Two days later, he announced the formation of a transitional unity government to manage implementation of the package and that he would resign after the country held early elections. Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank, was named as Papandreou's successor. According to European Union statistics, Greece's debt increased to However, before Greece can receive the money, it must first pay off creditors. The cuts went through despite violent protests in Athens on the eve of the vote.
Protestors set fire to some 40 buildings in Athens and hurled Molotov cocktails. May Parliamentary elections were a stunning rejection of the terms of the European bailout and threw Greece's political landscape into disarray. Center-right New Democracy won New Democracy and the Socialists Pasok , however, failed to form a coalition, and President Papoulias asked Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras to form a government.
He said he would not form a government with New Democracy or Pasok unless they withdraw their backing of the bailout deal, and new elections were scheduled for mid-June. President Papoulias named Judge Panagiotis Pikrammenos as interim prime minister. Amid the uncertainty fear spread across Europe that Greece would abandon the euro? New Democracy prevailed in June's election, winning Syriza took Samaras, who has been cool to the austerity measures and has advocated a course of growth rather than cuts, said he plans to renegotiate some of the terms of the country's bail-out packages.
Samaras succeeded in convincing the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, referred to as the troika, that the austerity measures were not working and were making life intolerable for many Greeks.
Nevertheless, the prime minister was forced to introduce another round of cuts in the fall in order to receive the next installment of aid? In September, members of the troika rejected his proposed?
The troika said it would allow Greece to phase in the measures rather than implement them all at once. The concession did little to appease the public, and Samaras's popularity began to plummet while Syriza and Golden Dawn began to gain favorability in the polls. In November, eurozone finance ministers and the IMF agreed to a plan to restructure Greece's debt and release? Officials hoped the move would reduce the risk that Greece would abandon the euro.
In June in its continued pursuit of ways to save money, the government made the surprise announcement that it was suspending operations of the state broadcaster, ERT. Protests broke out, and the Democratic Left party bolted from Samaras's coalition, leaving him with a slim majority in parliament.
Parliament agreed to yet additional austerity measures in July in order to receive the next installment of bailout funds? The concessions included the elimination of 15, civil service positions and reform to the country's tax code. In Sept. The subsequent shooting of two Golden Dawn members in early November looked to be an act of retaliation. Many in Greece worried that six years of recession, unrelenting austerity measures, and soaring unemployment would send the country into a violent tailspin.
Less than one week later, on Nov. Many strikers stayed home due to heavy rains. The groups were protesting the arrival of inspectors from the "troika" of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
On Tuesday, April 1, , the troika review period was finally, and officially, over. International finance ministers agreed to release 8. Early elections were called in December , after Parliament failed three times to elect a president. Stavros Dimas, former European commissioner and the candidate put forth by the government, fell short each time.
In January , voters handed a decisive victory to the left-wing, anti-austerity Syriza party, expressing their anger about the harsh austerity measures, which were put in place by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Alexis Tsipras, the head of Syriza, became prime minister and said he would renegotiate payment terms of Greece's debt. He referred to the austeriay plan as "fiscal waterboarding.
Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, renegotiated the terms of Greece's bailout with representatives of the euro zone at an emergency meeting in Brussels in February. The Greek government said while it will comply with the agreement, it will work to eliminate the "humanitarian crisis" placed on the citizens as a result of the harsh austeritiy measures.
Prime Minister Tsipras faces a challenge in satisfying the demands of the bailout and sticking to his pledge to abandon the austerity package. Also in February, Prime Minister Tsipras nominated Prokopis Pavlopoulos as the ruling coalition's presidential candidate. On Feb. A lawyer and university professor, Pavlopoulos took office on March 13, Greece missed a critical debt payment of 1. The country's international creditors refused to extend Greece's bailout program.
The IMF placed Greece in arrears, a classification used to avoid saying a country that doesn't pay its debt on time is in default. The missed payment created alarm and chaos. Greece shut down its banking system, ordering its banks closed for six days, starting Monday, June Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for a referendum where voters in Greece would decide whether or not to accept the terms of the country's creditors.
Tsipras urged voters to choose "no," which was met with Pro-European protests in Athens. Tsipras wrote a letter to the international creditors, which said that Greece would accept the bailout offered if many of the conditions were changed. However, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany dismissed Tsipras' letter, saying that the letter was too late and that there should be no more negotiations until Greece holds its referendum.
Creditors had proposed the cuts in return for loans that Greece needs. After the referendum, European leaders said that negotiations with Greece would resume. However, the chance of Greece staying in the euro looked slim. The president selects cabinet ministers who run government departments. The parliament, called the Vouli, has only one house with members who are elected every four years.
Greece became part of the European Union in The first great civilization in Greece was the Minoan culture on the island of Crete around B. Wall paintings found at the ruins of the palace Knossos show people doing backflips over a charging bull.
The Minoans were conquered by the Myceneans from the mainland in B. During ancient times the country was divided into city-states, which were ruled by noblemen. The largest were Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth. Each state controlled the territory around a single city. They were often at war with each other. Athens became the most powerful, and in B. But during that time, only men could vote! The first Olympic Games were held in the southern city of Olympia in B. Only men could compete in the events such as sprinting, long jump, discus, javelin, wrestling, and chariot racing.
The games were banned by the Romans in A. Greece was ruled by foreigners for over 2, years beginning with the Romans conquering the Greeks in the 2nd century. Then, after almost years under Turkish rule, Greece won independence in All rights reserved.
Personality Quizzes. Funny Fill-In. Amazing Animals. Weird But True! Much like the Jewish people, Armenia is a nation known fo its great diaspora. Nonetheless, the Armenians have possessed a country for most of the last 2, years, with the first mentions of Armenia occurring in the sixth century BCE. Yerevan , now the capital of Armenia, was founded in BCE. The Armenians, the first to officially accept Christianity as a state religion in CE, still adhere to their own Armenian Apostolic Church.
Besides the diaspora, another unfortunate similarity that the Armenians share with the Jews was a genocide perpetrated against them at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in Buddhism spread to Japan soon after, and the nation was already developing a literary tradition in the eighth century, which culminated in the writing of The Tale of Genji in the early 11th century CE.
The period that saw this development, the Heian period CECE , also saw numerous other cultural traits appear that still define Japan today. Even though Iran was reunified at the start of the 16th century, the country has a longer history of civilisation than almost anywhere in the world. San Marino, the third smallest country in Europe, is certainly an outlier on this list for various reasons.
It is, however, undeniably one of the oldest countries in the world, as it was founded in CE. A stonemason, Marinus, who would eventually become a saint, came from his home in what is now Croatia to escape persecution for his Christian beliefs and founded the country as a republic.
While San Marino is fairly unique now as a microstate, it reflects a long tradition of small city-states in Europe. Going further back than nations and countries, some of the oldest hominid fossils have been found in Ethiopia.
The country has had various monarchies since the 2nd millennium BCE. Importantly, Ethiopia was the only African country that was never colonised by a European country, as they were able to defeat all invading forces.
Ethiopia has always been a highly diverse, multi-ethnic state, and this also extends to its religion. The Kingdom of Aksum was one of the first countries after Armenia to accept Christianity, but Islam and Judaism have also had ties there for many centuries.
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