If you watched the news in the 1980s, you almost certainly saw me in a report about the Greek parliament. My name is Yiannis Alevras, and I was born in 1912 in Messini, a town in the region of Messinia. Life wasn’t always easy for me, as I didn’t have the opportunity to attend university. Despite that, from 1981 to 1989, I had the honor of serving as the President of the Hellenic Parliament.

During the Regime of the Colonels, a right-wing military dictatorship that ruled Greece in the late 1960s, my dedication and loyalty to my country came at a cost—I was exiled to the island of Syros until the end of 1967. However, if you ask me what I consider my greatest achievement, I’d say it’s the respect I earned from both friends and political opponents for my sense of responsibility and integrity.