Active locals that no longer expect state support are making the revival of this northeastern Greek city their business Paschalis Xanthopoulos wastes no time recounting the past glories of Xanthi when we meet him at the elegant townhouse where celebrated composer Manos Hadjidakis was born imagine this house as a stage: 5-year-old Manos is holding his Cretan father’s hand as they cross the threshold and greet the owner from whom they’re renting the top floor a French-Jewish banker who moved here for the tobacco business urging them to hurry up because the boy’s Armenian piano teacher is waiting for him we hear the call to prayer from the nearby mosque Background and religion never divided people here We’re still very much of an ethnic jazz persuasion we have mosques for Sunnis and Bektashis; the only thing that’s gone is the synagogue,” he says Xanthopoulos is just another colorful piece of this multicultural puzzle that is the capital of Thrace in northeastern Greece His grandparents came from Asia Minor in 1922 and settled in a village near Abdera He later studied film and computer science in Athens where he headed the Xanthi Folk and History Museum the Foundation of Thracian Art and Tradition several municipal cultural programs and the Friends of Progress Association of Xanthi ‘The downturn began with the collapse of once-mighty cooperative factories around 2010… Today we have the lowest per capita income in the country’ Xanthopoulos tells us how reforms introduced by the city’s Ottoman sultan in 1840 attracted around a hundred wealthy families and companies from Constantinople Thessaloniki and the islands who wanted to invest in Xanthi’s tobacco industry and in the city Ottoman Xanthi was a tobacco trading hub but also a producer which also brought laborers and technicians organized on the basis of what people did rather than where they came from or what their religion was Workers flocked from every corner of liberated Greece and beyond looking for a better future until it all came crashing down in all three Bulgarian invasions which thrust the population into destitution “The descendants of those who once came from Epirus the Peloponnese and the islands now have active associations they often present themselves simply as Athenians you’ll see them joining the associations connected to their ancestral roots volunteer initiatives and traditional dances they become one with the local community,” says Xanthopoulos But what about this gorgeous building where the Oscar-winning composer took his first steps “The prefectural authority had it and fixed it up but then it passed on to the regional authority it only hosts events every so often,” he says adding that now he is director of the Komotini Concert Hall he hopes to breathe new life into it by turning it into a branch of that organization Situated in a cool neighborhood with cafes the location for such a venture couldn’t be better a creative writing workshop run by 34-year-old Vassiliki Stroli “I put together this circle of students on my own One of the great things about living in the country is that people will trust you when they see you doing something with honesty There’s a lot of thirst for new things,” she tells Kathimerini explaining that she uses literature and poetry to help her students express their feelings and gain more confidence Writing “is a lot like psychotherapy,” says Stroli Stroli managed to carve out a professional niche for herself and make a success of it “I spent four years as head of the European Information Office for Eastern Macedonia and Thrace – one of 14 such offices acting as a bridge between Brussels and each of the country’s regions Its role is to inform citizens about EU programs initiatives and even the structure of the European Union itself A large part of the people who came through our doors were students looking for job opportunities abroad The city’s young men and women want to stay but the job market gives them little choice My own classmates entered the workforce during the height of the economic crisis and left The downturn began with the collapse of once-mighty cooperative factories around 2010 We ended up with an unemployment rate of 40% – among the highest in the EU we have the lowest per capita income in the country making us one of the poorest regions in both Greece and Europe There’s little room to plan for the future let alone to dream,” the 34-year-old tells Kathimerini “Yet there are so many advantages here,” he continues “The people of Xanthi come into the world born right beside a Muslim and an Armenian You will find three ethnic backgrounds and languages in one room And this is how it goes until you leave at the age of 18 hostility and intolerance that poisons this country every so often After seven centuries of coexistence with Muslims and Jews the reference point for the people of Thrace is how much they love their home – not God and language The fact that we have so many volunteer organizations in this city says as much We’re on the edge of Greece here and deprived of so much that we seek to get these things on our own through these institutions We are forgotten by the state and that rankles It’s biased by stereotypes and ignores the delicate balances that people here instinctively respect Because each of us knows the invisible boundaries and the subtle connections that run beneath the surface Bardakis believes that the ideal place for nurturing this kind of coexistence is the university and is eager to take up his new job as a community engagement officer for the Democritus University we decided to head to the university campus home to five schools and a vital source of youthful energy for the city of Xanthi The School of Architecture facilities are disappointing; not so the enthusiasm of its students Eva Kambouta and Theodora Theodorou are from Thessaloniki and are now in their fifth and final year at the school and the low cost of living that makes things so much easier,” they say “The coolest thing about this place was becoming so familiar with multiculturalism becoming familiar with the sound of the imam it would be to demolish a few really ugly buildings It’s wonderful to study architecture right next to the old town.” We met the young women outside the office of the school’s chairman he is one of a handful of academics teaching at the university who decided to settle in Thrace rather than commute back and forth “I knew nothing of Xanthi when I started teaching here in 2004 I also had a class at the National Technical University of Athens on Stournari Street and would come from the madness of central Athens to here to see a donkey tied up to a tree in a field outside the window I’d leave and come back the following week to see the same donkey in the same field But small and medium-sized towns have some incredible advantages you get all your errands done fast and on foot Xanthi has survived thanks to the university It’s a growth engine that has been making a difference ever since 1975 and has been attracting a critical mass of students since the 1990s,” he says noting that the School of Architecture has been doing particularly well in the rankings Commenting on Xanthi’s lost architectural identity Polychronopoulos explains how “a building boom swept through the area in the 1990s replicating the Athenian model at a 30-year delay and bringing with it the same poor esthetics and construction standards much of the city’s character was destroyed a significant architectural legacy remains – such as the 126 tobacco warehouses – which could offer the city a fresh sense of purpose and renewal.” We make the obligatory stop at the Papaparaskevas pastry shop founded by a baker from Eastern Thrace who created his own dessert by marrying sponge cake The award he was given for this delight by Kathimerini’s Gastronomos culinary magazine graces one of the walls alongside photographs attesting to the business’ 99-year history We are treated to a couple of cakes by Efi Arseni and Natasha Papagiannopoulou stocking up on the calories needed to make the trek to Nestos one of Greece’s most beautiful rivers and once deified we meet up with Ilias Michailidis from Riverland a company that offers canoe excursions down the Nestos’ calm waters He explains that up until 2018 he also offered tours on the train which was one of the country’s most popular routes for nature buffs the train was getting slower and the service was abolished even though it could have been used seasonally Now the commute between Drama and Alexandroupoli can only be done by bus Cargo trains occasionally use the track – which is part of the network connecting the borderland region of Evros to Athens – says Michailidis adding that they’re often carrying NATO equipment from the port of Alexandroupoli runs between two national holidays: March 25 and October 28 “We get around 1,000 visitors in that space of time We’re the oldest company offering such tours People didn’t believe that the Nestos could become a destination back then Our visitors include both Greeks and foreigners Nature alone could be the best reason for someone to visit our region But Thrace is often left out of national planning The environment is at risk because people are leaving even proper environmental protection becomes impossible,” says Michailidis We ask business consultant Dimitris Bardakidis what the local economy would look like without the boost from tourism “The productive population has been dwindling since the pandemic years The region of Thrace has the lowest per capita GDP in Greece and 24% of the population only has an elementary school education precisely because only a small number of educated young people stay on,” says the 47-year-old Xanthi native “The cooperative factories manufacturing tomato and potato products tobacco and sugar generated jobs and capital up until 1990 as well as a few big factories like Thrace Plastics and [tech company] Sunlight that employ a few hundred people The agricultural population in the region comes to around 7,500 people while a much larger number of people are employed by the civil service and the military There was a time when the state offered incentives for people to invest in Thrace That changed in 2000 and the situation is now completely reversed There are now more benefits for investing in Crete than in the borderlands of Evros – and that’s a purely political decision,” says Bardakidis helps farmers and businesses access European Union and national funding resources The firm has been focusing on innovative industries ideas and practices for the last seven years and one ambitious scheme that is already being implemented in cooperation with the Democritus University is the development of Europe’s first digital innovation hub in the agrifood sector Agriculture and livestock farming could significantly bolster the population of the mountain areas where young Pomak men are migrating en masse into physically demanding jobs mostly sandblasting in shipyards in the Netherlands and Germany 80% of the population consists of women and children The husbands come back twice a year and leave again many with health problems from work-related accidents And the young women who want to work have very limited options These young women are the driving force behind the social cooperative company Pleteno Even the building where it’s based is symbolic: Up until 1995 it was a guardpost for the restricted crossing into Pomak country We visited the knitting workshop and met educators Areti Bofiliou and Bengiul Burbuk as well as the ever-active founder of the Ethnological Museum of Thrace and a few of the 13 young women taking part in the endeavor The seed for this venture was planted at the Second Chance School in the village of Kentavros They were back at school to improve their Greek and to get their certificate but also to gain more confidence and a sense of self,” says Bofiliou “One of the things we did there was a virtual business project through an Education Ministry program and it got the students really excited But what kind of business could they start when all they knew was their village and their home There was an old factory that used to dye fabrics and had leftover scraps So we thought: They can use these scraps to knit something because knitting is something they already know from their mothers and grandmothers,” she adds The team was initially made up of just a small handful of people but the venture took off in 2020 when Giannakidou became involved we campaigned to have this state-owned building allocated to the venture because until then it was showcasing its wares in a completely unsuitable space It was run down and full of mice; it needed to be painted and fixed up Then came the challenge of helping it expand its reach We brought in experts who showed the girls new designs and techniques We secured new looms through the Culture Ministry and took Pleteno to the Thessaloniki Fair and to Athens as well,” says Giannakidou “It opened up another path to us,” they tell Kathimerini We’d come back from the fields and had nothing to do but here they taught us something that has value The greatest moment was the exhibition in Athens: We just couldn’t believe that so many people came to see the things we make.” we feel a warmth in our hearts – because this is the effect it has on people say it best at our farewell dinner: “You come a stranger Enter your information below to receive our weekly newsletters with the latest insights opinion pieces and current events straight to your inbox This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page PERFECT Match star Xanthi Perdikomatis has clarified multiple rumors regarding her relationship status including whether she had a boyfriend during filming The reality star appeared on Friday's episode of the After Curfew podcast Xanthi, 28, chatted with host Jillian Lena in the car for the debut of the Sweet Treat Run video series the pair snacked on candy and salty snacks The TV personality starred in the second season of the Netflix dating show Perfect Match but that didn't exclude her from the rumor mill that ensued particularly about her supposedly having a significant other upon entering the villa The Circle alum addressed the chatter with Jillian and called out her costar "Like boy, if you knew the type of men that I date, they would never. They would never, you know, and also, like, I'm such a loyal girl, like, I don't, I wouldn't go on a dating show," she defended. "It's a dating show, right? So, like, whose boyfriend or girlfriend would be okay with them sitting there making out, lap dances, toe sucking, like, you know what I mean? "That was the craziest rumor I've ever heard. I was just like, and knowing who I am, too, as a woman, like, good try, homeboy, like no one believed that, except you're little posse of whatever," Xanthi ended. Xanthi revealed that she is single and open to dating since failing to find her perfect match on the show she clarified that she was not romantically involved with her fellow Perfect Match castmate Xanthi and Justin first sparked dating rumors shortly after the finale aired due to their flirty TikToks together The pair had little interaction on the show as Justin entered the villa just as Xanthi left Justin also ended the season without a solid connection and fans have questioned whether there's something between him and Xanthi But Xanthi set fans straight and insisted that she and Justin are just friends and have bonded over being from Boston Here are all the contestants in season two of the hit Netflix dating show including where you may know them from.. "Justin and I didn't really have and we had a great time," Xanthi explained why we didn't get to talk that much on Perfect Match it was just nice to get to know him off camera as well with not all the pressure and everything going on." while noting that she and Justin are not dating Xanthi admitted that he's the only one of her costars she wished she'd gotten to know more from the jump "So I'd say probably Justin if I had to choose," Xanthi confessed everyone kind of showed their colors right away." Dozens of reality star hopefuls competed on season 2 of Perfect Match, though only five couples made it to the finale Netflix announced the series was renewed for a third season With the colorful mosaic of the Municipal Market as a backdrop Xanthi is preparing to welcome a festival that is expected to awaken all the senses highlighting the gastronomic wealth of the region and the cultural identity that accompanies it It is an experience that marries tradition with creativity bringing to the fore the flavors of Xanthi through the eyes and hands of a well-known chef who will cook on site together with students from the Xanthi Cooking School The dishes that will be presented will be based exclusively on local products reinforcing the idea that local production can become the protagonist of the gastronomic narrative the festival has clear goals: to highlight the region's gastronomic heritage and to strengthen the local economy through tourism At the heart of the initiative is the creation of the "Xanthi Dish" a signature dish that will act as an ambassador of local cuisine both in Greece and abroad It is the old city with its architectural magic the narrow streets with Ottoman courtyards and mansions and the scents of spices that linger in the atmosphere the city attempts to add yet another reason to visit — and this time It is noted that the action is organized by the Xanthi Chamber in collaboration with the Municipality of Xanthi and the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace which participates as a co-organizer within the framework of its strategy for targeted tourism promotion Nafplio at the epicenter of world yachting with the 10th Mediterranean Yacht Show Samaria Gorge “War Zone” – “Others Decide, We Pay the Price” Argosaronic Islands: Need for a long-term strategy and modern infrastructure FedHATTA | Tourism Bridges between Greece and the Chinese province of Guizhou Top distinctions for Greece and Santorini at the American Leisure Lifestyle Awards 2025 HOTREC | Supporting SMEs in European Hospitality Tourism | Promoting Crete in the Arabian Gulf Aegean and Emirates expand their partnership Delta | Athens is in 5th place in American searches for 2025 Promotion of Preveza on the metro and tram in Athens TripAdvisor Awards 2025 | Elafonisi Beach World's Best Beach - 9th in Crete, Sani Beach Award 12th BAJAGREECE: Motorsports Competition in Western Macedonia Crete also invests in cycling tourism - 13th Pediadas Tour Competitions with a summer and autumn backdrop: Attica runs at the pace of sports ATM'25 - Tourism | The fight against food waste at the forefront of sustainable development easyJet holidays | Fam trips to Santorini, Skiathos and Rhodes Chania: The next actions of the “Tourism Partnership” Navarino Challenge returns on May 9-11, 2025 Cruise Takeoff in Chania – Record Arrivals in the First Quarter of 2025 Three Greek beaches among the world’s 50 best – Triumph for the Ionian The “Typhoon” that saves the Greek coasts from garbage EOT at the “Arabian Travel Market” | Interest from Gulf countries, India, and Australia CERT to manage Vasilitsa Ski Resort – Investment of over 20 million euros Is American tourism in Europe “slowing down”? What do professionals see for 2025 and 2026 This is Athens & Partners | The 7 partners renew their collaboration - the joint actions FedHATTA: Dynamic presence of Greek travel agencies at the international Dubai exhibition ATM 2025 Ryanair announces new offer for Prime members on June flights Thomas Ellerbeck | “Rhodes can become a model of sustainable tourism internationally” The Times | The perfect time to experience the authentic side of Santorini Chania: The Alternative Tourism Festival returns to the Venetian Port Angela Gerekou: "Tourism is a force for good and Greece can play a leading role" New flights to Greece in 2025 from 4 airlines Crete welcomes Reveil 12 – Festival of Sounds and Ecology Greek tourism - 3rd quarter | 97% of arrivals in Athens and Thessaloniki Modernization aid for the marinas of Symi and Messolonghi HOTREC Assembly: Focus on challenges and reforms in European tourism AEGEAN 2025: Passenger growth and fleet expansion with an eye on the international market FedHATTA Cooperation with Shaanxi Province, China Greek academic in finalists of European Sustainable Energy Awards 2025 Thessaloniki museums join forces to promote the city GNTO introduces “Sustainable Greece” to British Agents Strategic meeting for cruises in Santorini A message of friendship and cooperation at the friendly Greek-Turkish football match in Chios Municipality of Xiromero | Diving tourism: Request for sinking of a decommissioned warship The first La Quinta by Wyndham in Batumi, Georgia Double racing event in Megalopolis on May 11: Festival Enduro and Theater Run 2025 Explora Journeys: Start of the summer season with the luxurious EXPLORA I from Piraeus Strong start in 2025 for Aegean and SKY Express Xanthi Tastes: A Gastronomy Festival with a Cultural Flavor Rhodes: These are the five-star hotels with the highest revenue – Which ones “fill up” first Greek Tourism/Webhotelier: The Winners and Losers in Online Bookings for 2025 GNTO | Promotion of Santorini in target markets Unprecedented blackout in Spain, Portugal, France Greece can play a leading role in the global sports tourism scene Rhodes | Event for the protection of biodiversity Attica, the …Caribbean of the Germans Agios Nikolaos | Cruise season kicks off with arrival of luxury Silver Spirit Operational Plan: “Cretan Food Culture 2026-2030” Destination Management and Promotion Organization in Thessaloniki Kefalonia: The authentic character of the island through the “Travel Reimagined” project Hoteliers vs. Booking.com: The European uprising has begun Tourism | Greece 4th choice for Europeans' holidays in 2025 - what the ETC survey shows New high-standard heated swimming pool in Chania, aimed at sports tourism Greeks Traveled (A Lot!) in 2024 – Where They Went, How Much They Spent Greek-American Dean Spanos brings the NFL to Greece – Opportunities for promotion in the USA Lesvos: The season begins with birdwatching tourists MSC Cruises: Strengthens its presence in Greece with 6 cruise ships New Luxury Arrival in Crete | JW Marriott Crete Resort & Spa Opens on June 2 "Peloponnese Trails" inaugurated today: New network of trails for sustainable tourism Knossos: 125 years since the excavations of Arthur Evans The Spanish TV show “Viajeros Cuatro” in Corfu Wyndham - Soliteight | 40 Super 8 hotels in Spain and Portugal Airbnb: Final price now displayed in accommodation searches Investments in the beaches of the Attica Riviera The Municipality of Chania at the “From Crete to Side” Festival in Turkey Region of Central Macedonia: Tourism Promotion Activities in Poland and the Middle East Region of Crete | Connecting Minoan Palatial Centers with Archaeological Sites Biodiversity protection plan is in full swing in Elafonisi Record participation in the ATHENA International Olive Oil Competition | Chania 8 - 10 May Communities at the heart of tourism development Booking.com | No to limiting tourists, yes to infrastructure investments Thessaloniki’s dynamic presence at the World Tourism Summit in Hong Kong easyJet | Summer 2026 sales open Cruise | Turkey doubles its share, new opportunities for Greek ports Aid for the upgrade of the tourist shelter of Astakos and the Marina of Alimos Preparing the settlement of Kionia for the tourist season: An example to follow The action of the region of Crete "Let's go for... Greens" concludes this weekend “Art is our Language”: Campaign for the 70th Anniversary of the Athens Epidaurus Festival Tourism | Nostalgia drives Brits’ travel choices ΕΟΤ China | B2B meetings with Chengdu's t.os - Flights to Athens in June State-of-the-art conference center at Theartemis Palace Hotel in Rethymno Zagori: Collaboration with Impact Hub Athens for sustainable tourism and innovation Cooperation Memorandum between Development Athens and Piraeus University on Tourism Kos: New advertising campaigns with Jet2 and National Geographic Traveller UK Five cruise ships in Souda by Saturday Imbros Trail Run & Hike 2025: A sporting tribute to the History of Sfakia Cultural Days and Sea Routes in Piraeus Religious Tourism | The University of Palermo comes to Panagia Nafpaktiotissa Audio Walk in the Sitia Geopark: A Different Exploration Experience in Crete AEGEAN “takes off” Larnaca with a new direct flight to Rome FedHATTA | Tourism Bridges between Greece and the Chinese province of Guizhou Top distinctions for Greece and Santorini at the American Leisure Lifestyle Awards 2025 Nafplio at the epicenter of world yachting with the 10th Mediterranean Yacht Show Tourism | Promoting Crete in the Arabian Gulf Aegean and Emirates expand their partnership HOTREC | Supporting SMEs in European Hospitality Samaria Gorge “War Zone” – “Others Decide, We Pay the Price” Delta | Athens is in 5th place in American searches for 2025 Argosaronic Islands: Need for a long-term strategy and modern infrastructure TripAdvisor Awards 2025 | Elafonisi Beach World's Best Beach - 9th in Crete, Sani Beach Award ATM'25 - Tourism | The fight against food waste at the forefront of sustainable development Promotion of Preveza on the metro and tram in Athens Crete also invests in cycling tourism - 13th Pediadas Tour Competitions with a summer and autumn backdrop: Attica runs at the pace of sports 12th BAJAGREECE: Motorsports Competition in Western Macedonia The 20 "loudest" luxury hotel arrivals in Greece in 2025 Cruise Takeoff in Chania – Record Arrivals in the First Quarter of 2025 New flights to Greece in 2025 from 4 airlines Athens Municipality Festival 2025 | The city's biggest celebration, with more than 200 events easyJet holidays | Fam trips to Santorini, Skiathos and Rhodes What to expect at this year’s ITB Berlin Exhibition from March 4-6 Greece's Permanent Delegation to UNESCO organizing concert on January 16 PM at 1st Greece-Saudi Arabia High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council on Monday North Macedonia: Increase in foreign tourists in 2024 Greek Tourism 2024: Record Performance at a Glance has announced its intention to unleash specially trained falcons into the city center in a bid to tackle what it claims is an infestation of pigeons the municipal authority will be hiring professionals to train an undisclosed number of falcons to repel pigeons from roosting on the city center’s buildings are not only making life in the city center unpleasant but are also a public health concern and contribute to the degradation of public buildings and monuments It said that using falcons to repel them is a humane and natural way to resolve the problem unsightly interventions like netting or violence against the pigeons The scheme has not met with the approval of local conservation groups “The first reason is that falconry involves keeping wild animals in captivity The second is that pigeon populations can now be controlled with feed that makes them sterile,” Anna Maria Zafeiriadou a spokesperson for the Adepotoulia Xanthis animal protection group told Mega TV will just “leave the square and move further into the city.” Members get unlimited access to all our most valuable content long before the masses Exclusive access to newly released gear and tech and entrepreneur secrets delivered to your inbox monthly Fatherly Magazine Fatherly advice for the modern Canadian dad Female Fitness Magazine Canadian Female fitness and healthy living magazine Black Incorporated Magazine Empowering and Inspiring Canadian Black Executives and Entrepreneurs with an energetic and straightforward demeanor Xanthi has captivated audiences on-screen and online amassing significant followings on platforms like Instagram and TikTok Xanthi brings a unique blend of Greek-Boston culture to her public persona She embodies a no-nonsense attitude combined with a warm and engaging presence which has not only endeared her to fans but also made her a sought-after figure in the entertainment and fashion industries Xanthi’s journey in the public eye began with her modelling career where she has worked on numerous campaigns for high-profile brands Her ability to resonate with and appeal to a broad audience quickly translated into success in reality television On “The Circle” Xanthi entered the game and played as herself before having a second chance at the game as the catfish profile “Jennifer” – a 51-year-old dog trainer – whose profile was assigned to her and teammate Brett Robinson (Big Brother) Their gameplay showcased versatility and strategic acumen which saw the duo ultimately make it to the finale and finish in a commendable fifth place Her stint on “The Circle” was marked by her strategic gameplay and genuine interactions which were both entertaining and insightful and reflected her real-life approach to challenges and social dynamics Xanthi continued to leverage her growing fame becoming an active ambassador for the fashion brand Pretty Little Thing This role sees her promoting the brand and engaging with important social issues and trends Xanthi maintains her connection with her fans through active social media engagement This direct line to her audience has been instrumental in her sustained popularity Xanthi’s appeal lies in her authenticity and ability to remain faithful to her roots while navigating the complexities of fame Xanthi is passionate about her Greek culture A role model for other young Greek-Americans her fans enjoy the lighthearted moments she shares through her platforms with her family and loves ones; whether it’s sharing some Greek-American humor or simply a nice family dinner on a Sunday As she prepares to appear on “Perfect Match,” fans are eager to see more of her dynamic personality and if she will find her match and potentially love on the show Xanthi’s journey is a testament to her versatility and ability to connect with people across different mediums making her a standout personality in today’s digital and entertainment landscape Her participation in “Perfect Match” Season 2 is highly anticipated as viewers look forward to seeing how her fiery and forthright nature will play out in this new setting Be sure to tune in on June 7th to see it all unravel when the singles enter the tropical villa and destination Perfect Match Xanthi has already proven herself to be a relatable and influential figure Get the latest Swagger Scoop right in your inbox Input your search keywords and press Enter has been sentenced to seven years in prison (84 months) without suspension by the Single-Member Misdemeanor Court of Xanthi for failing to pay wages owed to employees of the professional football club This marks the first major criminal conviction issued by a Greek court against Papas The case involved four separate lawsuits concerning unpaid wages and vacation allowances owed to 20 employees Papas did not appear in court and was represented by an assistant lawyer from Thessaloniki The lawyer clarified that he had only taken on Papas’s defense in one of the four cases due to financial constraints and long-time club staff member Hussein Tsitak who had been with Xanthi FC before the tenure of former owner Christos Panopoulos and groundskeeper Mehmet Chetak testified that they had received their salaries from Papas Other employees who had been paid before the club’s financial collapse did not attend the trial meaning that law enforcement authorities are required to arrest Papas and place him in prison if he is found in Greece This follows a previous conviction in 2023 when he was sentenced to nine months in prison for the same wage-related offenses Papas is also embroiled in legal troubles in Australia A Sydney court recently found him guilty of defrauding Australian banks out of hundreds of millions of dollars though that case was a civil matter rather than a criminal conviction Greek authorities have seized all his assets in the country—including his shares in the now-liquidated Xanthi FC—due to money laundering investigations linked to the Australian charges While Papas is expected to appeal the Xanthi court’s decision the appeal will not have a suspensive effect meaning he must be imprisoned regardless of any further legal action The emerging trend of “political baptisms” or “secular naming ceremonies” has gained attention recently with many parents opting not to baptize their children instead choosing to leave the decision regarding religion to their adulthood alongside other social developments such as civil marriage and civil partnerships which views it as yet another “blow” to Orthodox tradition In an interview, as reported by thraki.com.gr Metropolitan Panteleimon of Xanthi and Peritheorion expressed his dissatisfaction with the growing distance that some individuals appear to be taking from religious traditions “We have removed Christ from our lives — when we choose not to baptize our children we are not showing them true love,” he remarked The Metropolitan emphasized the significance of baptism as a form of spiritual protection for children “It is a crime to leave our children unbaptized.” He highlighted the gravity of Greece’s demographic issue noting that births are declining while deaths are on the rise which poses serious challenges and negative consequences for society “We have removed God from our schools and from our lives and the antichrist takes His place,” he warned The Metropolitan further emphasized the responsibility of parents to baptize their children drawing a comparison between baptism and essential vaccinations which parents decide on their children’s behalf without consulting them “We do not truly love them when we leave them unprotected by the Grace of God,” he added Metropolitan Panteleimon also highlighted the Ministry of Education’s responsibility for the removal of religion from the curriculum it is left to the discretion of teachers whether prayer takes place in schools,” he remarked concluding that society is already witnessing the negative consequences of distancing itself from religious traditions On the occasion of the feast of the Church of Saint George the Great Martyr in Knjaževac On the eve of the conclave that will begin on Wednesday to elect a new Pope The annual graduation ceremony of the Patriarchal Toronto Orthodox Theological Academy (PTOTA) was held at the Cultural Centre of.. Archbishop Makarios of Australia will be conferred the title of Honorary Doctor by both the Department of Theology and.. The Vatican announced on Monday that all telephone communication within its territory will be suspended during the upcoming conclave.. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew delivered the keynote address at the International Scientific Conference “Restarting from Nicaea:.. (function() { window.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || { listeners: [] cb) { window.mc4wp.listeners.push( { event : evt callback: cb } ); } } }})(); © 2023 OrthodoxTimes.com - All rights reserved Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website These cookies do not store any personal information Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website Three rare golden eagles – a pair with their chick – have been found dead a Natura 2000 area in mountainous Xanthi near the Greek-Bulgarian border Wildlife officials became concerned when they noticed that the satellite transmitters on the birds were located at a fixed location for a long period officials from special poisoned bait detection units the Natural Environment and Climate Change Organization Thrace Biodiversity Protection Society and the forestry service the remains of a medium-sized carnivorous mammal were also found which the birds had probably carried from afar to feed on The experts suspect that the mammal had previously consumed poisoned bait and that its subsequent consumption by the golden eagles resulted in their secondary poisoning The forestry service has sent the dead birds and the mammal for an autopsy and toxicological tests The female eagle was born in 2020 in the Evros she settled in the Kompsatou area and in 2024 she successfully reproduced for the first time raising the chick that was also found dead The golden eagle is an endangered species protected by European and national legislation Its population in Greece has been declining at an alarming rate in recent years and it was assessed as “endangered” in the most recent Greek “Red List.” The illegal use of poisoned bait remains a common practice in Greece even though it has been prohibited by law since 1993 are looking for clues into the identities and whereabouts of a group of armed burglars who broke into a house while the occupants were still there on Christmas night the burglary was carried out by five men wearing balaclava masks and gloves to hide their identities and wielding a gun and lead pipes which they used to intimidate the couple who were in the house when the break-in took place The perpetrators made off with an undisclosed amount of cash reportedly threatening the couple with violence but not injuring them Police officers dispatched to the scene found the victims’ cellphones a short distance from the house where the burglars had presumably dumped them as they ran off with their loot The largest gathering in the half century history of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America turned out to celebrate this year’s honorees of the Athenagoras Human Rights Award Father Alexander and Presbytera Xanthi Karloutsos About 1,300 attended the October 27 banquet held at the New York Hilton Midtown.  The master of ceremonies was Fox News Chief Congressional and Senior Political Correspondent Emanuel said that while he had served as master of ceremonies many times before you consider Father Alex to be a spiritual father and mentor well then you feel tremendous joy that tonight the Order of Saint Andrew is honoring this distinguished and dedicated priest for his decades of service to our beloved Church at all levels and Presbytera Xanthi for her decades of giving her time and talent to causes greater than self.” “Being in Washington over the past seventeen years,” said Emanuel “I’ve heard Presidents from both parties mention Father Alex – a recognition of his talent And three Archbishops have depended heavily on him over the decades….His focus and determination are legendary.” Father Alex’s brother James Karloutsos spoke movingly about their early life and said of his brother: “His accomplishments have been molded by his faith That lifelong faith strengthened his commitment and devotion to better the lives of all who seek him out.” He added that Father Alex “serves and respects the poorest of the poor He has always had an unwavering respect for human dignity His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France the Personal Representative of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew not even once.” He praised “their spiritual care for every person they have encountered over their decades of service in ministry In a video message recorded for this event His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew addressed the Order saying: “You have rightly chosen to recognize and honor the unwavering dedication and selfless service they have demonstrated the last five decades to Orthodoxy in the United States and throughout the entire world…Father Alex has deeply impacted and enriched many souls around the globe in search of spiritual refuge and guidance.”  noted the Athenagoras Human Rights Award not only recognizes the impact that an individual or organization has had on the respect for human dignity and religious freedom in our world but it also bears the name of a great Ecumenical Patriarch a great Archbishop of our Holy Archdiocese of America “There isn’t a person in this room who is unaware of the historic and monumental decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to heal schisms in Ukraine and once and for all bestow upon the long-suffering and noble Ukrainian people their independence and birthright of autocephaly,” Dr “We know what the Mother Church is up against and as Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and we will continue to stand at Her side in this battle for religious freedom.” As the Archons engage on behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in what Limberakis termed “this fight for the freedom and self-determination of Ukraine and the canonical rights and prerogatives of the Ecumenical Throne granted by the seven Ecumenical Councils there are no better comrades in arms than Father Alex and Presbytera Xanthi.” Limberakis also spoke of “the extraordinary labor of love that has enabled the Saint Nicholas Shrine to rise like a phoenix from the ashes at Ground Zero.” He assured the audience that the shrine will be completed and that Father Alex and Presbytera Xanthi will get this done In his response to receiving the Award with his wife “Although we are not the most worthy recipients of this Award we are immensely aware and humbled by its worth Patriarch Athenagoras was a visionary for our Church in America and the Ecumenical Patriarchate was bequeathed to us by this prophetic Prelate “Even our political ties to the Oval Office began when then Archbishop Athenagoras was called in November 1948 to lead the Sacred See of Saint Andrew as part of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan to keep the First Throne of Orthodoxy from being trapped behind the Iron Curtain and falling into the communist hands of Stalin’s Soviet Union.” Father Alex emphasized the role his wife has played in his service to the Church: my wife Xanthi and I have worked and served in the holy priesthood for over 48 years While I was processing with Popes and Patriarchs my unseen co-worker was sorting suitcases at airports; while I was in receiving lines with Presidents and First Ladies at the White House Presbytera Xanthi was arranging chairs at the State Department; when I celebrate the Divine Liturgy and enjoy the first seat in our Church my co-disciple takes the last pew to ensure proper discipline in the Narthex and Nave; while I’m the maître de superstar at our Hamptons Greek Festival my privileged Presbytera is peeling onions Presbytera Xanthi expressed her gratitude for the recognition they received because whatever we have achieved together we did it because it was what we truly believed,” noting that her and Father Alex have been given unique opportunities to serve the Church they love so much “Each act of service has been special because of our love for our Ecumenical Patriarchate receiving this honor is really special,” she said “I remember hearing about the legendary Patriarch Athenagoras since I remember the time I was a little girl and received his blessing while visiting Corfu and to receive this Award with his name and image is so very meaningful to us.” noted that several of the speakers “spoke about joy,” and that “joy is something that characterizes” the Karloutsos family is “filled with the joy of Christ no matter what happens,” and Father Alex and his family epitomize this Archbishop Demetrios added: “Thanks to his tremendous ability and good cooperation with a number of very able people we were able to have a dramatic increase in the number of members of Leadership 100.”  Archbishop Demetrios also praised Father Alex for facilitating access to Presidents Clinton The Archbishop detailed more of Father Alex’s accomplishments and then asked: “If you hear what you heard so far: Leadership 100 what happened to the family of this person To take care of the family and giving to Father Alexander the possibility to move…through different levels and kinds of activity it’s another thing to deal with political authorities and it’s another thing to deal with extraordinary events like a unique Holy and Great Synod in Crete.” He also recounted Father Alex’s tireless efforts to rebuild and restore St and make it a beacon of Orthodoxy in New York City and America as a whole Dr. Limberakis also expressed his appreciation to “our esteemed Archon George E. Safiol who was honored the previous day with the Nicholas J. Bouras Award for Extraordinary Archon Stewardship the National Commander also expressed his thanks to the generous benefactors of the banquet including the five underwriters as well as those who contributed to sponsoring this year’s banquet “We are pleased to announce we have raised $1.4 million which will be used exclusively and prudently for the worldwide ministries of the Ecumenical Patriarch,” he said Andrew Endowment Fund for our Mother Church of Constantinople with the blessings of the Exarch and the Metropolitans.” Also announced at the banquet were the 27-member Class of 2018 of Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate The new Archons of the Order of Saint Andrew are: View Photos of Archon Weekend View Videos from the Athenagoras Award Banquet Volume 3 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frspt.2022.933988 This article is part of the Research TopicSpace Environment CharacterizationView all 7 articles The Munich Orbital Verification Experiment (MOVE) is a CubeSat student project housed at the Scientific Workgroup for Rocketry and Spaceflight at the Technical University of Munich MOVE-III is the fourth CubeSat under development and the first 6U mission of the MOVE project that will carry a dedicated scientific payload in orbit The mission aims at acquiring in-situ observations of sub-millimetre space debris and meteoroids in Low Earth Orbit with the objective of compiling a dataset of flux as well as object mass and velocity measurements that can be used for the validation of the small object estimates of space debris models and support further studies related to the characterisation of the space environment The MOVE-III CubeSat employs the MOVE-BEYOND platform and is planned to carry three Debris Density Retrieval and Analysis (DEDRA) plasma ionization sensors The Preliminary Design Review has been completed in early 2022 with the next milestone being the Critical Design Review The paper elaborates on the scientific objectives of the mission and the expected data products provides an overview of the detector operation principle and presents the overall system architecture the platform configuration and the subsystem interaction Considerations on the debris mitigation aspects of the mission are additionally discussed While measurements from returned surfaces have already found their way in the validation chain of the small object population of the MASTER model observations from active in-situ detectors have yet to be considered The requirements issued by the science team which is responsible for developing and ensuring the scientific mission outcome focus on ensuring that in-situ measurements of flux mass and velocity of space debris and meteoroid impactors can be acquired and provided in a format that can be easily used by space debris model developers This work discusses the mission goals and the current progress state of the MOVE-III project development and testing of the CubeSat bus the payload concept and data processing chain as well as the space debris mitigation and compliance studies for MOVE-III are addressed The section describes the scientific motivation behind the mission’s objective and explains the sensor’s operation principle and design The data collected by the sensor are briefly discussed along with the processing steps required for the delivery of data products The expected number of impacts during 1-year of operations assuming that the mission is launched in the next couple of years MOVE-III is aiming at acquiring in-situ measurements of space debris and meteoroids in an orbital regime characterised by high space debris density The mission plans to provide processed measurements of flux along with the corresponding uncertainties which could be introduced efficiently in the small particle validation chains of Space Debris Models The concept of acquiring impact direction readings using a plasma sensor is planned to be demonstrated using an advanced sensor design It should also be mentioned that data from in-situ detectors can further support environment characterisation studies as well as material degradation studies and shield design The four main phases of the mission can be summarised below: • The Early Operations phase will start with the ejection of the CubeSat from the deployer into LEO The antennas will be deployed followed by all the other crucial tasks (sending the first heartbeat signal and telemetry orbit determination and detumbling operations shall start All subsystems will be activated and tested to ensure nominal functions the sensor will point towards the flight direction and be activated Data collected from impacts which will be stored and transmitted to ground • The Decommissioning phase will start approximately after 1 year of operation The possibility of extending the mission shall be evaluated before the initiation of the phase In the case of normal function of all subsystems and sensors measurement data shall still be collected during de-orbiting in order to get a measurement of the impact direction of a single particle Calibration of the sensors is planned for the near future The power budget for all three sensors is 4 W and the effective surface area is approximately 82 cm2 for each one of the sensors Schematic drawing of the DEDRA baseline (A) and advanced (B) design with the view of the advanced design rotated by 90° with respect to the baseline The red and blue rectangles represent the Charge Trap Plates (CTPs) for the Electron and Ion Channel respectively The collector for the Neutral Channel is illustrated in yellow The grids are connected to the common satellite ground The ejecta from the impact of a particle are represented as coloured arrows (red: positive charge Particles entering the sensor will collide with a surface inside the sensor’s trapping box. After the collision, and depending on the impact velocity, a part of the particle turns into plasma composed of positive ions and negative electrons. Above 5 km/s of impact velocity, a substantial amount of the particle mass turns into a plasma cloud (Münzenmayer, 1995) The resulting ion and electron clouds are trapped at two Charge Trap Plates (CTPs) with one having a high positive (>100 V) and the other having a high negative potential (< −100 V) two grids with a potential of 0 V are located to shield the sensor from electromagnetic fields The inner walls and bottom of the sensor are coated in gold to achieve a maximum charge gain after impact These surfaces are also set to a potential of 0 V and the bottom impact plate are connected to separate charge amplifiers four different measurements can be recorded per impact These channels are: the Electron Channel (EC) The mass estimation will be done per channel based on the channel-specific recorded charge and an average mass value will be calculated Schematic drawing of the measurement curve signals including the example curves for the two additional grids of the advanced sensor (Grid 1 Qinf corresponds to the charge from electrostatic induction Q1 and Q2 to the primary and secondary charge and Q to the maximum charge of the channel The baseline architecture of the sensor is depicted in Figure 3 The mass of each baseline sensor is 480 g The sensor’s grids consists of two wires with a diameter of 0.1 mm with one wire forming the horizontal grid lines and one the vertical on the same plane The spacing between the grid lines is 4 mm The wires will be held in place by an aluminium frame The ±100 V at the CTPs is generated by the Front End Electronics Analog High Voltage (FEEAHV) based on a buck boost converter At each measurement channel the signal is processed by the Front End Electronics Analog Circuitry (FEEAC) First the incoming signal is amplified by a charge sensitive amplifier Afterwards the is compressed by a logarithmic amplifier and converted to digital by an analogue-to-digital converter This conversion takes place at five mega samples per second and a bit depth of ten This approach results in 500 sample points during a 100 μs period of signal of interest The digital output is handled by Front End Electronics Digital (FEED) The incoming digital data is continuously buffered for the last 325 μs The signal is constantly evaluated by the digital trigger logic to check whether an impact has occurred or not If the signal is larger than a certain threshold with a big enough slope the trigger logic rules an impact has occurred The specific values will be defined after the calibration campaign the data will be saved for 325 μs before and after impact detection for each channel of the corresponding sensor the impact data is stored as a science data package and sent to the Command and Data Handling (CDH) data storage via the Controller Area Network (CAN)-bus the package will be transmitted to the ground station via the Communications (COM) module Schematic drawing of the overall system architecture of the DEDRA sensor and its interaction with the satellite subsystems The advanced design sensor shall be capable of measuring mass, velocity and impact direction of the particle. The concept involves the addition of two extra tilted grids, identical in design with the grids of the baseline design, placed in between two parallel ones as seen in Figure 1 the advanced design sensor is roughly 50% longer than the baseline design sensor and has a mass of 601 g The tilted grid is rotated by an angle of ϵ = 15° around the axis perpendicular to the CTPs where ti is the time at which the particle is inside grid i hi the height of the grid i with respect to the impact plate (for the tilted grid the higher side is used) and ϵ tilted grid angle From the velocity vector, the angles of incidence θ and ϕ can then be derived as shown in Eq. 4 Due to the fact that vy is ambiguous there are two possible solutions for ϕ which comes from the fact that vy is derived from the absolute velocity v and the components vx and vz can be resolved by utilising the charge differences recorded on the right and left CTPs Measurement data acquired by active in-situ detectors often require on-orbit and/or on-ground processing in order to eliminate measurement noise and derive meaningful quantities that can be used for further applications (Oikonomidou et al., 2021) which operate on the principle of plasma ionisation expected noise sources include charged particles in the ionosphere electromagnetic fields and noise originating from the satellite electronics The entrance grids are grounded to the common satellite ground and are expected to provide a first-degree shielding against outer electromagnetic noise while signals on the neutral channel may additionally help identify false-positive impacts The characteristics of the signals on the different sensor plates shall be determined during the calibration campaign and shall provide the baseline for comparison with the recorded impacts • Level-0: it refers to all processing done on board and produces the science data packet (as described in 2.3.2) which is downlinked from the satellite • Level-1A: with input the science data packet the signal rise time and the maximum voltage • Level-2A: it aims at using the advanced sensor directionality data (impact angles) and the current knowledge on the space debris and meteoroid environment in order to classify the data into space debris or meteoroid impacts The classification will be performed on the basis that space debris particles are most likely to impact the sensor head-on while meteoroids are expected to impact with broader angles and significantly higher velocities Classification between the different space debris classes will also be investigated • Level-2B: it aims at using the advanced design sensor data in order to derive the direction from which a particle impacted the sensor Depending on the performance of the advanced sensor and the accuracy of the measurements an orbit integration for the determination of the orbital parameters of the impactor can be performed Data processing levels and expected data products The resulting flux to the oriented surface has been scaled based on the effective detection area of the three sensors follows a more constant distribution pattern nevertheless seeing a slight increase with increasing orbital altitudes An interesting aspect of the space debris flux increase concerns the year 2025 when a significant increase in the flux in all altitudes can be observed In order to better understand the increase in the space debris flux the different contributing sources were modelled individually using MASTER Evolution of space debris and meteoroid flux: number of impacts on 3 sensors per year Evolution of meteoroid (A) and space debris (B) flux: number of impacts on 3 sensors per year its flux may also be sensitive to individual firings that could be affecting the estimates during certain years (e.g. Evolution of ejecta (A) and SRM dust (B) flux: number of impacts on 3 sensors per year The flux estimates have been taken into account in order to decide the optimal operational orbit of MOVE-III While higher orbital altitudes are characterised by higher flux compliance with the space debris mitigation guidelines related to de-orbiting in LEO also needs to be considered Following a trade-off analysis between high flux and de-orbiting time (as described in Section 4.1) MOVE-III is expected to fly between 500 and 600 km and collect an average of 100 space debris and meteoroid impacts within 1 year of operations It should additionally be mentioned that for 100 true impacts within a year and under the assumption that the expected number of impacts follow a Poisson distribution the contribution of the dataset to MASTER would be 100±100 Due to the substantially higher mass and size uncertainties that characterise the current population estimates in the sub-millimetre regime the average expected number of impacts is deemed statistically relevant for ESA’s space debris model In order to ensure a successful MOVE-III mission have to work together as one coherent system This section describes the current status of the bus development featuring the platform architecture as well as the main subsystems and their interactions The current state of the satellite configuration is depicted in Figure 8 The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) stack with the boards (from left to right) of the Communications (COM) and Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) subsystems as well as the payload interface-board and the two battery boards can be seen Adjacent to the PCB stack the ADCS compartment is located consisting of reaction wheels and magnetorquers The unit containing the batteries is completed by the payload PCB stack The three DEDRA sensors are located on the backside and will all point towards the flight direction during normal operations Opposite to them is the deployable flap panel Explosion drawing of the space segment of MOVE-III Note that all DEDRA sensors point in the same direction The Munich Orbital Verification Experiment (MOVE) satellite is based on the multi-mission satellite platform MOVE-BEYOND which is being developed concurrently by the same team The underlying satellite platform is designed in such a way that it is able to supply the payload with all required functionalities and resources The bus is comprised of independent standardized boards on which a microcontroller and subsystem-specific components are hosted provides power and the central communication’s CAN bus It is noted that every subsystem is housed on at least one dedicated PCB All microcontrollers run on the in-house developed OS Distributed Operating System Initiative for Satellites (DOSIS), which provides a real time operating system and a message based communication over the CAN bus (Rückerl et al., 2021). The modular nature of the system allows the design teams to iterate and verify their designs independently from one another. An overview of the MOVE-III space segment architecture can be seen in Figure 9 The ground segment is made up of the Chair of Astronautics (LRT)’s ground station and Mission Control Centre which houses the Operations (OPS) infrastructure used by the Mission Control (MC) team to handle the produced data as well as to command the satellite Communication between ground and space segment is realised via the COM subsystem saves all generated data and executes commands For MC to have access to the latest telemetry it provides time synchronization to all subsystems and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data for payload measurements In order to create a complete data package the payload also needs attitude information which is provided by the ADCS system with the help of its Sun sensors and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data The ADCS is also responsible for attitude control through both magnetorquers (air coils) and reaction wheels ensuring that the DEDRA sensors are pointed in flight direction and the solar cells on the deployable flap panel are aligned for maximum power generation the Electrical Power System (EPS) regulates the power generated by the solar cells to provide power to the satellite bus and control the charging process of the Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries the EPS provides safety features such as an Undervoltage Protection as well as active power monitoring hardware blocks are black and logical blocks are orange If a subsystem consists of more than one PCB As the project has recently passed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) the next step will be the finalisation of the brass model design and the construction of a first prototype model The Critical Design Review (CDR) is planned for 2023 and the Engineering Model will be assembled after the completion of the review A functional testing and qualification campaign will follow after which the flight model will be manufactured Running verification of the platform design is achieved via stratospheric balloon missions wherein prototypes of the system are sent to a height of 35 km to test their reliability under stress conditions particularly the communications and power systems A hardware-in-the-loop version of the backplane and subsystem boards is used to continually test for errors during the design process An in-house Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVAC) provides a testing environment for thermal model correlation and functional testing The following paragraphs give a short overview of the solutions and the adaptations made to the subsystems for the MOVE-III mission the subsystem hardware is developed internally by the MOVE team The ADCS controls the satellite’s attitude as commanded by CDH and is responsible for the orientation of the DEDRA sensors and the solar array and for maintaining a stable down-link to the ground station Its tasks also include detumbling the satellite after deployment fulfilling the attitude requirements of the payload sensors and providing information about the attitude to the payload To determine the satellite’s attitude six side-panel mounted third-party Sun sensors are used to calculate the Sun vector An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) provides data on the magnetic field as well as on the angular velocity The measurement values are processed with position data (either from Two-Line Element Set (TLE) orbit calculations or GNSS) and a magnetic field model of the Earth in an extended Kalman filter to determine the attitude three in-house developed magnetorquers are used which are controlled by a B-Dot controller with help of the magnetic field sensor the information from the Sun sensors and the angular velocity is processed To point the satellite within the limits determined by the payload in the flight direction The Quaternion PID controller is fed with all attitude information and returns commands for the reaction wheels as well as the magnetorquers With this setup a prograde pointing accuracy of less than 5° is achieved while being able to determine the attitude with an error of less than 1° The CDH system provides MC with the ability to send commands to subsystems and manages the collection storage and retrieval of telemetry and payload data It also manages the overall state of the satellite provides the ability to upgrade the firmware of subsystems and allows for autonomous operation The storage will be implemented with a space-grade MRAM chip allowing to store between 2 and 4 weeks of telemetry and over 1 year of payload data velocity and precision to the ADCS and Payload (PL) subsystem a commercial off the shelf GNSS module with unlocked firmware will be used telemetry collection and retrieval have been implemented and tested The COM subsystem provides communication between the satellite subsystems and the MC A transceiver (TCVR) operates in the UHF band and provides a low data rate radio link of up to 250 Kbps for telemetry and commanding failure conditions The COM forwards all CAN messages addressed to the MC using the radio link while the incoming radio messages are put on the CAN bus the COM will not make any changes in the message payload which is a complete DOSIS message For the uplink a low noise amplifier is used in connection with the TCVR while the downlink operates with a power amplifier The system is controlled by a micro controller which further handles tasks such as authorization To reset the satellite on command from MC the COM system has a direct connection to the EPS system This is necessary in case of a COM failure so that an automatic watchdog may reset the system The primary COM module will be purchased from a third party provider The function of the Electrical Power System (EPS) is to provide power to all subsystems and facilitate communication between them which hosts battery and subsystem PCBs on evenly spaced slots The backplane converts the solar power into stable 3.3 V and 5 V lines and an unregulated battery voltage line It also facilitates communication between subsystems through the CAN bus connected to every slot and the EPS microcontroller This controller monitors the power path and can switch off any slot during an undervoltage or overcurrent event An Undervoltage Protection (UVP) circuit cuts off the bus from power should the batteries be discharged to an undesirable level The EPS can use the UVP to hard-reset the entire bus in case of a COM or CDH failure The backplane may be expanded to up to fourteen slots another battery board containing four Li-ion batteries with a capacity of 20.8 Wh may be slotted into the backplane and generation capacity increased by adding another solar array and controller The EPS provides two battery boards yielding 41.6 Wh This design choice allows the EPS to satisfy power requirements for different missions The platform provides a range of constellations for the boards that belong to the EPS and gives flexibility when handling the power budget of the satellite Especially concerning the payload this approach is valuable as the DEDRA sensors will consume a significant portion of the power available because of the technical realisation of high voltage differentials to detect particles An additional challenge is keeping the sensors pointed in the flight direction the satellite is restricted in its freedom to point its solar panels into the Sun This necessitates a very flexible EPS concept in order to accommodate multiple possible orbits and thus panel layouts and numbers The EPS achieves this through its expandable nature which allows for varying amounts of panels and controllers which shortens battery life and risks battery failure While active battery heating mitigates low temperatures high temperatures require a bus shutdown to safeguard the batteries Additional time in the Sun tends to raise the temperature of the bus at the same time as providing more power a trade-off between power generation and conserving acceptable temperature levels is required which shall be finalised once the launch provider final orbit and launch date have been decided Render of MOVE-III after deployment (A) and in space (B) Mechanical structure of the baseline (A) and the advanced (B) DEDRA sensor As the minimum and maximum temperature limits are exceeded the first proposed thermal measure is coating all surface on the inside of the satellite with black paint such that the radiative heat exchange between the components is improved To heat the batteries additional battery heaters are used The effectiveness of this design shall be assessed with further simulations and testing In accordance to the Space Debris Mitigation guidelines, all ISO (ISO, 2019) and ESSB (ESA, 2015a) requirements applicable to the MOVE-III mission have been taken into account during the design and development of the satellite bus and the definition of the scientific objective a Compliance Matrix has been prepared as part of the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) (MOVE-III In this section we present two important aspects of the Debris Mitigation Plan applicable to the mission: de-orbiting and damage and risk assessment The damage and risk assessment covers two aspects: 1) survivability analysis of the sensor and bus during the nominal lifetime of the mission and 2) risk assessment for on-orbit break up due to a space debris or meteoroid impact before the mission’s end of life The respective requirements as well as other supporting studies including re-entry and material survivability and risk from on-board energy sources are included in the PDR This is commonly referred to as the “25-year-rule.” MOVE-III falls within this category as it does not have collision avoidance capabilities While the use of a de-orbiting device would allow the satellite to orbit in higher altitudes while still being compliant with the 25- year-rule the concept has been ruled out due to reliability concerns regarding the currently available de-orbiting mechanisms for CubeSats The accommodation of the device in the platform (a de-orbiting sail system would occupy about 0.5 U which would require reducing the number of sensors by one decreasing the scientific payload detection capabilities by 1/3) as well as due to budget limitations were defining factors for this decision the following optimization problem is presented: What is the highest possible 25-year-rule compliant altitude still characterised by high flux in order to ensure successful data collection the mission scenario was simulated using the ESA’s DRAMA software suite The analysis was performed in two parts: First an initial 5-year time span with attitude control and zero tumbling commissioning and nominal operations phases mentioned in Section 2.2 along with a mission extension of 4 years The second part is a maximum of 20 years decommissioning phase with no attitude control hence the satellite will experience random tumbling and although the drag cross section is not constant its value can be replaced with an effective cross section If and only if the satellite re-enters during this time at any altitude at or below 600 km the orbit is compliant and provides an appropriate altitude for the scientific purpose of the mission in agreement with the analysis performed in Section 2.5 the satellite’s altitude shall not exceed 600 km The results were additionally cross-checked with the help of the software Semi-analytic Tool for End of Life Analysis (STELA) from CNES and Debris Assessment Software (DAS) from NASA Initial simulation parameters for the lifetime assessment of the MOVE-III satellite OSCAR lifetime assessment results of the MOVE-III satellite The risk of the satellite and sensors being damaged by trackable or untrackable objects during the extended operational mission lifetime (5 years) has been assessed using the MASTER-based Impact Flux and Damage Assessment (MIDAS) tool of the DRAMA 3.1.0 software suite The damage assessment was performed for 575 km with the objective of studying the probability of penetration for all exterior surfaces of the satellite exposed to the space environment (including the PCBs and the solar arrays) As the surfaces of satellite are mostly made up of glass fibre with a density of 2.5 g/cm3 and a thickness of 1.5 cm (2 cm for the solar panel) a single wall Ballistic Limit Equation (BLE) (Cour-Palais Thin Plate) was employed for the analysis a single-wall BLE is also employed for the leading face surface which corresponds to the inside of the sensor boxes made mainly of aluminium with a density of 2.7 g/cm3 and a thickness of 0.5 cm time for the leading face during the extended lifetime (A) and cumulative number of catastrophic impacts during the complete mission lifetime (B) at an orbital altitude of 575 km The probability of the MOVE-III CubeSat breaking up before its end of life due to a space debris or meteoroid impact has additionally been assessed using the MIDAS tool of the DRAMA suite we assume a normal cross section for the first 5 years in orbit and an effective cross section for the remaining years until re-entry As the population files of MASTER currently only support simulations until 2036 with an initial altitude of 575 km was examined was (simultaneously) analyzed for objects with diameters between 10–6 and 100 m all objects with a diameter ≥4 cm are considered trackable The catastrophic flux for the first 5 years of the mission has been estimated to be 1.96 ⋅ 10–6, while the catastrophic flux for the remaining years equals 5.42 ⋅ 10–6 (Figure 12). The total probability of a break-up before the mission’s end of life can be calculated with the help of Poisson statistics (ESA, 2022c): where N is the number of impacts during the mission life and Pcat is the probability of catastrophic impact. This yields a value of 7.38 ⋅ 10–6, which is below the currently recommended thresholds for LEO orbits [e.g., 10–4 in ESA (2022c), Schaus et al. (2021)] The work describes the current stage of developments of the MOVE-III CubeSat project at the Technical University of Munich and discusses its scientific objective i.e. the acquisition of in-situ measurements of sub-millimetre space debris and meteoroids in LEO with the objective of creating a dataset of flux and particle velocity that can support the validation of space debris models and space environment characterisation studies which consists of three plasma ionization sensors as well as its operation principle and the expected data products are presented which can provide particle direction measurements using additional grids The mission is expected to be launched in 2024 at an altitude between 500 and 600 km which is defined by a trade-off analysis between an altitude with high flux and an altitude which complies with the international guidelines for LEO orbits relevant to the mission disposal Simulations with ESA’s MASTER model have shown that within 1 year of operations depending on the operational altitude and the launch year The system architecture as well as the satellite bus design of MOVE-III are presented and the functionalities and interactions of the different subsystems are introduced In accordance to the relevant space debris and mitigation guidelines a Debris Mitigation Plan has also been drafted assesses the impact risk for the payload and the satellite platform and evaluates the probability of a break-up due to an impact before the mission’s end of life With the current mass and launch estimates with a remaining lifetime of about 20 years the satellite is also compliant with suggested break-up thresholds with a 7.38 ⋅ 10–6 probability of catastrophic impact before re-entry The raw data supporting the conclusion of this article will be made available by the authors DM: expected space debris and meteoroid flux: simulation The authors would like to thank all university students and staff involved in the MOVE project We would also like to express our gratitude to all reviewers that took part in the System Definition and Preliminary Design Review and provided us with invaluable feedback The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher “Fostering collaborative concepts in space debris mitigation,” in 8th European conference on space debris Google Scholar “A comparison of damaging meteoroid and orbital debris fluxes in Earth orbit,” in 7th European conference on space debris (ESA space debris office) Google Scholar Cubesat.org (2020) Google Scholar Measurements of cosmic dust and micro-debris with the gorid impact detector in geo Google Scholar ESA (2022a) DISCOSweb. Available at: https://discosweb.esoc.esa.int/ Google Scholar ESA (2022b). Esa fragmentation blog. Available at: https://fragmentation.esoc.esa.int/ Google Scholar Essb - space debris mitigation compliance verification guidelines Google Scholar MASTER-8 final report: Enhancement of S/C fragmentation and environment evolution models Google Scholar Small debris and meteoroid risk requirements verification guidelines based on DRAMA/MIDAS Google Scholar ESA (2022d). Space environment statistics. Available at: https://sdup.esoc.esa.int/discosweb/statistics/ Google Scholar in 8th European conference on space debris (ESA space debris office).Flux comparison of master-8 and ordem 3.1 modelled space debris population Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Spacecraft component vulnerability for space debris impact IADC-13-11 Google Scholar “Analysis of the results of the two-year operations of the Munich dust counter - a cosmic dust experiment on board the satellite hiten,” in Proceedings of the international astronomical symposium Google Scholar Ladungsemission beim hochgeschwindigkeitseinschlag Technische Universität München Google Scholar ISO 24113:2019 Space systems - space debris mitigation requirements Google Scholar Google Scholar A 1 cm space debris impact onto the sentinel-1a solar array CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Debie-first standard in-situ debris monitoring instrument Germany: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY-PUBLICATIONS-ESA SP 473 Google Scholar “Investigation of ANOVA techniques applied to breakup modeling,” in 18th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science Google Scholar In-flight and post-flight impact data analysis from DEBIE2 (debris-in-orbit-evaluator) on board of ISS Google Scholar “The hyper-velocity dust research laboratory at the institute for space systems at the University of stuttgart,” in EPSC-DPS joint meeting 2019 Google Scholar MOVE-III (2022) Google Scholar Münzenmayer Beiträge zur experimentellen Erforschung des Staubes im Weltall Google Scholar Münzenmayer The Munich Dust Counter MDC - an experiment for the measurement of micrometeoroids and space debris Google Scholar “MOVE-III - an in-situ detector to support space debris model validation,” in 8th European conference on space debris (Darmstadt Google Scholar Rückerl Distributed computing for modular reliable nanosatellites CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Computation of cross section of complex bodies in esa drama tool,” in 6th European conference on space debris (Darmstadt Google Scholar Interplanetary dust observations in the earth-mars region by mars dust counter (MDC) on board NOZOMI: Three-year results Google Scholar Observation of interplanetary and interstellar dust particles by Mars dust counter (mdc) on board nozomi CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Leveraging space debris simulation results: Revisiting guideline values for explosion and cumulative collision rate,” in 8th European conference on space debris Google Scholar Data Handling and Evaluation for Autonomous Experiments in Interplanetary Missions (Dissertation Technische Universität München) Google Scholar ADCS Attitude Determination and Control System DEDRA Debris Density Retrieval and Analysis DOSIS Distributed Operating System Initiative for Satellites DRAMA Debris Risk Assessment and Mitigation Analysis ECSS European Cooperation for Space Standardization FEEAC Front End Electronics Analog Circuitry FEEAHV Front End Electronics Analog High Voltage IADC Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee ISO International Organization for Standardization MASTER Meteoroid and Space Debris Terrestrial Environment Reference MOVE Munich Orbital Verification Experiment MIDAS MASTER-based Impact Flux and Damage Assessment NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration WARR Scientific Workgroup for Rocketry and Spaceflight Weber S and Zhu Z (2022) MOVE-III: A CubeSat for the detection of sub-millimetre space debris and meteoroids in Low Earth Orbit Received: 01 May 2022; Accepted: 16 September 2022;Published: 17 October 2022 Copyright © 2022 Oikonomidou, Karagiannis, Still, Strasser, Firmbach, Hettwer, Schweinfurth, Pucknus, Menekay, You, Vovk, Weber and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Xanthi Oikonomidou, eGFudGhpLm9pa29ub21pZG91QHR1bS5kZQ==; Eleftherios Karagiannis, bGVmLmthcmFnaWFubmlzQHR1bS5kZQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish The Rudozem-Xanthi border crossing between Bulgaria and Greece as well as the road leading to it on Bulgarian territory are fully ready for operation The Government will insist before the Greek authorities that the crossing become operational at least for cars and tourist traffic no later than next year Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told journalists in Chepelare on Thursday He was in the southern town for the official opening of the completely renovated town centre and pedestrian street the Government Information Service reported “You know that we have bilateral issues that are currently subject to resolution and this issue should be taken out of context and away from other bilateral issues to be resolved in the best way for both sides,” he added The Prime Minister said the Rudozem bypass was also nearing completion A working meeting will be held next week with the Mayor of Rudozem to review the updated technical design for this road as well as its financing Funds for this will be budgeted for next year we will complete the work projects on the third lane in three sections - one before Chepelare and two sections on the Chepelare-Smolyan road and eventually next year we can expect the tender and the start of construction which will certainly ease the heavy traffic and the traffic jams that form in the critical parts of the road,” Zhelyazkov explained Contacts +359 2 9262 210 By accepting cookies you can enjoy a better experience while browsing pages the Xanthi Trail Run 2025 mountain running race is scheduled to take place in Xanthi which is co-organized by the Xanthi Athletic Cultural Runners Association which takes place in the city's suburban forest as well as the beautiful monasteries of Panagia Archangeliotissa and Panagia Kalamou The purpose of organizing the Xanthi Trail Run is to bring athletes into contact with nature and introduce them to mountain running in the city's beautiful suburban forest The suburban forest of Xanthi is a valuable green lung spread out on the outskirts of the city while its fauna hosts various species of birds making it a popular destination for those who want to enjoy nature runners will have the opportunity to pass by two historical monasteries in the area The Holy Monastery of Panagia Archangeliotissa built in an idyllic location northeast of Xanthi offers panoramic views of the city and the plain while it is an important religious and cultural center the monastery has existed under the same name since 1559 Equally impressive is the Holy Monastery of Panagia Kalamous known for its architecture and spiritual tradition offering visitors a unique experience of tranquility and devotion The name of the monastery comes from the tradition that states that the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary was found in a reed bed on the banks of the river Its foundation is likely around the 11th century passing through these monasteries adds a spiritual dimension to the race connecting physical activity with the cultural heritage of the region mountain running is experiencing great prosperity in the country so the number of visitors to the city of Xanthi is expected to be high contributing to the further stimulation of tourism in the region which prevented cars and people from reaching the non-working Rudozem-Xanthi border crossing were removed on Friday Temporary arrangements have been put in place so that people can reach the border Smolyan Regional Governor Zahari Sirakov told BTA We hope that citizens will show sense and not cross the transport section that has not been put into operation,” Sirakov added The border crossing and the accompanying infrastructure at Rudozem-Xanthi were completed by the end of 2021 but the opening was postponed because of a delay in the construction of the road on the Greek side During those years security for the building has cost hundreds of thousands of leva according to the Smolyan Regional Administration The route from Dimario to the border has been covered with asphalted such as the installation of kerbs and road markings The road is not finished and is a construction site Smolyan district governor Zahari Sirakov said at the end of December He said there is no explicit ban on passing through the checkpoint but traffic has been restricted to avoid unnecessary accidents cars can only reach the newly-built building for the customs office The temporary traffic arrangements were put in place after a meeting on Friday of Regional Governor Zahari Sirakov the head of the local road authority Kostadinka Milanova and Miroslav Belyashki head of the Plovdiv office of the Customs Agency The representatives of local and state institutions inspected on the site the access to the non-operational border crossing and the border with Greece Vehicles cannot cross into Greek territory access for cars is also prevented by a metal fence installed next to the border itself The link between Dimario and the border is an entirely new facility that needs to be commissioned He said that the inspection showed that the road to the border on the Greek side is still a construction site such as the installation of road barriers and markings have been delayed probably due to the bad weather conditions Rocks tumble down on the road from Rudozem to the border from the nearby mountain hill The Regional Governor said that the authorities will request that a safety net is put up to secure the route in the areas with falling rock debris At the site of the non-working border crossing on Friday there were people who came from the neighboring village of Chepintsi and from Rudozem Many families in Chepintsi have relatives across the border we are all looking forward to meeting friends and relatives from the neighbouring Greek villages Greek guests of residents of Chepintsi arrive by cars to the border crossing where the hosts transport them to the village “Today the right decision was made to remove the fences because there has been some tension recently,” said Rudozem Mayor Nedko Kulevski He expressed hope that the partners on the Greek side will be ready soon with the road so that both Bulgarians and Greeks can pass freely The mayor said that the Rudozem bypass road which should take cross-border traffic out of the town centre After Bulgaria’s Schengen accession by land the buildings at the Rudozem-Xanthi border crossing continue to be guarded by a private company hired by the Customs Agency which makes it necessary to maintain a security detail The customs officers who were supposed to work at the border crossing were selected and appointed two years ago Because of the plans and expectations that the border crossing would be opened years ago the Customs Agency took measures to recruit a a team the officers will continue to work under the new set-up developed jointly with the Border Police and the Ministry of Interior The Rudozem-Xanthi border crossing was built under a 1995 agreement for the opening of three new border crossings between Bulgaria and Greece The checkpoint at Rudozem was built on EU funding and its cost over EUR 5 million the site was handed over to the Road Infrastructure Agency and the Customs Agency for management and operation Dozens of vehicles headed to the border crossing on the first day without land border controls  between Bulgaria and Greece but the vehicles were stopped by a metal fence located nearly a kilometer before the checkpoint  The fences did not stop those wishing to reach Greek territory walking the distance on snow-covered paths through the forest but the fence at Elidze has not," said Nikolay Georgiev one of the visitors near the border in the early hours of January 1 Patrols of the Border Police and the Interior Ministry stopped motorists A security guard for a private company guarding the premises of the border crossing which went out of commission before it started operating Several cars came to the checkpoint during the night and in the morning the first car arrived at 9 am He continues to the border on foot along steep paths recommended by border guards as an alternative Residents of the border village of Chepintsi and of Rudozem expect the commissioning of the road to bring economic revival to the region Older residents are more sceptical about plans for free travel through the crossing point at Elidzhe "For years they have been lying to us and always making excuses for the Greeks and they also claimed that the Austrians were preventing us from Schengen but we still can't get in," said Fakri from Chepintsi He added that the locals were very disappointed by another postponement as they had planned to drink coffee in Greece in the first days of the new year the promises and plans to open the road to the southern neighbour via Elidzhe have been in place for 30 years The prices of properties in Rudozem and the surrounding area have increased by about 50% recently precisely because of the expected opening of the border Rudozem has also seen increased investor interest in the past two years When both Xanthi Perdikomatis and Brett Robinson showed up on The Circle a Massachusetts native who bares a striking resemblance to Fran Drescher played up her Greek roots in her introductory video She chose to enter The Circle as a preschool teacher because models don’t have the greatest track record on the show hails from Las Vegas and professed his love for popping bottles with smokin’ babes “The biggest misconception about me is that I’m a douchebag,” he said The question of how well a model can fare in The Circle seems to take center stage this season who entered the game as her model ex-boyfriend on the belief that male models would fare better in the game than their female counterparts didn’t trust her fellow players to give her a fair chance with her actual job title.) So the question of how being a model affects players’ feelings toward a person remains up in the air thanks to influencers Raven Sutton and Chaz Lawery But these chiseled babes’ time in The Circle was apparently far from over: both were given the opportunity to return in catfish form as a beachy middle-aged woman named “Jennifer.” Let’s start with the obvious: these two have some serious chemistry. Could they become the first actual hook-up in The Circle history although there’s also something to be said for maintaining their platonic married-couple vibes while Brett has perfected his “lovable douchebag” shtick to a T if you’re into that sort of thing.) You can see from their intro videos that both of them have a sense of humor—and loads more charisma than whose generic profile and choice to start a “Skinny Queens” chat with fellow female contestants quickly alienated players Once these two start bunking together and playing as “Jennifer,” however a 24-year-old who played Season 4 as “Mama Carol,” Brett and Xanthi (should we call them Branthi?) lean a bit into wine mom stereotypes in creating #CoolAunt “Jennifer.” Their challenge moving forward will be finding ways to give her more depth so that she can connect with players on more than a superficial “she reminds me of my mom!” level—a hurdle John never managed to overcome last season if you’re into that sort of thing.)”For now because revenge is served cold.” (It worked in the moment.) The pair has come out swinging focusing most of their strategy on bumping Raven Sutton—perhaps the frontrunner of this season—down in the ratings “Jennifer” has quickly formed a strong alliance with British comedian Tom Houghton Especially after Brett came in with plans to take things slow and steady it’s been a treat to watch his post-elimination Joker-fication I mean… did you hear his (fake) exit video “Are you shocked that I really am exactly who I said I was?” Brett told his fellow players “I don’t think I was ever given a chance to show who I am I think that I was put in a box and then immediately targeted.” That’s the energy both Brett and Xanthi are bringing: Auntie Jen is out for herself Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Laura Bradley is a New York-based senior entertainment reporter for The Daily Beast She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and has previously written for Vanity Fair and Slate with a focus on television Madeline Roth is the entertainment editor for The Daily Beast She was previously an editor at MTV News and TheWrap President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace and the elected Mufti of Komotini Source: Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye The Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee in the European Parliament and Bulgarian MEP Ilhan Küçük officially notified the European Commission about the blocking of the fully completed Rudozem-Xanthi border checkpoint by the Republic of Greece Against the background of the fact that Bulgaria is already a full member of the Schengen area since January 1 the MEP put to the European Commission three key questions aimed at quickly finding a solution to the existing transport inaccessibility between the two countries Ilhan Küçük insists that the European Commission: -To assess how the created blockade of the new road section violates the commitments under the Schengen Borders Code; -To analyze the lost benefits for transport connectivity the economic development of the region and road safety in the context of the strategic goal “Vision 0“ for zero road accident casualties by 2050; -To take immediate measures to remove physical obstacles and ensure real connectivity along the Rudozem-Xanthi axis “It is unacceptable in a united Europe and in the enlarged Schengen area to erect fences where there should be bridges of cooperation Bulgaria fulfilled its commitments months ago I expect swift action from the European Commission to guarantee the right to free movement of European citizens and goods“ The “Rudozem-Xanthi“ border crossing was agreed between Bulgaria and Greece back in 1995 as part of the efforts to strengthen interregional cooperation and the development of trans-European transport networks Bulgaria has fulfilled all commitments regarding the construction of its territory including the completion of the access road and checkpoint a fence and concrete barriers have been built More news from Bulgaria Be at the heart of this year's best Carnival action at events in Athens and around the country Discover Greece as never before by deep diving into its most exhilarating national festivity mark your calendar for February 15 as the key date of “Apokries,” unfolds beckoning adventurous souls to experience a side of Greece widely unseen by the casual visitor Carnival invites those looking to explore the authentic essence of Greek culture and age-old customs beyond the classic summertime tourist paths is a festive period deeply rooted in both religious tradition and social celebration culminating on the Sunday before Clean Monday The term “Apokries” derives from the Greek words meaning “away from meat,” signaling the transition to fasting the term “carnival” traces its origins to the Latin carnis (meat) and vale (farewell) This period bridges ancient pagan customs with Christian practices or “Smoky Thursday,” occurs eleven days before Clean Monday during the second week of the Carnival period known as “Meat Week.” On this day Greeks gather to enjoy grilled meat feasts filling the air with smoke (“tsikna”) from barbecues offers a final indulgence before the restrictions of fasting intensify “Cheese Week,” focuses on dairy-based dishes when the 40-day Lenten fast officially begins the Carnival seamlessly weaves together celebration While they may not mirror the extravagant size and bombastic popularity of Rio’s world-famous Carnival the Greek versions we present here each offers their own brand of rich ambience spirited dances and satirical jests that capture the essence of special communal gatherings stories kept alive through the ages and free-flowing fun find out what’s going on in the Greek capital during this colorful and vivacious period 02 Patra (Peloponnese) 04 Galaxidi (Central Greece) 05 Rethimno (Crete) 06 Naousa (Central Macedonia) Athens is gearing up for Carnival 2025 with 17 days of celebrations that promise to fill the city with vibrant colors transforming Athens into a playground of joy for all ages the city invites everyone to dive into the Carnival spirit the festivities will kick off with morning music at Varvakeios Market where the Philharmonic Orchestra will set the tone A cultural parade featuring traditional costumes will make its way through Syntagma and Monastiraki keeping the carnival energy alive into the evening with music and dance at Monastiraki Square Zappeion will become the ultimate kids’ carnival destination the event will delight children and families alike all accompanied by the joyful melodies of Athens’ Philharmonic Orchestra March 2 will see the carnival celebrations reach their peak with the Grand Carnival Parade Syntagma and Kotzia Squares will come alive with a dazzling procession and a nostalgic concert featuring decades of Greek pop and rock hits the festivities will conclude at Filopappou Hill locals and visitors will gather for traditional folk music and dancing bidding a joyful farewell to Carnival and welcoming the start of Lent Patra’s carnival stands as Greece’s most celebrated carnival event situated just 3.5 hours from Athens in the (very) picturesque region of northern Peloponnese it draws a crowd of about 250,000 visitors a testament to its popularity and scale among Greeks.  The dedication of Patra’s residents and students is evident as they devote an entire year (!) to planning for this grand event The result is a vibrant display featuring 60,000 participants who are organized into 150 teams For visitors who have already delved into the local culture and seek a deeper understanding of Patra carnival’s traditions and nuances, this detailed guide is an excellent resource Originally intended for a Greek readership this guide has been made available in English and offers in-depth insights For those experiencing the Patra carnival for the first time navigating the festivities can be a bit daunting To avoid the challenges an organized day trip is a good starting point and panoramic vistas of the Gulf of Patras organizes a carnival that’s known for its colorful aesthetics and community spirit As the country’s second-largest carnival it draws around 80,000 visitors each year with its multicultural vibe and the promise The festivities in Xanthi start with a spectacular firework show in the main square The carnival’s highlight is the Grand Carnival Parade on the final Sunday showcasing elaborate floats and thousands of participants in a vibrant explosion of colors a visit to Xanthi’s carnival ideally complements a larger tour of the region offering a deeper immersion into the area’s cultural richness family-run atmosphere and simple modern comforts Experience the exhilarating chaos of the ‘Flour War’ in Galaxidi In this near-anarchic Dionysian celebration (or Mad Max for the fans) participants dressed like desert stormers arm themselves with sacks of flour and colorful paints transforming the town into a mesmerizing battlefield of hues The flour is distributed before the start of the event A custom-made masquerade outfit adds a unique touch.  The festivities begin at midday on the town’s bridge and wind through the streets to the harbor heralded by a lively parade of floats and a series of events leading up to the main day reaches its climax in the heart of Galaxidi The epic Flour War symbolizes a period of celebration before the sailors set off on their long journeys Galaxidi and its neighboring surroundings are top destinations to explore with a wealth of cultural and historical sites including the ancient olive grove of Amfissa the mythical site of Delphi and the picturesque town of Arachova Attracting nearly 15,000 participants and transforming the city into a center of festivity and joy Rethimno’s (or Rethymno) carnival is a major annual event in Crete Its streets are packed with visitors from all over The contagiously vivacious atmosphere is electric offering an experience that remains memorable year after year The medieval and Venetian charm of the city provides a special backdrop to the festivities while local groups add to the multicolored spectacle with dances treasure hunts and traditional Cretan serenades (known as ‘mandinades’) This all makes the Carnival an ideal time to explore Rethimno’s rich culture and history Coastal Road) delivers a glamorous beachside escape with luxurious suites and exceptional dining options Discover the vibrant carnival of Naousa (one hour from Thessaloniki) The carnival unfolds over the two Sundays of the season and engages the city’s youth in a display of rebellion and camaraderie.At the heart of this event is the captivating custom of “Genitsari and Boules” the Greek god of wine and revelry. Men wear the “genitsari” costume with masks and mustaches that point upright once worn only by men but today worn by both sexes completes the pair with its white and red tones Carnival in Naousa is a living history that celebrates freedom the music or the dancing that draws you in Naousa’s carnival is an unforgettable experience that reveals the heart and soul of its people It’s also an opportunity to get a first taste of Thessaloniki one of Greece’s most exciting cities Alexandrou & V.Filippou) combines modern comfort and stylish design in the heart of Naousa Four people were killed early Sunday in a head-on collision between a car and a bus on a rural road in Xanthi the car was traveling from Xanthi toward Kavala when it veered into the opposite lane and crashed into the bus Rescuers recovered the bodies of the four victims from the car; a fifth passenger was hospitalized with cranial injuries which was transporting employees from a local business The injured have been transported to Xanthi Hospital for treatment It's only happened one other time in the history of the hit Netflix show The Circle (well technically it's happened twice but Connecticut is the black sheep of New England) 25-year-old Xanthi Perdikomatis is from Massachusetts and the very first cast member introduced on Season 5 of The Circle Even though Xanthi is a professional model she decided to enter the show slightly catfishing the rest of the cast She mentioned that models that have appeared on the show in the past don't really have a great track record since they're usually eliminated early on in the season Even though Xanthi was the first cast member introduced for Season 5 she's not the first New Englander to be on the show then-29-year-old Seaburn Williams was cast on the show but in a much deeper way than Xanthi is this season Instead of just fibbing a bit about his career Seaburn lied about his entire personality overall Seaburn actually entered The Circle as his girlfriend Seaburn actually made it all the way to the final episode of Season 1 as Rebecca If you've already binged the first four episodes of Season 5 of The Circle that dropped last Wednesday then you already know what the current status of Xanthi is on the show there won't be any spoilers in this post if you're waiting for more episodes of Season 5 to drop There are four more episodes dropping tomorrow (Wednesday After that, according to Netflix Life with what looks like the final episode dropping on Wednesday Gallery Credit: Sean McKenna There's only been one other New England resident on the show.\nRead More It's only happened one other time in the history of the hit Netflix show The Circle (well 25-year-old Xanthi Perdikomatis is from Massachusetts and the very first cast member introduced on Season 5 of The Circle. Even though Xanthi is a professional model, she decided to enter the show slightly catfishing the rest of the cast, presenting herself as a preschool teacher. The reason? She mentioned that models that have appeared on the show in the past don't really have a great track record, which is true, since they're usually eliminated early on in the season, if not the first to go. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Circle Netflix (@thecirclenetflix) Even though Xanthi was the first cast member introduced for Season 5, she's not the first New Englander to be on the show. Back in the first season of The Circle, then-29-year-old Seaburn Williams was cast on the show. Like Xanthi, Seaburn decided to play a catfish role, but in a much deeper way than Xanthi is this season. Instead of just fibbing a bit about his career, Seaburn lied about his entire personality overall. Seaburn actually entered The Circle as his girlfriend, Rebecca. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Seaburn (@officially_seaburn) After that, according to Netflix Life In this moving memoir shot through with love and pain the author considers why Sebastian Barker chose poetry over parenthood by Xanthi Barker review – a daughter’s attempt to understand her absent fatherThis article is more than 3 years oldIn this moving memoir shot through with love and pain The love his daughter has for him – admiring tender and sometimes unmanageably intense – is never in question but keeps company with other feelings: disappointment given that Xanthi is the daughter of a man who “left when I was a baby” and was “easily bored and did not like to talk about what he called personal matters” But the subtitle could as well be “on finding a father” For the fascination of this book is in the attempt to understand a parent posthumously to consider all the conversations that never happened as well as those that did This is about making up for lost time – time lost for ever Sebastian is addressed throughout as “you” which comes over as awkwardly direct (too late in the day) but suits the open this is a cautionary tale about what happens when “you mistake writing for life” The author boldly goes back to a time before she was born to describe the romance between her parents and her father’s purchase of land – a “pile of rocks” on a “mountainside of cacti” in the south-west Peloponnese Sebastian Barker had no Greek and no building skills but plenty of blind faith The locals took pity on him and helped him build the house that would become the subject of the book’s title She then describes – with no mercy in the telling and a fierce empathy for her mother – the return to north London and her father’s eviction of his young family He claimed he needed solitude to pursue his poetry and then took up with someone new She heads off on foot (a three-hour round trip) to buy her father single malt whiskyThe book is also a cautionary tale about alcohol. In a comically dire anecdote, she remembers her father inviting a random Greek taxi driver with his wife and daughter to dinner in Greece on the strength of the taxi driver’s admiration for the Greek poet Odysseus Elytis There was never much decent food in her father’s house and it is the taxi driver’s daughter who ends up concocting a supper of tinned vegetables he disastrously misjudges the mood – but no spoilers here (spoiling being to the point) there is an undeservedly hangover-free morning after: “You’d get so drunk at night that you forgot we were there but in the morning – nothing You’d be up before us in your clean clothes singing along in your tuneless gravel voice to Maria Callas drinking coffee and condensed milk from a tiny cup.” There is another extraordinary account of a challenging trip to a “bothy” in Kent during the last weeks of her father’s life when he was reliant on morphine and not strong enough to “pretend your need for alcohol was anything to do with poetry” The trip was supposed to be a 25th birthday present but the beige bungalow with hunting prints on its walls was a poorly chosen rental She heads off on foot (a three-hour round trip) to buy her father single malt whisky he is appreciative of her (she desperately craves his approval) but is too ill to rise to the occasion their mini-break ends and they are collected by “your wife” (the phrase has an arm’s-length chill) But she was 19 when she asked it of her father his house in Greece survives – she and her brother fill it and are making improvements is an empty house in which home truths are being told Will This House Last Forever? On Losing a Father by Xanthi Barker is published by Tinder (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Metropolitan Panteleimon of Xanthi and Peritheorion visited the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople accompanied by the Protosyncellus of the Holy Metropolis Metropolitan Panteleimon and his entourage were warmly received by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a cordial atmosphere and enjoyed the traditional Patriarchal hospitality They also were taken to Holy Patriarchal Church of Saint George to venerate and later visited the Holy Pantokratoros Monastery and the Holy Church of Saint Theodosia which flourished until the Fall of the City of Constantinople as monumental Churches of the Queen of Cities His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Xanthi returned to his Metropolis This work, Armored units from US and Greece train force-on-force, by CPT IAN FISCHER, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright Father Alexander and Presbytera Xanthi Karloutsos will be honored as the 2018 recipients of the Athenagoras Human Rights Award The Award will be presented by the Order of Saint Andrew at the organization’s annual banquet Saturday is presented annually to a person or organization that has consistently exemplified by action purpose and dedication concern for the basic rights and religious freedom of all people It is named in memory of Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras who reigned on the Ecumenical Throne from 1948 until his death in 1972 Prior to his election as Ecumenical Patriarch he was the second Archbishop of North and South America Past recipients of the Award have included Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H Vice President Joe Biden and last year’s recipient representing the fishermen of Lesbos and the Greek Islands Father Alexander and Presbytera Xanthi have been a true partnership and team well-known throughout the Archdiocese and the Orthodox World Their advocacy on behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is legendary Alexander (better known as Father Alex) has been an assistant to three Archbishops Currently he is the spiritual adviser to the Order of Saint Andrew Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in America and to Faith: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism He serves as special assistant to the Archbishop working as liaison with heads of churches political action and religious freedom and human rights groups He is also the Orthodox chaplain for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey he pastors the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons Father Alex previously served as the executive director of Leadership 100 and was appointed by Archbishop Iakovos as the first vicar of public affairs of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in 1985 holding that position simultaneously until 1992 when he was appointed special assistant to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople He graduated magna cum laude from Hellenic College in Brookline from the Holy Cross School of Theology there in 1969 He received a Certificate in Ecumenical Theology from the University of Geneva in 1970 He was ordained a deacon and a priest in September of 1970; respectively by Archbishop Eugenios of Crete and Archbishop Iakovos of America and was elevated by Archbishop Iakovos to Protopresbyter in February of 1984 Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew named Father Alexander Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1994 the highest honor a married clergyman can receive in the Orthodox Christian Church Father Alexander first served as an assistant priest at SS Constantine and Helen in Chicago in 1970 where he was active in youth ministries He was appointed Archdiocesan Director of Youth Ministry in 1974 moving to the Archdiocesan headquarters in New York he was appointed Archdiocesan Director of the Office of Church and Society where he served until 1980 when he assumed the directorship of the newly established Department of Communications who has more than 46 years in community service with young and old alike presently serves the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America as executive assistant and coordinator of the Offices of Public Affairs Faith Endowment and as Office Manager for the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle her parents developed a cardiac care and surgery program with the National Institute of Health for children from Greece in need of heart surgery and health care Upon completion of her high school studies at Montgomery Blair High she studied interior design at the International School of Interior Design she began her career as a Presbytera in the Greek Orthodox Church she and her husband moved to New York City to serve the Archdiocese there she was appointed as adviser to the Archbishop’s Youth Ministry Office with an acute interest for children with special needs and troubled youth When her children began attending the Public Schools of Pelham she devoted her time and talents becoming an active advocate for children’s educational needs by serving two respective terms on the local PTA as co-president of both Pelham’s elementary and high schools In 1989 she accepted the position of director of the Hellenic American National Action Committee Social Services in the Bronx where she became involved and exposed to the greater community’s less fortunate families and the struggle for disadvantaged children and their parents they served as personal assistants to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew While Father Alexander served as public affairs officer Xanthi immersed herself in the needs and educational concerns of the young people of the dwindling historic Rum (Greek) Christian Minority in Istanbul She also serves on the board of the Beau Biden Foundation and Amani Global Works which focuses on the health needs of children on the Island of Idgwi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and on HOPE a newly established ministry on Long Island’s East End which hopes to address the scourge of human trafficking have been instrumental in fundraising efforts for the ministries and beautification of Long Island’s jewel— the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton They are now involved in efforts towards the rebuilding of Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center Father Alexander and Presbytera Xanthi are the parents of three children To learn more about the Award and past recipients, visit archons.org/athenagorasaward having appeared on Big Brother four years ago What made you feel The Circle was right for you?Brett Robinson: Honestly I didn't even have like a social media following Will you chat with us?" At the time I was in transition from one career job to a different one "I don't even know what the hell that is." And they were like you can come on this show and make half a million dollars." And I was like This is what I would do." And they're like we love you." It just worked out perfectly that I was between jobs And then obviously after doing Big Brother my DMs get blown up from other reality TV shows all the time And the casting producers for The Circle hit me up, and they're like we got this cool experience." And I was like "This is what I would do." And they're like "We love it." And it was really as simple as that I got fortunate enough that they chose me for the opportunity (Laughs.) But it's really that simple I wasn't applying; I wasn't chasing it It was just pure coincidence that the opportunity and the timing worked out what's your origin story with The Circle?Xanthi Perdikomatis: It definitely wasn't one of those "slide in the DMs" thing all different types of people from different types of walks of life and you found something you loved about everyone I actually was the last person cast for season five of The Circle very quickly" is also a good way to describe both of your first nights in the game considering you immediately get blocked by Chaz and Raven What was your reaction to getting eliminated purely off of first impressions?Xanthi: Well we were getting judged off of our first impressions And it's gonna either go one way or the other way And I was so heartbroken and shocked being blocked by one person And I was just praying that when I saw the next alert You just never know how it's gonna go with first impressions So you had no control in The Circle with that.Brett: So obviously I had preconceived notions going into this I've been a very polarizing character he was alright." I knew with my profile as well they're either gonna be all in or all out I was hoping it was gonna be a bunch of gay men (Laughs.) They were just gonna love me and adore me and cherish me and and it's a group of people that love me I obviously was a little bit confident with how well I did on Big Brother. And I skated by there multiple times; they tried to evict me a lot Damn." So I was super upset.Well luckily you're immediately given this second chance to play as Jennifer and it takes you all the way to the final day We'll get into a lot of the drama near the end of the game but suffice it to say you were able to squeak your way into that finale Was there any surprise at all when you found out you finished fifth?Xanthi: I feel like there might have been some hope between the two of us that we may or may not be able to get the final victory Compared to how everyone was voting since the beginning I would have expected us maybe to come a little further than fifth place Just because we've been in the game longer than some of the contestants like Tamira we were holding on by a thread the whole game We're lucky to be here." But there was this ounce of pettiness to get at least fourth (Laughs.)Brett: I had two views on it if everyone keeps doing exactly what they've been doing the whole game But I was hoping--and there's always this sliver of hope--that maybe Chaz got super strategic and put Raven at the bottom And Raven was paranoid about Chaz and put Chaz at the bottom And then some fluke happens and we're like Jennifer won?!" (Laughs.) You have an idea when it's the last rating I was hoping that something like that would happen everyone kind of stuck to exactly what they said they were going to do This isn't Too Hot to Handle where you split 7K between 25 people It can make a difference in some people's lives So based on the stories that everyone was telling me--I didn't get millionaire family vibes from anyone--I was hoping that people would get a little bit more strategic with it.Speaking of those final ratings we see the two of you go back and forth with them you say you want to go with your heart and rate fairly How did that reflect upon how rated people in the end?Brett: I remember it coming down to Sam or Chaz between one and two That was our big argument of where the final rating was I don't remember what the rest of them were But the difference pretty much came down to where we thought Sam and Chaz deserved to land "What gives Jennifer the best chance to win and it's a difference of one or two votes who do we want to win?"Xanthi: It's where we definitely mixed each other's personalities But when you're thinking with your heart you want to just think about everyone's stories and what you know about them so far When you say you want to vote with your heart it's who you got to know the most and whether someone deserves the money given what we've experienced together You're  deciding whether someone becomes $100,000 richer all that gameplay you did was basically for nothing At Greece’s northeastern tip — far removed from the stereotypes of islands beaches and Zorba — lies the region of Thrace This remote borderland is home to the country’s Muslim minority an obscure community living in the isolated villages of the Rhodope Mountains and speaking Pomak a Slavic language closely related to Bulgarian Having emerged as a distinct community during Ottoman times the Pomaks escaped the Greek-Turkish population exchange of the 1920s but later found themselves victims of Cold War paranoia as the Bulgarian army retreated over the Rhodopes in 1944 the Greek government set up barriers cutting off the Pomak villages from the rest of the country No one could enter or exit the region without a special passport It was not until 1995 that the last internal border was dismantled This half-century of enforced isolation arguably makes the Thrace mountains the least-known and least-traveled region in Europe Heading east across the Nestos River — which marks the border between the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace — the first large settlement you come to is Xanthi neoclassical mansions and top-heavy Ottoman houses the lowlands of Thrace were never cut off from the rest of the country and life here continued as normal throughout the Cold War an influx of tourists from the Balkans and Turkey has brought a modest increase in prosperity to Thrace though it remains one of Greece’s poorest regions who hails from the mountain village of Echinos and grew up between there and Istanbul I was interested in hearing about life in the villages when the last barriers were taken down,” says Betoul It kept our villages in a permanent state of underdevelopment It’s a trauma we’re still recovering from.” Dissatisfied with the quality of the schools in the region Betoul’s dad sent her to live with a relative in Istanbul when she was 12 She completed her education there and went on to study modern Greek language and literature at Istanbul University some Greek officials came to the village and said You should be speaking Turkish,’” she tells me the Greek officials came back to the village and said You should be speaking Pomak.’ These kinds of things create a confusion about who we are and what people want from us.” I soon realized that identity was a sensitive topic in the region one loaded with the weight of past and current discrimination tests of loyalty and accusations of betrayal Many locals prefer to elide ethnic markers altogether people just want to live their lives without being used as a political football by different nations “It’s a very poor place with not much to do the girls are married off from a young age although it’s rare for a girl in my village to still be unmarried at 30 so the women just hang out at each other’s homes Each village has different traditional dress for women and you can tell which village they come from by what they’re wearing.” The life cycle for men is also fairly routine After their mandatory military service in the Greek army most travel to northern Europe to work as ship painters It’s difficult and dangerous work — six months on six months off — but the wages go a long way in Thrace The network is well established and some of the largest businesses in the region are agencies facilitating this work Betoul’s adolescence in Istanbul gave her an open-minded outlook on life and her feelings about her home village are bittersweet “I love visiting Echinos but it would be difficult to live there again I’m looking for a job there or in Ankara or Athens I love both Greece and Turkey and would love to find some work which would involve bridging the two countries.” I ask Betoul for some tips for my trip the next day into mountainous Xanthi you must go for lunch at Kottani!” she says “It’s one of the highlights of our region!” crooked formations that look like tidal waves petrified at the point of breaking through the tight valley of the Kosynthos River the dusty plains of Xanthi gradually fade away as we enter the beguiling world of the Rhodopes The Rhodope Mountains are among the most beautiful landscapes in Greece though few people — Greeks included — ever visit The area is littered with ruins; not of the ancient variety but rather those dating from the Cold War: bunkers crumbling monuments and signs that seem to point to nowhere you can even spot remnants of the infamous barriers as you pass them their silvery minarets peeking out like periscopes over the trees dusty squares and streets so narrow you can only pass through them by walking in single file At the village cafe — which bears the unexpectedly hipster name of “The Espressonist” — I meet up with Kemal and Achmet organizers of the Kentavros Youth Festival including live music from Greece and Turkey it attracts thousands of visitors every August The festival was founded in 1996 as a way to provide opportunities for young people in the area and promote the cultural heritage of a region that had been sealed off from the rest of the world for so long there was no development here — we were left to stagnate,” says Kemal But we are still 50 years behind the rest of Greece The lack of contact with the outside world really hindered us.” The festival’s board is elected annually and — according to its charter — must comprise at least 30% high schoolers and 30% women Money raised during the festival is invested back into Kentavros a beautiful old mansion was restored into a folklore museum while another has been turned into a library … My mother still has a lot of difficulty reading,” says Achmet every summer we run free classes at the library to help adults with literacy problems.” a grandiose building covered in blue mosaics and curlicues with a needle-thin minaret projecting into the sky it’s the oldest mosque in the Xanthi mountains “This mosque was bombed by the Bulgarians during World War II,” says Kemal there was enough left that we could restore it afterwards.” including the massacre and expulsion of thousands of Greeks and the deportation of the region’s Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp but they didn’t want us practicing our faith They also wanted to marry all the girls to Bulgarian soldiers the imam secretly took all the girls to the mountain and married them to local boys Before the Bulgarians realized what was happening The mosque is currently undergoing its second restoration since the war but progress is slow and they have had to raise the money themselves “I wish the state would help,” says Achmet Some speakers consider it a dialect rather than a language though this again touches on the sensitive issue of identity we found a guy from southern Bulgaria who was able to translate for us I went to Croatia and was surprised by how much I could understand “I had the same experience in Sarajevo,” Kemal chimes in “Bosnian is much closer to Pomak than what they speak in Sofia.” “She never went to school and has basically never left the village.” I was struck by Achmet and Kemal’s desire to do something positive for the region particularly through the medium of cultural exchange “Erasmus was a life-changing experience for me,” says Kemal (Erasmus is a European student exchange program that promotes cultural interaction.) “My dream is to start an Erasmus program here inviting people from different countries to Xanthi and then getting locals to participate in different programs in Europe To show folks here that abroad is not just for work that there are benefits to be gained from cultural exchanges too.” the occasional lush meadow and the curious sights of minarets — something largely absent from other parts of Greece — keep drawing me further into the region which is actually three villages named Ano (Upper) despite the fact they all seem to be at the same elevation have recently been restored and a new border crossing with Bulgaria has helped considerably in opening up the region there’s a surprise: Carved into a rock is a relief of Mithras killing a bull The remarkable relic bears witness that the Romans really did get everywhere We pass Medousa — a fragile bird’s nest of a village that looks as if it could blow away at any moment — and continue onto our destination of Kottani and we’re left with a bumpy dirt road — 4 miles of it — with a sheer drop down one side Our faith in the existence of this village begins to wane on this long trail that feels as if it only exists to trick you but then suddenly it emerges — mirage-like — out of the steep terrain There is a case to be made that Kottani has the most beautifully sited taverna in Greece It sits on a precipice at the end of a blind valley above a lush river canyon stalked by wild horses a baker’s dozen of houses clustered around a tall he opened it in 2008 with his wife Mouzgen having spent five years renovating it using local materials His daughter has her own restaurant in England: not in London or another large city but in the provincial market town of Bury St Edmunds I find myself captivated by Kottani and its perfectly preserved 300-year-old houses Tzemil catches my eye and points at the tallest of the peaks overlooking the village A platter of coal-cooked meats and some peculiarly Rhodopian dishes such as Patetnik (a kind of potato omelet) an originally Ottoman dish of lamb and smoked eggplant all washed down with some delicious rose wine It’s the kind of rustic food that puts a smile on your face; within moments of tasting the platter There was no road connecting Kottani to the rest of Greece Winters could get as cold as minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit We couldn’t enter or leave after the 10 p.m even for medical emergencies,” he says sorrowfully but returned in 1998 when a road was finally built Tzemil and his wife are one of three families remaining in the village “The imam won’t come unless we pay him,” says Tzemil in a tone that suggests I should be as outraged as he is he gave me this CD which plays the call to prayer five times a day.” the taverna doubles as a museum of local life and folklore “I was born and raised in this house,” says Tzemil “Although we eventually moved down to Xanthi I’ve preserved the upper floors exactly as they were.” He also shows me a prize he recently won from the Greek Cuisine Awards which ranked Kottani as the best restaurant in the province of Xanthi “This taverna could help revive the village But they won’t tarmac it for only three families.” a few days ago my two dogs ran away to Bulgaria but the guards won’t let them back into Greece without their vaccination certificates I have their passports with the certificates here could you give them to my friend Mechmet in Kato Thermes so he can take them to the border and show the guards?” I ponder this information for a few moments expecting him to be waiting for me in some shadowy corner “MECHMET!” I scream at the top of my lungs an elderly gentleman appears from a balcony I climb into the car and head back to Xanthi Life is complicated in Greece and Thrace is certainly no exception The region is closer in distance to Istanbul and Sofia (and even Bucharest) than to Athens The Muslim minority sends three MPs to the Greek Parliament but Thrace remains isolated from the political mainstream maligned as a “problem region” whose minority and fractious border are the source of incessant wrangling between Greece and Turkey home to some of the nicest people you’re likely to meet those disputes seemed very far away indeed Sign up to our mailing list to receive our stories in your inbox Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy "I thought when it came to it that I'd be able to be a bit more cutthroat but it's really hard when you get deep in there — you can't do it." Sydney Bucksbaum is a writer at Entertainment Weekly covering all things pop culture – but TV is her one true love She currently lives in Los Angeles but grew up in Chicago so please don't make fun of her accent when it slips out This work, Olympic Cooperation 2021: Stronger Together, by SGT Max Elliott, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright