Dear Congressman Lynch.
I am aware that the country is presently preoccupied with the Ukrainian war but as an American of Greek ancestry I wish to make clear my views as a constituent that I stand in total and complete opposition to Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland. It is well known that Victoria Nuland is a neoconservative and a very aggressive “diplomat”. She is also profoundly hostile to Greece and Cyprus both of which are democratic countries with a long history of aligning themselves with the United States. Ms. Nuland is serving as an enforcer for the Biden administration’s efforts to appease the terrorist sponsoring Republic of Turkey.
Turkey has been occupying the Republic of Cyprus since 1974 when its forces invaded and ethnically cleansed the territories it occupied of over 200,000 Greek Cypriots. At the present time, Turkey has been threatening to invade Greece and challenges the status of islands that belong under international treaties to the Hellenic Republic. Turkey is a country run by a jihadist dictator whose regime has sponsored Al Quada affiliates in Syria and has assisted the genocidal Islamic State. Ms. Nuland has visited Greece and Cyprus with the intent of forcing these two countries to include Turkey in an energy deal that they had previously signed with Israel.
The Biden administration deserves censure for preparing to sacrifice Greece and Cyprus who are fighting for their very existence against a much larger and much more powerful Turkey still being aided and abetted by NATO. I wish to remind you of the hypocrisy of the American foreign policy establishment. Two years ago, efforts were made to impeach President Trump on the grounds that he had threatened and bullied Ukrainian President Zelensky. There were a few more details but the heart of the matter was that the former President was accused of and nearly impeached for allegedly bullying a foreign leader.
Being the author of three books and possessing an expertise in Byzantine and modern Greek history, I am acutely aware that Greece has been repeatedly bullied throughout the decades by various American administrations. During the 1950’s, and 1960’s, the United States whitewashed the ethnic cleansing of Greek Orthodox Christians from Constantinople by the Turkish government. In the interests of NATO, Greece was forced to abandon its interests in preserving the ethnic Greek minority residing in Turkey. During the 1960’s, the Johnson administration bullied then Greek Ambassador to Washington Alexander Matsas with the use of language and a tone that was unbecoming for an American President.
Being of Greek ancestry, I concur with the late journalist Christopher Hitchens who denounced former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as a war criminal for his policies which permitted and enabled the Turkish invasions of Cyprus in 1974. All these unhappy memories are recalled as a result of the treacherous anti Hellenic policies being undertaken by the Biden administration under the apparent influence of Victoria Nuland and others who share her extreme views. Greece is a country that fought with the United States in two World Wars, the Cold War, and the Korean War.
Greece and Cyprus do not deserve to be sacrificed in order to appease the jihadist regime in Turkey which has demonstrated repeatedly its staunchly anti American policies by embracing the aforementioned terrorist movements. Washington has also kept
silent as Turkey’s clients in Azerbaijan have massacred and ethnically cleansed Armenian Christians in the territories of Artsakh and elsewhere. It is understandable that the United States wants to concentrate on Ukraine right now, but nothing can justify the sacrifice of Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia in order to appease Erdogan’s Turkey.
Congress must look into the matter of how the energy deal involving Greece, Cyprus, and Israel was terminated and should oppose unconditionally the inclusion of Turkey. Turkey should be targeted for sanctions and treated as a pariah and should not
be appeased.
Theodore Karakostas