Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Inc: Lemnos Commemorations 2016 - Dimitris Boulotis Reports on behalf of the Gallipoli Association (UK)

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Saturday, 14 May 2016

Lemnos Commemorations 2016 - Dimitris Boulotis Reports on behalf of the Gallipoli Association (UK)

This year's commemorative events on Lemnos include representation by the Gallipoli Association, the UK-based commemorative organisation dedicated to raising awareness of the Gallipoli campaign. This was the first time that this large commemorative association has ever been represented formally on Lemnos. They were unable to send a representative from London and sought my advice (as a member of the Association) as to who might represent them. As a result they were formally represented by former Lemnos Municipality Deputy Mayor, Mr Dimitris Boulotis. We hope that they will be represented in person in coming years.
Thanks to Dimitris for providing the following report and images on the events on Lemnos in April this year.

"The main event took place at East Moudros Military Cemetery at 17:30 of April 21, 2016.
There were an honorary platoon from the Greek Army (below).

Present were (according to the Greek protocol) representative of the Government, representative of the Regional Government of North Aegean, the Military Commander of Limnos, representatives of Australia, France and New Zealand, representative of the Australian Armed Forces, the Mayor of Lemnos, representatives of Associations of Veterans, local associations (some with traditional costumes) and many people.
The event started with a Memorial Service by Orthodox priests (below).

Then we laid wreaths in protocol order (below 1) and the representative of the Hellenic Government (below 2) , the representative of the North Aegean Region (below 3), the Mayor of Lemnos (below 4), the Consul of New Zealand and the chairman of the local branch of Red Cross, adressed a short speech.

Keynote speaker was Major General Mr. Kamnis, vice-President of Athens War Museum (below).

Finally, children's choirs sang "Imagine" by John Lennon and a Greek folk song for those who left away from their homeland (below).

The event ended with the national anthems of the countries represented and a solo from Army Trumpeter.
After the event the representative of the North Aegean Region hosted a small reception at Moudros Harbour, where he gave memorabilia to those who took part in the event.
Upon receiving the gift (below) I expressed the wish that I will not have to represent again the Gallipoli Association (UK) and that the following year you will be here and to lay the wreath yourself.

Thank you for your trust to me
yours sincerely
Dimitris Boulotis"

Other Photos from the events provided by Mr Boulotis are reproduced below:

Arrival of the Brigadier General, Army Commander of Lemnos.

Arrival of the representatives of North Aegean Region and the of the Hellenic Goverment

First row, left to right: Representatives of France, Australia, Australian Armed Forces, New Zealand, Mayor of Lemnos, rep. of North Aegean Region, from the Office of the Prime Minister, from The Hellenic Government, the vice-President of Athens War Museum, the Army Commander of Lemnos with his Chief of Staff (behind them with white hat, the Navy Commander of Lemnos), the Air Force Commander of Lemnos, Priests)