Annual Trip Abroad to Feature First Visit to Ecumenical Patriarchate

WASHINGTON, DC — The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) is preparing for its annual trip to Greece and Cyprus, and for the first time, it will include a visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate to have an audience with His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.  The annual trip will occur May 5 to 15, 2014. 

“We look forward to a productive series of meetings in each of these countries as we work to advance the issues that impact the eastern Mediterranean region and religious freedom that are of significant interest to the Greek American community,” President Nick Larigakis said. “For AHI, our visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate will be a historic one, and we also look forward to our dialogue with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. We are also excited about our tenth annual awards dinner in Athens, which is a milestone event for AHI.”

AHI will visit Cyprus first to conduct meetings with Cypriot government officials, May 5 to 7. 

The second leg of the trip will be to Athens, Greece, May 7 to 15 where AHI will have meetings with several Greek government officials.  A highlight of the Greece visit will be AHI’s Tenth Annual Athens Awards Reception & Dinner on May 14 at The Grande Bretagne Hotel.  AHI will honor Captain Panagiotis N. Tsakos, founder, Tsakos Group of Companies, at the dinner.

The AHI delegation will depart Athens for a day-trip to Istanbul to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch at the Ecumenical Patriarchate on May 9.  AHI will also meet with the United States consul general, the consul general of Greece, and Lakis Vingas, who is the elected representative of the non-Muslim minorities. 

The American Hellenic Institute is an independent non-profit Greek American public policy center and think tank that works to strengthen relations between the United States and Greece and Cyprus, and within the Greek American community.

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For additional information, please contact Georgea Polizos at (202) 785-8430 or at pr@ahiworld.org. For general information about the activities of AHI, please see our website at https://www.ahiworld.org and follow us on Twitter @TheAHIinDC