The Democratic Party is panicking after the Presidential debate Thursday night. Frankly, I find it surprising that so many Democrats and so many in the media were surprised by Joe Biden’s performance. Joe Biden has been suffering from dementia for many years. He looked confused and out of it when he ran for President four years ago.
What is shocking is that it has taken this long for the media and the Democrats to acknowledge Biden’s health issues. In addition to ignoring Biden’s health issues, the media ignored corruption scandals involving Ukraine gas companies and both Biden and his son Hunter. The media wanted the anti war Trump out of office so bad they worked to diminish coverage of the Biden scandals.
Arguably even more scandalous is the attitude of First Lady Jill Biden. This woman should never have allowed her husband to run for President in 202o. That she allowed her husband to run for reelection says much about the dysfunction in the Biden family. Politics and scandals aside, Joe Biden is a sick man and it is not easy watching any person declining and in a very public way as he has.
Trump has now become the inevitable winner of the 2024 elections. Now we will have a President who seeks to end World War three. Trump and his foreign policy advisors have stated they will stop aid to Ukraine if Kiev refuses to sit down and negotiate with the Russians.
Try as they might, the Democrats and the media cannot cover up the fact that Biden is a very sick man. Any effort to remove him as the nominee will not stop Trump. The Democrats should have sought another nominee when they had the chance.
Instead, they embraced Joe Biden and by extension his scandal plagued son. The problems of the Biden’s have just blown up the Democratic Party. In this regard, democracy prevails because the media cover up of Biden’s problems is now fully in the open.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis has reportedly asked Patriarch Bartholomew to remove Archbishop Elpidophoros from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. This is both good and bad.
It is good because the Archbishop is a destructive force within the Greek Archdiocese and in Orthodoxy generally. His removal is undeniably good. It is bad because Mitsotakis does not appear to respect the spiritual role of the Archbishop. The Mitsotakis government has been the most aggressively anti Church government in Athens since that of Costas Simitis.
On the matter of national issues, the Greek government is in the right. The Archbishop in 2021 was present at the opening of Turkish cultural center with Turkish President Erdogan and the leader of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus Ersin Tatar. This outrageous appearance with the Turks alone justifies his removal.
Previous to becoming Archbishop, then Metropolitan Elpidophoros wrote a notorious article comparing the position of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Orthodoxy to the person of the father in the holy trinity. He also denied that the Ecumenical Patriarch is “first among equals” as all Orthodox believe. Instead, he asserted that the Ecumenical Patriarch is “first without equals”.
The Archbishop became a propagandist for Patriarch Bartholomew’s efforts to redefine the role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and was a player in the Schism with Moscow. This is when the Greek government should have interceded in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople. They should have stopped Patriarch Bartholomew from interfering in Ukraine and stopped the election of Elpidophoros as Archbishop in 2019. The Archbishop gave a speech some time ago against the Russians before various officials of American intelligence agencies.
The Archbishop created chaos within the Church of Greece by baptizing the children of a gay couple. He has also received into the Patriarchate’s Slavic Vicariate a defrocked Russian priest, a move all Orthodox Churches in America protested.
He has held for three years in row, divine services at an Episcopal church that celebrates the LGBT agenda and displays the rainbow flag. The Archbishop must go, but there is still a lot of cleaning up to do. The Churches of Greece and Cyprus for example.
The US government has interceded to get the Churches of Greece and Cyprus to recognize the pseudo church in Ukraine. Athens must defend its own sovereignty and the Greek Churches by demanding Washington stop trying to influence the Greek Churches. The Churches of Constantinople and Greece should not be under American influence.
The Archbishop’s removal must be a beginning, not an end to the housecleaning in the Greek Churches.
Turkish officials are renewing traditional criticism of the Ecumenical Patriarchate because of the term “Ecumenical”. Patriarch Bartholomew has been slammed for attending a peace conference in Ukraine. The Turks are reverting to their traditional harassment of the Patriarchate.
This means Patriarch Bartholomew’s alliance with the US government and anti Russian policies have failed miserably. The US has done nothing to protect the Patriarchate. The Patriarchate has also alienated the Orthodox world and has become morally complicit in the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The Patriarchate is in a deep hole spiritually and politically. The way out is for the Patriarch to withdraw his recognition of the fake Church in Ukraine, to restore communion with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and to condemn the persecution of the Ukrainian Church. The Patriarchate needs to be strengthened spiritually and restored as Orthodox if it wants to survive in Constantinople.
Armenia has officially recognized Palestine as a state. This is a brave move coming from an oppressed and long suffering nation that has endured genocide again in the last four years at the hands of Azerbaijan and Turkey. Armenia has given a slap to Israel which has unscrupulously armed and abetted Azerbaijan.
Armenia has longstanding ties with Iran. Only Iran has stood with the Armenians during their plight. Iran and its ally Hezbullah in Lebanon are therefore allies of Eastern Christianity. Eastern Christians should oppose any potential war against Iran and should stand with the Palestinians in Gaza.
The Armenian recognition of Palestine has even more crucial significance considering the attacks on the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem by extreme Israeli fanatics. The Armenians are embattled everywhere from Jerusalem to Artsakh, but they are bravely striking back and expressing support for the Palestinians who are suffering much like the Armenians.
If only Greek leaders had the ability and willingness to fight like the Armenians.
The Lebanese and Iranian affiliated “Hezbullah” is threatening Cyprus since Nicosia may be considering giving support to Israel from its territory. This very bad news and shows that Cyprus like Greece is becoming a satellite of the west. The Mitsotakis government in Athens ruined the traditional good relations that the Greek world had with Iran when it seized an Iranian tanker.
The Mitsotakis government had also bent over backwards to aggravate the Russians. On Ukraine, Athens should have emulated the example of Hungary. Budapest has accepted Ukrainian refugees and provided humanitarian relief while adopting strict neutrality and refusing to get involved. The Mitsotakis government has repeatedly insulted Moscow in a shameless display of currying favor with the west.
Cyprus seems to be following the path of submission to interests that are outright anti Hellenic. Iran and Hezbullah were on the side of Orthodox Christianity when they fought to save the Assad regime in Syria. Iran and Hezbullah fought against the genocidal ISIS and other western funded jihadists who were slaughtering Christians, Yazidis, and Shiite Muslims.
In the recent past, it made sense for Greece and Cyprus to work with Israel against Turkey. The stupidity here is that the government of Cyprus is contemplating working with Israel not against Turkey, but Iran and Hezbullah. It should be remembered that ethnic Greek Orthodox Churches in Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai have survived because of traditional friendships between Greece and the Arab world.
Working with Israel right now is not to the interests of Greece and Cyprus for two reasons. Israel is complicit in full scale genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza. The Hellenic world becomes morally complicit in genocide if it supports the Netanyahu government.
Orthodoxy has become less of a factor in Greek and Cypriot foreign policy. The Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos and other ethnic Greek bishops have condemned the genocide in Gaza. Archbishop Alexy of Gaza (a Greek) heroically declared his willingness to die with the people of Gaza by refusing to leave.
Many Gazans are Christians. Greeks should not be indifferent to their plight. The interests of Christianity and Hellenism in the Middle East necessitate good relations with Iran and Syria. Good relations with Israel matter as well, but the policies of Netanyahu make cooperation between the Hellenic states and Israel impossible.
Will a Greek leader emerge in Greece or Cyprus that is not a western stooge?
Roderick Eaton is one of the finest writers of Greek history. Since the publication of this book, he has published, “The Greeks a Global History” which recounts all of Greek history going back to the classical era. This book goes back to the era preceding the War of independence.
This book is great history and is better than similar books (also good) by Christopher Woodhouse and Richard Clogg. A good deal of the book recounts Greek nationalism and the ideas preceding the uprising of 1821. The contrast between the views of Adamantios Korais and Rigos Pherais are compared.
The book does a great job in recounting the evolution of Greek politics. From the era of the Republicanism vs the Monarchy and the National schism to the Greek Civil War where the Communists filled the vacuum of the fall of Venizelism.
The author brilliantly recounts the national schism during the First World War. He properly describes the dispute between Venizelos and the King as a dispute between the nation vs the state. A very important distinction.
Also, much information is provided regarding dictator Metaxas and the later regime of the Colonels. The book makes clear these were not mass movements but regimes imposed on Greeks from the top.
Alas, these were not nationalist movements. The history in this book is not partisan but exonerates figures such as Venizelos and the great Col Nikolaos Plastiras.
Other historians have tended to misinterpret the legitimacy of Greece’s campaign in Asia Minor. But this book gets it right and even points out how close Greece came to defeating the Turks. At one point Mustafa Kemal almost threw in the towel!
Perhaps the best book available that focuses on the two hundred year history of modern Greece.
The Biden administration has provided Ukraine with weaponry. This is nothing new. What is new is that the administration has approved of Ukraine’s intentions to hit Russia proper. This is exactly what every administration from Truman to Bush senior avoided during the Cold War.
The government of President Putin has said it is now interested in peace talks. America and Europe should engage Russia and should ignore Ukraine’s immature President who seeks to drag the world into the Russo-Ukrainian war. Russia should make territorial concessions while the west should abandon bringing Ukraine into NATO.
The French have spoken of sending troops to Ukraine to fight Russia. During the Second World War, European fascists joined Hitler’s army to fight Russia. Western leaders have lost all sense of reason.
The sanest politician in the western world remains Donald Trump who opposes this war and always opposed bringing Ukraine into NATO. If World War Three can be avoided until next January, the world could survive if Trump wins the Presidential election.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during his campaign rally in Wildwood, N.J., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Bitter realities since the Genocide of the Greek populations of Asia Minor in 1922 and the irreversible pro-Turkish foreign by America, Europe, and NATO lead one to conclude that it it unlikely for the foreseeable future that the so called “democracies” will support Greece and Cyprus over Turkey. President Joe Biden was pro-Greek when he was in the United States Senate but his Presidency has been one of endless appeasement of the Turkish aggressor.
Turkish officials from all political parties have repeatedly put forward claims on the Greek islands.
When Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to condemn Turkish threats against Greece, the NATO chief refused to do so. When Greece appealed to Germany not to sell submarines to Turkey, Berlin ignored Greek appeals. With the rise of anti Russian hysteria over the past decade, western powers have reverted to the Cold War position that led them to overlook Turkish crimes and atrocities. Even further back in 1853 with the outbreak of the Crimean War, anti-Russian sentiment led Great Britain and France to declare war on Russia and to support the Ottoman Empire.
As for the United States foreign policy establishment, Greece has two problems. The Democratic Party and the anti-Trump faction within the Republican Party support traditional pro-war policies that led to the bombing of Serbia, the invasion of Iraq, and the disastrous intervention in Syria. Furthermore, the traditional advocates for Middle Eastern war have promoted anti-Russian sentiment and the expansions of NATO to the Russian border since the American elections of 2016. As Turkey is close to the Middle East and to Russia and Ukraine, Ankara exercises a sinister and unhealthy influence that America and NATO rely upon for the achievement of their perceived aims.
Pro-War and Anti-Russia are inevitably pro-Turkish. It must be remembered that no administration that has made past promises to Greece have ever kept them. The Carter administration lifted the Congressional Arms Embargo on Turkey that Congress imposed after the invasions of Cyprus. The Clinton administration forced Greece to back down and remove the Greek flag when Turkey claimed the Islet of Imia on January 31, 1996. Furthermore, the Clinton administration did nothing when the Grey Wolves, a terrorist group in occupied Cyprus supported by Ankara, murdered Greeks Tasos Isaac and Solomos Solomou.
During the summer of 2020, the New York Times published an op-ed criticizing the Trump administration for interfering in Greek-Turkish matters.
This was when Turkey was threatening the area around the island of Kastellorizo. The Times specifically cited the Clinton administrations fictional ‘mediation’ in the Imia affair as an example to be emulated. The example of the Imia affair obviously did not end well for Greece as the Turks prevailed. Meanwhile, with the Kastellorizo affair, Greece was able to chase a Turkish ship away from the area. The Trump administration’s reluctance to intervene can be seen as a victory for Greece.
When American administrations involve themselves with Greece, they do so by exerting pressure on Greece to back down. This was what happened after the September 1955 pogroms in Constantinople and in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson openly threatened and insulted Greek Ambassador Alexander Matsas. The Trump administration was a rare administration that did not exert pressure on Greece.
In some areas, the Trump administration did bad as when it betrayed the Kurds of Syria and allowed Turkish to occupy parts of Syria. But fixing American foreign policy cannot be done overnight. The Trump administration’s hostility to NATO and its anti-war and friendly stances toward Russia are factors that have the potential to help Greece. American foreign policy has long been pro-Turkish and is not likely to be pro-Greek any time soon.
Therefore, the most promising way over the short term to help Greece and Cyprus is to curb American foreign policy excesses and interventionism.
This means friendlier American ties with Russia are necessary to begin curbing Turkish influence, and ending American wars in the Middle East will certainly help curb dependence on Turkey. Turkey supported ISIS in Syria and Al Quada in Azerbaijan’s genocide against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
For these reasons, this writer is voting for Trump for president.
Theodore G. Karakostas is the author of the books In the Shadow of Hagia Sophia, and With This Sign Conquer.
In “Pulling the Plug on NATO” (March 2024 Chronicles), Prof. Trifkovic writes “NATO went rogue after the collapse of the USSR, and its shaky military alliance.” As an Orthodox Greek, I would argue that NATO went rogue long before the 1990s. Long before NATO proceeded to become an offensive alliance by bombing Serbia and gradually expanding with new members, NATO indulged and supported external acts of aggression such as the Turkish invasions of Cyprus in 1974.
Even before, NATO indulged the ethnic cleansing of the Greek Orthodox population of Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos through terror campaigns including pogroms and forcible mass expulsions. Most recently, NATO refused to intervene when Turkish leaders claiming the islands of Greece threatened to invade. NATO member Turkey recently assisted its ally in Azerbaijan to commit genocide against Christian Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
These are in fact additional reasons why NATO should be abolished. When NATO itself is not committing itself to offensive wars as in Serbia, Turkey is gradually carrying out acts of aggression and crimes against humanity. Exactly the same thing that NATO pretends to oppose elsewhere.
—Theodore Karakostas
Boston, Mass.
Prof. Trifkovic replies:
While I agree entirely with Mr. Karakostas about the culpability of NATO—the United States government, really—in effectively facilitating and condoning Turkey’s crimes against the Greek remnant in Constantinople and against the Cypriot Greeks, I believe that some distinction should be made between the crimes of commission and the crimes of omission.
A boneheaded Pentagon planner or CIA operative could claim more or less persuasively, in 1955 or in 1974, that Turkey was too important to alienate in the broader context of then-ongoing Cold War and the country’s huge geopolitical significance to the Western alliance.
That position would be both morally bankrupt and operationally flawed, of course, but at least it could make some sense in the context of the time.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, on the other hand, NATO has been engaged in outright criminality, aggression and subterfuge, well documented by Chronicles authors including yours truly.
NATO’s passivity over the final solution of the Greek question in Turkey 70 years ago and NATO’s proactive role in fomenting the war in Ukraine are indicative of a similar mindset, but the magnitude of the crime and its global implications are “objectively” different (hat tip to V. I. Lenin).
Controversy in Greece continues over the legalization of gay marriage. At least three bishops have excommunicated politicians who voted to legalize gay marriage. The President of Greece and other politicians have been disinvited from the celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy later this month.
The bishops are within their rights to deny communion to anyone whom they feel should not receive. This is not understood by Greek politicians who reveal how out of touch they really are with Orthodoxy and Hellenism. They are so infatuated with Europe and western culture they have forgotten about Greece’s spiritual and cultural roots.
Syriza leader Kasselakis and his American friend have suggested that a problem with the new law is the fact that it does not address trans rights. So, the Prime Minister has opened up a Pandora’s box which will not so easily be closed. The trans movement with its beliefs in pregnant men and advocacy for mutilating children is going to follow gay marriage.
In fairness, gay people have rights. Hate crimes and discrimination in work or housing should be prosecuted. Individuals, gay or straight should be permitted to leave their propery and health care benefits to whomever they like. But, marriage can never be anything other than a union between man and woman.
Greece has many problems. The rise of organized crime is one problem. The large number of migrants in Greece remains a problem. The biggest problem however are the continued threats of Turkey to invade the islands.
Turkey has established influence in the Russo- Ukrainian war as a mediator. Greece has played no part in a mediation between two Orthodox countries largely because Greek officials are so thoroughly westernized they have a limited knowledge of Orthodoxy. Are they even aware that the Greeks converted Russia and Ukraine to Christianity one thousand years ago?
The Church’s fight here is both spiritual and political. They are fighting first and foremost for the gospel and the faith. Secondly, they are fighting for the sovereignty and independence of Greece against western imperialism. At a time when Greece needs unity, Mitsotakis has divided Greeks.
The passage of the gay marriage law is proving to be disastrous and divisive. Mitsotakis deserves to be removed as Prime Minister. The worst leader Greece has had since Costas Simitis.
