A great honour for Kythera and Michael Protopsaltis (Makra) was yesterday's award in Ljubljana, Slovenia, at the conference of the Pan-European Association of Emergency Number 112. In addition to the 27 countries of the European Union, a total of 50 other countries participated in the three-day conference.
The first day was dedicated to the awarding of 10 people from all over Europe for their actions in relation to rescuing people in danger or for better organising and disseminating 112.
The 10 people who were awarded were from 10 different European countries, Luxembourg, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Romania, Greece and Germany.
Michalis Protopsaltis represented our island of Kythera and all those who that night in October participated in the rescue operation of the unfortunate people who were shipwrecked in Diakofti and made the island known worldwide for the solidarity and humanity of its inhabitants.
The president of the Pan-European Association 112 Medical Doctor Dimitris Pyrros wrote in a post:
«Today, just before the first day of the European Union Conference on the European Emergency Number 112 ended, EUNA awarded everyday heroes at the “112 Awards” ceremony. It was a special honour for me to present one of the ten awards of the year to Mr Michael Protopsaltis from Kythera. A few months ago, after another refugee shipwreck, Mr Michalis put his crane up near a rock and rescued at least 80 people. He did not ask who they were and where they were coming from. He only saw that they were people in danger at sea.»
Michalis Protopsaltis was accompanied by his wife Pothiti Megalokonomou.
