July 31, 1956
FREEDOM AND THE WEST: The Athens Journalists’ Union has sent the following response to a letter of appeal from the American Press Union asking their Greek counterparts to take part in a campaign to call for the liberation of inmates of prisons and concentration camps in countries behind the Iron Curtain: «We are forced to protest over the lack of interest shown by American journalists and labor organizations in the problems of the Greek-Cypriot people who, although not behind the Iron Curtain but within the boundaries of the free world, are nevertheless oppressed (by the British colonial authorities) and are deprived of their fundamental rights of freedom and democracy. (…) We further regret that no voices have been raised in protest from the American press over the suppression of human rights of Greeks in Turkey and the destruction of lives and property (in 1955). If we are to demand that the governments behind the Iron Curtain should implement the principles of democracy and freedom, should we not first of all implement them ourselves?»
