THANASSIS STAVRAKIS

The head of a griffin, that was repatriated from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, is displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia in Ancient Olympia, Greece, on Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
An ancient bronze griffin head is returned to Greece from New York in a major repatriation move
An ancient bronze griffin head, stolen nearly a century ago, has been returned to the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. The 7th century B.C. artifact was part of a ceremonial cauldron dedicated to Zeus.
March 21
Protesters raise their hands as riot police operate during clashes, as the Greek opposition parties have challenged the country's center-right government with a censure motion in parliament over a devastating rail disaster nearly two years ago, in Athens, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. The placard reads "I have no oxygen", a phrase which a victim of the deadly train accident, used in a phone call to the emergency services. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Protests turn violent as Greece’s government battles censure motion over deadly train crash
Protesters have launched gasoline bombs and fireworks in clashes with police outside Greece’s parliament.
March 6
Rev. Constantine Dousikos celebrates the Blessing of the Five Loaves ceremony at the Orthodox church of Agios Stylianos in Fourna village, central Greece, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Rural resurrection: A Greek village leans into faith in fight against demographic collapse
In the remote mountains of central Greece lies Fourna, a village in danger of disappearing due to its aging population.
December 12, 2024
Police hold a seasonal firefighter outside Greece's Civil Protection Ministry during a protest to demand permanent positions as their contracts expire following a grueling wildfire season, in Athens Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (John Liakos/InTime News via AP)
As summers get hotter, Greece’s seasonal firefighters protest for permanent jobs
Angry seasonal firefighters have clashed with police in Greece’s Civil Protection Ministry, during a protest to demand permanent positions as their contracts expire following a grueling wildfire season. Hundreds of people took part in the protest.
October 31, 2024
The area around National Observatory on Penteli mountain, which had been burned in a mid-August wildfire, is seen in northern Athens, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
AP PHOTOS: A ferocious blaze scars the land outside Greece’s capital
The flames ignited a gasoline-filled generator at his workshop, which burned for two days before he could get near the property. A bust of a Greek Orthodox saint was spared and now rests in front of the gutted and soot-covered site in the suburb of Halandri.
September 7, 2024
Fireworks explode over the Venetian port after the procession of "Epitaphios", the bier that carries the body of Jesus Christ to his grave, in Nafpaktos town, western Greece, on Good Friday, May 3, 2024. The solemn processions in Greece, with the flower-adorned biers followed by the clergy and the faithful, are often spectacular, especially in places where bier processions from each parish converge into a central square. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
AP PHOTOS: Greek Orthodox mark Good Friday with solemn bier processions
The city of Nafpaktos, in western Greece, is one such city. Once part of the Byzantine Empire, it was later hotly contested between the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians, who called the town Lepanto. One of the largest ever naval battles, the Battle of Lepanto, involving nearly 450 ships, was fought
May 4, 2024
The ancient Greek vase from 420 BC – the Meidias Hydria – on loan from the British Museum, is on display during a media tour ahead of the Greece's Acropolis Museum officially launched of the exhibition, 'Meanings' Personifications and Allegories From Antiquity to Today, in Athens, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. The loan coincides with a spat between the two countries over Greek demands for the return of sculptures from the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis that are housed in the British Museum. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
British Museum loan to Greece coincides with dispute over demand to return Parthenon Marbles
Greece’s Acropolis Museum has launched an exhibition that includes a renowned ancient Greek water jug from 420 B.C. on loan from the British Museum.
December 5, 2023
Retiree Chrysoula Renieri visits her burned out home in Loutraki, about 82 kilometres (51 miles) west of Athens, Greece, Thursday, July 20, 2023. Renieri, 72, was among dozens of people who lost their home in the area as wildfires tore through hillside scrub and forests outside Athens. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Fire crews lose control of blaze near Athens as southern Europe heat wave keeps communities on alert
Evening winds have caused a major wildfire burning west of Greece’s capital to flare up again. Authorities had declared the huge blaze outside Athens contained overnight and Greece’s Fire Service intensified water drops with the help of extra firefighting aircraft deployed from France and Italy.
July 20, 2023
A firefighting helicopter flies through smoke as people watch, at the fire in Mandra west of Athens, on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. In Greece, where a second heatwave is expected to hit Thursday, three large wildfires burned outside Athens for a second day. Thousands of people evacuated from coastal areas south of the capital returned to their homes Tuesday when a fire finally receded after they spent the night on beaches, hotels and public facilities. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Wildfires in Greece close highways and threaten an oil refinery, as the EU sends firefighting planes
Fast-moving fires outside Athens forced authorities in Greece to close highways and cancel vacations for firefighters and evacuations were expanded and weather conditions continued to worsen.
July 18, 2023
Panathinaikos-Olympiakos game abandoned after clashes
Greek league rivals Panathinaikos and Olympiakos had their soccer game abandoned after fans from host Panathinaikos clashed with police outside Athens’ Olympic Stadium, and attempted to attack the Olympiakos bench inside the stadium.
March 18, 2019
Greek island of Naxos celebrates Carnival with Torch Parade
In the Torch Parade, a procession of young men and women with faces painted to resemble black-and-white masks wear white sheets and hold torches on long poles on Saturday night. It first took place in 1994, dreamed up by young members of the local cinema club. About 50 people back then went out into
February 26, 2017