The Hellenic Navy (HN) (Greek: Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, Polemikó Naftikó, abbreviated ΠΝ) is the naval force of Greece, part of the Greek Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy has its roots in the naval forces of various Aegean Islands, which fought in the Greek War of Independence. During the periods of monarchy (1833–1924 and 1936–1973) it was known as the Royal Navy (Βασιλικόν Ναυτικόν, Vasilikón Naftikón, abbreviated ΒΝ).The total displacement of all the navy's vessels is approximately 150,000 tons.The motto of the Hellenic Navy is "Μέγα το της Θαλάσσης Κράτος" from Thucydides' account of Pericles' oration on the eve of the Peloponnesian War. This has been roughly translated as "Great is the country that controls the sea". The Hellenic Navy's emblem consists of an anchor in front of a crossed Christian cross and trident, with the cross symbolizing Greek Orthodoxy, and the trident symbolizing Poseidon, the god of the sea in Greek mythology. Pericles' words are written across the top of the emblem. "The navy, as it represents a necessary weapon for Greece, should only be created for war and aim to victory."...............The Hellenic Merchant Marine refers to the Merchant Marine of Greece, engaged in commerce and transportation of goods and services universally. It consists of the merchant vessels owned by Greek civilians, flying either the Greek flag or a flag of convenience. Greece is a maritime nation by tradition, as shipping is arguably the oldest form of occupation of the Greeks and a key element of Greek economic activity since the ancient times. Nowadays, Greece has the largest merchant fleet in the world, which is the second largest contributor to the national economy after tourism and forms the backbone of world shipping. The Greek fleet flies a variety of flags, however some Greek shipowners gradually return to Greece following the changes to the legislative framework governing their operations and the improvement of infrastructure.Blogger Tips and Tricks
This is a bilingual blog in English and / or Greek and you can translate any post to any language by pressing on the appropriate flag....Note that there is provided below a scrolling text with the 30 recent posts...Αυτό είναι ένα δίγλωσσο blog στα Αγγλικά η/και στα Ελληνικά και μπορείτε να μεταφράσετε οποιοδήποτε ποστ σε οποιαδήποτε γλώσσα κάνοντας κλικ στη σχετική σημαία. Σημειωτέον ότι παρακάτω παρέχεται και ένα κινούμενο κείμενο με τα 30 πρόσφατα ποστς....This is a bilingual blog in English and / or Greek and you can translate any post to any language by pressing on the appropriate flag....Note that there is provided below a scrolling text with the 30 recent posts...Αυτό είναι ένα δίγλωσσο blog στα Αγγλικά η/και στα Ελληνικά και μπορείτε να μεταφράσετε οποιοδήποτε ποστ σε οποιαδήποτε γλώσσα κάνοντας κλικ στη σχετική σημαία. Σημειωτέον ότι παρακάτω παρέχεται και ένα κινούμενο κείμενο με τα 30 πρόσφατα ποστς.........

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Australia, Not wellcomes Chechen President ..[ 473 ]

Chechen President Under Fire in Australia

By Nikolaus von Twickel

"The St. Petersburg Times " Tue. Sept. 22, 2009

MOSCOW — Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has come under fire in Australia after it was revealed that two of his elite racehorses would participate in high-profile races in Melbourne this fall.

Australian Green Party leader Bob Brown said neither Kadyrov nor his horses should be let into Australia because of the Chechen leader’s brutal politics.

“If this nasty character were to get his hands on the Melbourne Cup, it would be the lowest point in Australia’s sporting history,” Brown said, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday.

Kadyrov is sending Mourilyan, a gelding that won this summer’s March Stakes race in Goodwood, England, to contest the Melbourne Cup on Nov. 3, the report said.

The contest is the country’s most prestigious race, with the winner’s prize money worth $3.3 million.

Australian media reports said victory for Kadyrov’s horse would be a public relations disaster because the cup is awarded personally by the governor-general, the official representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Australia.

His other horse, thoroughbred Bankable, will start in the $750,000 LKS Mackinnon Stakes race, held Oct. 31.

Kadyrov’s spokesman, Alvi Karimov, declined to comment on the reports Monday. “I simply do not know anything about these things,” he told The St. Petersburg Times by telephone from Grozny.

Vladimir Putin & Ramzan Kadyrov

Brown, who is also a member of the Australian Senate, said the Chechen president should be denied an Australian visa for a number of reasons.

“Mr. Kadyrov has no criminal record as such because he runs the secret police. But his opponents have been gunned down at home and abroad — including assassinations in Vienna and Dubai in recent times,” he said in a statement published on his party’s web site (greens.org.au/aggregator/sources/4).

A spokeswoman for Australia’s Foreign Ministry said Kadyrov had not applied for a visa, but if he did, it would be hard to imagine him being granted one, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Yet it would be difficult to ban the horses from entering, the report said.

Human rights activists say Kadyrov is running Chechnya as his personal fiefdom with the Kremlin’s consent. They accuse him of torturing and killing opponents in Russia and abroad. In January, Umar Israilov, a former Kadyrov bodyguard, was murdered in Vienna, and in March, political rival Sulim Yamadayev was gunned down in Dubai.

Yamadayev’s shooting coincided with the Dubai World Cup horse race on March 28, and local police later arrested Kadyrov’s horse trainer on suspicion of involvement in the killing.

Police also issued an international arrest warrant for a relative of Kadyrov, State Duma Deputy Adam Delimkhanov.

Delimkhanov and Kadyrov have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.


Kadyrov reportedly has a horse stable in Dubai, and Mourilyan was trained by South African Herman Brown in Dubai earlier this year, Britain’s Racing Post newspaper reported.

Kadyrov’s passion for racehorses has raised little public interest so far, even after he sent a record 11 of them to compete in the president’s cup in Moscow this July.

His prizewinning stallion Bronze Cannon came a disappointing fourth in the Moscow race, where Kadyrov mingled with President Dmitry Medvedev and other leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Bronze Cannon was bought from British diamond magnate Anthony Oppenheimer, and experts told The St. Petersburg Times that the horse is worth ?500,000 to ?1 million ($809,000 to $1.6 million).

Kadyrov, who is also known for collecting fancy cars, said in his first public income declaration in May that he earned 3.5 million rubles ($110,000) last year and that his only personal property consisted of a tiny 36-square-meter apartment and a VAZ-21053 car.

“I am a poor Chechen,” he told Komsomolskaya Pravda in an interview published last week.

But he added that he did not refuse “anything that the Almighty gave me.”

In an earlier interview with the newspaper, Kadyrov said the horses belong to the Chechen Republic rather than to him personally.

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