FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Update on the
International effort to prevent subjugation of Greek history to Turkish threats
Highest Priority
To all members, affiliates and friends of the HEC network
Today, HEC (Hellenic Electronic Center www.greece.org ), has received over 2100
electronic signatures on a petition that was activated just three days ago. The
signatures come from Hellenes and philhellenes from all over the world.
The petition is one of many responses to the arbitrary and questionable decision
by the Greek government to remove all references to Greek Genocides in Asia
Minor from a law unanimously passed in 1998.
Specifically, the law decrees the 14th of September of every year as a memorial
day for the Genocides of Greeks in Asia Minor. The law would have received
presidential ascent to a presidential decree, however, the
Greek government acquiesced to Turkish threats and sent the law back to the
committee to remove the articles offensive to the Turkish stratocrats in Ankara.
The legality of the arbitrary decision of the government is first of all
questionable at best and anti-constitutional at worst. Most importantly, it sets
a very dangerous precedent so that hostile regimes, like Turkey, can one day
demand Greece cease commemorating holidays like the 25th of March. This in
essence is a subjugation of Greece's sovereignty to the control and censorship
of a foreign power.
This arbitrary move by the Greek government also imperils the mission of
Diaspora associations that try and promote Hellenism and Greek history abroad.
There is no doubt, historically and legally (UN articles) that Greeks did suffer
Genocide, in the Pontus, in Eastern Thrace and during the ill-fated campaign in
Asia Minor in 1921-22.
In addition to the petition more than 1,000 letters of concern and protest have
been sent to the Greek government with copies to all the members of parliament,
over 200 media affiliates, and His Beatitude Christodoulos.
Organizations like AHEPA, the Federation of Hellenic Associations of New York
and others have taken a lead in decrying this denial of Greek history.
The effort is ongoing until the Greek government allows the President, Mr.
Stephanopoulos, to sign the law into a decree as originally drafted and voted
upon unanimously, without any amendments.
The online petition is at the following URL: http://www.greece.org/genocide/
We urge all organizations and individuals who have not done so, to sign the
petition immediately. Greece cannot be subject to the censorship and the threats
of Ankara regarding its history, the very lifeblood upon which the modern Greek
state morally survives.
The HEC Executive Council
www.greece.org
The Genocide ACTION committee
www.greece.org/genocide