Greece

ATHENS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of Greece expressed their condolences and offered aid to Turkey on Friday after a strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, causing casualties, injuries and extensive damage in both countries.

Two high school students died and at least nine people were injured after the wall of an old building collapsed in a narrow street on Samos, the Greek authorities said.

22 Oct 2020; MEMO: Greece is preparing to test the Russian-made S-300 air defence missile system at a NATO firing base in the Greek island of Crete, Anadolu Agency reported.

17 Oct 2020; MEMO: Greek media revealed that the authorities in Greece have installed two electronic devices in the border area with Turkey producing loud noise potentially causing deafness, to be used against asylum seekers.

On Thursday, media outlets reported that the Greek government had installed two mobile devices in the Merij border area, capable of emitting powerful sound waves to prevent asylum seekers from entering the country.

14 Oct 2020; MEMO: A spokesman for the Greek government, Stelios Petsas, said yesterday that his country will not participate in exploratory talks with Turkey as long as the Turkish survey vessel Oruc Reis remains in waters under dispute by the two countries.

“As long as the Oruc Reis is in the area we will not hold exploratory contacts with Turkey,” Petsas said in an interview with Skai Radio.

13 Oct 2020; MEMO: Greece will build a permanent refugee camp on Lesbos by summer 2021 to replace the facility that burned down last month, the migration minister said yesterday.

Notis Mitarachi said contractors had already been selected to construct the new camps, which will also be built on the islands of Samos, Kos and Leros.

The camps will be closed facilities, with “NATO-style double enclosure” and tightly controlled entry, as well as fire protection systems, Mitarachi said.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis yesterday said his country welcomes Turkey’s moves to de-escalate tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, adding that Ankara needs to show a stronger commitment to improving mutual relations.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O is to build a new data centre in Greece as it invests in cloud services infrastructure in the country, a boon to an economy weakened by a decade-long debt crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a virtual event in Athens on Monday, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the new data centre would be beneficial to business, consumers and banks.

The size of the investment was not disclosed.

ATHENS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday to cease hostilities as clashes continued over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but is run by ethnic Armenians and is supported by Armenia. It broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s, but is not recognised by any country as an independent republic.

Pompeo said during a visit to Crete that he had discussed the clashes in talks earlier with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday authorities were ready to impose further COVID-19 restrictions in the greater Athens area due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

The rise in infections in recent months has forced authorities to gradually reimpose bans and measures including the mandatory use of face masks in all enclosed public and private places.

Health authorities reported 359 new infections on Thursday, more than half of them in the greater Athens area, Attica, where about one third of the country’s population lives.

18 Sep 2020; MEMO: About 1,150 refugees and migrants have been moved from the streets on Greece’s island of Lesvos to a new temporary facility, an official said Thursday, Anadolu Agency reported.

The new facility will be in the Kara Tepe camp, near the island’s port, government spokesperson Stelios Petsas said Thursday.

A fire at Moria camp last week left more than 12,000 people without shelter, sanitation, food and water, to sleep in fields and nearby cemeteries.