Greece is alienating its diaspora by its lack of any stance on crucial matters
Thank you for your response to the letter by Mr Marinatos on December 2 2004. Unfortunately the author’s views are very widely held here in the USA, especially the concept that Europeans have not defended freedom. To address such a comment to Greeks is especially ludicrous, considering Greece – I am restricting myself to post-World War II – is the only country to have fought and defeated the communists (without US troops, to boot). However, a large part of the blame for such an attitude by my fellow Greek Americans lies with Greek governments. There is no substantial attempt by Greece to cultivate us or other Greeks of the diaspora. The result is that there is no organized response by us to clearly anti-Hellenic actions by our (US) government, such as: 1. Labeling the Greek part of Macedonia as «occupied Macedonian territories.» 2. Helping produce the absurd Annan plan for Cyprus. 3. For that matter, accepting and encouraging the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. The list unfortunately goes on. The saddest part is that Greece has no consistent position on these matters. Although they are vital to Greece, the attitude of governments and parties is to apparently ignore them until an ultimatum is presented. The result is that Greece is damaged and we, sadly, see no point in defending its interests. After all, Greeks do not respect their country or themselves enough to merit any consideration. ANASTASIOS MAVRELLIS, Berryville, Virginia.
