MY LETTER TO CONGRESSMAN, SENATORS
Theodore G. Karakostas

Hellenic News of America
newsid=9259&lang=US
Nov 7 2008
PA

My name is Theodore G. Karakostas, and I am writing to you as a
constituent. I am a writer with a special interest in Helleno-Byzantine
civilization and culture, and the plight of Greek Orthodox Christians
in Turkey and Turkish occupied Cyprus. To my great dismay, I have
continued to observe unabated continued assistance to/and tolerance
for by Washington, for the continued policies of repression against
the Christian populations in Turkey by the sinister military regime
which continues to project an unnatural influence on that country’s
domestic and foreign policies.

To be more precise, the Turkish military enforces a policy of blatant
racial hatred toward its Christians.

The more notorious acts of violence and terror have been directed
against the Ecumenical Patriarch and his Greek Orthodox flock, the
Armenian Apostolic Church and its Patriarch, but also against Roman
Catholics, and Protestant missionary groups working in Turkey. Most
recently, there was an outstanding book entitled "Paradise Lost"
by historian Giles Milton which was released in the United States
and which told the story of how the murderous Turkish Nationalist
named Mustafa Kemal and his followers slaughtered the native Greek
and Armenian Christian populations of the City of Smyrna.

Mr. Giles also recounts that under Mustafa Kemal’s reign of terror,
the large American community of that City ceased to exist as American
citizens fled for fear of their lives in the midst of the carnage
presided over by Mustafa Kemal. The military leadership of Turkey
is devoted to the cult of Mustafa Kemal and continues to enforce his
hateful ideology against non-Turkish populations. Many great Americans
who remain unfortunately unrecognized for their advocacy on behalf
of tormented Christians in Asia Minor in the dark days of September
1922 include the American Consul General to Smyrna George Horton,
Edward Hale Bierstadt, representative of the Near Eastern Relief
Committee, and various other diplomats and missionaries who served
America with great distinction in attempting to save innocent people
from Turkish nationalists.

News reports that I have followed have confirmed for me that the
Turkish Military is responsible for the present day persecution and
torment of the last remaining Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey. It
is intolerable for me to consider that these policies continue
without the civilized world responding by imposing sanctions on the
Turkish regime, as it rightfully does when minorities elsewhere find
themselves in dire situations. The Turkish Kemalist regime in recent
years failed to support the United States in Iraq in 2003, and Islamic
fundamentalists have fared well in that country’s national elections.

Furthermore, during the spring of 2005, Hitler’s "Mein Kampf" was
a best seller in Turkey, and in 2006, a blatantly anti-Semetic and
anti-American film, "Valley of the Wolves Iraq" was a box office
smash in Turkey. It appears to me as an outraged American citizen
of Hellenic ancestry and Orthodox Christian faith, that the time has
arrived for America to terminate its support for the repressive and
murderous Turkish military regime. For many decades, Turkish atrocities
and crimes have been tolerated in the name of strategic alliances to
the great harm done to the Christian minorities in Turkey who barely
continue to exist in that country.

Former Ambassador to Greece Monteagle Stearns (1981-1985) in his 1992
book, "Entangled Alliances" acknowledged Washington’s mistaken policies
when he criticized the late Secretary of State John Foster Dulles for
his complete failure to condemn or oppose the Turkish government when
it carried out a vicious pogrom against the Greek Orthodox minority in
Turkey. Either democracy and human rights matter or they do not. If
they are to be thrown aside because a particular government that is
repressive, racist, and authoritarian (as Turkey continues to be)
is perceived to be strategically important, then democratic values
for nothing and innocent people are condemned to a merciless fate.

In any case, the Turkish regime has lost the false cover of strategic
importance which its military led government has used through the
influence of the Turkish lobby to subvert moral and humanitarian
values.

The Turkish occupation of Cyprus remains ongoing after thirty four
years and the whole of Cyprus remains hostage to whims and desires of
Ankara should that regime decide that it will extend its aggression
to the whole of Cyprus.

It is my strong belief that Turkey should be held accountable for
atrocities committed by its military against the civilian population
of the Republic of Cyprus. In 1996, the Turkish government openly
supported a terrorist organization known as the Grey Wolves in the
occupied territories of Cyprus where they slaughtered four Greek
Cypriots during a month long period. In 2007, the Bush administration
worked on behalf of the Turkish military regime to overturn a House
Resolution that would have recognized the Armenian Genocide.

Turkey’s ongoing efforts to deny the Armenian Genocide (as well
as Genocides against the Greek and Assyrian Christian populations)
are blatantly racist and reflect the low value which the lives of
the members of all these communities have in the eyes of the Turkish
Kemalist regime

The Ecumenical Patriarch who has been honored by the United States
Congress in recent years is under constant pressure by thugs and
extremists. Between 1993 and 2004, there were four bombings at the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, and in July 2007, several retired Turkish
Army officers were implicated in a plot to assassinate his holiness
Patriarch Bartholomew I. Under the pressure of the military, his
holiness is not permitted to operate the only Greek Orthodox Seminary
in Turkey.

It is in my point of view, time for the United States to begin the
process of exporting the freedom that it has exported to Russia and
Eastern Europe in the post-Communist era to Turkey. This necessitates
that sanctions be considered and imposed on the Turkish military
regime, both as a means of action for all Christian communities
and Turkey, and to force Ankara to comply with international law by
withdrawing its forces from Cyprus. Turkey has refused to comply with
its obligations to protect minority populations and to comply with
international law on Cyprus.

Turkey is a rogue State, and should be treated like one. Therefore,
serious sanctions such as a cutoff of all American assistance should be
adopted. Between 1975 and 1978, there was a Congressional Arms embargo
imposed on Turkey after Ankara invaded Cyprus. Thirty years after
the lifting of that Arms embargo Turkey remains firmly entrenched
in Cyprus. In January of this year, Turkish General Egun Saygun,
Deputy Chief of the Turkish General Staff was hosted by the High
Level Defense Group Meetings and was introduced by General Brent
Scowcroft. The Turkish General made a remark in his speech which
seriously denigrated the Greeks of Turkey and the Ecumenical Patriarch,
the Armenian people, and the Greeks of Cyprus with no apparent protest
emanating from any American officials in the room

I respectfully ask for your careful consideration to ensure that
the destruction of the lives of the innocent in Turkey and Turkish
occupied Cyprus by a rogue military is no longer permitted.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress