There are two ways in which you can contribute to save Tris Klisies:
. by signing a petition to the Greek Government against the granting of the permission to build the marina. We shall soon provide the appropriate channel for that;
. by visiting the Bay next Summer and approach the Ios Major in order to express your opposition to the project;
. by becoming member of the Association “Friends of Tris Klisies” which aims, among other goals, to raise funds worldwide in order to take part into the future auction, and possibly defeat Mr Michalopoulos’s attempt to buy the remaining 50% of the land which belongs to the white house. In fact, without the full possession of these 18.000 square meters of front-line land, it is not possible to build the marina. The control of the white house has therefore a strategic value in the battle to save the Bay.
Among other goals, the Association aims to promote the creation of a National Park for all the Cyclades, thus saving the heart of the Aegean Sea from future attempts to destroy its natural beauty which belongs to everybody, not just to to a small group of privileged people. It would become the largest marine and territorial National Park in the world.
This is not just a dream. It is the first step to lead to the recognition by UNESCO of the Cyclades as World Heritage Site, and to the conservation of a treasure which belongs to mankind, and cannot be spoiled or privatized. Here, in the middle of the Aegean Sea, the European identity was born 32 centuries ago, and since then it progressively become the universal identity of mankind. “Almost everything that men have said best has been said in Greek…Everything that any one of us can do to help or hinder his fellow man has been done, at least once, by a Greek”, Marguerite Yourcenar wrote in Memoirs of Adrian. It is part of our duty to defend Cyclades’s natural beauty and their memories. It is not just an issue among others. The outcome of this battle has a universal meaning for mankind: it represents the victory or the defeat of civilization against barbarianism. Once barbarians will break through, Konstantinos Kavafis would say in Waiting for the Barbarians, “they’ll do the legislating”.
The aim of the Association will be to attract to Ios and the Cyclades public funds—mainly from the European Union—for investments which will promote the economy of the islands by a rediscovery of their natural beauties and their millenarian culture. It has been demonstrated that the economic trend for all regions which became part of a National Park invariably saw an impressive increase of profits for local business. It has also been proved that when big business is left free to expand without rules, it overwhelms small business like a road roller.
The the safety of the Bay and the Cyclades depends also on you. Help us spread our appeal on the web as much as you can.