GREEK AMERICAN ORGANIZATIONS' POLICY STATEMENT ON COMPENSATION TO TURKEY'S VICTIMS
WASHINGTON, DC—The American Hellenic Institute founder, Gene Rossides,
announced today that the major Greek American membership organizations
approved the policy statement on "Compensation to Turkey’s Victims" prepared by the American Hellenic Institute. These are: the Order of AHEPA,
the Hellenic American National Council, the Cyprus Federation of
America, the Panepirotic Federation of America, the Pan-Macedonian
Association of
America and the Evrytanian Association of America, the American Hellenic
Council of California and the American Hellenic Institute. The approved
statement on "Compensation to Turkey’s Victims,"which is part of the 2004 Greek American Policy Statements follows:
Compensation
To Turkey's Victims
We cite the compensation paid by the government
of Germany to holocaust victims and to the state of Israel
and the government of Japan
to the victims of its actions in Asia before and during World
War II. We call on the U.S. government to press Turkey
to pay compensation:
- to the victims of Turkey's illegal invasion of Cyprus
of 1974;
- to the owners of property in Cyprus illegally
taken, occupied and used by the Turkish authorities
and individuals
since 1974;
- to the victims of the September 1955 Turkish
pogrom against its Greek citizens in Istanbul;
- to the
victims of the Turkish genocide against the Pontian
(Black Sea) Greeks in the 1920's and
- to the victims of
the Turkish massacre of the Greek and Armenian populations
of Smyrna (now Izmir) in 1922
under Kemal Ataturk's orders.
Turkey, under
threat of expulsion from the Council of Europe, finally complied
with the ruling of
the European Court and paid the judgment of the European Court of
Human Rights which awarded $1.3 million in damages to Titina
Loizidou for
the violation
of her property rights in the occupied area in connection with Turkey’s
illegal invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and its continuing illegal occupation.
It demonstrates
that forceful action regarding Turkey will bring results. We call
for payments to all similarly situated Greek Cypriots and
other owners of property in
the occupied area, including American owners. For the full text of our policy statements click here.
For additional information, please contact
Angeliki Vassiliou at (202) 785-8430 or at angeliki@ahiworld.org. For general information
on AHI, see our Web site at www.ahiworld.org.
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