How the Greek-Cypriot-American Leadership failed the Greek people.

“the two so-called motherlands in fact invaded both” –Christofias’ denial of Turkey’s crimes at the Brookings Institution, September 27, 2010 Washington DC USA

As George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” For the Greek people, this means repeating Catastrophe. Therefore, if you are a member of the Greek community, which has been subjected to genocidal attacks for over 600 years, the rational thing is to expect another such attack and prepare for it, the better to mount an effective self-defense and, ideally, to prevent the next mass killing altogether. You should study the past and remember it, so that you can recognize the signs that herald a new genocide and identify them when they recur.

An example of what I mean is that most Greek-Americans are unable to recognize the signs indicating that their own leaders are taking them down the path to destruction, just as Greek leaders did the same prior to and during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Don't misunderstand me: it was the Turks who were killing the Greek-Cypriots, and this was obviously not the fault of the Greek people or of its leaders. But equally obvious, the Greek leadership prior to and during the Turkish invasion of 1974 had an obligation to defend the Greek people of Cyprus and it must be held accountable for how it reacted before the threat of the Greek-Cypriot people’s killing and uprooting from half of the island.

However, to re-write history entirely and falsely claim that Greece or ‘the motherland’ of Cyprus (meaning Greece) invaded Cyprus in 1974 is not merely engaging in false historical revisionism, even revisionism could claim to point to a modicum of fact to supports its thesis, however skewed. To claim that Greece, ‘the motherland’, or collectively the Greek people, invaded Cyprus is to engage in ‘negationism’ –the outright denial of historic crimes. Same famous examples include Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who denied Nazi crimes inflicted on the Jews of Europe by staging a Holocaust Denial conference in Tehran in December 2006, and the President of the Republic of Cyprus Demetris Christofias in September 27, 2010, who denied Turkish crimes inflicted on the Greeks of Cyprus by his acrid “two so-called motherlands in fact invaded both” speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.

The atrocities inflicted on the Greek-Cypriots in 1974 by the Turkish-military-invasion, with the aid of Turkish ‘Cypriots’ were inflicted against mostly the elderly, women, children and even the disabled. It was a full scale land-sea-air invasion re-enforced with the illegal use of American-made fighter Jets and Bell helicopters similar to those used in Viet-Nam, (prior to that in August 1964 Turkish Air Force bombarded Tylleria with Napalm bombs dropped on Greek-Cypriot civilians with 35 or so dead and over 300 injured some with scars to this very day on their bodies) Turkey remains the last country to have used this on people after Vietnam.

Crimes against women were also denied, the rapes of 800 Greek-Cypriot women of all ages, the targeting of women showed the genocidal intent of Turkey. As such, in no way, can the Turkish invasion be ‘equated’ to whatever (real or imaginary) involvement the Greek government or its government leaders had in Cyprus—living testament is the 200,000 Greek-Cypriot refugees who since July 20, 1974 are denied their inalienable rights to their own homeland by the brute force of 43,000 Turkish troops and over 160, 000 illegal Turkish settlers.

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Diasporan Greek-Cypriots reacted to Christofias’ denial of Turkish Crimes in Cyprus within days of the Brookings Institution incidents—the grassroots democratic Metopo Student movement representing Greek-Cypriots students in most Universities in the UK, issued the press release titled “Είδε και ελληνικό «Αττίλα» ο Πρόεδρος Χριστόφιας!”

http://www.metopo.org.uk/dt2010009029-diplieisvoli.html

(trans: President Christofias Saw a Hellenic “Attila”) , the Metopo commented “Πώς μπορούμε τώρα να αναμένουμε από τη διεθνή κοινότητα και την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, να ασκήσουν πίεση στην Τουρκία για την παράνομη εισβολή και κατοχή, όταν ο ίδιος ο Πρόεδρος της ημικατεχόμενης Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας, της δίνει συγχωροχάρτι;” (trans: “How can we now ask of the international community and the European Union, to put pressure on Turkey for its illegal invasion and occupation , when our own President of our occupied Republic of Cyprus gives them a pardon?”)

Major Cypriot Newspapers across the political spectrum also condemned the Christofias’ denial, the Ex Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus G. Lillikas, is calling upon President Christofias to issue an immediate apology  to Greece and the Greek nation who are our best supporters in our struggle against the Turkish ongoing invasion and occupation. “Turkey and her allies could not have asked for a more constructive de-criminalisation of Turkey’s crimes”, states Mr. G. Lillikas. Whereas high respected retired educationalist Mr. E. Billis in Athens, Greece remarked that Mr. Lillikas ought to have gone even further and demanded Mr.Christofias’ resignation from his post. “The sooner he realises that for Cyprus ’s liberation sake he must vacate his post the sooner he will do service to the Hellenism of Cyprus and worldwide”

When talking about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and its denial, I am reminded of what   Elie Wiesel once said "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

In this case the silence of the “Greek Lobby” or of the Greek-Cypriot American leadership has been eerily silent. Not a single representative or organization in America has come out and condemned in an open statement the anti-Greece, ‘negationist’ remarks of Mr. Christofias as of this writing over a month after the September 27, 2010 Brookings Institution incidents.

It cannot possibly be argued that the Greek Lobby in America is entirely ignorant of Cyprus or Mr. Christofias—three of the five leaders on the masthead of the Washington DC-based so-called “NATIONAL COORDINATED EFFORT OF HELLENES (CEH)” are Greek-Cypriot –Mr. Philip Christopher who is Vice-President of the “Effort” President of PSEKA and President of Pancyprian Association of America ,just like Panicos Papanicolaou the Supreme President of Cyprus Federation of America, just like Nikos Mouyiaris Executive Vice President Pancyprian Association of America and PSEKA were all born in Cyprus. The Washington-DC American Hellenic Institute AHI based traditionally around Gene Rossides, is also of Greek-Cypriot descent. In fact, even the current Supreme President of AHEPA Mr. Nicholas Karacostas, according to an interview published in the marginal Astoria-based newspaper “Greek News” (whose publisher has family ties to the Cypriot government) is said to not only be born in Cyprus but also a close relative of Mr. Philip Christopher, so it cannot even be argued that they are “out of touch”—they have the titles and the hereditary interest. The Greek Lobby in America is “top heavy” in Greek Cypriots.

http://www.greeknewsonline.com/?p=10751

What is most disheartening is that the statement “the two so-called motherlands” imposes the British colonial concept that there are only “two peoples” on the island and that marches lock and step with the Turkish-British Bizonal demands that the Greek-Cypriot people rejected in referendum when put to them in the Annan plan on April 24, 2004. The false ideology that Turkey is a “motherland” for Cyprus also matches remarks which have been made with increasing frequency by the Cypriot government and Cypriot government controlled lobbies, attempts to basically de-Hellenize the island of Cyprus , to make it a “cosmopolitan” place of nothing. Ironically, this not only flies in the face of a convergence of archaeological evidence proving the Hellenic nature of the island, it ignores official stances of the British Ministry of Defence which prior to Cyprus’s independence in 1960, stated that for 3,500 years the Greek identity of culture and language remains intact. Perhaps the Greek-Cypriot American leadership has ‘forgotten’ that not a single Turkish ‘Cypriot’ participated in the anti-colonial struggle of 1955-1959?

The distance which the regime in Nicosia has imposed between Cyprus and Greece, has not been without parallel in the Diaspora. Leadership of the Cypriot government controlled Greek-Cypriot-American Lobby have been glaringly absent at events and memorials of National Issues like the Hellenic Genocide, amongst others. One officer at the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York remarked to me privately after the Christofias Brookings Institution incidents that “these Cypriot businessmen have never been real patriots so their silence about Christofias is no surprise and it’s about time they show their true bizonal colors by marching in the Turkish parade in New York ”

Washington DC is not without money supplied by the Republic of Cyprus for public relations. According to the Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act, the foreign agent of record for Cyprus is Patton Boggs LLP, (which to its credit has officially done pr for the military junta in Guatemala earning mention in human rights advocate Pamela Brogan’s landmark study “The Torturer’s Lobby”) Reports have been floated in the Greek press that the Republic of Cyprus pays a whopping 1.5 Million for this firm’s public relations and “door opening” skills, which failed to advise Christofias that he should stick to his native Greek with a well versed written speech and rely on professional translators. In that way he could have avoided embarrassing himself and the people he represents.

 According to a major newspaper article in Cyprus last year, Patton Boggs LLP is not the only entity in America getting funding from the Cypriot government “but all the organisations in the US have been given a piece of the enlightenment pie. PSEKA received a paltry 100,000 bucks, while the Cyprus Federation of America, of which Christopher had been president in the past, received $125,000. The American Hellenic Institute received $200,000, while the Coordinated Effort of Hellenes, of which Christopher is the Vice Chair, received $300,000.” 

Besides, the obvious political football the Turkish Lobby is sure to make out of Christofias’ ‘negationism’ in the Brookings Institution, the attempt to throw “the motherland”, meaning not “the Junta” (however one feels about it), but in actuality Greece, the Greek people thrown into the same basket with the murderous Turkey is nothing less than a smack in the face to the Greeks, on which the Cyprus cause is ultimately reliant on for actual success in the US and beyond. Time for an apology or at least crystal clear clarification by the Greek-Cypriot Americans is in order, in other words, to borrow an American phrase “it’s time to step up to the plate” and start acting like leaders, boys.

Let’s not forget the old Greek proverb, --It is better in times of need to have a friend rather than money.

Here is full uncorrected transcript of Christofias at Brookings Institution on PDF link:

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2010/0927_cyprus/20100927_cyprus.pdf

Here is a video clip from Cyprus TV of Christofias saying “two motherlands in fact invaded both” at Brookings Institution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXqlYvU3b-c&feature=player_embedded

--Nikolaos Taneris, Press Officer, Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA)

October 27, 2010

NEW YORK

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