Grußbotschaft des jemenitischen Botschafters:
It is my honour and privilege to welcome the friends of Yemen to the home page of the Austrian Yemeni Society. Yemen and Austria are both known as cultural centers in their respective geographic areas due to their unique cultural heritage. The coffee trade has taken Yemeni traders as far as Europe and India, and brought traders from all over the world to Yemen. Traders brought back to Yemen the Maria Theresa silver dollar which continued to be in circulation, as the main currency of Yemen, until the mid 1960s. Coffee was not the only attraction for Europeans in Yemen. Along with its diverse culture, the unique social traditions of open mindedness, tolerance and hospitality to foreigners have been noted by the early European travelers who visited Yemen. Carsten Niebuhr, a German cartographer who took part in a Danish expedition to Yemen in the late 18th century, described his arrival to Al- Lohayah in Yemen in December 1762 and wrote in his diary:
”... We were delighted to find the manners of the Muslims improving the further we moved away from Egypt, and in particular that the inhabitants of this country [Yemen] - the exploration of which was our main objective - received us most graciously right from the beginning...“
Today more than ever, Yemenis welcome their visitors with the same old tradition of friendship and hospitality. It is probably this spirit that inspired a group of Austrian travelers to Yemen to establish the Austrian Yemeni Society. Members of ÖJG have not only become ambassadors of Yemen in Austria, but they have also devoted precious time and effort to lend their expertise and assistance to their Yemeni friends. I acknowledge with pride the important contributions of ÖJG both in cultural and human development areas. The medical team sponsored by the society visits Yemen several times annually and provide greatly needed services in rural areas in Yemen, and cooping with hard and unusual conditions. In addition, the society sponsors training programs for Yemeni medical doctors and technicians in Austria in order to build the capacity of cooperating medical facilities in Yemen on more permanent basis.
I hope that visitors of the home page of the Austrian Yemeni Society will find it useful to shed some light on many of the activities and programs that the society is undertaking as well as information about Yemen. I am confident that the society will continue to play a vital role in enhancing the relations between Yemen and Austria.
Abdulhakim Al-Eryani
Ambassador of Yemen to Austria