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It is with great pleasure that I accepted the invitation to address this special event, which is co-organized by the Cultural Foundation of Troodos Mountain Communities and the Cultural Foundation "Nearchos K. Clerides", to honour the late teacher and folklorist Nearchos Clerides.
Paying due tribute to intellectuals who dedicated their lives to the service of letters is an obligation and a minimum reward for their great contribution to society.
Nearchos Clerides, this tireless worker of the spirit, deserves special mention and is a role model, since he struggled persistently and under adverse conditions to realize his dream of becoming a teacher. He developed a rich educational and social work, offering the most, not only to his hometown, Agros, but also to the whole country. He ranks among the most prolific Cypriot writers, having written and published dozens of independent works and hundreds of studies. As a true patriot, he dedicated his life to the spiritual rise of his homeland and contributed greatly to the dissemination and preservation of our popular culture. With effort and dedication he collected, studied and published folk songs, fairy tales, customs and legends of our island.
The Deputy Ministry of Culture has now assumed responsibility for the protection of our cultural heritage, both the material and the future, as well as the support of modern culture. The protection and promotion of our traditional/popular cultural heritage, which has benefited so much from the work of Nearchos Clerides, is of course an integral part of this effort. For this reason, we are grateful for the activities of the Nearchos Clerides Cultural Foundation, established in his honour, and for its efforts to continuously promote cultural, intellectual and academic progress in Cyprus.
The promotion of our cultural identity adds value to a region, provides a platform for the creation of social and economic value and contributes to the creation of new forms of active citizenship.
One of the main representatives of this policy is the Mountain Communities Culture Foundation, which was established on the basis of the National Strategy for the Development of Mountain Communities (NSADC). Its mission is to record, preserve, study, develop and promote the history, cultural heritage, education, literature, arts and, more generally, all the cultural creation currently produced in the Troodos mountain communities. At the same time, its main objective is to study, protect and promote the cultural "capital" of Troodos, supporting the local economy, integrating the cultural heritage and history of Troodos into local activities and upgrading the living conditions of the inhabitants of these areas.
The principle of the Government's policy is that culture can have multiplier benefits in the development and strengthening of our education, and can be an important contributory factor in areas such as tourism and tourism. That is why, as a Deputy Ministry, we support actions that highlight our cultural heritage, which is the generating cause for the revitalization of the countryside, while at the same time it is considered a way of preserving our cultural identity.
One such action is today's action, in which we honour the great teacher and folklorist Nearchos Clerides.
One such action is today's action, in which we honour the great teacher and folklorist Nearchos Clerides.
One such action is today's action, in which we honour the great teacher and folklorist Nearchos Clerides. A man who benefited his place and made it known throughout Cyprus. Nearchos Clerides realized the importance of the countryside in the cultural and economic prosperity of a country.
In conclusion, I would like to warmly congratulate the organizers, the Cultural Foundation of Mountain Communities Troodos and the Cultural Foundation "Nearchos C. Kleridis" for the zeal with which they work and for the valuable work they perform.
(EC/EAθ)
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