September 22, 1955
ARCHBISHOP SPYRIDON: A day of national protest brought the entire country to a halt yesterday for a full half hour between 11 and 11.30 a.m., to express the nation’s anger at the anti-Greek incidents that have taken place in Turkey. At 11.30 a.m. Archbishop Spyridon of Athens and All Greece, who is in charge of the Panhellenic Committee for Union with Cyprus, spoke on the radio, saying: «(…) The so-called defenders of civilization and freedom have not yet realized where these ideals have been dashed, and in what way they contributed to it, what weapons they provided. And yet, even though the Holy Empire of Russia in the East has never been a defender of Orthodoxy, the barbarians there have never dared to commit such sacrilege. (…) The time will soon come when the small and weak will realize that if they join forces they will be stronger than the large and powerful. Then the slaves will be forced to mete out justice, and put an end to the mockery of human ideals by the merchants who are now contaminating the temple of human civilization.»
