Κορυφαίοι επιστήμονες απευθύνονται στον πρωθυπουργό κ. Μητσοτάκη και τον εκλιπαρούν για τα αρχαία στη Θεσσαλονίκη, τις εξαιρετικής σπουδαιότητας αρχαιότητες που έχουν βρεθεί στο Σταθμό Βενιζέλου του Μετρό Θεσσαλονίκης: “Πιστεύουμε ότι η διατήρηση των αρχαιοτήτων στην αρχική τους θέση συνάδει με την υποχρέωση του ελληνικού κράτους να διαφυλάσσει την πολιτιστική κληρονομιά –στην περίπτωση αυτή πρόκειται για πολιτιστική κληρονομιά όχι μόνο ελληνικών αλλά πανευρωπαϊκών και παγκοσμίων διαστάσεων– αλλά είναι τελικά και η πιο ευεργετική.

Όσον αφορά το τουριστικό, οικονομικό, πολιτιστικό και υπαρξιακό μέλλον της Θεσσαλονίκης, η διατήρηση των αρχαιοτήτων στην αρχική τους θέση είναι η μόνη σωστή λύση. Τα ευρήματα της Θεσσαλονίκης πρέπει να χαιρετισθούν ως μια άνευ προηγουμένου ευκαιρία να τιμηθούν και να αναδειχθούν οι δυνατότητες της σύγχρονης ελληνικής αρχαιολογίας και τεχνολογίας. Αντ’ αυτού, η διατήρησή τους επί τόπου παρουσιάζεται ως μια πολυτέλεια που δεν μπορεί να αντέξει το ελληνικό κράτος.

Σε συνδυασμό με τα 15 μνημεία που έχουν ήδη χαρακτηριστεί μνημεία παγκόσμιας κληρονομιάς της UNESCO, η Θεσσαλονίκη μπορεί να χρησιμοποιήσει τα άνευ προηγουμένου ευρήματα ως βάση κατάρτισης ενός γενικότερου σχεδίου που θα την καταστήσει βασικό τουριστικό προορισμό, εξασφαλίζοντας οικονομική ευημερία. Σας εκλιπαρούμε να παρέμβετε προκειμένου να αποτρέψετε την αποδόμηση αυτής της μοναδικής πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς και την έκθεσή της σε κίνδυνο. Στο πλαίσιο της βυζαντινής αρχαιολογίας, τα συγκεκριμένα μνημεία είναι τόσο μοναδικά που ο εκτοπισμός ή η καταστροφή τους θα ήταν καταστροφή ισοδύναμη με τον βομβαρδισμό του Παρθενώνα από τον Francesco Morosini.

Υπάρχουν εφαρμόσιμα σχέδια που επιτρέπουν στους Θεσσαλονικείς να απολαύσουν τα πλεονεκτήματα του μετρό χωρίς να στερηθούν ένα από τα πιο σημαντικά τεκμήρια της αδιάλειπτης συνέχειας του αστικού βίου στην πόλη τους επί 24 αιώνες. Είναι ώρα αυτά τα σχέδια να υλοποιηθούν.

Την επιστολή υπογράφουν ακαδημαϊκοί, ερευνητές, καθηγητές από διάφορα πανεπιστήμια του κόσμου μεταξύ των οποίων οι: Ρόντρικ Μπίτον, Πίτερ Μπράουν, Πολ Κάρτλιτζ, Αγγελος Χανιώτης, Τζον Ντάφι, Τζούντιθ Χέριν, Μαρκ Μαζάουερ, Αλέξανδρος Νεχαμάς, Χρήστος Παπαδημητρίου κ.ά.

Ο πλήρης κατάλογος των υπογραφών:

– Panagiotis Agapitos, Professor of Byzantine Literature, University of Cyprus

– Suzanne Akbari, Professor of Medieval Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Michael Alram, Director of the Coin Cabinet of the Vienna Museum of Art; Vice President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

– Dimiter Angelov, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History; Faculty Affiliate of the Department of Classics, Harvard University

– Roderick Beaton, Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature Emeritus, King’s College London; Fellow of the British Academy; Commander of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic

– Roger Bagnall, Professor of Ancient History Emeritus and Leon Levy Director Emeritus, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World/New York University; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member of the American Philosophical Society

– Glen Bowersock, Professor of Ancient History Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member of the American Philosophical Society; Foreign Member of the National Academy of the Lincei; Doctor honoris causa of the University of Athens; Knight of the Legion of Honor

– Peter Brown, Rollins Professor of History Emeritus, Princeton University; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Doctor honoris causa of the University of Thessaloniki; Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters

– Leslie Brubaker, Professor of Byzantine Art, University of Birmingham; Director of the Center of Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern Greek Studies; Chair of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies

– Dame Averil Cameron, Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History Emerita, University of Oxford; former Warden of Kable College; Fellow of the British Academy; Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire

– Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, Cambridge University; Member of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles; Gold Cross of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic; honorary citizen of Sparta

– Angelos Chaniotis, Professor of Ancient History and Classics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Doctor honoris causa of the University of the Thessaloniki; Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens; Commander of the Order of Phoenix of the Hellenic Republic

– John Duffy, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine Philology and Literature Emeritus, Harvard University

– Denis Feissel, Director of Studies, École Pratique des Hautes Études; Corresponding Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres; Member of the Academia Europea

– Takashi Fujii, Associate Professor of Ancient History, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University – – Vincent Gabrielsen, Professor of Ancient History Emeritus, University of Copenhagen; Member of the Royal Danish Academy

– Thomas W. Gallant, Nicholas Family Endowed Chair in Modern Greek History, Distinguished Professor of History and Archaeology, University of California, San Diego

– Patrick Geary, Mellon Professor of Western Medieval History Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

– Sharon Gerstel, Professor of Byzantine Art and Archeology, University of California at Los Angeles; George P. Kolovos family Centennial term Chair in Hellenic studies; Commander of the Order of the Phoenix of the Hellenic Republic

– Molly Green, Professor of History and Hellenic Studies; Director of the Program in Hellenic Studies, Princeton University

– John Haldon, President of the International Association of Byzantine Studies; Professor of Byzantine History and Hellenic Studies Emeritus, Shelby Cullom Davis ’30 Professor of European History Emeritus, Princeton University; Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – Olivier Henry, Professor of Ancient History, University of Lyon-2

– Judith Herrin, Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies Emerita, King’s College London; Member of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles; Golden Cross of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic

– Christopher P. Jones, George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics and of History Emeritus, Harvard University; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member of the American Philosophical Society; Foreign member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres

– Mika Kajava, Professor of Greek Language and Literature, University of Helsinki; former Director of the Finnish Institute in Rome

– Ioli Kalavrezou, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine Art, Harvard University

– Young Richard Kim, Associate Professor and Head of Classics and Mediterranean Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

– Christos Kyriakakis, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California

– Thomas W. Laqueur, Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus and Professor in the Graduate School, University of California, Berkeley; Member of the American Philosophical Society

– Anne Marie Luijendijk, Professor of Religion and Head of First College, Princeton University

Peter Mackridge, Professor of Modern Greek Emeritus, University of Oxford; Doctor honoris causa of the University of Athens

– Christoph Markschies, President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences; Professor of Patristic Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin; former President of the Humboldt University, Berlin; Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Τhomas F. Mathews, John Langeloth Loeb Professor of the History of Art Emeritus, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

– Maria Mavroudi, Professor of Byzantine Ηistory, Classics, and Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley; MacArthur Fellow Class of 2004

– Ioannis Mylonopoulos, Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Art, Architecture and Archaeology, Columbia University; Director of the Program in Hellenic Studies

– Greg Nagy, Francis Jones Professor of Greek Literature, Harvard University; Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies; Foreign Member of the Academy of Athens; Commander of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic

– Alexander Nehamas, Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature, Princeton University; Member of the Academy of Athens; Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member of the American Philosophical Society

– Robert S. Nelson, Robert Lehman Professor in the History of Art, Yale University

– Alexander Nikolov, Professor of Medieval History, Sofia University; Chair of the Bulgarian National Committee of Byzantine Studies

– Ingela Nilsson, Professor of Greek, University of Uppsala; President of the Swedish Committee of Byzantine Studies

– Robert Ousterhout, Professor of History of Art Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania

– Bernhard Palme, Professor of Papyrology, University of Vienna; Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences; Doctor honoris causa of the University of Athens

– Maria Pantelia, Irvine, Professor of Classics, University of California; Director of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae

– Christos Papadimitriou, Donovan Family Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University; Member of the National Academy of Sciences; Gödel Prize

– Herrmann Partzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation; President of Europa Nostra; Member of the American Philosophical Society; Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Great Cross of Merit with Star of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; Member of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation

– Bissera Pentcheva, Professor of Medieval Art, Stanford University

– Walter Pohl, Professor of Medieval History; Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, University of Vienna

– Nicholas Purcell, Camden Professor of Ancient History, University of Oxford; Fellow of the British Academy

– Antonio Rigo, Professor of Byzantine Philology and History of Byzantine Christianity, Ca’Foscari University of Venice; President of the Italian National Committee of Byzantine Studies

– Christian Robin, Director of Research for Ancient Semitic Studies Emeritus, École Pratique des Hautes Études; Knight of the Legion of Honor; Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres; Commander of the Order of Culture and Arts of the Republic of Yemen

– Bernd Schneidmüller, Professor of Medieval History, University of Heidelberg; President of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences

– R.R.R. Smith, Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art, University of Oxford; Fellow of the British Academy

– Jean-Michel Spieser, Professor of Early Christian and Byzantine Archaeology Emeritus, University of Fribourg

– Ronald Stroud, Klio Distinguished Professor of Classical Languages and Literature Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; former Dean of the Faculty of Letters

– Guy Stroumsa, Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions Emeritus, University of Oxford; Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

– Sarah Stroumsa, Alice and Jack Ormut Professor of Arabic Studies Emerita, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Rector Emerita; Member of the American Philosophical Society

– Alice Mary Talbot, Director of Byzantine Studies Emerita, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection; former President of the Medieval Academy of America; Doctor honoris causa of the University of St. Andrews

– Andrei Timoti, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Bucharest; Chair of the Romanian National Committee on Byzantine Studies

– Pablo Ubierna, Professor of Medieval History and Researcher of Lsate Antique and Byzantine History, University of Buenos Aires; Chair of the Argentinian National Committee on Byzantine Studies