Our petition is:

We declare ourselves against the mentalities and practices that lead to the destruction of the world's heritage and we ask the Greek Prime Minister to exercise his authority so that, without any further delays and hypocrisy, the Diolkos is finally saved and restored.

The text and links below are general information (not part of the petition): Updated: May 23rd, 2012

Amidst new promises, often FED even to the Press in order to divert attention from the ASSISTED DEMOLITION of this unique site, the large exposed sections of Diolkos continue to be violently attacked; the erosion also approaches a "sane" section from the side. 

- Recent videos, links to photos & documents: www.youtube.com/user/sofiagreek
- This petition has already been signed by concerned citizens from 123 countries (see list at the end) 

The Diolkos, the unique paved way which enabled transportation of entire fleets overland across the Isthmus of Corinth, is  crumbling into the water at its western end. After the excavation (~1960), great part of this famous monument -commonly dated to the times of Periander, ~ 600 BC- was left at the mercy of its position near the Corinth Canal.

Although professing care for the monument, the initial parts of which were known to BOTH the Canal Company AND the archaeologists at least since the 1930s, the services of the Greek Ministry of Culture have -for long decades - kept themselves unprepared to protect it, limiting themselves to producing ridiculous lies at every attempt of control.

Please BEWARE,  their usual method is to take what seems to be a step forward in the monument's protection, advertise it , convince people to wait... and then take several steps backwards...

In descriptions given BY THE AUTHORITIES in 2006 and 2007, "subsidence" was presented as almost the only problem of the main course of the monument!!!  
In November 2010, the Greek Ministry of Culture officially "informed" the Prime Minister that Diolkos suffered extensive damage... during the opening of the Canal, in the 19th century!!!

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A necessary note: This petition was started on 22 november 2006. It, as well as other reports on Diolkos, has repeatedly been brought to the attention of both Mr. Karamanlis' and Mr. George Papandreou's office. Prompted to answer, the Ministry of Culture people went on with various inconsistencies and lies. A report about Diolkos and the connected frauds, brought to Mr Papademos' office shortly before the elections of May 6, 2012, also includes news about the petition and the necessity of the monument being protected "without further delays an hypocricy" as the petition states.
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Appallingly, the Ministry had ABANDONED Diolkos' protection to its destroyers (the Canal Company, directly supervised by the Minister of Finance). The  "archaeologists" kept backing up the FRAUDS of the Canal which, since passing entirely to the greek state in 1980, had been engaged in a series of MOCK studies for redoing the low walls flanking the narrow part of the Canal.

What the Canal Company (comprising by law in its board of Director a high official of the Ministry of Finance and TWO representatives of the local government, plus various "illustrous" appointed Corinthians) was presumably after, was tearing down every vestige of the old low walls of the Canal in order to gain some width and depth while at the same time pretending to conserve the CANAL as a monument.

It seems that even the European Commission of Transport was made to AGREE about the low walls being torn down and "redone"; widening and deepening was NOT mentioned -for obvious reasons- in documents of the first half of the '80s, but a home-made "study" (presumably dated 1984) was precise about it...

Remodelling the entrances of the Canal was INCLUDED in this intent, promoted in 1984 by the Ministers of Public Works and Finance (Mr. Tsohatzopoulos and Mr.Tsovolas). Although a great number of documents are kept secret, the Ministry of Culture may have given their blessings to this scheme!!!

Details like this, carefully kept for decades under a law of silence by everybody involved, catapult the Greek Ministry of Culture not only in the center of the Canal frauds but right in their ORIGIN, too.

(And we are talking about the period after 1980 - God knows what was going on in the years between the monument's excavation, around 1960, up to 1980! - and there are SEVERAL blind spots later, arriving to the present day: the modern history of Diolkos seems to coprise various "understandings" not only about the excavated  monument but also about its possible continuation, as well as other "mysterious" damages to the monument AND even instances of orchestrating "expert opinion" on demand).

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A note: The character of the CANAL as a monument had been PROMOTED in 1982 by the "illustrous" local Canal people, based on the year in which construction works for the Canal had started (1882). Their care for any kind of monument is more than sufficiently testified by the fact that their contemporary plans for a bridge near Diolkos included a road passing just OVER the ancient monument itself. I have been told that for quite some time the illustrous Corinthian President of the Canal (who later became twice Vice Minister as well as covering other important positions: http://www.dimsim.gr/44_1a17/theodoros-kotsonhs.html ) was grumbling about the fact that the road had to take a slight curve before reaching the bridge...
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While the Canal went from one fraud to the next for this PRESUMED goal (between other things, they did not know HOW to technically resolve the issue of tearing down the existing walls, and enlarging the Canal with safety - and they also DEMANDED that the CANAL stay in OPERATION during the works!) even rescue actions were DENIED for the defenseless Diolkos who was being dismembered in an area with plenty of access, much larger width than than proposed for the Canal, and absolutely no problems posed by perilous slopes!

At any attempt of outside control about the situation of Diolkos, the Ministry of Culture - although NOT mentioning any arrangements with the Canal - kept complacently and slyly pointing at the direction of the Canal.

THIS went on even AFTER a third mock remake of the Canal study, in 1997. (Previous versions had been presented in 1984 and 1987).

While backing up the FRAUDS of the Canal (and there is some evidence that they also intervened on the Canal studies), the Ministry of Culture had  initiated another FAKE line of "protection" of their own. A "decision" about protection measures in 1988 (probably to cover up the years SINCE the excavation [1956-1960], in which they had never protected the monument) evolved as a study proposing BENCHES for an already dilaniated Diolkos in 1989. This line of action ALSO has to do with the fake attempts of the Canal and it included all sorts of horrific disasters, like the DISAPPPEARANCE of entire stretches of Diolkos itself from official descriptions!!!!!

Various "deliberations" of the Central Archeological Council (many of them taken UNDER Justice Investigations) were used to cover-up everybody's mess upon mess while further penalizing Diolkos...

An appalling common denominator of both lines of PRESUMED intentions for Diolkos or the Canal, was that both the Canal and the Ministry went on their "businesses" without (seemingly!) consulting each other!!!! This would  "enable" both of them to cancel each other's propositions or opt for a quite different configuration of the Canal later on... with the initial parts of Diolkos (officially described as hardly having any erosion at all!!!) out of the way, too....

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The above give a fairly good idea about why this petition mentions that Diolkos should be saved and restored (*) without further delay and hypocricy.
You can read on, for some more details; they cannot cover decades of frauds, scheming (and hidden decisions that MUST have been taken to conceal the various frauds), but they further illustrate WHY Authorities SHOULD take a different stance towards DIOLKOS (and also turn their improductive, deleterious mechanisms upside down).
(*) in a scientifically valid and NOT a haphazard way!
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A 1999 report to Justice Authorities only produced more LIES and hypocrisy on the part of the Ministry of Culture.

When, in 2001, the MANAGEMENT of the Canal was leased to a private company [ a presumably BIG deal that soon failed ], the then Head of the local office, Mrs. Spathari, wrote to an enquiring member of the Parliament that protection measures HAD BEEN taken for Diolkos - she even advised him not to worry, because the Diolkos area was well taken care of! This is but an INSTANCE of the continuous lies of Diolkos' keepers (AND the "open line" of the Ministry of Culture with the multiple CANAL FRAUDS).

Some PARTIAL temporary interventions (attempted first in 2007 and redone a little better in 2009) are the only REAL work done so far (http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3867/diolkos2009s.jpg) long after the Ministry had received - on top of everything else! - a POLICE document inviting them to act in order to avoid accidents!

This elementary and VERY partial protection, which at first seemed as if the Ministry had decided to finally act in defense of Diolkos, served also as an attempt to fool Justice Authorities... By muddling up every bit of information, as is their habit, the Ministry knew they would subsequently present whatever tiny piece of work as something quite big and important - while comfortably leaving DIolkos on its scheduled destruction...

Both the local office of the Ministry and the Directorate for the Restoration of Ancient Monuments (DAAM) presented untrue descriptions of the erosion in 2006. For example, DAAM described the longer devastated stretch of Diolkos as having only "subsidence". It followed that there was no hurry in protecting it from the sea! The local office's description TOTALLY DISREGARDED the devastated parts of the monument vaguely PRESENTING as a problem some fallen stones!

In 2007, the Ministry pretended to follow an OFFICIAL decision for IMMEDIATE salvage actions, but no other protection work was undertaken! A fund of 300.000 euros destined to Diolkos by the Greek Ministry of Finance in 2007 , WAS NOT ABSORBED!

Protecting Diolkos with cement blocks was EXPRESSLY mentioned in this official paper. Between other things, the Ministry had to "cover-up" a series of cement blocks passing in front of a part of the monument (sector G) and which had either illegaly been placed there or, most probably, constituted the simulated "protection measures" advertised by the Ministry (and probably by the Canal) in relation to the privatization of the latter in 2001. THIS is the way the Ministry proceeds; their supposed decisions, which the Central Archaeological Council is every now and then called to "propose", are IN REALITY aimed to cover up the lethal cocktail of idiotcy and crime that has determined the deterioration of Diolkos...

Although documents ostentate a profusion of presumed care, the Ministry MADE SURE in September 2007 to incorporate a term linking works on Diolkos to a "common interministerial decision" and then relied on THIS to continue their inactivity!

It took the Ministry more than one year to convene the SUPPOSED partners; when they met, around the end of 2008, everybody agreed that NO common interministerial decision (KYA in greek) was necessary. Instead of arranging the monument's protection after 50 years of destruction - which was their duty AT ALL TIMES anyway -, the Ministry preferred to TAMPER with the minutes of the meeting so that everybody was made to appear to have agreed on the need for a KYA. 

Diolkos' keepers do not hesitate to create obstacles on which to be sure to... stumble upon later. Every attempt of control (as for example reports to Justice Authorities) is met with some meeting or other, sometimes complete with a press release advertising their care for their poor vistim. At the beginning of 2006, the exiting vice-minister Mr. Petros Tatoulis, called a meeting for a (presumed) "restoration study" to be undertaken by the Municipality of Loutraki (one of the towns that regularly FED the Board of Directors of the Canal). At the same time, JUST A PRELIMINARY STUDY, whose aim purportedly was to "propose" TEMPORARY MEASURES was asked of the Loutraki Municipality... which had engaged to provide the sum of 40.000 euros (the cost of the supposed "restoration study") FOR A "PRESENTATION" STUDY (meleti anadeixis)... the 2006 continuation - or rather "wind-back-and-redo" - of a silly study THEY and the MINISTRY OF CULTURE had done, proposing benches for an already dilaniated Diolkos in 1989 [mentioned as protection works in 1999 and connected with very serious problems which are kept secret]!!! 

It is becoming more and more apparent by now that in 2006 the Ministry tried to wind the clock back to the 80s, pretend nothing had happened (so NOONE was to blame!!!)... and pretend also that the monument - for which they had been giving false reports all the time, anyway - was almost intact.

By pretending to be looking for "restoration standards" in 2006 (for a study which they had pretended to arrange for almost a year!), the Ministry "managed" to set up an almost "perfect crime". The attention was shifted to the supposed restoration standards and everybody was pressing for them - INDIRECTLY ADVERTISING that there WAS such a study coming...

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The earliest KNOWN document of the Ministry as far as the supposed protection for Diolkos goes, dates back to 1984: it contains a term presumably asking the Canal Company for some kind of study regarding Diolkos, in order to give permission for the construction of the nearby bridge. The Ministry people were quick to "overlook" the term in 1985 - when it was pointed out to them that they had ALREADY given their permission!

In much later years, the Ministry of Culture has started to pretend that THIS 1984 TERM was what they had been waiting for of the Canal. BUT THAT IS NOT TRUE. They had been backing-up the FRAUDS of the Canal people for the CANAL study and they have fallen back on their 1984 "term" MUCH LATER, maybe when the Canal studies proved a complete flop, or WHEN a failed study of their own (the 1989 bench study which they tried to "erase and redo" recently) seemed a much lesser offense than having participated in the Canal frauds.

Eager to cover-up their complices and themselves, the Greek Ministry of Culture has pretended NEVER to have taken PART of the Canal FRAUDS; recycling the 1984 "term", pretending to prepare a "restoration study" in 2005 or any other excuse - aptly supported by the local government or/and other "friends" who are eager to cover up other parties involved (Polytechnic professors, Technical Chamber "representatives"  etc.) are nothing but NEW FRAUDS, set up to cover the previous ones --- as long as they do NOT lead to REAL and SERIOUS works on the dilaniated monument.

At the beginning of 2006, after having talked with other Ministry people, a high official of the MInistry actually TOLD ME ON THE PHONE that he "did NOT think DIolkos would ever be fixed". It is more than apparent that at some time, the Greek Ministry of Culture had DECIDED they would NOT do anything to save the initial parts of Diolkos! THIS has nothing to do with the monument's protection BUT everything to do with covering-up past, present and future CRIMES and RESPONSIBILITIES. In this, as well as in many other cases, the Greek Ministry of Culture has been behaving like a criminal organization!!!

There also seem to have been arrangements for a haphazard "restoration"! Simplicistic standard phrases of the kind "the initial parts of Diolkos will return to their initial state" are standard phrases that  Ministry officers and supposed "experts"  repeat by heart. Their aim is also:
- to make it appear to Justice Authorities that the horrific damage already suffered by Diolkos is minimal (since it can be so easily repaired) and
- let more damage happen without intervening (no big deal "we" did not provide the "immediate temporary measures"oficially promised in 2007, no matter if more things disintegrate, "we" will fix them later).

One thing is certain: what the Ministry has been doing all these years, was NOT trying to save Diolkos but trying to create the impression that everything is OK with their imaginary "protection"!


Reports about this decades-long "assisted demolition" have reached the members of the Greek Parliament  during 2010. More details exposed around the end of August 2010, pressed the Ministry again to some movimentation, PRIMARILY aimed, as always, to saving... themselves and CONSTRUCTING presumed evidence of their care.

Forced to take some action, ministry officials have turned to the Ministry of Public Works (already involved in the matters of the Canal) and commissioned through them a  study for a wavebreaker. This study, done under the GUIDANCE of the Ministry of Culture, and whose ESSENTIALS were "reported" to have received the Central Archaeological Council's positive evaluation, was presented as just a "proposal" in an article of the VIMA newspaper at the beginning of July 2011.

Appallingly, as already said, both the Canal Company AND the Ministry of Culture appear to have proceeded by themselves in their supposed lines of action! "Baptizing" mechanisms are always at work to give their fake attemps any name that suits them (in this case the recent study, PRESUMED to constitute a PERMANENT protection at the start, could just be baptized TEMPORARY so as to "fit" earlier promises for temporary measures AND conceal the fact that it was (most probably!) GUIDED by the ladies of the Ministry of Culture without taking thoroughly into consideration the various conditions and needs of the area... or the GLARING fact that the Greek State did not really WANT to preserve the Canal as a monument after all - it was all a bundle of frauds and the Greek Ministry of Cuture is responsible for THEM, too!!

RECENT (2011 & 2012) EXPOSURE of (some of) the common frauds of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance (Canal), seems to have triggered some interaction between the two that HOPEFULLY might be other than the usual attemps to LIE about everything. (OR might just be another episode of "understanding" about "dividing" PRESUMED responsibilities and areas, as seems to have been the case in the past; in this case, what appears to be a solution for the excavated parts of Diolkos might be an "understanding" about other areas of the monument supposed - or not, acccording to the "taste" - to exist...)

Every exposure of the horrific illegalities connected with BOTH the Canal and Diolkos, usually leads the Ministry to toddle along in their MAIN effort, which is to fool various Authorities about everything. So every now and then, punctually following various reports about the assisted demolition of Diolkos, they painstakingly pretend to take another small step towards the EXCAVATED monument's protection.

However, Diolkos has been redundantly "saved" on various occasions, so NO excuse is valid anymore, unless the dilaniated monument is REALLY saved AND a scientifically correct restoration is REALLY undertaken...

With Diolkos' decay going on, our petition is:

We declare ourselves against the mentalities and practices that lead to the destruction of the world's heritage and we ask the Greek Prime Minister to exercise his authority so that, without any further delays and hypocrisy, the Diolkos is finally saved and restored.

Notes:
- info in english (not updated): http://euroheritage.net/diolkos.shtml
- 2008 BBC video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7479805.stm
- recent videos, comparative photos & links at: www.youtube.com/user/sofiagreek
- On EUROPA NOSTRA: www.europanostra.org/read--amp--share/57/

This petition has already been signed by concerned citizens from 123 countries:
Greece, Cyprus, USA, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Austria, France, Andorra, Spain, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, Brazil, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Ireland, Iceland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Estonia,  Republic of Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, Turkey, Japan, Taiwan, China, Repubic of Korea, Hong Kong, Macao, South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Togo, Nigeria, Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Kenya, Uganda, New Zealand, Fiji, Guam, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana, Aruba, Chile, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Seychelles, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Ethiopia, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Iran, Iraq             

WARMEST THANKS TO ALL!!!

 

To the Greek Prime Minister

Sir, The ancient diolkos, a unique monument of the end of the 7th century BC that enabled Greek warships and merchantmen to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth from sea to sea, is progressively crumbling into the water at its western end. 

We declare ourselves against the mentalities and practices that lead to the destruction of the world's heritage and we ask you to exercise your Authority so that, without any further delays and hypocrisy, the Diolkos is finally saved and restored.