This issue of the AHI policy journal addresses a cluster of national and international issues pertinent to the interests of Greece, Cyprus, and the United States. Our coverage offers a mix of strategy, documentation, tactics, and analysis that aims to enrich public discourse on these issues.

We begin with an essay based on a speech given by  Dr. Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis,  Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cyprus, at the Director’s Forum of the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Center on Dec. 20, 2011. The Minister emphasizes how the strategic location of Cyprus is a vital factor in the immediate political and economic prospects for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Nick Larigakis, the president of the American Hellenic Institute, and I follow with comments on the coming election year in the United States. Larigakis finds the Obama administration’s record on issues relating to Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey wanting and posits that the administration has from now until election time to take a more positive course. I discuss some of the rhetorical strategies necessary for Greek Americans to be politically effective, and I offer a series of suggestions on how relatively small community groups can influence national policy.

Dr. Artemis Leontis, Associate Professor of Modern Greek, Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan, discusses the current state of Modern Greek Studies programs in the United States with particular attention to the teaching of modern Greek. The essay is slightly amended from a speech given at the 2011 The Future of Hellenism in America conference sponsored by the American Hellenic Institute.

In recent years, a number of Greek American organizations that have been sponsoring Hellenic studies abroad programs of various kinds.  Michael Savvas, a recent graduate of San Diego State University, was among the thousand plus young people to have participated in such programs. He took part in AHEPA’s Journey to Greece program and in the American Hellenic Institute Foundation’s foreign policy trip to Greece and Cyprus. We offer his account as an example of the positive effect such trips have and how even one student activist can take action at the local level

A major research piece on the Pontian Genocide is offered by Dr. Konstantinos Fotiades of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.  This essay is excerpted from his The Genocide of the Black Sea Greeks which was published in Athens in 2004 by The Hellenic Parliament Foundation for Parliamentarianism and Democracy and is now seeking an English-language publisher.  The excerpt is from Chapter 6 which deals in depth with the scale and continuity of the genocide in the years 1918-1919. A small section of the chapter which deals with Smyrna in this period that fits into the larger context of the work has been omitted to keep the focus on the plight of the Pontians, a genocide unknown to most Americans.

Looking at more recent developments in the Turkish military and what they might portend for Greece and Cyprus is Dr. Harry Dinella, a professor of Joint and Multinational Operations at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College campus at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, and an adjunct professor of government at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  Dinella examines the tense relationship between senior Turkish military officers and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Our final selection is an in-depth review of George C. Blytas’ The First Victory: Greece in the Second World War by Dr. Alexandros K. Kyrou, an American Hellenic Institute Fellow who is Associate Professor of History at Salem State University. Kyrou considers both the military and psychological impact of the Greek victory over Mussolini, a historic moment frequently misrepresented in conventional texts regarding World War II.

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As 2010 closes, we are pleased to present the Fall 2010 edition of the AHIF Online Journal. In it you will find thought-provoking articles authored by experts that include Professor Van Coufoudakis, Gregory R. Copley, Dr. Harry Dinella, and Nicholas G. Karambelas, Esq.

The piece by Professor Coufoudakis, rector emeritus at University of Nicosia, Cyprus and dean emeritus of the School of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, is based on the presentation he delivered at the AHIF-sponsored conference on fifty years of Cypriot independence held in Washington, D.C. in October 2010. It is a critical appraisal of Cyprus in its first half century. Coufoudakis highlights both the failures of the past and the considerable achievements of the Cypriot state. He presses his conviction that a future, united Cypriot state, based on the rule of law rather than the rule of armed occupation, is possible but cautions that changes in approach must be adopted. Toward that end he closes with advice that the present generation of Cypriots, Cypriot decision makers, and their supporters around the world may wish to note.

Gregory R. Copley, president of the Washington-based International Strategic Studies Association, writes on the changing strategic situation in the eastern Mediterranean since the end of the Cold War and its implications for the West in general and perhaps for Cyprus in particular. Copley is noted for his ability to not only look down “the strategic block” but around “its corner” and he explains how Cyprus exists in an increasingly dangerous environment or “eye of the storm.” Indeed, Copley believes that the island’s future may be more threatened than ever as a result of the strategic decline of the West and the emerging influence of Iran and Russia in the Mediterranean thru proxy states, that include Syria and Turkey. If he was alive today, Thomas Jefferson might refer to Copley’s assessment as “a fire bell in the night” that the West and Cyprus need to address with a shift of policies in order to contain the flames of a political-military tinder box that has already ignited.

The article by Dr. Harry Dinella, a former US Army Foreign Area Officer for the Balkans, involves an historical view of the World War II Holocaust in Greece and the virtual destruction of Greece’s Jewish communities. The persecution of Jewish Greeks by Germany’s war machine has been a neglected area of study for scholars in and out of Greece. His article provides an overview of Greece’s Jewish communities and offers insights into how the German’s engineered the capture, deportation, and murder of the overwhelming majority of Jewish Greeks during the war.

The final article is by Nicholas G. Karambelas, Esq., a Washington-based attorney and an expert in international law. There is little doubt that part of Turkey’s vision for northern Cyprus is, over time, to establish a new status quo that is accepted, if for no other reason, just because of its enduring nature. Turkey’s Cypriot policy since 1974 is based on its possession and occupation of the northern portion of the island. In this article Karambelas demonstrates clearly that Turkey cannot, despite its best efforts circumnavigate international law and particularly European Union law in matters like EU trade with northern Cyprus, legally a part of the Republic of Cyprus. This fine article is not only for attorneys, but for everyone interested in the fact that the rule of law regarding northern Cyprus does, indeed, extend beyond the Turkish perspective regarding “possession” as “nine-tenths of the law.”

Sincerely,

Gene Rossides
December 2010
Washington, D.C.

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I am proud to announce the first issue of the American Hellenic Institute Foundation Policy Journal which is our new On-Line Journal.

The purpose of the On-Line Journal is to offer a forum for our readers, including members of Congress and other government officials, by which they can examine issues concerning the United States, Cyprus and Turkey in a format that is more comprehensive and detailed than many of our traditional press releases and letters. Moreover, the On-Line Journal, published periodically, seeks to provide insights into developing issues and situations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southeastern Europe that can or will have implications for United States foreign policy decisions and security interests in this vital region of the world.

Toward this end, I encourage you to read the article on Turkey by Gregory Copley, a noted author historian, security analyst, and the president of the Alexandria-based International Strategic Studies Institute. According to Mr. Copley, Turkey is on the verge of a major transition in its security orientation as it drifts further and further away from the West and closer to a regional orientation whereby it will become more and more connected to Moscow than to Washington and Brussels in future years.

For many, including the Turkish government, the Cyprus issue was settled once and for all in 1974 as a result of the Turkish invasion of that island and its subsequent illegal military occupation of northern Cyprus that continues today. Nevertheless, even as time goes on, things have not worked out for Turkey’s scheme to turn occupied Cyprus into a de facto and eventually de jure part of Turkey-proper. Simply stated, the world refuses to acknowledge either the so called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus or its claims on the properties, historical and otherwise, illegally taken from their rightful owners.

In this issue we include a Report for Congress that was recently completed by Theresa Papademetriou, a Senior Foreign Law Specialist of the Law Library of Congress. It highlights the illegal and long-term actions of the Turkish government aimed at destroying all vestiges of Hellenic civilization in occupied Cyprus. The Report underscores Turkish efforts that, in addition to destroying the Hellenic heritage of occupied Cyprus, aim to make a profit in the process through the illegal sale of ancient artifacts and Christian Orthodox religious treasures to third-party collectors that wittingly or unwittingly  buy the smuggled items through auctions and other venues. That which is too large to be removed or sold abroad has been desecrated, destroyed or converted to other purposes, for instance the turning of churches, monasteries and other structures into mosques, military/government buildings, hotels, clinics or, in some cases, stables. The Report demonstrates that these activities, though they continue unabated, are and remain illegal as a matter of international law.

Finally, we include an article on the issue of real property in occupied Cyprus illegally taken by Turkish authorities from the rightful owners after they were compelled to flee to the south in the wake of the Turkish invasion in 1974. The article presents an analysis of the case concerning the sale of property in occupied Cyprus written by Nicholas G. Karambelas, Esq.  The legal owner of the property under the laws of the Republic of Cyprus is Meletis Apostolides.  Although the laws of the legitimate government of Cyprus cannot be applied in occupied northern Cyprus, a region under the illegal control of Turkey, they nevertheless remain recognized in European Union law. Mr. and Mrs. Orams, who are citizens of the United Kingdom, came to possess Mr. Apostolides’ property via the means of an illegal sale by a third party in northern Cyprus not recognized in European Union law as the rightful owner. The judgment in the case demonstrates that persons who buy property in occupied northern Cyprus do so at their own peril. The only rightful owner is the person who holds title to any such property under the laws of the Republic of Cyprus. The rightful owner can sue the possessing party in a court of the Republic of Cyprus, win a judgment against the party or parties who illegally bought property in northern Cyprus so long as the buyer(s) of the property maintain citizenship in an EU country and be legally compelled to satisfy any judgment thus rendered. The principle “caveat emptor” very much applies to any person who seeks to buy vacation villas or commercial property in occupied Cyprus at the expense of the rightful owner.

On behalf of the AHIF staff and the editors of the American Hellenic Institute Foundation Policy Journal, I present this first issue. We look forward to providing our readership with new and compelling articles and information in the future. Please submit an article for future issues. Our editorial staff will review and consider all submissions for publication.

Sincerely,

Gene Rossides

July, 2009
Washington, D.C.

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