Letter to the article in the Washington Post published September 27, 2020 and followed by the article being responded to

The following letter is in response to the article featuring an interview with retired Turkish admiral Gurdeniz. The retired admiral praises the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus as “one of the biggest achievements in military history”. The reality is that the invasion of Cyprus was an act of Turkish aggression and expansionism that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of over 200,000 Greek Cypriots bases on their ancestry and imposed a policy of colonization of the occupied territories of Cyprus by giving Greek homes and property to settlers from Turkey. It is indicative of the evil and expansionist designs of Turkey that such a prominent former official of Turkey can continue bestowing praise on the inhumane policies of Turkey.

The admiral furthermore describes himself as a “Kemalist” but denies he is a “zealous” nationalist. One can debate the meaning of what constitutes a nationalist but what is certainly accepted by historians is that Kemal, the “father” of modern Turkey was both a “zealous” nationalist and a racist. His conquest of the Christian city of Smyrna was accompanied by the mass slaughter and physical extermination of well over 100,000 Greek and Armenian Christians who were hunted down by Kemal’s troops for extermination. Contemporary media reports of what transpired in Smyrna and more recent scholarly works affirm unequivocally that Kemal was a mass murderer.

Left unsaid in the Post article is the widespread praise given to Kemal’s armies for the crimes against humanity against the Greeks and Armenians at Smyrna. Turkish officials,including the President have warned Greece of a repetition of the events of 1922. Furthermore, the Post article omits the Turkish President’s condemnation of the Treaty of Lausanne that was signed in 1923 and the claims he has put forward on the Greek Dodecanese islands that are indisputably Greek and populated by Greeks. Turkish claims over these islands and Turkish expansionism in Greek territorial waters have been accompanied by undisputed rhetoric threatening genocide.

The civilized world is obligated to stand with Greece and Cyprus against Turkish aggression.

Theodore G. Karakostas 

SectionsDemocracy Dies in Darknesstkarakosta@aol.comSkip to main contentWorldAfricaAmericasAsiaEuropeMiddle EastForeign CorrespondentsMiddle East

Amid Mediterranean tensions, retired Turkish admiral grabs the spotlight touting supremacy at sea

By Kareem FahimSeptember 27, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDTAdd to list

ISTANBUL — After a career at sea and eight years of retirement, Cem Gurdeniz, a 62-year-old Turkish admiral, has suddenly found himself in the limelight here, touting an expansive, nationalist vision of Turkish power projected far into the contested waters off his country’s shores.

Gurdeniz developed the maritime doctrine, called Blue Homeland, more than a decade ago because he was disturbed by what he said was the government’s reluctance to secure Turkey’s rights. His vision has gained popularity at a volatile moment as Turkey and Greece square off in the eastern Mediterranean, leading to fears of a war within NATO.

Blue Homeland’s aims are spelled out on a map showing Turkey’s land mass surrounded by a wide buffer of nearly 180,000 squares miles of sea stretching beyond the Greek islands off Turkey’s west coast. The concept — once narrowly associated with left-wing nationalists — is now regularly cited by Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when talking about maritime disputes. Blue Homeland has energized Turks who feel the country has been unjustly denied its rightful claims to the sea, given its long coastline, and has confirmed for adversaries fears of resurgent Turkish expansionism.

“We cannot neglect the seas again. We cannot be pushed away from the geopolitics of the Mediterranean, the civilization of the Mediterranean,” Gurdeniz said in an interview in an Istanbul cafe overlooking the Bosporus and, in the distance, the Black Sea.

Rival claims by Turkey and Greece over sovereignty in the island-dotted seas that separate them have set off a squall, marked by taunts, denunciations, rival maps and aggressive deployment of warplanes and ships.

In the last few months, tensions have centered on the Oruc Reis, a Turkish seismic research vessel that has been exploring for oil and gas deposits in contested waters while escorted by Turkish naval ships and stalked by Greek frigates. Greek and Turkish naval ships collided in mid-August, heightening concerns of a wider conflagration.

The conflict has cleaved the region into feuding camps, pitting Turkey and Libya against an alliance led by Greece, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. France has sided with Greece, and the United States finds itself stuck between its NATO allies.

Increasingly bellicose attitudes toward Europe among elements of Turkey’s political establishment have proved fertile ground for promoters of Blue Homeland. “Just as our nation achieved victory in its fight for independence despite poverty and deprivation, it will never hesitate to thwart the desires and moves for a Sèvres in Blue Homeland today as well,” Erdogan said in a speech last month, referring to the Treaty of Sèvres, which divided up the Ottoman Empire among European powers.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry has referred to Gurdeniz’s vision — Mavi Vatan in Turkish — as its “covenant.” The admiral has become a frequent guest on television talk shows. Blue Homeland has seeped into the culture as well, featuring, for instance, in a recent radio commercial for a Turkish solar panel company.

There is “significant evidence that suggests that Gurdeniz’s views have had a profound impact,” Ryan Gingeras, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.,  about Blue Homeland that noted its widespread use in the Turkish political establishment and among other former senior naval officers.

A clear sign of the doctrine’s influence was a maritime agreement Turkey struck with one of Libya’s two warring governments last year that seeks to extend Turkish jurisdiction far into the Mediterranean, south of Crete.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece’s prime minister, writing this month in several European newspapers, called Turkey’s agreement with Libya “illegal” and cited a litany of provocative actions carried out by Erdogan, including hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters. “Turkey’s rhetoric is from a bygone age,” Mitsotakis wrote. “It talks about enemies, martyrs, struggle, and a willingness to pay any price.”

A recent announcement by the Trump administration that it would conduct military training with Cyprus, Greece’s ally, angered Ankara. In the last few days, the United States has taken the unusual step of denouncing a rival map that has been used to justify claims by Greece and Cyprus to broad swaths of the sea — a move intended to assuage Turkish fears.

“The United States does not regard this document as having legal significance,” David M. Satterfield, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, said during a meeting with journalists Tuesday, referring to the Seville Map commissioned more than a decade ago by the European Union.

“This cannot be resolved by declarations, nor can it be resolved by production of maps or other documents,” he said.

On Tuesday, in what seemed like a breakthrough, Turkey and Greece agreed to start a new round of negotiations “in the near future” over their contested maritime claims, Greece’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

But in advance of any talks, Turkey and Greece have staked out “maximalist positions,” according to Sinem Adar, an associate at the Center for Applied Turkey Studies in Berlin. “Reaching a compromise will be a hard and long path if it ever happens,” she said.

Arguments over maritime claims have brought the two countries close to blows before, including in 1996, when the United States stepped in to defuse a conflict over a 10-acre uninhabited island. The stakes are higher now, because of the scramble for oil and gas deposits in the contested waters around Cyprus.

The disputes will be solved only when Ankara and Athens show a willingness to compromise, analysts say, but so far, the two governments have been unable to even agree on the ground rules, with Turkey rejecting definitions laid out in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which it has never ratified, and Greece saying its claims — including to expansive jurisdiction around its many islands — apply to Turkey as a matter of settled international law.

Before Blue Homeland was widely adopted by Turkish politicians, it was seen as reflecting the worldview of nationalists who oppose Ankara’s orientation toward NATO, the United States and the E.U. and favor closer ties with Russia and China. Gurdeniz — who studied at the Naval Postgraduate School, worked at NATO and collaborated extensively with U.S. naval officers — said he agreed with those views but is not a “zealous” nationalist. He called himself a “Kemalist,” referring to the secular ideology of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and distancing himself from Erdogan’s Islamist-based policies. But he added: “I don’t get involved in the daily politics of Turkey.”

Gurdeniz joined the Turkish navy in 1972 as a 14-year-old cadet, became an officer seven years later and was promoted to admiral in 2004. He came up with the concept of Blue Homeland while working in the navy’s policy and planning office in 2006, drawing inspiration for the phrase from his late mother, who was a “maritime poet,” he said.

In the interview, Gurdeniz laid out his doctrine’s lineage, a history of grievances stretching back to the Ottoman era that he said showed how Turkey had missed opportunities to exert its maritime claims or been unfairly hemmed in by foreign powers. A turning point, he said, was Turkey’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus and the division of that country between the Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north. Only Turkey recognizes the northern government. “Turkey changed the map,” he said, referring to the invasion as “one of the biggest achievements in military history.” 

In 2011, Gurdeniz was among hundreds who were arrested in a purge of nationalist officers and convicted of plotting to overthrow Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party. He said he promoted his ideas about naval power at his trial and later, as he served 3½ years in prison, in a column he wrote every Sunday for a newspaper affiliated with Vatan, a Turkish nationalist party.

But it was not until after a coup attempt against Erdogan’s government in 2016 that the concept of Blue Homeland really took off, Adar said, as Erdogan formed a political alliance with nationalists and embarked on a more aggressive foreign policy that has seen Turkish armed forces engaged in conflicts from northern Iraq to Libya.

She said Turkey’s ruling circles had concluded after the coup attempt that “Turkey is under threat. The global order is changing. We can’t trust our Western partners. We have to help ourselves.”

It is unclear, however, how long Blue Homeland will remain popular. A recent poll by the Turkish research group Metropoll showed the Turkish public overwhelmingly opposed to a military conflict in the eastern Mediterranean, Adar said. Among Turkey’s ruling elites, a central disagreement has been whether to emphasize diplomacy with Greece or continue to lean on military power. Another point of divergence is Turkey’s relationship with Egypt, with some — including Gurdeniz — arguing Turkey should mend fences with Egypt’s military-backed government, which is an adversary in the current crisis but some view as a natural ally.

Ultimately, the question for Gurdeniz is how to resist adversaries that want to see Turkey “landlocked.”

At stake, he said, is Turkey’s defense, its security, its access to resources and its welfare. “Even happiness,” he said.

Dear Congressman,

The following letter is intended to condemn the missile attack against the peaceful Armenian population of Artsakh that is part of Nagorno Karabakh. On the morning of September 27, the leadership of Azerbaijan launched a missile attack. This is an act of blatant aggression and an act of war that should be condemned by the United States. The civilized world show its solidarity for the population of Artsakh and for the Armenian nation in general. Azerbaijan has engaged in provocative acts and statements recently including a threat to attack a nuclear reactor in Armenia.

Azerbaijan may have genocidal ambitions against the Armenian population of Artsakh. The United States should firmly support all Armenian historical, cultural, religious, and political claims in the region. 
Theodore G. Karakostas  

The following letter is intended to condemn Nic Robertson’s distorted news report that declares, “Greek President provokes Turkey by visiting tiny Island At center of eastern mediterranean dispute.” Since when is it a provocation for a head of state to visit the territory of her own country. Provocations have emanated from the jihadist President of Turkey and his Ministers who have sought to drill for oil in waters that belong to Greece. In addition to challenging international law which recognizes Greek sovereign rights over these territorial waters, Turkey has exploited millions of refugees by attempting to force them over the Greek border. 

The Turkish President over the past three years has made statements demanding a revision of the Treaty of Lausanne which defines the borders of Greece and Turkey. The Turkish President, Turkish cabinet members, and opposition leaders have all put forward territorial claimsover the Dodecanese islands which have been part of modern Greece since 1947 and are populated overwhelmingly by Greeks. In recent days,Turkish extremists who serve as President Erdogan’s political allies have celebrated the anniversary of the Turkish massacres of Greek and Armenian Christians in the old City of Smyrna in 1922.

Verbal threats from Turkish officials have accompanied Turkey’s aggressive actions in Greek territorial waters. Turkish remarks have contained implied threats of genocide as they have warned Greece of the possibility of a repetition of the genocidal horrors experienced by the Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian Christians by Turkish leaders between 1914 and 1923. Remarkable in this news report is the assertion that neither side actually wants war. Anyone familiar with the realities of present day Turkey would not have made such a false and dishonest assertion. 

In addition to threatening Greece, the Turkish leadership has attempted to blackmail Europe by threatening to flood Europe with millions of refugees. The Turkish leadership sees these unfortunate people as nothing more than weapons to be used against any countries that dare to challenge the aggressive and expansionist tendencies of Ankara. CNN and Nic Robertson are morally bankrupt propagandists for daring to criticize the Greek President for visiting the island of Castellorizo. 

The island of Castellorizo and its people have been at the receiving end of Turkish threats and bullying. All Greeks are fully aware of what the fate of the people of the Dodecanese islands would be if the Turkish President were to succeed in conquering these Hellenic islands. The GreekPresident and the whole of the Greek government should be seen as heroic for defending their territory and their citizens from the predatory designs of the Turkish leadership.

 Theodore G. Karakostas 

The news item that this letter has responded to

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/14/europe/kastellorizo-greece-turkey-tensions-intl/index.html

While one can appreciate the need for objectivity in reporting on the events transpiring between Greece and Turkey, the Globe and Mail goes beyond objectivity by failing to appreciate the warning signs that Turkey is embarking on a war of aggression while simultaneously referring to those warning signs. For example, the article mentions that the Turkish President wants a revision of the Treaty of Lausanne and that Ankara is simultaneously threateningto flood Greece and Europe with millions of refugees. The Turkish government is exploiting millions of people for its purposes of promoting its aggressive designs in the Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, any number of these people could be infected with covid-19  and could spread the virus to millions of people throughout Europe. 

Furthermore, Turkish demands to revise the Treaty of Lausanne make quite clear that Turkey has plans to expand at the expense of Greece. The Turkish President has openly expressed the view that the Greek islands belong to Turkey on the basis of their proximity to the coast of Asia Minor. The tone of the article expresses alarm at the prospect of war, but not by the actions of Turkey which are intent on provoking war with Greece and Cyprus. The article further demonstrates its biases by referring to Cyprus and “the northern half claimed by Turkey”. Reference is also made to an “oil route through Cypriot waters.” It is not mentioned that the Republic of Cyprus is an internationally recognized country whose territory in the north is under Turkish occupation and not recognized by any country in the world. 

The Treaty of Lausanne was itself the outcome of Turkish genocide and ethnic cleansing. It was signed a decade after Turkish governments carried out the genocide of millions of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. The Lausanne Treaty whitewashed the ethnic cleansing of well over one million Greeks from their homelands in Asia Minor. Turkish expansionism and aggression knowns no bounds as can be seen by the invasions and ethnic cleansing of Cyprus of its Greek population and its current claim on the Greek islands. The islands of Greece are populated exclusively by Greeks but this makes no difference to the racist and jihadist oriented leadership in Ankara.

Theodore G. Karakostas

Link to the article being responded to

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-a-dispute-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-has-brought-turkey-and-greece/

 This in in response to the Guardian’s September 11 article on Greece and Turkey. The article is seriously distorted and takes  a stance that is much too favorable to the Turkish aggressors. Turkey is attempting to drill for oil in waters that are recognized as  belonging to Greece under international law. The article cites the comments of a Turkish Admiral who favors the overthrow of the Treaty  of Lausanne,  but the Guardian fails to challenge or criticize him. For centuries the Ottoman Empire conquered and ruled over numerous  Christian peoples who were horribly persecuted. Between 1914 and 1923, the decadent Ottomans perpetrated genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks.

 The article attempts to promote false understanding for Turkey by mentioning Prime Minister David Lloyd George. The Turks emerged triumphant in 1922 and escaped punishment for their aforementioned crimes against humanity. Today, Turkish leaders openly covet the Greek islands and  demand the renunciation of the Lausanne Treaty. Turkey is led by a monstrous tyrant who has collaborated with monsters such as the Islamic  State and is attempting to conquer Greece and Cyprus, in addition to supporting the genocidal threats made against Armenia by its allies in  Azerbaijan. 

 Expressing a sympathetic view for Turkey today is not unlike expressing a sympathetic view for Germany in 1938 when Hitler was seeking to  dismember the democratic government of Czeckoslovakia. Turkey is a country that has benefited from the western world’s blindness towards its genocidal history and expansionistic tendencies owing to the perception that Ankara had strategic value. That miscalculation has encouraged  Turkish expansionism and convinced both the present Turkish leadership and its predecessors that it can bully and provoke neighboring countries  such as Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia.

 Turkish leaders are presently boasting that Syrian volunteers will fight on their side in the event of a war with Greece. What is to be said about a  lunatic regime which openly welcomes the support of jihadists and terrorists? In addition to bragging about their support from international terrorists,  Ankara never fails to remind Greece of its genocidal ambitions by praising the 1922 slaughter of Greek and Armenian Christians at Smyrna. The  Guardian also fails to mention that the Turkish leadership is blackmailing Europe by threatening to unleash a wave of millions of refugees into  Europe.
 The Turkish leadership sees these refugees as nothing more than a weapon upon which to threaten and intimidate the whole of European  civilization. Threatening to unleash an army of refugees during the worldwide pandemic which could further spread covid-19 should be seen as  further evidence of the evil and barbaric nature of the Turkish government.

 Theodore G. Karakostas 

Link to the article being responded to

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/11/mediterranean-gas-greece-turkey-dispute-nato

I am not sure what reality Tom Ellis is living in by extending undeserved praise upon the late Richard Holbrooke, “The Absence of Richard Holbrooke” September 8). The settlement regarding the Imia islet in 1996 was not only completely unsatisfactory but compromised Greece’s territorial integrity by forcing Greece to withdraw from a portion of its own territory, no matter how small that territory is. That Mr. Ellis thinks a comparison of Mr. Holbrooke (or any person) to Henry Kissinger is a positive one indicates how completely out of touch with Greek realities that he really is. Outside of  left wing and liberal cliques,there is not a single Greek who has anything positive to say about the infamous Henry Kissinger. 

Kissinger bears moral responsibility for the Turkish invasions of Cyprus during the summer of 1974 and is responsible for the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Turkish forces against the people of Cyprus. Holbrooke himself was responsible for supporting war crimes against 200,000 Orthodox Christian Serbs in the region of Krajinna during the fall of 1995 and supported the neo-Nazi Croatian government of Franjo Tudjman. In 1999, Holbrooke was the architect of the Ramboullet agreement that was presented to Serbia which would have required that country to give up its province in Kosovo and made war inevitable. 

In addition, neither Joe Biden nor the Democratic Party should be considered friends of Greece or Hellenism. Biden served as Vice President in an administration which nearly turned Syria into a failed state and flooded the Greek islands with Syrian refugees. Turkey at the present time is threatening to unleash millions of refugees into Europe. This situation could not exist were it not for the wars that were unleashed by the Bush and Obama administrations against Iraq and Syria. Biden played a huge role in fomenting this refugee problem which has made modern Turkey the terror of Europe much like its Ottoman predecessors in previous centuries.

Actions toward Greece by the Trump administration are uncertain at this point. However, the Trump administration has not bullied Greece into capitulating to Turkey which is exactly what Richard Holbrooke did in 1996 when Greece was forced to withdraw from the islet of Imia. The Trump administration has in many ways formulated a more realistic and sophisticated foreign policy than its immediate predecessors in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. The Trump administration contributed to the defeat (in collaboration with the Russians) of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq which came into existence because of the wars of the Bush and Obama  administrations. 

Finally, Joe Biden is an old man who appears to have mental health issues. The Clinton administration and Obama administration did nothing to help Greece or Cyprus. Certainly, the Trump administration must prove itself to win the support of Greek Americans. In any case, the Trump administration has made changes in American foreign policy and there is at least some hope on the horizon. The Democrats will in all likelihood pursue similar policies pursed by all previous administrations that will continue to support Turkey. The Trump administration has explicitly challenged Islamic extremism as in the case of Islamic state, the very same extremism that is now represented by the rise of the Caliphate of Erdogan’s Turkey.

Theodore G. Karakostas 

Link to article being responded to

https://www.ekathimerini.com/256669/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/the-absence-of-a-richard-holbrooke

Mr. Shipley,
The following is in response to the Bloomberg editorial that “Merkel can calm the conflict” between Greece and Turkey. The editorial advocates appeasement of Turkey by advocating membership for Turkey in the East Mediterranean Gas Forum. Greece happens to be entirely in the right in this conflict and is acting defensively to Turkish acts of aggression and provocation. The Erdogan government has for several years openly called for the eradication of the Treaty of Lausanne which defines the current boundaries between Greece and Turkey. President Erdogan and other Turkish officials and politicians have openly put forward claims to the Dodecanese islands that have been Hellenic since classical times and have belonged to present day Greece since 1947 through the signing of the Treaty of Paris. 

Furthermore, the editorial makes reference to the January 31,1996 crisis between Greece and Turkey which was instigated by the Turkish Government. The islet called “Imia” is a part of Greece without question and is according to Treaty of Paris a part of Greece. Criticism is given to the Trump administration which is unfavorably compared to the Clinton administrations so called “mediation” of 1996. In fact, the Trump administrations policy is an improvement fromthe Clinton administrations. The Clinton administration in effect bullied and pressured Greece into surrendering its own islet and withdrawing the Greek flag from its own territory. Such an agreement may have been to the satisfaction ofthe officials of the Clinton administration but not to Greece which was forced to surrender its own territory to the Turkish aggressors.

Turkey is presently being ruled by a lunatic who used to purchase oil from the Islamic State and permitted Jihadists from Europe to go through Turkey to join the Islamic State when that criminal entity was engaging in genocide against the Yazidi, Shiite, and Christian populations. The Trump administration should be criticized for betraying the Syrian Kurds and appeasing the Turks in Syria. The Trump administrations non intervention in the crisis between Greece and Turkey is oneof its better moments. Unlike the Clinton administration, the Trump administration so far has not bullied Greece into appeasing the mad man of Ankara.

Your editorial also fails to note that Erdogan and his close allies in the neo fascist action Party are praising the the slaughter of Greeks and Armenians in the Christian City of Smyrna in September 1922. Erdogan and others are in effect threateninga resumption of the genocide of 1914 and 1923 that led to the extermination of millions of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. Turkey is an international menace and has no business being invited to join any international organizations. Turkey should be considered an enemy of the civilized world and Greece should be fully backed and supported in defending its territorial integrity against the expansionist and jihadist regime in Ankara.
 

Theodore G. Karakostas 

Link to the Bloomberg article

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-09-07/merkel-can-calm-the-conflict-between-greece-and-turkey

Dear Congressman,
I am writing to express to you as an American of Greek descent that I believe the United States should give maximum support to our democratic allies Greece and Cyprus who are the victims of Turkish aggression and provocations. As is well known at the present time, Turkey is attempting to drill for oil in waters that are according to international law under the jurisdiction of Greece and Cyprus. The Turkish acts of aggression come in the aftermath of public statements made by the Turkish President himself that the Dodecanese islands that are off the coast of Asia Minor and belong to Greece under the Treaty of Paris of 1947 belong to Turkey. Such statements can only be construed as advocating ethnic cleansing and genocide as the population of these islands are overwhelmingly Greek and have not a single Turkish inhabitant residing on them. 

Turkey has publicly condemned the Treaty of Lausanne which defines the present day borders between Greece and Turkey. The Turkish President is a jihadist and a fanatic intent on creating a greater Islamic Turkey at the expense of Greece. It is inconceivable to contemplate that the United States will not support Greece during this crisis. The Turkey of President Recep Teyyip Erdogan is gradually filling the vacuum left by the destruction of the Islamic State (IS). As thatJihadist entity was eradicated, Ankara is now emerging as its successor Jihadist state. The Turkish government has converted old Churches such as the famed Hagia Sophia into Mosques and has held public parades glorifying the Ottoman Empire and Islamic triumphalism. 

Turkey continues to occupy thirty seven percent of the Republic of Cyprus. The greedy Jihadist Republic of Turkey seeks the oil that rightfully belongs to the people of the Republic of Cyprus. Having occupied the north of Cyprus and ethnically cleansed its territories of Greek Cypriots, Ankara is now seeking to seize the oil that belongs to the people of the internationally recognized and democratic Republic of Cyprus. The Turkish President has been adding fuel to the fire through his rhetoric by glorifying the racial extermination of Greek and Armenian Christians that occurred when Turkish forces seized that city from the Greek Army in September 1922. The Turkish President is a disturbed and dangerous individual that must be opposed by the civilized world.

 I respectfully call on you to raise the matter of Turkish aggression against Greece with your colleagues in the House of Representatives and with the President himself. I respectfully ask that you make an appeal to the President to extend full support to the democratic Republics of Greece and Cyprus and to condemn and oppose Turkey. It is my opinion that the United States should terminate all military and other forms of assistance that are being given to the Turkish Jihadist government. The White House and the State Department should be called upon by the House of Representatives to condemn Turkish acts of aggression, to cut off all forms of assistance to Turkey, and to take further necessary diplomatic and political actions to stop Turkish aggression and maintain peace and stability in the region. 

Respectfully,
Theodore G. Karakostas 

The following letter is in response to the August 30 editorial, “There’s a new game of thrones in the mediterranean”. The Times editorial concedes that international law is on the side of Greece, but seemingly advocates the appeasement of Turkey. Furthermore, many of the facts recounted by the editorial make the case for supporting Greece against Turkey as Ankara is very clearly a major threat to international peace and stability. Turkey’s threats to unleash unlimited numbers of refugees into Europe should further the case for supporting Greece in the Mediterranean. The western world has wronged the historical victims of Turkish genocide and aggression including the Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds, and Arabs. America and Europe have a crucial opportunity to correct these injustices and to demonstrate their support for democratic norms and values by supporting democratic Greece and Cyprus against an increasingly authoritarian Turkey.

The Times editorial criticizes the Trump administration for not emulating the previous handling of crises between Greece and Turkey by previous administrations. This argument completely ignores the fact that every previous “resolution” aimed allegedly at defusing conflict between Athens and Ankara resulted in sacrificing Greece and Cyprus to the aggressive designs of Turkey. On January 31, 1996 the Clinton administration forced Greece to remove its flag from an islet that maps and international treaties proved was Greek territory. Such “solutions” were in actual fact nothing more than appeasement. Nothing better demonstrates the moral bankruptcy of the handling of Greek-Turkish conflicts any better than the fact that Turkey maintains its occupation of the northern part of Cyprus almost fifty years after the invasions of that sovereign Republic by Turkish forces. 

The Turkish regime under President Erdogan is an international threat to peace and stability. Greece deserves full support from all governments and alliances that claim to espouse international law and democratic values and norms.

Theodore G. Karakostas 

The link to the article being responded to

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/opinion/turkey-greece-oil-gas.html

The following is in response to the piece by Holger A. Klein in the Turkish conversion of the Savior Church of Chora. As a Greek Orthodox author of three books and various articles I can only say to academics such as Mr. Klein that present criticisms of the Turkish government are too little, too late. The Turkish government in 2013 converted the Church of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond into a Mosque. No one took any notice and no one protested the outrage.

The Turkish authorities proceeded to convert at least two more Church-Museums named Hagia Sophia in Nicea (Iznik) and Adrianople (Edirne) without any protests.As an Orthodox Greek, I made phone calls to the UNESCO offices in New York and sent them emails bringing to their attention the Turkish conversion of the above mentioned Church-Museums and their ultimate goal for the conversion of Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. During the summer of 2014 I visited a UNESCO office in Athens and in March 2015 I visited the UNESCO headquarters in Paris to raise attention to the Turkish plans for the conversion of Hagia Sophia. I was given repeated assurances that UNESCO authorities had been in touch with Turkish officials and had been “assured” by them that Hagia Sophia would be left unmolested.  

One year later during the spring of 2016 Hagia Sophia of Constantinople was used for Muslim prayers. No protests from UNESCO, and certainly no protests from the academic community. Perhaps Mr. Klein can tell me where his voice was over the past seven years as the movement to convert Hagia Sophia was gaining steam? Where were the voices and protests from the academic community? There is no shortage of protests now that the evil deeds have been carried out but where were the protests and the outrages when they would have made a difference?

There are certain inaccuracies in the article by Mr. Klein. Mr. Klein refers to Hagia Sophia as a Mosque. Let us understand that Hagia Sophia of Constantinople and other Hagia Sophia Churches, along with the Church of the Savior at Chora are CHURCHES, not Mosques. Thomas Wittemore of the Byzantine Institute could have referred to them as Mosques because they were in use as such during the period of time he expressed concern about them. However, let it not be forgotten the Christian temples that are falling victim to the predatory government of Turkey are Churches, not Mosques. Mosques do not have images of the incarnate God and savior Jesus Christ, the most Holy Theotokos andMother of God, and the Holy Apostles and fathers of the Church within them. 

Certainly, Christians recognize the importance of these Churches to secular history but the sacred and divine origins of these great Christian temples must not be dismissed or disrespected. Without the Holy Gospel there would be no Hagia Sophia. Hagia Sophia and the Church of Chora can never be Mosques or Museums. Their roots lie with the divinity of the God-Man Jesus Christ who became incarnate in the flesh. Hagia Sophia is a Church and it is highly offensive that the article by Mr. Klein minimized the Christian origins of the Byzantine Churches mentioned in his commentary.

Criticism of the Turkish government even at this late date is welcome. However, the academic community and UNESCO should recognize they made mistakes and waited too long to protest the Turkish aggression against Hagia Sophia.They should also make sure to be historically, culturally, and theologically accurate when discussing these Church-Museums as they were founded as Christian Cathedrals and Churches. Referring to them as Mosques in the context in which Mr. Klein writes does a disservice to Orthodox Christians who are the real guardians of Hagia Sophia and inadvertently strengthens the case of the Turkish government. 

The case against the Erdogan government’s conversion of these Byzantine Churches lies not with the legacy of Mustafa Kemal (the so called “Ataturk) but with those of the Byzantine Emperors of Constantinople such as Saint Justinian who presided over the construction of these miraculous temples for the purpose of worshipping the Triune God. Saint Justinian the Great who presided over the construction of Hagia Sophia is not even mentioned in the article by Mr.Klein while the so called “Ataturk” who was the architect of the genocide of Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek Christians is given undue prominence.

Certainly, the appeal to stop the conversion of Church-Museums into Mosques can be made on the basis of cultural and historical sensitivities, but the theological and spiritual roots of these Churches are the greatest reasons why the Turkish government’s actions should be condemned.

Theodore G. Karakostas

Link to the article being responded to

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/istanbul-s-exceptional-cultural-heritage-must-not-be-lost