Greece’s foreign minister Nikos Kotzias inaugurated on Tuesday the renovated building of the Consulate General of the Hellenic Republic in Turkey’s Izmir.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mevlut Cavusoglu, also attended the ceremony.
In addition to its symbolic and historical significance for Hellenism, the renovated consulate building is expected to contribute significantly to the upgrade of the services of the Consulate to Greek and Turkish citizens.
The Consulate of Greece in Izmir was declared inappropriate for use and closed in 2003 to be renovated with funding from the Greek state.
The building was the home of Emmanuel Kapetanakis or Apergis, one of the few Greek houses on the waterfront of Izmir that survived the devastating fire of 1922, during the persecution of the Greeks.
The building is a typical example of a local architecture and was donated to the Greek state in 1948 by the Greek merchant Emmanuel Apergis or Kapetanakis.