Official Press Release from Cypriot Student METOPO UK, dated 25 October 2010
The afternoon of Saturday October 23rd outside the British Museum, was strikingly different to any other. The flashes of the visitors were immortalising not any of the Museums’ stolen exhibits, but rather, the demonstrators standing in the front yard of the Museum, who wearing black t-shirts, holding banners and placards, were conveying the demand of the Hellenes anywhere in the world: “Bring Them Back”.
The demonstration for the return and restoration of the Parthenon Sculptures, organised by the ‘METOPO Cypriot Student Movement UK’ and the non-governmental organisation ‘Artclick’, under the campaign “Bring Them Back”, was an ultimate absolute success, as the people embraced it and dynamically became part of it.
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The visitors of the Museum, informed as they were by the students of METOPO who were distributing leaflets regarding the Parthenon sculptures and the “Bring Them Back” campaign outside the Museum, were now facing, along with the demonstrators, reality: the Hellenic civilisation is the Hellenic Pride and the protests of the Hellenes for their stolen dignity are completely just.
The President of METOPO, Marios Nicolaou, delivered a resolution to the competent authorities of the Museum, demanding the return of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece, as well as analyzing and crushing their cheap and untrue arguments regarding the so-called protection of the marbles. Of course, the sculptures were not returned. However, we are under no circumstance willing to stop here. The demonstration that took place last Saturday was only the beginning. We understand that our struggle for the reinstatement of the Parthenon Sculptures will be long and difficult, but we feel that it is our duty to be part of this campaign, for as long as these Hellenic cultural treasures is held unlawfully in the country where our movement is based.
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From now on, the restoration and return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece has become an aim and purpose to us. We reserve and promise, that each and every time, the British authorities will hear an even louder “Bring Them Back”, from the autonomous students of METOPO. This campaign will be over and we will complacent, only when we are able to flaunt the sculptures, reunited after almost 200 years, inside the new Acropolis Museum.
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