Olympics' motherland holds national day at EXPO-2017

The national day began with raising of national flags and singing the anthems of Kazakhstan and Greece. Minister of Economy and Development of Greece Dimitris Papadimitriou addressed the audience with a welcoming speech. He spoke about the post-crisis development of the country.

 

"We are convinced that after all the trying times, with the support of our partners, our country's desire for development will be successful. We want to become the international energy center, transit center connecting Europe, Middle East and Asia," he said.

In his turn, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi recalled that for Kazakhstan and Greece this year marks the 25th Anniversary of the diplomatic relations.

 

"Friendly and even family ties between the countries continue growing via the large Greek expatriate community in Kazakhstan and our former citizens living in Greece," the vice minister said.

According to him, Greece is one of the shining examples, where the government makes every effort to protect the environment and develops the use of renewable energy sources everywhere.

"Hellas is one of the few countries that took decisive steps to ensure the energy self-sustainability of the islands adjacent to the country. The case in point is the Greek island of Tilos, the first island in the Mediterranean Sea, living exclusively by using wind and sun energy," said Mukhtar Tleuberdi.

After the official part, the dance group invited from Greece performed traditional Greek dances, including the most popular and famous sirtaki. However, it is not a folk one at all and exists not so long. It was created in 1964. But the dance is a mixture of slow and fast versions of hasapiko, the ancient dance of warriors. The sirtaki dance, as well as the music to it, written by the Greek composer Míkis Theodorakis, is sometimes called 'Zorbá's dance'. The choreographer of the film and, in particular, the dance of Zorba and Basil in the final scene, was Giorgos Provias. After the film was released, sirtaki became the most popular Greek dance in the world and one of the symbols of Greece.

It is noteworthy that in Greece there was a huge number of dances, over 200. They were divided into 5 groups: ceremonial, sacred (performed during sacrifices), stage, domestic and civil ones (they were danced on public holidays).