Category: political

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfayev the top Church diplomat of the Russian Orthodox Church presided at a doxology in commemoration of Greek Independence Day. The doxology at a Russian Monastery was held for the remembrance of the souls of the Greeks who died fighting the Turks. Furthermore, Patriarch Kyril of Moscow and all Russia sent messages of congratulations to the Greek President on the two hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the Greek Revolution.

Furthermore, Metropolitan Onuphry the spiritual leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church likewise congratulated the Greeks on the anniversary of Greek Independence. Both the Russian Patriarch and the Ukrainian Metropolitan recalled the oppression of the Greeks under Turkish role and the bravery of the Greeks who fought for their freedom. These expressions of congratulations are indicative of the brotherly attitude toward the Greeks by both the Russians and Ukrainians.

Incidentally, there has been no noticeable statement regarding Greek Independence from Patriarch Bartholomew. The recognition of the pseudo bishops of Ukraine by the Churches of Constantinople and Greece is a mark of shame on the part of the Greek speaking Orthodox world. The brotherly statements of both the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox leaders should compel the Church of Greece in particular to withdraw its recognition of the Ukrainian schismatics.

There has been nothing but devastation to Orthodoxy in general and the Greek speaking world from the recognition of the Ukrainian pseudo bishops. Patriarch Bartholomew cares nothing about the damage to Orthodoxy. He also does not care about the Greek speaking Orthodox world either. Patriarch Bartholomew undertook his anti Russian actions under the cover of the Greek flag.

At the end of the day he is the enabler of the continued American domination of both Greek political and ecclesiastical affairs. It will take some time for Constantinople to reverse its errors in Ukraine. If the Patriarchate even survives. The State Department sees the Ecumenical Patriarchate as an instrument in which to attack the Russians for the time being. Washington will not do anything to help the Patriarchate in its position in Turkey over the long term.

While it does not seem that the Church of Greece will reverse its position on Ukraine now, there is a much better chance of the Athens synod reversing its stances than that of Constantinople. The day of March 25, 2021 was a glorious day when the world recognized the Greek heroism that started two hundred years ago.

It is a shame that the Greek anniversary occurred under the shadow of the schism within Orthodoxy. The Greek speaking world must remember the example of Saint Mark of Ephesus who realized that the preservation of Constantinople would matter for little or nothing if the Greek Orthodox repudiated the faith of Christ as was done by the hierarchy at the Council of Florence.

Greece today confronts many difficult problems. Fidelity to the faith of Christ and those of the holy fathers is the surest way of both enduring and confronting the difficulties that the Greeks face today. The bishops of Greece should look to the examples of both Saint Mark of Ephesus as well as Patriarch Gregory V who was martyred after the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence.

Patriarch Gregory V was an Orthodox traditionalist much like Saint Mark. It should also be remembered the legendary General Kolokotronis was a staunch Russophile and the leader of the Russian Party in Greece. Greece’s first President was John Capodistrias who had served as Russian Foreign Minister.

There is much that the Greeks and the Russians have in common spiritually, historically, and politically. The Russian expressions of congratulations toward the Greeks even as the Greek Churches have caused the Russian Church great pain is demonstrative of the realities of Greek-Russian brotherhood.

An Orthodox Church in Romania was desecrated with the symbols of Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and the LGBTQ movement. The front walls of the entrance of the Church were desecrated along with the icons that appear on the front walls. The desecration of the Church fully exposes the lunacy of these three groups.

First of all, it is unclear why a chapter of Black Lives Matter is needed in Romania. Romanians have nothing to do with the murder of George Floyd or the racial problems in America. The followers of these movements are simply incapable of logic or reason which is why they have committed what can only be construed as a hate crime.

The leaders of the American Black Lives Matter have openly admitted that they are a Marxist organization. This makes the desecration of the Church even more repugnant. The Romanian Orthodox Church suffered under communist rule for nearly forty five years before communism fell. Marxist radicals never really change or reform.

The stupidity of the desecration of the Church can also be seen by the fact that all chapters of Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the LGBTQ movements everywhere will continue to anger and offend people. A movement that is based on outraging people cannot succeed. A perfect example of this is the Golden Party in Greece, the Neo-Nazi movement that found limited success in Greece and proceeded to promote Holocaust denial and anti semitism inside the Greek Parliament. Eventually, this party lost all support and is nearly extinct.

Serious political movements tend to engage society and promote discussions. Black Lives Matter and Antifa promote the lethal ideology of Marxism-Leninism but lack the necessary organization and sophistication that the real Bolsheviks in Russia had that enabled them to come to power. At this point they are a caricature of the real thing.

In any case, Christianity is deeply engrained in Orthodox countries and the Romanian people are not likely to be amused or pleased with the desecration of Churches. Black Lives Matter and Antifa are morally and intellectually bankrupt with no ability to understand any perspective that is not their own.

The LGBTQ movement has been far more successful in America and Europe and appears to be a greater concern for Christians. This movement is in a strong position to emerge as the real persecutor of the Church. A far worse persecution than desecrating Churches (horrible as those actions are).

The LGBTQ movement has been able to win over political and legislative support throughout the western world supporting the indoctrination of children into trans ideology and suggesting that employers and others who refuse to go along with this nefarious agenda are discriminating. The desecration of the Romanian Church comes less than a decade after the attack on the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow by the notorious “Pussy riot”.

The extreme left has declared war on Christianity. In this they are supported by western governments and officials, and the worlds media. The desecration of the Romanian Church is a warning to all Christians everywhere.

President Joe Biden has begun provoking tensions with Russia just as many feared would happen in the event of a Democratic Presidential victory. Biden insulted President Vladimir Putin by calling him a “killer”. Several years ago, Hillary Clinton had compared Putin to Hitler. The insult directed against the Russian President demonstrates again that the Democratic Party has been so wholly consumed by ideology that all forms of diplomacy and politeness that are crucial in international affairs have been completely abandoned.

The Russians have called their Ambassador to Washington home for consultations. This may very well signal a crisis in relations with Russia. Even in the aftermath of an election victory, the Democrats remain angry over their loss in the previous elections of 2016. President Donald Trump for all his flaws and mistakes will be remembered as a great statesman who attempted to pull America out of foreign wars and sought friendly relations with Russia and even North Korea.

The Democrats have been scapegoating Russia for four years and will continue to do so in the White House. This foreshadows a dangerous escalation of tensions with Russia. Russia is a nuclear power that should be taken very seriously. Childish name calling is terrible diplomacy and is indicative of the childlike mentality of the President.

Joe Biden has contributed immensely to the deterioration of American relations with Russia. As a Senator, Biden was a strong champion of the bombing of Serbia and the detaching of Kosovo from that Orthodox country. Kosovo is the spiritual capital of the Serbian Orthodox Church with Serbia’s most important Churches and Monasteries.

Back in 1999, the Russians were in no position to challenge the Clinton administrations aggression against Serbia. Things have changed dramatically since drunken Boris Yeltsin left office in Russia. The Biden family has been involved in shady dealings in Ukraine. Biden’s son Hunter was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company despite having no experience in the field of gas and energy, and no particular expertise in Ukrainian affairs.

Joe Biden himself bragged that as Vice President he threatened to terminate much needed aid to Ukraine if that government did not fire the prosecutor that was investigating Hunter Biden’s company. The 2020 coup attempt against President Donald Trump by the Democrats in Congress was largely the result of the involvement of the Biden family’s shady dealings with Ukraine.

Former President Trump asked the Ukrainian government for help in investigating Hunter Biden. For this innocent request, Trump was nearly impeached. Joe Biden has a conflict of interest in the conducting of American foreign policy. His family’s involvement in Ukraine undermine his credibility and demonstrates an inherent bias against Russia.

Things have changed since Kosovo was detached from Serbia. In 2014, the Obama-Biden administration and its unscrupulous representatives such as Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt (current Governor of, sorry “Ambassador” to Greece) supported the overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected government and the installation of a rabidly anti Russian one. Furthermore, the Obama-Biden administration decided to attack Syria which like Serbia is a traditional Russian ally.

The Russians demonstrated both in Syria and Ukraine that Washington is no longer in the position to impose itself on the rest of the world. Russia is again a great power and should be respected as such. Real Statesman do not lose their composure and think before speaking and when referring to foreign leaders speak diplomatically.

Joe Biden has just demonstrated why he is completely unfit to serve as President.

Unprecedented images by protesters against Orthodoxy in Athens (VIDEO)

The video in the link above says a good deal about what is wrong in Greece. Greek anarchists have been demonstrating in favor of a Greek terrorist who is on a hunger strike because he prefers to be in a different prison. The terrorist in question is responsible for eleven murders including Greek officials and American, British, and Turkish diplomats.

This is the cause that Greek anarchists have chosen to adopt for themselves. In the video to the link above Greek youth who have been indoctrinated in extreme left ideology can be seen desecrating an icon of the Mother of God. The icon of the Holy Theotokos and her son our God and savior Jesus Christ can be desecrated by these pathetic left wing cultists.

They are demonstrating for a murderer and a proponent of Marxist ideology while denouncing Christianity which sustained the Greek nation during the centuries of Turkocratia. The historically illiterate brats live in a democratic country like Greece. Perhaps they should go live in North Korea or Cuba to find out how good communism is.

This pathetic rabble is indicative of everything that has gone wrong in Greece. The Greek government of Prime Minister Mitsotakis has so far refused to relent to the demands of the terrorist who is on hunger strike. The Greek government owes him nothing. If he chooses to commit suicide by refusing to eat that is his business.

Greek governments in the past have not been tough enough on the lawlessness and mayhem caused by the extreme left in Athens. When the anarchists desecrate the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos it is time to crack down and impose the rule of the law on the spoiled Marxist brats. Greece is a Christian country and real Greeks will fight to defend Greek Orthodox values.

What an utter disgrace that the icon of the panagia is desecrated while the youth of Greece go out of their way to demonstrate in favor of a terrorist. The heroes of 1821 weep at this appalling sight!

The year 2021 will mark three anniversaries regarding the Hellenic speaking world. First, 2021 will mark the two hundredth anniversary of the Greek War of Independence. After many centuries of oppression under Turkish rule, the Greeks revolted in a heroic struggle which took many years and the shedding of blood and finally established the modern Greek state. March 25 will mark a glorious celebration of the Greek War of Independence.

A second anniversary comes on August 26 with the nine hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Manzikert. On that day in 1071, the Byzantine armies of Emperor Romanus Diogenes lost a battle that continues to have consequences for the Hellenic world up to the present. Half of Anatolia fell to the Turks and although it took four centuries to come about, Manzikert made the fall of Constantinople inevitable.

A third anniversary can be seen with the closure of the theological school of Halki by the Turkish authorities in 1971. These three anniversaries are worth analyzing and discussing in the present day context of problems facing the Hellenic speaking world. At present, Greece faces either a possible existential threat at the hands of the Turks or the possibility of the loss of islands and genocide in the event of a Turkish invasion of any Greek islands.

The Greek War of Independence was a glorious achievement that resulted from the tireless efforts of Greeks to throw off the Turkish yoke. It set the stage for the subsequent expansion of the Greek state. In 1864, Greece received the Ionian islands and in 1881, the region of Thessaly was ceded to Greece by the great powers.

In the aftermath of the heroic victories of the Balkan Wars, Greece liberated Macedonia, Epirus, and Crete. The era of the liberation period in Greek history came to an end with the rise of Mustafa Kemal in Turkey (through the backing of the western powers and the Soviet communists) who presided over the extermination of all Christian Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians throughout Anatolia. The remaining Greeks in Turkey (Constantinople, Imbros, Tenedos) would be ethnically cleansed following the pogroms of 1955 and the ethnic cleansing campaigns of the 1960’s.

In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus and ethnically cleansed over 200,000 Greek Cypriots form their homes. In the aftermath of the present day realities of the continued occupation of Cyprus and the threats to Greek and Cypriot territorial rights, the memory of the Battle of Manzikert looms large. After Maznikert, the Seljuk Turks appeared to be an unstoppable force.

Byzantine efforts to stop the Turks were temporarily successful after the Emperor Alexios Comnenos made agreements with the Crusaders (a very sinister pact in itself) but over the long term Byzantium was unable to hold the line against the Seljuk Turks. In 1204, Constantinople was invaded and occupied by the Knights of the Fourth Crusade. That invasion and long occupation destroyed the Christian Empire and destroyed forever any ability to resist or forestall the advancing Turkish forces.

In 1303, Sultan Osman came to the Turkish throne and it was from this Sultan that the Ottoman Empire was named. The Ottomans advanced steadily over a period of time as Constantinople lost more and more territory. During the disastrous reign of John Cantacuzenos during the 1350’s, the Empire hired the Ottomans as mercenaries to fight the Serbs! The Ottomans established a foothold in the Balkans.

Despite diplomatic efforts by the Emperor Manuel Paleologos who travelled to England and France in the early 1400’s, no western help arrived. In 1439, Emperor John Paleologos submitted to the demands of the Latin Pope and abandoned Orthodoxy in order to save Constantinople. That effort ended in humiliation and disaster!

Constantinople fell and the era of Turkocratia was ushered in. Constantine Paleologos and the defenders of Constantinople fought honorably and with great bravery but they did not have the number of fighters needed in order to prevail. In 1821, the Greeks revolted and for a century the Hellenic world came alive again through the expansion of Greece which began liberating Greek populations in the Balkans.

The liberation of Greece after the War of Independence was not without its problems. From the very beginning, Great Britain and Germany began interfering in Greek domestic affairs. This set a precedent for the United States which intervenes in Greek domestic affairs at the present time.

The third anniversary of the Hellenic speaking world in 2021 comes with the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the theological school of Halki. The closing of Halki occurred within the context of the anti Greek pogroms of 1955 and the ethnic cleansing of the Greek Orthodox populations of Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos during the 1960’s. Halki was closed so that the Turkish government could expel the Patriarchate and be rid of all Greek Orthodox inhabitants once and for all.

When the present Ecumenical Patriarch was elected in 1991 (here is yet a fourth anniversary the Hellenic speaking Orthodox world will commemorated in 2021) his top priority was the opening of the Halki School of theology. Despite widespread international attention on this issue, Turkey has refused to open Halki. The Patriarchate’s position it can be said has both improved and worsened in the past thirty years.

On the one level, it appeared the Patriarchate’s position increased by the diplomatic activity at the Ecumenical Patriarchate which brought a measure of protection from the Turkish authorities. Despite this however, the Ecumenical Patriarch became the target of terrorists who on several occasions bombed the Patriarchate while on other occasions Turkish officers conspired to assassinate both the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Armenian Patriarch. The Ecumenical Patriarchate’s position decreased (perhaps fatally) when it made the horrible decision to “grant” autocephaly to the uncanonical schismatic “Church” factions in Ukraine in 2018.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate created a schism in Orthodoxy and has succeeded (with the help of the State Department) in compromising the Churches of Greece and Alexandria both of whom have established communion with an illegitimate ecclesiastical entity whose hierarchy and clergy have no valid ordinations or consecrations. This is now the context in which the Hellenic world finds itself in.

On the year of the anniversaries, the Hellenic speaking world faces one crisis after the other. Throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule, Greece survived because of Orthodoxy. As Greece faces threats to its existence as a result of Turkish expansionism, the Greek Churches need to restore their standing within the Orthodox communion by revoking their recognition of the Ukrainian schismatics and reconciling with the greater Orthodox world.

https://sallux.eu/Sallux%20-%20European%20security,%20Turkish%20aggression%20and%20Article%205%20NATO%20-%20WEB.pdf

The above is a link to an outstanding analysis of the problems that western security interests have with Turkey. It is an almost unprecedented analysis of the history of Turkey and the problems that it has been creating under the Erdogan regime. It is very welcome in referencing the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides as well as referring to Turkish aggression against Armenia, Cyprus, and Greece.

The article correctly recounts Turkey’s long support for ISIS and its support for Islamic extremists and points out the regimes desire to expand to create a new Ottoman Empire. The article in detail recounts Turkey’s interventions in Armenia, Syria, and Libya and refers to the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a Mosque. Where the analysis starts to run out of gas is in its conclusion that NATO should simply withdraw its guarantee of support in the event that Turkey is attacked.

While this conclusion is well intended, in point of fact will do nothing to deter Turkish aggression. Turkey needs to be expelled from NATO and cut off entirely from the European Union. Turkey does not face any external threats so the threat to withdraw guarantees to its defense has minimal consequences for Ankara. NATO has to go all the way to expel Turkey outright.

In the event that Turkish-Russian relations go cold perhaps this will make a difference but for the time being Turkey faces no real threat. Russia is referred to in the article and it is suggested that western governments fear expelling Turkey from NATO because they believe Russia will gain Turkey as an ally. The authors of the article however discount this conclusion.

The article does suggest that NATO and Europe are taking the Turkish threat more seriously than previously thought. Hopefully, they will come to conclude that appeasement of Turkey does not work and that Turkey should be expelled permanently from NATO and all associations with the European Union should be terminated. Ultimately, it is quite possible that NATO could very well be compelled to declare war on Turkey. The article rightly lists Turkey’s numerous offenses against the Kurds and in Syria.

The article is definitely worth reading.

http://humanrightscolumbia.org/peace-building/atrocities-artsakh-nagorno-karabakh

The Program on peace building and human rights at Columbia University has published a report (see the link above) on human rights violations perpetrated by Azerbaijan against Armenia. Azerbaijani aggression (with the backing of Turkey) was responsible for the war with Armenia. The failure of the international community to hold Azerbaijan and Turkey accountable may have set a precedent for Greece.

As Turkish aggression remains a problem for both Greece and Cyprus, Athens needs to examine the injustice suffered by the Armenians. Nagorno Karabakh is a territory with an Armenian majority and is rightly ruled by the Armenians. Armenians refuse to be led by any Turkish Republics and have fought hard to maintain Armenian rule over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenians however did not receive the kind of support they needed from either the United States or Russia. This indicates that Turkey is still immune from any real pressure despite the triumph of radical jihadism in Turkey, and despite the fact that Turkey and Azerbaijan have cooperated closely with Syrian jihadists. Greece has to keep in mind that neither of the great powers appears willing at this point to challenge Turkey.

Greece must begin using diplomatic leverage to pressure Washington and Moscow to stop supporting Turkey. Recently, Russian Orthodox priests went so far as to bless the nuclear power plant that Russia has helped to build in Turkey. The whole Church question in Ukraine has complicated Greek-Russian relations but the Russians should be a little more sensitive to the plight of Armenian and Greek Christians who are on the receiving end of Turkish expansionism and aggression.

Greece closest friend and ally is Armenia. Greek officials use their influence (assuming they have any) at the European Union to lobby on behalf of the Armenian cause in the caucuses and to condemn Azerbaijani aggression. The government in Baku made its own hostility to Greece apparent when the Greek Ambassador presenting his credentials to the host country’s President was insulted and derided. The Azerbaijani President made clear that Azerbaijan supported Turkey in all conflicts with Greece.

Greece should be using its leverage with Washington and Moscow not only to promote Greek issues, but Armenian issues as well. Greek and Armenian interests coincide both nations are likely to suffer the same fate in the event that Turkish ambitions are ever realized at the expense of Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia.

“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”

This is an excerpt from an executive order that came down from the White House. What this is saying is that boys in school who consider themselves to be girls should have access to the girls room, the girls locker room, and should be able to participate in girls sports. This is exactly what many of us feared was going to happen in the event of a democratic victory in Presidential elections. Without defending the attack on the Capital, one can honestly say that Donald Trump has already been missed.

From a conservative-libertarian standpoint, all consenting adults should be free to live as they like. This includes the right to have whatever surgery they like. The problem here is that this radical agenda is being imposed on the rest of society including children. It is an established fact of reality that a man cannot become a woman, and a woman cannot become a man.

If some people believe otherwise that is their right and it is their right to “transition” if they so desire. But they do not have the right to force the rest of us to abandon reality. They most certainly do not have the right to impose this agenda on children. Some years back the Democrats used to accuse the Republicans of waging a “war on women”.

That was amusing then considering that accusation was coming from the party of Bill Clinton and the Kennedys. That accusation is even more bizarre and hypocritical coming from a party that has supported permitting men to use the ladies room. Not being content with permitting men to use the ladies room, they are now ready to send boys into girls restrooms and locker rooms.

This is why it is difficult from a Greek Orthodox standpoint not to view the Democrats as a threat to freedom of worship. Christians believe that God has made man in his own image. Male and female he created them, as the Book of Genesis tells us. Any believing Christian (or Muslim or Jew) that objects to this madness is going to be considered a “transphobe”. Public life for Christians (and non Christians) has just gotten more difficult.

With the coming to power of the Biden administration, voices from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in New York have responded with great enthusiasm. One does not not need to elaborate any further on this particular fact.

One recalls reading an issue of Time Magazine in 2016 to read about the Russian Presidents visit to Mount Athos. Another article in that same magazine had an article from a woman who wrote about her “pregnant brother”. The article was accompanied by a picture of a bearded woman breastfeeding an infant.

That is when the secularists and “social progressives” completely lost their minds. Normal people whether they are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or atheists have always recognized a reality common to all. That it is impossible for men to get pregnant and to give birth.

Normal people recognize that an individual who can get pregnant and give birth is a woman! This fact should have confirmed the trans movement as farce. A woman who “transitions” into a man and gives birth is ultimately a woman because MEN DO NOT GIVE BIRTH!!!

Rather than bowing to reality, the political left chose to declare war on reality by insisting that men can in fact give birth. Furthermore, the political left and the lunatics who now control the Democratic Party consider people who live in reality to be “transphobic” because we do not believe men can give birth or that men and boys should be using female restrooms and locker rooms.

The Biden administration has just taken a shot at those who adhere to the Christian faith. The pagan agenda of the Democratic Party is being unveiled.

Postscript

Message to Donald Trump. All is forgiven. Fight Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, stay healthy, and run again in 2024.

President elect Joe Biden has been embraced by many Greeks and even media in Greece seem to have embraced the myth that Biden will conduct a pro Greek foreign policy. The problem here is that very few have actually done a real analysis of Biden’s foreign policy advocacy and the past record of the Democratic Party on Greek issues. There are serious obstacles facing Greek-American relations under the incoming Biden administration.

In the past, Democratic administrations have not been good for Greece. For example, the Carter administration despite proclaiming a pro human rights foreign policy lifted the arms embargo on Turkey that Congress imposed after the Turkish invasions of Cyprus during the summer of 1974. Furthermore, Bill Clinton promised he would not recognize the former Yugoslav Republic of Skopje with the name of Macedonia (more on the significance of this below).

The Clinton administration had the chance to demonstrate its friendly stance toward Greece on January 31, 1996 when Turkey claimed the islet of Imia in the Aegean Sea. Treaties and maps showed that this islet was Greek. However, Turkey’s strategic position outweighed Greece’s territorial rights in the eyes of the foreign policy established and Greece was forced to stand down against Turkish aggression. In August 1996, Cypriot protesters Tasos Isaac and Solomos Solomou were murdered in cold blood by Turkish occupation forces and no effort was ever made to bring their murderers to trial.

Like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Barack Obama made promises to the Greeks. In early 2009, Obama travelled to Turkey and met with Patriarch Bartholomew but he met with the Patriarch in a hotel room away from media. Furthermore, Obama insulted Greece by comparing the treatment of Greek Christians in Turkey with the Muslims of west Thrace who are prospering. Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insulted Greece by saying the same thing to Archbishop Demetrios of America.

Returning to Clinton’s recognition of Skopje with the name of Macedonia. Greek interests were subordinated to the perceived greater interests of the Balkans at that particular time. The Clinton administration was intent on supporting Croatia and Bosnia against Serbia. The anti-Serbian foreign policy meant a pro Turkish foreign policy as Ankara was supporting Bosnia and shared the Clinton administrations foreign policy.

Therefore, Greek interests over the name of Macedonia were not considered important. In addition, Serbia was Greece’s closest ally in the region having fought with the Greeks in the Balkan Wars and both World Wars. The Clinton administration wanted Greece to be anti Serbian and was not interested in hearing about Turkey. Sound familiar?

The anti Russian hysteria today is similar to the anti Serbian hysteria of the 1990’s. Joe Biden has always been and remains a supporter of the foreign policy establishment because he follows what others tell him unlike Donald Trump who formulated his own foreign policy. Biden was a supporter of going to war with Serbia during the 1990’s, supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and is a supporter of provoking tensions with Russia.

Biden is considered an expert on foreign policy and once sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Despite this, he is not a foreign policy expert. He is a politician with no historical knowledge or understanding of other countries. In this, he shares the ignorance and lack of sophistication of George W. Bush.

The American foreign policy establishment with the full support of the Democratic Party, the dominant left wing media, and others is fully intent on pursuing an anti Russian foreign policy. The problems that Greece and Cyprus face from an aggressive Turkey will be subordinated to the Biden administration’s anti Russian policies.

The intervention of the State Department in Church affairs in Ukraine is an example of what is ahead for Greece. Greece and Cyprus are intended to be on board for Washington’s anti Russian agenda. As with with the case of Serbia during the 1990’s, Turkey is going to be considered an ally against the Russians.

Historically, Turkey has always been a beneficiary of anti Russian hysteria. This can be seen by the outbreak of anti Russian hysteria in Great Britain at the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853 in which the British and French backed the Ottoman Empire over Russia. During the Cold War, Turkey was considered an important ally against the Soviet Union and so in all likelihood the Biden administration will at least attempt to improve relations with Turkey in pursuit of an anti Russian coalition.

Whether the Erdogan government is willing to change its foreign policy to take part in such a coalition is uncertain. Perhaps the Erdogan government will refuse which will be a good thing for Greece and Cyprus. However, in the short term it can be reasonably asserted that Joe Biden is no friend of Greece.

Based on the present set of facts that we have before us and following historical precedents there is no reason for Greeks to put any trust in Joe Biden. Greeks have the terrible tendency of listening to rhetoric and ignoring and forgetting actual facts.

January 31 will be the twenty fifth anniversary of the notorious Imia affair. Imia is the name of a Greek islet in the Aegean Sea that Turkey claimed. The Treaty of Peace with Italy that was signed in 1947 gave the Dodecanese islands along with all islets in the Aegean Sea to Greece. There is no question that Imia is a Greek islet.

Despite historic treaties and maps affirming Imia as Greek, Athens was pressured by the United States government to withdraw the Greek flag from Imia. This was a major defeat and setback for Greece and a victory for Turkey. It should be remembered that it was the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton that neutralized Greek sovereignty over Imia.

Over the past half a year or so, Turkish aggression has been manifested against Greece and Cyprus. Turkey challenges Greek sovereignty in the eastern mediterranean and claims outright several Greek islands that belong to Athens according to international treaties and are populated by ethnic Greeks. There are two factors in the year 2020 that were different from 1996.

The first difference was that the internationalist Prime Minister Costas Simitis and his PASOK party are gone from the political scene. Simitis was an anti Greek Prime Minister that was more interested in being European. Greece today is led by New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis who has proven to be more of a nationalist and is more committed to the defense of Greece than Simitis was.

The second difference between 2020 and 1996 is the difference between the Trump and the Clinton administrations. In 1996, Undersecretary of State Richard Holbrooke “negotiated” between Greece and Turkey. In reality, he pressured Greece to back down and the Greek flag came down from Imia.

In 2020, the Greek Government under the leadership of Mitsotakis stood up to the Turks and has refused to give away Greece’s sovereign rights. There is no evidence that the Trump administration in any way attempted to bully Greece into making concessions to the Turks.

Just something for Greeks to consider carefully before the inauguration of Joe Biden.