Hellenic Electronic Center (HEC)
A Non-Profit Organization Registered in the US
with 37,000 Hellenes as members and 36 Hellenic
associations in the US and abroad
July 20, 2009
The following letter in response to that of Buket Kop (July 20) misleads the editors of the Washington Times as well as unsuspecting readers. Considering that Mr. Kop uses the illegitimate title given to the Turkish occupation, it is utterly misleading for him to suggest that Turkey wants unity. What Turkey has always wanted in Cyprus was not unity, but conquest at the expense of the Greek Cypriots who always made up eighty percent of the population.
In 1955, the government in Turkey organized a terrorist organization entitled “Cyprus is Turkish” without consideration for the long and historic identity of Cyprus with Hellenism or for the rights and desires of the Greek majority. The problem of Cyprus is not one of unity or disunity, it is one of aggression, territorial conquest, occupation, and colonization. The influx of 100,000 settlers from Turkey into the homes of Greek Cypriots who were ethnically cleansed by the Turkish military is proof positive of Turkish expansionism in Cyprus. Furthermore, the well publicized destruction of over 500 Greek Orthodox Churches by the Turkish occupation is further evidence of the Turkish regime’s effort to destroy the heritage of Cyprus along with its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The rejection of the Annan Plan by the Republic of Cyprus was undertaken because that Plan was the basis of appeasement, and not one of unity. The Plan was rejected both by the internationally recognized President of the Republic of Cyprus who was also democratically elected by Cypriot voters, and rejected in a democratic referendum overwhelmingly by Cypriot citizens in a democratic atmosphere. The alleged referendum in the occupied territories of Cyprus were carried out under the auspices of 30,000 occupation soldiers of the Turkish Army and included the participation of Turkish settlers who are not citizens of Cyprus.
The Turkish occupation of Cyprus is one that is inherently racist, and has imported the policies of Kemalist Turkey which brought about the genocide of Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Orthodox Christians in Asia Minor. The afore mentioned “Cyprus is Turkish” organization was created in 1955 and was used in the infamous anti-Greek pogrom in Constantinople that year. Henceforth, any objective or informed person understands the true nature of Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus.
Theodoros Karakostas
HEC Executive Committee
[email protected]
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/20/settling-cyprus/
The Washington Times
LETTER TO EDITOR: Settling Cyprus
By | Monday, July 20, 2009
The article “Cyprus envoy blames division on Turkey” (World, Friday) repeats the same rhetoric we often hear from the Greek Cypriot side regarding the Cyprus issue.
If the Greek Cypriots had accepted the U.N.-sponsored settlement plan in April 2004 instead of rejecting it by a staggering 76 percent of the vote, the island would be united today. Soon after the Greek Cypriot rejection, the U.N. secretary-general himself described it as a “major setback.” He went on to say, “What was rejected was the solution itself rather than a mere blueprint.” He also asked the Greek Cypriots to reflect on a “bi-communal, bi-zonal federation which means not just two constituent states, but also political equality and the sharing of power.” He finally called upon them to demonstrate “not just by word, but by action” if they were ready to share power with the Turkish Cypriots in a federal structure.
Even Nikos Rolandis, a former Greek Cypriot foreign minister, lists 15 occasions when the Greek Cypriot side rejected proposals for a settlement.
Instead of pointing the finger at others, the Greek Cypriot side should display the sincerity and determination that is truly needed to achieve a comprehensive and fair Cyprus settlement.
BUKET KOP
Second secretary
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Washington Office
Washington
Cypriots Face Turkish Barbarism in Nicosia and Washington DC
For Immediate Release: July 21, 2009
Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, New York, Tel. (917) 699-9935.
The following is a report on yesterday ‘ s 18 hour vigil and demonstration in Washington, DC to mourn the Missing Cypriots and mark the 35th anniversary of the Turkish-military invasion and continuing occupation of Cyprus. The report speaks volumes for how much the Turks fear the simple message of freedom for Cyprus and the potential strength of our victimized people. This is the third year in a row that we have come to DC armed only with cardboard signs, a few Hellenic National flags and a passionate fervor to commemorate the injustice befallen the People of the Republic of Cyprus. It drove the entire Turkish lobby (the apparatus of the Turkish State’s barbarism) into a frenzy of reactionary activity and fury..
REPORT FROM THE CANA 4 WHO FACED TURKISH BARBARISM IN WASHINGTON DC
Community activists are drawn to work for a cause for a host of reasons. On Sunday, July 19, 2009, at 7 pm a core group of CANA activists gathered outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Sheridan Park, Washington DC. We all traveled long journeys’ to this destination. Ioannis remembered the suffering of an eighteen year old cousin who endured an agonizing death as a result of Turkey’s napalm bombing of Massoura village in 1974. Georgia was there for a grandmother, Gregoria Georgiou, killed execution style by the invading Turkish military on August 31, 1974 in Aheritou, Cyprus. Theo looked to the vigil and demonstration to gain insight as to whether his faith could truly allow him to ‘forgive but never forget’ Turkish aggression and lead him closer to a decision on whether to join the priesthood of the Greek Orthodox Church. Foti came because he is drawn to the Hellenic culture and the bloody history of Turkish barbarism to the Armenian, Assyrian, Greek and Chinese communities. This group was aided intermittently by local DC activists but they largely stood alone against the Turkish embassy and diplomatic community for the entire vigil and demonstration.
The CANA activists set up a candle lit memorial to the victims of the illegal Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus. Candles were lit to memorialize the missing and the murdered Cypriots, for time lost to the political ineptitude and personal agendas of the Greek and Cypriot establishment and lobby groups, for unfulfilled dreams and stolen land torn from the grasp of Greek Cypriots by the British and American geopolitical elite.
CANA activists used a banner, placards, the Cypriot, Greek and Byzantine flags to greet DC commuters driving past the Turkish ambassador’s residence on Monday morning.. They wanted it known that July 20, 2009, marked the 35th anniversary of the illegal Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus.. The only acceptable goal was for ‘Turkey to Get Out of Cyprus.’
CANA activists then moved on to the Turkish embassy where they were greeted by a counter demonstration led by Gunay Evinch, the lead counsel of the Turkish Embassy. Our four stood against their thirty. Some ninety minutes into the demonstration the Secret Service were called in by the Turkish lobby to protect them against the four – a sixty-two year old man, a future seminary student, a Chinese man and a woman. The event concluded when the CANA activists disbanded at noon.
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To read a Southern Italian perspective on the 18-hour vigil and demonstration by CANA, please visit this link to the Magna GRECE Online Journal titled, Remember Cyprus! :
http://magnagrece.blogspot.com/2009/07/remember-cyprus.html
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Also you can open www.freedom4cyprus.blogspot.com (newly created) and watch the demonstration yesterday in Nicosia against the continued Turkish occupation in Cyprus . See for yourselves and listen to the voice of the people, the young, the very voice they want to shut up, and they do not want to show to the outside world.
Thank you.
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Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA)
2578 Broadway #132
New York, NY 10025
New York: Tel. 917-699-9935
Email: [email protected]
www.cyprusactionnetwork.org
======================== Πρωτοσελιδα – Ειδήσεις
The illegitimate title given to the Turkish occupation / CANA action
