KARATE: Letter of Indignation to the Prime Minister

  12/07/04          

GREEK TRADITIONAL KARATE FEDERATION (GTKF)

SEVASTOUPOLEOS 133, 11526 ATHENS, TEL. 6947-808524, FAX 210-3639508,

URL: www.karate.gr, E-mail: e.persidis@karate.gr

RECOGNIZED WITH DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT FOR TRADITIONAL KARATE

AND FOR NINE YEARS DEPRIVED ILLEGALLY ITS RECOGNITION FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF ATHLETICS 

Athens, July 10th, 2004  

To:  

1- The Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Mr. Costas Karamanlis  

2- The Vice Minister of Culture, Mrs. Fany Palli-Petralia  

3- The Deputy Minister of Athletics, Mr. George Orfanos  

4- The General Secretary of Athletics, Mr. Costas Koukodimos  

With notification via e-mail and fax to the members of Parliament, Greek and International Mass Media, Greek and International Athletic Federations.

SUBJECTS:  

1- The special athletic recognition of our federation!  

2- The General Secretariat for Athletics (GSA) despises the GTKF, the Constitution of Greece, the laws and Courts decisions?  

3- Is, by any chance, the New Democracy tightly hugged with opacity, interlace and corruption?  

Gentlemen... "Next to the citizen"  

Our federation fulfils the presumptions for recognition from the GSA and  has made relative applications from January 1995 more than ... thirty  times (applications, reminding of applications, interventions of the  Greek Ombudsman and charges for refusals or non-replies) always receiving  an extremely out of law negative answer!  

In its permanent refusal the GSA confronts as only allegation various factitious or false arguments that our "traditional karate" is an identical sport with the "general karate" of the Hellenic Karate Federation (HKF, opponent federation, which tried "to close us down")!  But, however, after eight years of trials, the Supreme Court confirmed (JAN 2003) the decisions of Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal, which decided that we are a different sport and a different federation! A decision final, irrevocable, and a nomology henceforth for Greece, which you despise impudently!  

The non-recognition of our federation from the GSA:  

1- Is not a subject of plenitude of application in relation with the law, or lack of formal conditions of our federation or our associations, otherwise the GSA would write it down in her negative answers!  

2- Is not a subject of identification of our sport with a sport of another federation which is already recognised, because thereupon courts pronounced already irrevocably and irrecallably!  

3- Is not a subject of economical possibility of GSA of subsidising our federation given that the subsidy that will be given (if it will be given!) will be of the order of 1/10.000 of the total subsidies to sports federations, while more generally for athletics GSA spends 20.000 times  more from our expected subsidy!   

Consequently, it is proved that the out of law refusal is a subject of  choice and decided party favour to our opposite Federation and  particularly to its chairman, who is "the favoured of the PASOK and a  caressed member of the New Democracy", George Yerolimpos!  

George Yerolimpos presented himself  in front of  the administrations of  Karate (Hellenic Karate Federation) in 1990-1991 (he was recommended as  one of  Mr. Evert's - previous president of New Democracy -  twenty-member  advising team), collaborated with "green-guards" (PASOK-members) of  Olympic Stadium and brought them in the administration of HKF. He collaborated absolutely and curiously with the Deputy Minister of Athletics of that period, Andreas Fouras (PASOK) (!), while simultaneously being an active member of the sports section of New Democracy and its representative in great athletic events! He protested (well-known trick) for the ridiculousness of a video against Costas Mitsotakis of New Democracy (former prime minister), that appeared in the return air flight of Greek claim team for Olympics 2004 from the Lausanne on 7-9-97 and thus gained the favour of Costas Mitsotakis, but also Vangelis Meimarakis (the general secretary of New Democracy today), to whom they have been denounced occasionally the illegal actions of Yerolimpos and he did not do anything! Still more, fax of charges, which was sent from us to the office of Mr. Meimarakis (March 2004), in ten minutes had devolved to knowledge of Yerolimpos (is domiciled in the office of Mr. Meimarakis?)!    

Despite the decision of the Supreme Court, which vindicates our Federation, the GSA under the governments of the two parties commits illegalities over ten years refusing unjustifiably to our federation the special athletic recognition, which is a constitutional right of the citizens and associations, members of GTKF. The GSA covers, strengthens and emboldens in this way the "favoured of the PASOK and caressed member of the New Democracy" (and hence collaborator of Deputy Minister of Athletics George Orfanos!) George Yerolimpos chairman of the opposite federation HKF, who:

1- From 1991 uses illegally the HKF as "personal store of athletic goods", as a step in order to climb up in international athletic administrative firmament, he trades on his own political benefit these illegal conquests and from political positions he carries out professional profits for himself. His success was to be engaged in managerial place in the Athens 2004 by November 1998 and the revelation of truth came with his dismissal ("... Mata Hari in the headquarters of the Olympic Games"!) in February 2004 from Gianna Aggelopoulos as guilty of accusations for participation in a company which tried, between others, to take money for Athens 2004 supplies! Was he working for himself, we might wonder, or he was spying on somebody else's behalf? And if so, on whom, ... for whom?

2- He has tried since 1995 to snatch, through forged documents by the GSA and HOC (Hellenic Olympic Committee), our rights on traditional karate, a sport we exclusively represent, and develop in our country.  

3- Although he was serving for 15 years as New Democracy cadre, at the same time he served as a faithful co-operator for the Deputy Ministers and the General Secretaries of Athletics of the PASOK (opposition party) governments without any of them being bothered at all! This explains the ludicrous financial checking of HKF, even after charges had been pressed!  This explains the ludicrous negative reply (in a two years delay) to our application by GSA Nikos Exarhos (of PASOK) dictated by Mr. Yerolimpos.  This explains the contempt exhibited by the Deputy Minister of Athletics, George Orfanos (New Democracy), in reply to our extrajudicial, to our letters of harsh criticism, to the intervention of Greek Ombudsman in favour of GTKF, and to our repetitive efforts on our part to arrange a meeting with him, all the four months after he had been called on his duties!  

These attitudes prove the existence of underground interlace between the  two parties in secret from the Greek population, chargeable to the truth,  Democracy, justice and the general and impersonal interest of the society  of Greeks.  

Taken for granted, thus, that the refusal to recognize our federation is due to the fact that New Democracy deliberately favours her basic member George Yerolimpos and covers his illegalities, we declare the following:  

For the past 10 years we have gathered together unshakeable evidence that proves the illegal acts George Yerolimpos has committed in the field of athletics! And yet he is the ideal partner of both parties. This policy from both parties, at which they encourage "political  charlatans", as a remarkable dally sport newspaper characterizes  Yerolimpos, leads in our case with mathematical precision to the "murder"  of athletics and athletic spirit, while it proves us incompetent as  nation to manage the "athletic ideal"!  It is well known that during the past 20 years the sports federations could have made the double progress using only half the money Greeks have paid for them! The fact that athletics becomes a battlefield for political parties has  destroyed them to such an extent that now, the time of the Olympic Games  has come, we have no noteworthy athletes to display nor athletic teams, while the revenuer Greek people have paid are dumped in the garbage!  

PASOK has entirely the responsibility for the misery in which the Greek federations are, and New Democracy proves until now that it absolutely does not have any intention to invert the climate that prevails in athletics, but it applies the same party-spirited model! And "the athletic crime" continues with the party-spirited model of political management of athletics to be nothing else but the extortionate use of the federations subsidies, the services and the supposed controls of GSA for the party-spirited control of the administrations of sports federations! The proof for this is the following publication:

Daily newspaper ELEFTHEROTYPIA - 29/06/2004  

The fact that the Deputy Minister of Athletics George Orfanos has not announced since now the budgets for the sports federations is interpreted by many chairmen of athletic federations as ''a pressure policy" aiming at getting "the PASOK out "of the federation administrations and "the New Democracy in", during the impending elections after the Olympic Games and, in this way, exercising control over the new panel of the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Already to this direction, as it was stressed yesterday, has been observed constitution of opposing teams (to the actual federation administrations).

Which confession do we draw from these?  

For the past 20 years PASOK conquest the administrations of athletic federations to its possession (40 out of 47) and New Democracy is going ahead with a similar tactic. This means that managements that dominated during the PASOK reign not on the criteria of merit will be wiped out and New Democratic managements will be set up again not on the criteria of merit!  This means that the General Secretariat of Athletics will continue being «a party under-secretariat" of the governing party by distributing 100 billion drachmas each year, and the wild tear in pieces (!) of the Greek athletics  will carry on.  With victims federations like our GTKF!

CONCLUSIONS ?  

The illegal and guilty protection that is provided to George Yerolimpos by the Deputy Minister of Athletics, the General Secretary of New Democracy and the Prime Minister are a proof that the philosophy embodied by George Yerolimpos is an indispensable part of the governing philosophy of this country by Costas Karamanlis, George Orfanos, Vaggelis Meimarakis and the rest of New Democracy's parliament members?  

Is this the image you would like to project ....dear sirs?  

With athletic regards,    

The President of GTKF

Thimios Persidis        

  12/07/04