Yiannis Boutaris

Yiannis Boutaris
Mayor of Thessaloniki
Assumed office
January 1, 2011
Preceded by Vasilis Papageorgopoulos
Personal details
Born (1942-06-13) June 13, 1942[1]
Thessaloniki, German occupation zone of Greece
Political party Independent
Alma mater University of Thessaloniki
Wine Institute of Athens
Occupation Businessman, winemaker

Yiannis Boutaris (Greek: Γιάννης Μπουτάρης; born 13 June 1942[1]) is a Greek businessman, politician and current mayor of Thessaloniki.

Biography

Yiannis Boutaris was born in Thessaloniki in 1942, the son of winemaker Stelios Boutaris and Fanny Vlachos. Both his parents were from Vlach background. His mother's family has its roots in the town of Krusevo, now in the Republic of Macedonia,[2] while his father's family originates from the town of Moscopole, now in Albania.

His primary education was at the Experimental elementary school of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, his secondary education at Anatolia College, and he graduated in chemistry from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1965 and in oenology from the Wine Institute of Athens in 1967.[1][3] In his youth he was associated with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).[4]

From 1969 to 1996 he worked for the family wine company Boutari, based in Naoussa. He left the family company to create the Kir-Yianni wine company, based on two estates in abandoned village of Giannakochori and in Amyntaio, in 1998.

In 2012 he was chosen as 'the best mayor of the world' for the month of October, by the City Mayors Foundation, based in the UK. He is the founder of Kir-Yianni wine company, based in Giannakochori and Amyntaio. He is one of the founding members of the Drasi party and the ecological organization Arcturos .[5]

As mayor of Thessaloniki, Boutaris declared his wish to build an Islamic mosque, monuments to Thessaloniki's Jews and to the Young Turk Revolution. According to Boutaris, the construction of these monuments will attract Jewish and Turkish tourists to Thessaloniki, who will want to visit their fathers' hometown. As a result of Boutaris' systematic efforts to attract tourists to Thessaloniki by showing the multicultural past of the city for three years from 2010 to 2013, visitors to the city from Israel and Turkey increased several times.

On May 20, 2018 he was treated in hospital after being beaten up by a group of Greek ultra-nationalists angry over his appearance at a remembrance event for the Pontic Greek victims of Turkish genocide after he made a controversial remark on the issue ("I don't give a sh**" if Kemal Atatürk killed or not Greeks").[6] Boutaris has repeatedly angered hardliners in Greece with his controversial statements on the naming dispute with the Republic of Macedonia, the history of the Greek–Turkish relations and the Holocaust of the Jews in Greece.[7][8][9][10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Yannis Boutaris speaker profile". IMIC 2012 conference. 15–16 February 2012. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
  2. ↑ "The Mayor of Thessaloniki Yiannis Boutaris will build a house in his hometown Krusevo, identical to the one where his mother, from the Vlach Nichota family, lived, with recognizable ambiance and traditional Krusevo architecture". Kanal 5 (in Macedonian). Archived from the original on June 25, 2012.
  3. ↑ Γιάννης Μπουτάρης Βιογραφικό σημείωμα υποψηφίου Δημάρχου Θεσσαλονίκης (in Greek). protovoulia2010.gr. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  4. ↑ "Thessaloniki mayor, Golden Dawn clash over bear sanctuary donation". Kathimerini. 22 August 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
  5. ↑ "Γιάννης Μπουτάρης" (in Greek). Drasi. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  6. ↑ Boutaris has called the Turks “brothers” and has proposed renaming a central street in Thessaloniki after Ataturk, who was born in the city in 1881. In this context he was recorded to state: "Kemal Ataturk was the founder of the Republic of Turkey. (...) I don't give a sh** if he killed or not Greeks or whatever else". Aristeia, May 20, 2018,
  7. ↑ Greek mayor (75) kicked and punched by 'far-right thugs' at WWI event. May 20, 2018, TheJournal.ie.
  8. ↑ BBC News, May 20, 2018, Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris beaten up.
  9. ↑ Thessaloniki's Yiannis Boutaris hospitalized after attack at event commemorating Greeks massacred in Turkey in early 1900s, 20 May 2018, The times of Israel.
  10. ↑ Erickson, Amanda (20 May 2018). "Greece's most liberal mayor beaten by a bunch of far-right protesters". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
Preceded by
Vasilis Papageorgopoulos		 Mayor of Thessaloniki
2011–		 Succeeded by
Incumbent

Movie "One Step Ahead" (2012) "Ena vima brosta" (original title) Directed by Dimitris Athyridis in 2012.

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