Hellenic Electronic Center (HEC)
A Non-Profit Organization Registered in the US
with 38,000 Hellenes as members and 36 Hellenic
associations in the US and abroad
April 25 ,2010
The April 24 article "Obama Cites Devastating Chapter in Armenian Past", accurately criticizes
President Obama for going back on his promise regarding recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
The Obama administration has pursued an active policy of appeasement in foreign policy in general,
but specifically toward the continuing human rights violations in Turkey. President Obama has
disrespected the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox minority in Turkey
through comments he has made and by his failure to meet the Patriarch in a public forum on his
visit to Turkey last year.
It has been very clear about this administration that the status of Christians in Turkey and elsewhere
have very little priority for Obama. Between the period of 1914 and 1923, in addition to the Armenians,
the Turks waged genocide against Greek Orthodox and Assyrian Christians as well. In 1955, the
Turkish government ordered a vicious pogrom against the Greek population of Constantinople, and in
1974 the Turkish military invaded the Republic of Cyprus, bringing about the ethnic cleansing of 200,000
Greek Cypriots.
Turkey to this day is a sponsor of terrorism. In 2007, Turkish Army officers were arrested for planning
the murders of Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. It is surely not
coincidence that Turkey has been targeting the spiritual leadership of two ancient communities that were
decimated in the Genocide of the early twentieth century. Most recently, Prime Minister Erdogan
threatened 100,000 Armenians living in Turkey. The Obama administration's succumbing to Turkish
pressure is despicable.
Theodoros Karakostas
HEC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
