Capitals

Cafe Aman Istanbul musicians and singers Stelios Berberis and Pelin Suer return to Athens with the famous Baklahorani, the Carnival celebrated by the Greek community in Istanbul with bawdy masked parades that ended up in the famous district of Tatavla.

The City of Athens Philharmonic Orchestra performs outside the Zappeion Megaron building in the National Gardens on Saturday as the capital kicks into Carnival gear. As of last week, Athens is hosting more 60 festive open-air events for everyone, young and old, around the city until March 2 when the Carnival season peaks on Clean Monday.

Could Omonia reclaim its status as the heart of Athens? But the heart of which Athens? Of the real Athens? Of the imaginary Athens? Or of the desirable Athens? Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, who has been credited with the effort to revamp Omonia Square (in partnership with the private sector), had every reason to be satisfied with Thursday's rehearsal, as it were.

In light of the imminent implementation this year of a government directive concerning single-use plastics, a cafe-bar and an environmental group are aiming to turn central Athens' popular Monastiraki Square into "a plastic-free" zone through an awareness campaign. 

The reconstructed Omonia Square in central Athens will be delivered to the public by the end of next week, Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis said on social media on Thursday.

"Very happy that Omonia square has entered the final stretch and will be delivered to the Athenians," he said

In the context of its annual "Rooms" exhibition, the Kappatos Gallery presents "Performance Rooms 2020" at the St George Lycabettus hotel in central Athens, which brings together 18 curators and 30 performers.

Repairs to the historic Plaka Bridge connecting the villages of Tzoumerka and Kastanochoria over the River Arachthos in northwestern Greece have been completed, five years after it collapsed.

Downtown Athens and Thessaloniki were turning into a motorist's nightmare on Tuesday, as unions gathered at central public squares and public transport workers joined a nationwide general strike in protest at social security reforms being implemented by the center-right government.

The Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development at the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) is coordinating a European program with 19 research centers from 12 countries that seeks to provide "smart solutions" to growing environmental challenges.

Police in the northern Athens suburb of Agia Paraskevi arrested a 29-year-old colleague after he allegedly carried out two armed robberies, one at a gas station in the western suburb of Peristeri and the other at a kiosk in Galatsi, near central Athens, making off with 690 euros.