Hospital which the Greek man and his wife visited after the premature birth of their first son. As the couple described, the nurse must have thought the room was empty but she was apparently spotted by the baby’s grandfather who was watching from Greece over a Skype connection.

First-time dad Nick, 31 (who does not want his full name published), was visiting his newborn son, born six weeks premature, when his wife Chrysa, 28, called him from the room. Speaking to local media, Chrysa described the couple’s unexpected and shocking experience: “My husband went back and his dad said to him, ‘Check your wallet, because I saw a lady come into the room and she opened your wallet and took something red’, as he does not know how the notes look in Australia. We checked and we realized that the money wasn’t there.”

A few minutes later, the nurse returned to the room and her father-in-law, who was still on Skype, identified her as the thief. The couple reported the incident to her superiors, who were also surprised as the woman was working at the hospital “for many many years,” as they said. “The hospital apologized and they were very nice with us. They said that the nurse was very upset,” Chrysa said. The young couple was told that they did not want to fire the nurse but thought it was best to let the hospital deal with the incident, while the nurse was also convinced to return the money ($20).

Epworth spokeswoman Colleen Coghlan confirmed the theft and said security cameras were being installed in public areas to prevent thefts from patient rooms, which was a rising problem. “I’m shocked. I think it was a horrible experience for the patient concerned and it is not something that anybody expects to happen when they come in to be cared for in a hospital,” she said.

Chrysa said the theft had come during a hard time for her and her husband, as just “three or four days” before the incident their son had been born six-weeks premature on September 9. “It was a shock because the baby had to stay at the hospital for another month. But all the nurses were very good with me and the baby. They made me feel secure and so, we were fine with that,” Chrysa concluded. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said the union was “shocked” but believed the incident was an isolated one.

A very special Greek-Australian family reunion is planned to be held next June by one of its descendants. According to Helen Haritos, offspring of Eustratios Haritos, one of the first Greek migrants in the northern city of Darwin, the reunion will bring together more than 100 family members from across Australia and Greece.

The Haritos family arrived in Darwin almost 100 years ago and like many Greek migrants, Eustratios Haritos was in search of work during the upheavals brought about by World War One. Along with them, almost another 1,000 Greeks reached the city between 1914 and 1919, said oral historian of the Northern Territory Archives Mathew Stevens to 105.7 ABC. “When WWI broke out and Vesty’s Meatworks was established in Darwin, there was something of a boom,” Stevens underlined.

Two years after arriving in Australia, Haritos established a salt pan business in Ludmilla to supply salt to meatworks. He also married another newly arrived Greek migrant, Eleni Harmanis, in what is thought to be Darwin’s first ever traditional Greek wedding. The two-for-one wedding married both Harmanis and her sister to two ambitious workers and was performed at the old Darwin Town Hall.

“I think there would have been quite a fascination that this Greek community was starting to have its own weddings. From 1917, we start to see the first Greek priest, a Greek Orthodox setup, and the communities of Greektown in the Doctors Gully area,” Stevens added. Helen Haritos describes this wedding as the beginning of the “Haritos dynasty.”

The newly married couple spent the next 20 years raising their family of eight children and building a life in Darwin, but the outbreak of World War Two uprooted their lives once again. Eleni Haritos and the youngest children were evacuated to Brisbane in late 1939, while her husband and one of their sons stayed back to run the saltworks, but were also eventually evacuated in 1942 after the bombing of Darwin Harbor and wound up running a banana plantation in the outback. The only member of the family who stayed in Darwin during the war was Helen’s father, George Haritos, who joined the army and went off to fight in New Guinea. While on rest and recuperation, he met Helen’s mother and after the war they came back to Darwin together as the rest of the family did and the clan went on to pursue a variety of careers in accounting, business and retail.

“They were all very successful in their lives. The boys really loved the Darwin lifestyle and in those days it was a pioneering environment. They were very adventurous and loved the sea. My father was connected to the sea most of his life,” Helen remembered.

The post-war period found George Haritos working as a carpenter but his real passion was hunting crocodiles. His exploits as a croc hunter with his plumber brother Nicholas and business partner Jim Edwards regularly made news headlines. They even assisted the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip, to shoot and skin a crocodile in the 1950s. George’s fascination with crocodiles stayed with him through his life, ending up in his backyard where he even kept a pet croc for a while. Helen still has memories of her father feeding the 13-foot crocodile with chicken in their suburban Darwin backyard. “Once mum and dad passed away, it was my duty to feed him,” she said.

In the late 1980s, before he died, George was presented with an Award Of Merit for his contribution to shipping. Helen underlined that her family’s story of migration and community integration is “fairly special” and she is now helping organize a big Haritos reunion for family scattered across Australia and back in Greece, where more than 100 family members are expected to meet in June.

The Labor Party of Victoria has promised to provide 60,000 dollars for the Greek Festival of Oakleigh, if it wins the upcoming state elections.

Labor Party leader Daniel Andrews will make the relevant announcement himself this Sunday at the festival, which he will attend along with Social Services Minister Jenny Mikakos and Greek-Australian Labor Party MP candidate in Oakleigh Steve Dimopoulos.

“Our MP candidate, Steve Dimopoulos, will support with all his might this wonderful festival that highlights the dynamism of the Greek Community,” said Andrews.

Mikakos noted that the Labor Party recognizes the Greeks’ struggle to preserve their cultural heritage and strengthen it. Finally, Dimopoulos, who has been involved in the local government for many years, said that his party appreciates diversity.

The Greek Festival of Oakleigh brings together more than 20,000 people. This year, it will take place on Saturday, November 1 and Sunday, November 2, (Melbourne Cup Weekend), at Warrawee Park. The festival will be filled with music and aromas from Greece and across the world. On the initiative of the Greek Orthodox Community, Oakleigh Festival, which started off as a humble parade of Oakleigh Grammar students, has evolved into a spectacular event. Celebrations will include parades, dances, a flea market, a carnival and a special entertainment program for children from Eaton Mall to Warrawee Park.

Eight months after taking office, the Greek managing director of auto maker General Motors Holden in Australia and New Zealand, Gerry Dorizas, has resigned.

Holden announced that in 2017, the company is planning on closing its facilities in Adelaide and Melbourne and abandon Australia in regards to car production.

When Dorizas was appointed managing director, he predicted that in 2020, Holden would still be first in car sales in Australia. The reasons behind his resignation have yet to be made public but General Motors Holden thanked him for his contribution.

After finishing his studies in Athens, Dorizas studied at Roosevelt University in the U.S., while he had worked in the automotive industry for twenty years in Europe and Asia.

He has worked for Fiat, Toyota, Hyundai and Volkswagen, and his last post, before being placed in Australia, was in India. Before he was involved in the auto-making business, Dorizas worked for Nixdorf Computer in Athens.

The presence of Greek-Australians on the list of scientists who will receive grants by the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia is prominent. A total of 580 million dollars have been allocated this year by NHMRC to help scientists conduct research in the field of medicine. More than 14 million dollars will be granted to members of the Greek Diaspora.

Professor Jonathan Karapetis, head of the University of Western Australia scientific team will receive 2,496,000 dollars in order to resume his research on rheumatic heart disease, a heart disease caused by streptococcus infection. This will be the largest grant, allocated to a Greek-Australian scientist.

The list of Greek-Australian researchers who will receive grants by the National Health and Medical Research Council is as follows:

• Professor Paul Glasziou for his work on utilizing medical research that have not been completed yet, in order to reduce unnecessary costs.
• Professor Sophia Zoungas for her research on diabetes in older groups and helping to prevent heart disease.
• Professor Christos Pantelis for his research on mental illness in adolescents and children.
• Professor Paul Nathan for his studies related to bone disease.
• Professor Andreas Fouras who has found a new revolutionary method for diagnosing lung diseases.
• Professor Stan Gronthos for his research on osteoporosis.
• Professor Tony Tiganis for his work on fatty liver disease and obesity.
• Professor Arthur Christopoulos who discovered a new effective and cheap drug for heart disease.
• Professor James Trikas for his research on issues related to TB.
• Professor Ross Vlahos for his work in haematological disorders.
• Professor Alexander Lucas for his research concerning cancer of the liver.
• Professor George Paxinos for the presentation of a 3D human brain map.
• Professor Nick Lintzeris for the completion of his research on the healing properties of cannabis.
• Dr. Peter Psaltis for his research related to nutrition and cells.
• Professor John Toumbourou for his research on whether reducing alcohol consumption in young adolescents helps reduce the harmful effects on a social level.
• Dr. Jim Vadolas for his research on thalassemia.

Victoria Premier Denis Napthine and Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews enjoyed good Greek food and folk dances at a Greek festival in Melbourne’s east on Sunday.

The Oakleigh Greek Glendi Festival is a big fiesta for the Greek Australian community and takes place at Warrawee Park. Last year, 20,000 people attended, enjoying Greek delicacies, dances and parades.

This year, the celebration took place during the first weekend of November, just 27 days from the state election. The two politicians took the opportunity to appeal to Melbourne’s large Greek community, and both promised to support the area financially.

Premier Napthine, alongside Planning Minister and member for Northern Metropolitan Matthew Guy, announced $200,000 to improve facilities in the area.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews promised $60,000 to fund the festival in Oakleigh if the Labor Party wins in the upcoming state election.

The event was washed out on Saturday evening but organizers were pleased with the turnout on Sunday.

According to Neos Kosmos, “the Oakleigh Greek Glendi – Unity Through Diversity Festival remains true to its name, celebrating the local community’s rich Hellenic culture, while endorsing and promoting the many other cultural identities that are present in the Australian population through social acceptance and unity.”

The Delphi Bank 21st Greek Film Festival came to a close on Sunday November 2 with a subject that is close to the heart of every Greek and Philhellene. John and Coerte Voorhees’ Promakhos premiered to two sold-out Sydney audiences at Palace Norton Street Leichhardt, a love story about two Greek Attorneys who sue the British Museum for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

In the frontline for the campaign to return Marbles is archeologist David Hill, Chairman of the Australians for the Return of the Parthenon Sculptures and since 2005 the President of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

David was present following the screening to update the audience on the next step of the campaign adding that the British governments’ steadfast refusal to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece is contrary to the overwhelming worldwide and majority British public support concluding with his belief that the marbles will eventually be returned

The film and Q&A ended what was a successful almost 3 weeks of Greek film screenings which included everything from romance, drama and everything in between.

The Delphi Bank 21st Greek Film festival is an event of the Greek Festival of Sydney and an initiative of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW.

An original event organized for Greek-Australian children in order to promote Greek olive oil took place in the monastery of Panagia Kamariani inn, Red Hill, Victoria. Children and parents, members of the Greek Diaspora, visited the monastery where they were informed about the significance of olive oil in ancient Greek mythology as well as modern Greece.

The excursion included a tour in the monastery workshops, curated by Katerina Poucharidou, where children and parents learned about the history of olives and olive oil in Greece and their importance not only for food, but also in other aspects of everyday life. For example, in ancient Greek competitions where the winners would be crowned with a wild olive wreath.

In addition, they were able to taste several delicacies whose main ingredient was olive oil, and donuts cooked by the award-winning Greek-Australian chef George Calombaris with the help of Helen Kapalos, a well-known presenter for Australian television.

At the end of the tour, all children were offered a bottle of Greek olive oil and a pot with a small olive tree to plant in the yard of their home.

The event was organized by the Modern Greek Teachers Association, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education of Victoria, the Education Office of the Greek Consulate, the Archdiocese, the Greek Community of Melbourne, the Thessaloniki Association, among others.

The president of the Modern Greek Teachers Association in Victoria, Costas Dimaras stated his excitement for the success of the event. He also noted that the association had many new initiatives planned for the promotion of Greek language and cultural tradition, since education cannot be confined in a classroom.

Two Melbourne Greek-Australian scientists are among the world’s top scientists for 2014, according to the Sunday edition of “Eleftheros Typos” newspaper.

Thomson Reuters made a list with 3,200 scientists from all over the world, whose work has benefited the planet. Two prominent Greek-Australian professors made the list.

University of Melbourne professor Christos Pantelis was included for his exceptional research work in the field of psychiatry. Monash University professor Arthur Christopoulos was also on the list for his research in pharmaceuticals in the field of psychiatry/psychology.

Dr. Christopoulos “is working to end the reign of ‘blunt hammer’ medicines. By targeting previously unappreciated drug recognition sites in the body, Dr. Christopoulos and his colleagues are developing medicines potent enough to offer better treatment of schizophrenia and diabetes, and selective enough to eliminate side-effects.”

Dr. Christopoulos is considered a top scientist in his field and has received two important awards for his work: the John J. Abel Award in pharmacology and the Michael Rand Medal.

Dr. Pantelis is head of a research team of 50 scientists who work in the field of psychiatry. He has written three books and published over 430 papers and scientific articles on schizophrenia, depression, autism and other subjects.

Dr. Pantelis was recently named in the Thomson Reuters list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014,” representing the top 1% of most highly cited scientists.

Last year he received the Robert Sommer award from the Justus Liebig University in Germany for his “outstanding achievements in the field of psychiatric research.”

Two Greek-Australians were included in the list of the 100 richest young people in Australia, in the “under 40 years old” category.

George Nakas from Melbourne, was placed in 10th, along with his partner Gavin Fernandes, with a personal worth of 188 million dollars. The two specialize in selling luxury cars.

The second member of the Greek Diaspora, who placed 77th, was Nick Georgalis from Canberra, with a 27-million-dollar fortune in real estate and hotels.

The list of 100 richest young Australians included artists and models such as Miranda Kerr, athletes Harry Kewell, Lleyton Hewitt and Tim Cahill, as well as numerous entrepreneurs.

The Minister of Macedonia and Thrace, Giorgos Orfanos and the Mayor of the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Giannis Boutaris are planning a visit to Australia this month.

Orfanos is planning on traveling to Melbourne, Australia on November 19, accompanied by a large delegation of Greek entrepreneurs. Two days later, the Mayor of Thessaloniki, Greece, Giannis Boutaris will be traveling to Australia, accompanied by a delegation of the Municipality of Thessaloniki.

The Municipality of Thessaloniki delegation will meet with representatives of the Municipal councils of Melbourne and Sydney.

Boutaris will be attending celebration events in Melbourne. He has also planned a series of meetings aimed at promoting Thessaloniki as a tourism destination to Australians. He is also set to visit the Jewish Museum dedicated to the Holocaust victims and will address the Jewish community with a speech on the Jewish community of Thessaloniki.

Two members of Greek extreme far-right political party Golden Dawn will visit Australia this week to raise funds and meet local supporters, according to a Guardian report.

Ignatius Gavriilidis, Golden Dawn’s Australian representative, said that the party members will be in Australia “in the coming days” and that their visit will be “very under the radar.”

The two Golden Dawn members are Georgios Epitideios, a member of the European parliament, and Michalis Giannagkonas, a party organizer. The two men will be in Australia for a series of events with local supporters in Sydney and Melbourne, Gavriilidis has confirmed.

The two politicians had announced their visit to Australia in August. However, their announcement was met with disapproval within the Greek Australian Community and Australian communities in general. Victorian MP Nick Kotsiras had said that Golden Dawn’s political message is that of hatred and has minimal support among Greeks in Australia.

“Golden Dawn does not represent me … and does not represent the vast majority of Greeks living in Australia … They are the antithesis of what the Hellenic spirit is all about,” Kotsiras had said at an abc.net.au report in August. He also said that they (the Golden Dawn members) would have to pass a character test to enter Australia since Golden Dawn has been characterized as a criminal organization.

Labor MP Michael Danby had asked Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to “deny them visas.” Meanwhile, the Melbourne Anti-Fascist Initiative will have a protest rally against Golden Dawn, as activist Alex Kakafikas claims. “We’re planning something that’s going to let them know their politics aren’t welcome here,” he said.

Gavriilidis said that the Greek ultra-nationalists will “meet their supporters and inform them of what’s going on overseas. The truth needs to be told; a lot of people are misinformed.” He also said that people who are anti-Golden Dawn will have an opportunity to sit down and talk with them and hear their views.

A Daniel Andrews Labor Party government will provide $100,000 each year during its first term towards the iconic annual celebration of Hellenic culture.

The Greek Community of Melbourne’s two-day Glendi in Lonsdale Street at the heart of Melbourne’s Greek precinct is one of the most prominent multicultural events in Victoria.

Abundant performances, activities and food make the Glendi a weekend carnival for all Victorians, attracting over 150,000 people in 2014.

Known as the biggest event of its kind outside of Greece, the Lonsdale Street Glendi showcases the enormous success of Victoria’s multiculturalism. The Labor party’s announcement reaffirms its commitment to the Greek Community in Victoria.

“The Greek community has made an enormous contribution to all aspects of life in our state. Labor’s commitment recognizes this contribution,” said Andrews. “Melbourne has the largest Greek population of any city outside of Greece in the world and the Lonsdale Street Glendi gives all Victorians a great opportunity to appreciate Hellenic culture.”

Earlier this year, the Labor Party made a $360,000 commitment to the Australian Greek Welfare Society for social workers to assist newly arrived migrants from Greece. The social workers will be based at Australian Greek Welfare Society offices in Brunswick and out-posted to the Greek Community of Melbourne offices in Lonsdale Street. Furthermore, the political party promised a $60,000 grant to the Oakleigh Greek Glendi on November 2. The announcement today brings Labor’s election commitments to the Greek community to $820,000.

Many Greeks in recent years have decided to move to Australia. The financial crisis in Greece and the rise of unemployment has led them to migrate abroad. Australia is one of their top destinations, since it offers a large Greek community. Adding to that, the Australian government had previously published an open invitation to Greeks wishing to work in Australia in several sectors, including taxi drivers.

A study conducted by the Australian-Greek Welfare Society (AGWS) was presented a few days ago, which included several interesting facts of this new migration trend of Greeks to the country.

The study entitled “The Voyage of Young Greek Migrants to Australia: Opportunities and Challenges” was conducted by Dr. Konstantinos Tsigas and was presented at the Migrant’s Museum of Melbourne in the presence of the Federal Minister of Social Services Kevin Andrews, who made special reference to the story of Greek migration to Australia that began 160 years ago.

According to the study, more than 8,000 Greeks have arrived to the State of Victoria from 2010 until today. The majority of them (60%) are Greek-Australians who had returned to Greece with their families before 2010 and decided to move back to Australia after failing to find a better life in Greece due to the financial crisis.

Migration to Australia is a challenge for the Greek community, since they have given it a new boost. Most new migrants are well-educated and skilled. For example, the Greek speaking schools have increased the number of attending students. However, AGWS is facing a lot of problems, since they do not have enough funds to support newcomers. The study concludes that soon, all newcomers will blend with the Australian society without problem.

The Northern Territory government and the Greek island of Kalymnos have come to an agreement for the establishment of a pilot training program designed to help skilled workers from Greece to work in Darwin, Australia, taking on job positions that cannot be filled by locals.

Thousands of migrants from Kalymnos live in Darwin, thus the city is twinned with the Greek island. Chief Minister Adam Giles stressed that this program was negotiated by the Parliamentary Secretary for Business Nathan Barrett with the governing council of Kalymnos during Barrett’s two-day stay on the island.

Giles said he had meetings with the Greek community of Darwin and the pilot program was a result of those meetings. He stressed, however, that the Northern Territory government “will always look to train local workers as the preferred option for filling workforce shortages.”

“However, past experience shows that despite every effort, training and national worker attraction activities are not satisfying workforce demands in our small business community. It made sense to test this program on Kalymnos, given its strong presence in the Territory’s Greek community,” he noted, adding that employers in Australia’s Northern Territory have already sponsored overseas skilled workers.

A new study conducted in Australia by a scientific team lead by Greek scientist Foteini Hassiotou, stressed the importance of breastfeeding, showing that breast milk plays an important role in the development of the child’s body because it contains stem cells that protect children from diseases like diabetes and Parkinson’s.

Hassiotou graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and then did postgraduate studies at the University of Western Australia. She is an assistant professor at the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the University of Western Australia in Perth, and is part of the Hartmann Human Lactation Research. Her team studied one of the human body’s major metabolic organs, the breast, and the natural product produced by women and passed on to infants. Their research has now brought to light another unknown aspect of the multifaceted organ.

Embryonic stem cells “can become bone cells, joint cells, fat cells, pancreatic cells, which produce their own insulin, liver cells, which produce albumin, and also neuronal cells,” said Hassiotou to New Scientist magazine.

During the new study, researchers created transgenic mice carrying one specific gene. When female rats gave birth, researchers let them breastfeed the young mice, whose mothers did not carry the gene. In the end, they found that the gene had been passed to the younger generation through breastfeeding.

Later, it was found that the stem cells had not only passed on to the body of the young mice, but they could also be found in their blood and in several tissues, such as the brain, thymus, pancreas, liver and kidneys. Some even produced important proteins, such as insulin, the lack of which causes diabetes.

Australian media have given great publicity to the stunning new discoveries at the Amphipolis tomb.

“Greece was informed that a skeleton was found in the Alexander the Great-era tomb that could provide answers to many critical questions,” broadcasted Australian Channel 7, noting that it is unlikely that the grave belongs to Alexander the Great.

Meanwhile, ABC stressed that the bones found in Amphipolis may solve the great mystery regarding who was buried there. Furthermore, ABC reported that the genetic material will be transferred to a special laboratory for testing in order to obtain the first data on the identity and ascertain the exact age of the person that was buried in the tomb.

FOX News added that the tomb has been looted but the thieves left the bones behind, which might help archaeologists find answers.

All the Australian media reports noted that according to available evidence, it is almost certain that the tomb belongs to a prominent Macedonian.

Greek Community of Melbourne President Vasilis Papastergiadis welcomed various Greek Diaspora organizations’ representatives in the community’s new building. During the special meeting, the officials discussed about the future of Greek-Australians and Greek organizations.

They exchanged ideas and made numerous proposals with a shared goal: to help Greek Diaspora organizations deal with their problems and survive in the future. In addition, they discussed about Greek education and their cooperation with the Greek Community of Melbourne.

Vasilis Papastergiadis spoke of a “new beginning” and a chance to move forward. He also stressed that the first generation of migrants managed to create the right conditions to address the need of the community and built a foundation for the future. However, as other speakers stated, new generations do not seem as interested in continuing the work of their forefathers, as far as Greek Diaspora organizations are concerned. Therefore, according to the President, it is imperative for the Diaspora to change its course.

Finally, the representatives were given a tour of the new Greek Community cultural center that ended on the roof, where they were able to marvel at the magnificent view.

The annual Macedonian Glendi of Oakleigh, Australia, which will take place on Sunday, November 16, will signal the close of this year’s Dimitria celebrations, an event organized by the Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne.

Thousands of Greek Diaspora members will arrive in Oakleigh in order to get a taste of their faraway motherland. As any other Greek glendi, the event will include food, dance and music, showcasing Greek-Macedonian cultural heritage.

Pan-Macedonian Union President Dimitrios Dolis is expected to attend and speak at the event, along with Consul General for Greece in Melbourne Christina Simantirakis and Monash Mayor Geoff Lake.

People from across Australia are welcome to attend the event, where they will be able to participate in Greek food cooking classes and have the chance to taste some of Greece’s tastiest dishes.

A member of the European Parliament for the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn has suspended his scheduled visit to Australia due to visa delays. This was announced earlier today by the party’s Australian branch spokesman, Ignatius Gavriilidis.

According to Golden Dawn, the Australian embassy in Greece “disrupted” the visit of members of the Greek party in the country. As Gavrilidis said to Australian network SBS, the visit of MEP Georgios Epitideios was intentionally postponed, as the “delaying tactics” have thrown out the plans to visit Australia and as a result, the planned supporter drive has been currently canceled. Additionally, Gavriilidis said that the visit could take place early next year, but that is just a scenario that he could not confirm with certainty.

On his behalf, Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison underlined that his government reserves the right to refuse visas for individuals deemed to represent an “unacceptable risk of harm.” “The government takes very seriously its role in protecting the Australian community from unacceptable risk of harm from criminal or other serious conduct by non-citizens. If a visa applicant is considered likely to engage in activities that fall within the scope of the character requirements of the Migration Act 1958, their visa application may be refused,” Scott explained.

Answering to the Immigration Minister’s allegations, the Australian branch Golden Dawn member said that the visa application has not been officially rejected so far.

The scheduled visit by Epitideios and other Golden Dawn members in Australia has caused the fierce reaction of the majority of Australia’s Greek community, while Hon Nicholas Kotsiras had also expressed his concerns.

Golden Dawn is currently the third political power in Greece, but its clear links to Neo-Nazi ideology, the denial of the Holocaust and various violent, racist actions of its members has led to criticism within Greece and internationally. In 2013, the assassination of rap artist Pavlos Fyssas (a.k.a. Killah P) led to the arrest of numerous of the party’s members and MPs. In October, prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos, handling the criminal investigation of the far-right party, recommended in his 700-page argument to a council of judges that its current 16-member parliamentary group – as well as the two that have resigned – should be trialed on charges ranging from belonging to and running a criminal organization to weapon offenses.