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GREECE Greece occupies an area of 132.000 sq. klms. It is located in the southern part of the Balkan peninsula and boarders with Albania, Fyrom, Bulgaria and Turkey. The state also occupies the Ionian Islands off its west coast one of them is Ithaca the home of Ulysses, the island of Crete to the south and all the main Aegean islands except Imvros and Tenedos. The islands are 1400 altogether but only 170 of them are inhabited The population of Greece according to the 2000 census is about 10.000.000. The capital city is Athens with 3.000.000 inhabitants, with its Acropolis and the Parthenon, the symbol of the ancient Greek civilization. Greece became a member of the European Union in 1981 and holds the presidency of the Union during the first half of the year 2003. The official name of the state is Hellenic Republic. It is a parliamentary republic with a President as head of state. Legislative power is exercised by the President and the Parliament. (www.parliament.gr). The Parliament is a body composed of 300 members elected for four-year terms after general elections. The President of the Republic is elected by the Parliament for a five-year term. He is eligible for a second term. The President appoints as Prime Minister (www.primeminister.gr) the leader of the party with absolute majority in Parliament. General elections take place every four years. Voting in the general elections is compulsory for all Greek citizens. Greeks are entitled to vote at the age of 18. They can stand for election to Parliament when 21 years old. The Greek flag consists of four white and five alternating horizontal stripes with a white cross in the upper inner corner. The Greek national anthem is the work of two very important Greek people that lived during the nineteenth century in the Ionian islands. The words of the anthem are part of a very big poem written by our National Poet Dionysios Solomos (1798- 1857). In his work 'Hymn to Liberty' which possesses more than one hundred verses, he praises the idea of 'Freedom'. The first two verses of this marvelous poem consist the words of the Greek anthem. The composer Nikolaos Mantzaros wrote the music of the Greek anthem. Hellas is divided into the mainland and the islands. There are highlands, hilly areas and plains. Mountains cover about three quarters of the country's surface. They extend from NW to SE and enclose numerous small basins. The highest mountain is Mt Olympus (2917 m.). It was considered a holy mountain for ancient Greeks as they believed that it was the seat of the twelve Gods. Greece has a warm Mediterranean climate which varies a lot within the country. The northern areas have a harder winter than southern parts. The islands have a short mild winter and a long dry summer. |
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http://weather.pathfinder.gr/emy http://www.primeminister.gr/gr/government.asp
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