Dimitris Macrynikolas, the consul of Greece in Atlanta for the past six and a half years, left for New York last week where he will replace the consul general for a short time before returning home to a still to be determined post at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to Mr. Macrynikolas, he will be replaced in mid-August by Lambros Kakisis, who currently is serving the Greek government in Nicosia, Cyprus.
While acting as consul for the Southeast, Mr. Macrynikolas for the past year has primarily carried out other responsibilities in Caracas, Venezuela, and Vienna, Austria.
He told GlobalFax during an interview in his Buckhead office that based on his experience in Venezuela, he thinks that Atlanta should be the location for the secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, primarily because of the presence of the Carter Center here.
He said that the Carter Center’s activities as part of a tripartite commission along with the Organization of American States and the United Nations Development Program had been important in calming the political crisis in Venezuela.
From Sept. 15 to Dec. 15, Mr. Macrynikolas was transferred to the Greek embassy in Caracas to assist the ambassador there.
For the first six months of this year, Mr. Macrynikolas has spent much of his time at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna. The organization is active in a variety of diplomatic initiatives such as early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation.
He said that the normal term for a consul in a single location is four years and that his posting in Atlanta for an additional two and a half years was unusual.
While in Atlanta he worked closely with the local Greek-American community and encouraged local companies with experience in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games to play a role in the next year’s Olympic Games to be held in Athens, Greece.
For more information about Mr. Macrynikolas, call the consulate at (404) 261-3313.