Addressing an event by the Association of Diplomatic Personnel on 200 years since the founding of the Filiki Etairia (Society of Friends) Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos on underlined on Tuesday that the Foreign Ministry “has need of a very dispassionate and scientific study of history.”

“Patriotism is based on a profound knowledge and accurate assessment of the balance of powers, and it is of very great importance that our diplomatic personnel renew the broad knowledge that, in any case, they already have of this land’s history, its undertakings, the requisite self-knowledge,” Mr. Venizelos added.

Moreover, the Deputy Prime minister stressed that although “all periods are historically critical, the current one is particularly dense, as we are facing very major challenges in the country’s foreign policy and security policy – as well, naturally, as in our economic policy.”

Filiki Eteria
Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends was a secret 19th-century organization whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state. Society members included young Phanariot Greeks from Russia and local chieftains from Greece and one of its leaders was Alexander Ypsilantis. The Society initiated the Greek War of Independence in the spring of 1821.