The FoPA wish you a Happy New Year

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The team at our association would like to wish you all the best for 2025.

This will be a decisive year for our association. Irrespective of the current events:

• First and foremost, we will be continuing our efforts to secure further funding for the archaeological excavations at the Despotiko site. We will also continue to support the work of the not-for-profit company whose aim is to create an archaeological park on the site of the ancient marble quarries at Marathi. The FoPA are members of this association, to whose creation they played a major part.

• We will also be continuing our editorial activities. The development of our website and our digital Bulletin will be accompanied by the publication of printed Bulletins and the continued publication of books in the ‘Friends of Paros and Antiparos’ series. In early 2025, we plan to publish and present a trilingual book entitled ‘ The Byzantine Roads and Monasteries of Paros ’, written by Richard Valantassis and based on the work of our compatriot Nikos Aliprantis. The book is illustrated with engravings by one of the island’s most important artists, Stelios Ghikas. Both the printed Bulletin and the series of books have been produced in collaboration with the Paros publishing house Anagennisi.
• We will also continue to offer our cultural activities, such as visits to archaeological sites and theatre workshops.
• The FoPA will also continue to participate in and support the citizens’ movement on Paros, as well as on the Cycladic islands, where a number of associations have been set up to defend the Cycladic identity of these islands and their sustainable development. The development of these actions is of great importance for the inhabitants of the islands, to defend the ‘common goods’ and to facilitate their actions. The FoPA will empower citizens in their courageous efforts to champion the sustainable development of our islands.
• At our last general meeting, we decided to resume our annual ceremonies to highlight the voluntary actions of individuals or groups in favour of the community.
  

We would like to say a final word about one of our members. Our friend Ilias Papadimitrakopoulos has just passed away. Ilias was well known to the people of Paros. A remarkable writer, one of Greece’s greatest short story writers, who was also translated into French, he was one of the 11 founders who created the Friends of Paros in 2020. An inquisitive, aesthetic and generous spirit, Ilias was a citizen committed to the common good and to defending the island’s Cycladic character. His achievements are numerous. We will be publishing testimonials in his honour in the next paper edition of the Bulletin. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Yorgos Vlandas (president), Tassos Zacharas (general secretary), Dirk Cortvriend (treasurer), Nicolas Stephanou (vice president), Marouso Boura (vice president)