The document collection of the Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic & Historical Archive encompasses the period from the beginning of the Greek national liberation struggle in 1821 to the present. The section of the archive covering the period of the Uprising (1821-1830), which in effect consists of the correspondence of the protagonists in the War of Independence with the philhellene organisations abroad as well as the Greeks of the Ionian Islands, is fairly limited, since, until 1832, there was no organised and autonomus Service responsible for external relations. The official diplomatic correspondence of Greece begins in 1833, the year of the foundation of the 'Secretariat of Foreign Affairs' and focuses principally on interstate relations. However, the volume of the Greek diplomatic archives began to increase significantly, during 1910 to 1920 as Greece participated in international organisations on an equal footing with other member-states. From the post-war period to the present, the production of diplomatic documents has been increasing annually at an impressive rate.

The enormous volume of diplomatic documents assembled in secure facilities in the M.F.A. is organised chronologically - by year - and by provenance. These are the following categories: 1. Archives of the Central Service of the Foreign Ministry; 2. Archives of the Permanent Delegations, Embassies, Consulates and Liaison Offices; and 3. Special Record Groups. The last category relates to specific issues, events or landmarks in Greek foreign policy, examples being the groups of archives relating to the reparations after the Second World War, the Marshall Plan, documents relating to the History of Greek Jews, and so on. It is worth noting that the original texts of treaties, conventions and accords, as well as the documents ratifying them, are preserved separately in the Special Legal Service within the Ministry.

The archival collections of Y.D.I.A. are kept in five different storage facilities, in buildings in the centre of Athens that also house the directorates of the M.F.A. The immediate plans of Y.D.I.A. include the transfer of all the archive collections to a large facility with work stations for specialist archivists and conservators in a public building on the outskirts of the capital. Until this project is implemented, Y.D.I.A. strives to create the most suitable environment for the storing and preservation of the documents, by continually modifying the layout of its storage facilities and securing the appropriate technical infrastructure (fire and flood protection systems, air-conditioning, and humidity control).

The work of classifying the archive material is carried out by groups of students from various departments of Athens University (Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration, Department of History and Archaeology), and the Panteios University (Department of International Relations), as part both of internship programmes sponsored by the E.U. and also of voluntary practical training programmes for students.

In this context, Y.D.I.A. has created an excellent and cooperative environment with the humanities departments of Greek educational institutions. This cooperation is mutually beneficial: the Ministry receives significant academic support from young scholars who, under the constant guidance and supervision of the academic staff of Y.D.I.A. and through their participation in seminars, are allowed to experience the historical era, as it unfolds in the documents they are requested to classify.

An interesting feature of the mutual support in this academic and pedagogical project is that, with the passage of time, a circle of young academics has been created who are not only sensitised to the archival policy issues and the related responsibility, but are also becoming better acquainted with particular foreign policy issues.

The classification of the archival material is carried out on the basis of the recommendations of an extensive Foreign Ministry circular and of the fundamental international regulations relating to archives. At the same time, preservation and archive methods are continually updated while use is made of a special electronic archive and classification system, which makes it possible to search for documents using not only key words, but also entire sentences.

In addition to the current routine work of classifying the existing archive material in the Central Service, one of Y.D.I.A.'s major concerns is to bring archives of Greek diplomatic authorities abroad back to Greece , as part of a specific repatriation programme. Over the last five years, the Archives of the Embassies in Rome , Tokyo , Paris , London , Nicosia , Berne and Cairo , and those of the General Consulate of Cairo and Constantinople and of the Permanent Delegation to U.N.E.S.C.O. have been transferred to the Foreign Ministry storage facilities, after they were first classified at the respective embassies by teams of academics.

Furthermore, Y.D.I.A. provides its technological expertise to foundations and institutions in the public and private domain. Recent examples of this kind of collaboration are the classification, by a Foreign Ministry academic team, of the archive of the George Papandreou Foundation and the important records of the Italian Administration of the Dodecanese , which remained in Rhodes after the islands were integrated to the Greek state in 1947. Today these valuable records belong to the General State Archives (G.A.K.).

Publications Department

The Publications Department is responsible for publishing collections of documents, archive unit catalogues, conference proceedings, various books and studies, which delineate aspects and facets of contemporary history. To date, the publication series consists of the following thematic groups:

1. 'Collections of Documents' Series

This particular series of publications forms part of the general project of systematically publishing the archival material of the M.F.A. relating to important issues of national foreign policy. The following volumes have appeared to date:

a. The Dodecanese . The Long Road to Union With Greece (Kastaniotis Editions, Athens, 1997), in both Greek and English. This book was published to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of the Dodecanese with Greece . The volume contains 133 diplomatic documents concerning the Greek, Italian and Turkish foreign policy with regards to the Union of the Dodecanese with the nation state, while it also depicts the social, economic and cultural life of the Dodecanesian people and their participation in the struggle against occupation. The goal of this publication is to present the broad and multi-faceted image of the island's history during 1943-1951.

b. Documents on the History of Greek Jews (Kastaniotis Editions, Athens, 1998), was published initially in English, and was followed soon thereafter by a Greek version in December 2000. This volume appeared first in English because its preparation coincided with the organisation of International Conferences on the search for Nazi gold and compensation for the victims of the Holocaust. It was on the occasion of this publication that Greece was singled out from the forty-seven countries at the Washington Conference for the stance it adopted towards Jews both during and after the Second World War, and also for its efforts and its active role in international meetings and committees dedicated to securing justice for the victims of that dark period of the history of mankind. The Greek edition, comprising 263 documents, shed light to some hitherto unknown aspects of the history of Greek citizens of Jewish faith who took root in our country at the time of Alexander the Great, became acquainted with the Greek civilization through their everyday life, acquired a special bond and a patriotic Greek conscience and participated in the social and military struggles of the country as citizens equal to the rest of the Christian population. These people sought a better tomorrow and, consequently, suffered relentless persecutions during the German occupation despite the significant efforts made by the people, the Church and all the Greek governments to protect Greeks of Jewish faith.

c. Greece on the Verge of a New World . Cold War-Truman Doctrine-Marshall Plan (Kastaniotis Editions, Athens , 2002, in Greek). This is a three-volume collection of 188 documents relating to the American aid made available to Greece , amongst other European countries, after the Second World War. Along with the economic reconstruction of the country, which was given primacy in the prologue to the decision taken by the American Congress, it traces the political, social and military implications of the implementation of the economic recovery program extended throughout Greece especially after the Civil War. Included in the publication is a timetable, biographical information, rare photographic material and the testimony of a former Greek employee at the Embassy of the United States in Athens responsible for the implementation of certain aspects of the Marshall Plan in Greece .

d. The Participation of Greece in the Process Towards European Integration. The Crucial Twenty Years 1948-1968 (Volume One, Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Service of Diplomatic & Historical Archives, Athens , 2003). This first volume of a three-volume series, published simultaneously in Greek and English within the framework of the Greek Presidency of the Council of the E.U., covers the years from 1948 until 1968 and includes 120 documents from the archives of the M.F.A. It also includes a preface by the Minister of Foreign Affairs George A. Papandreou, an introductory historical note by the Director of Y.D.I.A. Photini Tomai-Constantopoulou, while valuable testimonies were provided by the Ambassador e.t. Vyron Theodoropoulos, the former Minister and Commissioner of the E.U. Georgios Contogeorgis, the former Minister and Vice-Governor of the Bank of Greece Ioannis Pesmazoglou and Professor P. C. Ioakimidis.

This publication aims at presenting, through unpublished archival material, the attitude and position of Greece towards the first efforts for European integration: from its stance towards the creation of the Organisation of the Treaty of Brussels (later the Western European Union) in 1948, until the creation of the European Communities and from its participation in the Council of Europe in 1949, until the Association Agreement with the E.E.C. in 1961. By studying this material, the interested reader will quickly discover the explicit European orientation of Greece , evident as early as the first post-war years. It is noteworthy that this European orientation was supported by the majority of the political forces of that time.

e. The Participation of Greece in the Process Towards European Integration, vol. 2, From the Freeze of the Association Agreement to the to the Accession to the European Communities 1968 1981 (Papazisis, Athens 2006 in Greek).This volume refers to the exceptionally difficult period for the country that started in the first year after the imposition of the military dictatorship and lasted until the accession of Greece to the European Communities (1968 -1981), as the subtitle of the volume indicates. The publication of the volume also coincides with the completion of 25 years since the country became the tenth member of the European family.83 diplomatic documents are published. They were selected after laborious research as the most representative ones among a big amount of archival resources of the period. They refer to the diplomatic efforts of the government of Konstantinos Karamanlis, to whose determination and political prestige the positive result of the Greek application for immediate accession is owed. The volume, besides the diplomatic documents, the bibliography, the chronological table and the biographical notes of Greek and European personalities, also contains introductory notes written by some of the main political actors of the period: the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister Georgios Rallis, who is no longer among us, the former Minister and first Greek EEC Commissioner Mr Georgios Contogeorgis, and ambassadors MM Vyron Theodoropoulos and Stefanos Stathatos. The volume is to be released in English by the end of 2007.

f. The participation of Greece in the San Francisco Conference for the creation of the United Nations (1945) and its first participation in the UN Security Council (1952-1953)(DVD, Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives, Athens 2006). This electronic publication includes the digital depiction of 384 documents (in form "pdf"), from which the 256 emanate from the period of the San Francisco Conference and the rest 128 from the period 1950-1953. The documents from the San Francisco Conference are presented through two different catalogues. The first one is chronological and it includes all 256 documents that were selected, in absolute chronological order. The second one constitutes an attempt of reconstitution into a special archival unit of the outgoing documents of the Delegation, organised by Protocol Number, and it includes the 144 documents that were located (they are included in the 256 documents of the first catalogue) from a total of roughly 300 that the Greek Delegation dispatched. The documents of the period 1952-1953 have been placed in the corresponding list in absolute chronological order and they have been selected in order to present the main questions that concerned the Greek Delegation in the Security Council during its participation in this body as a non-permanent member.

2. 'Archive Unit Catalogues' Series

a. Cinematographic Archive (Kastaniotis Editions, Athens , 2000), in both Greek and English editions. This publication is devoted to the operation of a new Y.D.I.A. department, that of the Film Archive. The descriptions and catalogues of this archive, the first such archive within a Foreign Ministry in the E.U., is prefaced by an extensive historical introduction tracing events from the time of the Macedonian Struggle to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus . The presentation of the historical events is accompanied by an account of the early steps and subsequent growth of the Greek and Balkan cinema.

b. Catalogue of the Archive of the Italian Administration of the Dodecanese, 1912-1945 (Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Service of Diplomatic & Historical Archives - Ministry of National Education and Religion - General State Archives of the Prefecture of the Dodecanese, Athens, 2002, in Greek). As its title clearly reveals, this volume contains a catalogue of the files of the Administration of the Italian Islands of the Aegean during the period from 1912 to 1945. These record groups derive from the time the Italian Authorities played an active role in the Dodecanese , when this group of islands belonged to Italy . The archive located in the building of the Castellanian Library, at Aristotelous Square in the Old Town of Rhodes, contains extensive information about the activities of a significant part of the Greek population that played a formative role and prospered in the Dodecanese .

3. 'Conference Proceedings' Series

a. This particular series of publications was launched in December 2001 with the presentation of the Proceedings of a Conference organized in April of the same year on The Film as Testimony: Historical Sources and Commentary from the film work of Lakis Papastathis (Aigokeros Editions, Athens , 2001, in Greek). This collective volume contains the presentations made during the inaugural academic symposium of the M.F.A. Film Archive, while it also includes other texts, specially written for this volume. The authors of this publication (academics, cinema and art historians) comment on two units that are directly related to the film production of Lakis Papastathis, i.e. the ways in which History is presented in Greek film-making, and documentaries that date from the 1960s up to the present. It also includes detailed analyses of three of the director's feature films, namely 'Ton Kero ton Ellinon' ('When the Greeks'), 'Theofilos' and 'To Monon tis Zois tu Taksidion' ('The Only Journey of His Life').

b. Reality and myth in the artistic work of Lefteris Xanthopoulos (Papazisis Editions, Athens , 2003, in Greek). This is a collection of texts that includes the presentations made during the second academic symposium of the M.F.A. Film Archive in 2002. The authors of this volume (academics, historians, literary critics, cinema theorists) analyse the director's documentaries and his two feature films, namely 'Kali Patrida, Sintrofe' ('Happy home coming, comrade') and 'O Drapetis' ('Master of Shadows'), while special references are made with respect to Xanthopoulos's work in the fields of poetry, literature and essay-writing. The introductory addresses include a testimony written by the Minister of Transportation and Communications, Christos Verelis, who also contributed as a producer to the director's first documentary.

c. Immigration in the Cinema (Papazisis, Athens 2004). The academic conference "Immigration in the Cinema" coincided with the Greek Presidency of the European Union (01/01-30/06/2003), a priority of which was the formulation of a common policy on the phenomenon of immigration. Through the variety of approaches explored in the texts, this volume contributes to the formulation of a constructive basis for dialogue regarding both the relations governing immigration, with its audiovisual representations, as well as the value of the cinematographic picture as a witness to history. Also moving in this direction was the two-day event  entitled "Negotiations for War: Representations of War in the Greek Cinema," which was organized by the Foreign Ministry's Cinematographic Archive, and which will be the next subject of the "Film as Testimony" series of publications.

d. Representations of War (Papazisis, Athens 2006). It constitutes the fourth publication of the series The testimony of cinematographic picture realised by the Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the included texts, the inquiring glance of prominent researchers from various scientific areas (historians, specialists in international relations, cinema historians) attempts to analyse the ways that important military events of our history have been represented on film. Through newsreels and documentary films, propaganda and satirical films, lyric or tragic representations, cinema turned the idea of war into a major social issue. Images from the war (those that constitute a product of the risky effort of their filmmakers to record authentic military events) and images for the war (directed images that were recorded in order to represent military activities) are both the subject of the scientific analysis of this publication. The variety of approaches, the subjects and the conclusions which the writers of the volume reached, led to an interesting scientific study on the value and the importance of cinematographic picture as a source for major historical and social issues that influenced and still influence our modern life. However, the contribution of the image in the formation of modern political culture of the land and its History is also considered, as well as the need to be handled in the most appropriate way in order to be integrated in its historical and social context.

e. History and Politics in the Work of Pantelis Voulgaris (Papazisis, Athens 2007). It is the fifth consecutive volume of the series "The testimony of cinematographic picture". A well-known film director inside and outside the Greek borders, Pantelis Voulgaris has connected his name with the renewal of the countrys cinematography. In an unwavering course since the 1960s, his lens carefully observes the major changes of the Greek society. He records and comments with his lens the important events of the countrys modern political and social life and he thus becomes a reporter of his era. His morals, his sensitivity, his aesthetics, the until today artistic deposit of this great creator who allowed his glance to infiltrate with honesty in the past, are examined by Greek intellectuals, historians, political and social scientists, researchers and filmmakers, who deposit their own readings of History and Politics in the work of Voulgaris based on the testimony of the cinematographic pictures, as he recorded them with his own lens. More specifically, the volume includes texts by Ilias Giannakakis, Andreas Pagoulatos, Stelios Kymionis, Eva Stefani, Vasilis Vamvakas, Georgios Polydorakis, Yannis Papatheodorou, Nikos Potamitis, Stathis Valoukos, Lefteris Xanthopoulos, Polymeris Voglis, Panagis Panagiotopoulos, Angeliki Pantaleon, Nikos Poulakis, Athina Kartalou, Ioanna Laliotou, Maria Komninou, Ioanna Athanasatou, Irini Sifaki and Yannis Soldatos. The foreword of the book is written by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ms Dora Bakoyannis.

4. Other publications

a. The Foundation of the Modern Greek State : Major Treaties and Conventions, 1830-1947 (Kastaniotis Editions, Athens, 1999). This volume focuses on the foundation and consolidation of the Modern Greek state. It begins with a long introduction referring to important landmark events in Greek diplomatic history and includes the texts of the eleven treaties and conventions through which the contemporary boundaries of Greece were formed. It was written in English in order to ensure its accessibility to major academic centres abroad and its exposure to a large academic reading public.

b. The Foreign Ministers of Greece , 1829-2000, by Professor Antonis Markidimitris (Kastaniotis Editions, Athens , 2000, in Greek). This volume not only offers biographical sketches of the politicians who held the office of Foreign Minister during the course of the history of the Modern Greek state, but, presents, through the 'genealogy' of the M.F.A., important periods in the diplomatic and political life of Greece. Included are analytical charts with detailed references regarding the commencement, the conclusion and the duration of each ministerial tenure. Further, there is a series of diagrams, where in a more elaborate fashion, the duration of each ministerial tenure in reference to the specific historical time is indicated.

Department responsible for Ministry research and monitoring the work of academic researchers

In the New Instrument for the functioning and organisation of the Foreign Ministry, voted in the form of codes by the Greek Parliament in 1998, the time limit for keeping the diplomatic documents of Greece secret was changed from 50 to 30 years, in order to conform with the practice of the majority of European Union countries.

The archive collections of YDIA are open to Greek and foreign historians and researchers, and any other citizen with a legitimate interest in them. Permission to study the files is granted after submission of an application by the interested party to the Secretariat of YDIA. The application is examined by a committee of diplomatic civil servants that meets in the first ten days of every month. This committee is presided over by the Director of the Diplomatic Office of the Minister, and recommendations are made by the Head of the Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives. The candidate researches are requested, along with their application for permit, to submit a curriculum vitae, a synopsis of their study and should their research lead to the award of a doctorate or a post-doctorate degree should also submit a letter of recommendation.

To assist researchers who receive the appropriate study permit, YDIA has a reading room with a capacity of 24 readers, which is open to the research community from Monday to Friday, 9.30 to 14.30. The reading room is closed at weekends, on national and religious holidays, and for the entire months of November and August. Personal portable computers may also be used. Every researcher has the right to order up to 50 photocopies which are made available free of charge. Diplomatic documents are located mainly by means of a catalogue recorded on cards in a special index in the YDIA reading room. In order to investigate the archives classified over the last five years, researchers have to use key words or complete phrases in an electronic database into which summaries of the documents have been entered. This system will now be used for the archive units classified in the future, and a programme of electronic classification is currently being applied to the earlier archives.

Library Department

The Library of the M.F.A. is an educational, research and cultural centre the purpose of which is the academic training and education of the members of the community it serves. The library collects, processes, and above all makes available material in specialized topics such as Diplomacy, International Relations and International Law, and Foreign Policy. It was founded in order to acquire and utilize information to the benefit of the organisation to which it belongs. It has a collection of approximately 17,000 volumes. As part of its reorganisation that began in 1999 and is currently in progress, new regulations have been drawn up and intensive efforts are being made to improve its infrastructure, enrich it with new book titles and academic journals, and hire new staff.

At the same time, books from other Departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have already been added to the existing collection. There is also an effort underway to donate material that exists in more than one copy to other libraries, preferably regional ones, and to remove material which does not touch upon the cognitive subject of the Library.

Of great importance to the Library is the collection of rare publications in Greek and other languages dating from the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century. These volumes were printed from various printing-houses ( Venice , Moscow , Vienna ), especially from those belonging to the Greeks of Diaspora and cover various topics such as archeology, history, philosophy, theology and law. A significant part of the Library's holding consists of the writings of travelers in Greece along with picture books with rare photographic material from the 19th and 20th century.

Finally, the M.F.A. Library holds a large collection of about 600 maps depicting the Greek state in its historical context, as well as territories outside Greece where Hellenism flourished, covering an extensive period of time from the beginning of the 19th century up to middle of the 20th century. In order to guarantee the safekeeping and the exhibition of this material for those who wish to study it or use it for research, the Library has procured the necessary equipment, and has undertaken to make a detailed record of the material.

Film Archive and Subsidiary Departments (Photographic Archive - Digitisation Laboratory)

The Foreign Ministry Film Archive is the most recent department of Y.D.I.A., inaugurated in March 2000 by the President of the Hellenic Republic . Its purpose is to contribute to the preservation, promotion and proper use of the audio-visual heritage of Greece , in recognition of the enormous importance of audio-visual evidence for the political, diplomatic, social and cultural history of the country. It also aims to provide researchers with access to the film material in its possession and the supporting documentation it has assembled.

The material housed in the Film Archive and made available to interested researchers, includes about seventy hours of newsreels from Greece and the rest of the world, propaganda films and extracts from old, rare documentary films. By way of example, we may cite films by the Lumiere and Manakias brothers, reportage from the Balkan Wars, the Russian Revolution and the First World War. There is extensive newsreel footage relating to the Asia Minor Campaign and the inter-war period in Greece and Europe , the Second World War and the Greek Civil War, the Colonels' Dictatorship, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus , the restoration of Democracy and the early years of the new regime in Greece .

The material, which is enriched constantly, is classified, identified, described and documented electronically. The electronic database also includes the relevant bibliography and references to similar film material from other archives. Special references are made to material from the other departments of Y.D.I.A.: the Diplomatic Archives, the Library, and the Photographic Archive.

The M.F.A. Film Archive has supplied material for several Greek and foreign documentaries, radio and television journals, artistic presentations and anniversary celebrations, making available audio-visual material and giving as much support as possible to the task of promoting the history of Greece .

The year 2001 saw the institution of an annual academic one-day conference under the general title 'The Film as Testimony', the aim of which is to examine in depth the work of established Greek film directors. The inaugural conference was devoted to 'Historical Sources and Commentary in the Films of Lakis Papastathis', while for the years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, the symposium carried the titles 'Reality and Myth in the Work of Lefteris Xanthopoulos', 'Immigration and Film', 'Negotiations for War: Reenactment of War in Greek Cinema' and 'History and Politics in the work of Pantelis Voulgaris' respectively.

Alongside the above-mentioned projects, the Film Archive has founded the 'Documentary Archive' in collaboration with private producers and institutions such as the Centre of Greek Documentaries. The purpose of the Documentary Archive is to collect and classify modern and earlier Greek documentary productions and also international documentaries of interest for Greek history. The titles collected (of which there are more than 800) are entered into the electronic database, supplemented by descriptions of the films (using key words) and biographical details of their creators and detailed lists of their work. This facilitates the retrieval of the material for those wishing to study and make use of Greek documentary films.

It should be noted that the Film Archive assembles the above material exclusively for the use of researchers and it is under no circumstances available for commercial exploitation. It provides essential information for film directors and producers, thereby promoting Greek documentary films both in Greece and abroad.

In addition, special showings are organised to support the teaching of university courses or higher education classes, while there are also presentations of academic projects by students and guided tours in the Archive facilities.

The collection of the Film Archive and the Documentary Archive may be visited by anyone wishing to study and use the material for research or educational purposes.

The research community is allowed access to the facilities of the Film Archive after prior agreement: individuals use the special study areas equipped with video-players, while for groups, there is a small theatre with a capacity of 30 seats.

Operating as a subsidiary department of the Film Archive, the Photographic Archive has an extensive collection of over 50,000 photographs, covering the period from the late 19th century to the present day. The subjects of the photographs cover a wide spectrum of events of modern Greek political, diplomatic, social and cultural history, special occasions organised by Greek residents abroad, and so on. Most of the photographs in the collection are classified, identified and described in an electronic database, and are also digitally processed in the Digitisation Laboratory. This laboratory also processes and reproduces documents and maps for Y.D.I.A. Access to, and use of, the Photographic Archive is at present restricted to the staff of the Foreign Ministry until the classification of the photographic material is completed.

Prospects for the future: Museum of Diplomatic History

Y.D.I.A.'s aim of preserving the memory of the nation is realised by the assembling and safe-keeping of valuable material that will be placed on display in the foreseeable future in the Museum of Diplomatic History of Greece, currently at the planning stage. This Museum will be the first of its kind in Europe , and the announcement of its foundation attracted the interest of our European Union partners from the outset.

Heirlooms, dedications, personal diaries, costumes and uniforms, flags, emblems, photographs, artefacts, passports, rare editions - these are just some of the exhibits that will form part of the museum collection. Temporary exhibitions on specific themes will also be mounted, since the volume of the assembled material requires more space than envisaged. These temporary exhibitions will be planned to coincide with national anniversaries or other landmark-events in the history of Greece , or with visits by high-ranking officials from foreign countries. When they are over, Y.D.I.A. will publish photographs of the exhibits produced to high artistic and aesthetic standards, with bilingual captions and introductory text.

During the project to establish the Museum of Diplomatic History a pilot programme was represented by the exhibition entitled 'The agonising history of Hellenism: from the Heroic Uprising of 1821 to the foundation of the modern Greek state.' This was organised in collaboration with the University of Thessaly (24.3-2.4.2001), and was held initially in Volos , Thessaly , before being transferred to the Foreign Ministry.