« Summer 2009 Foreword | Main | Winter 2011-2012 Editorial Foreword »
Fall 2010 Foreword
By AHIF Staff | December 29, 2010
Dear AHI Members and Friends,
As 2010 closes, we are pleased to present the Fall 2010 edition of the AHIF Online Journal. In it you will find thought-provoking articles authored by experts that include Professor Van Coufoudakis, Gregory R. Copley, Dr. Harry Dinella, and Nicholas G. Karambelas, Esq.
The piece by Professor Coufoudakis, rector emeritus at University of Nicosia, Cyprus and dean emeritus of the School of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, is based on the presentation he delivered at the AHIF-sponsored conference on fifty years of Cypriot independence held in Washington, D.C. in October 2010. It is a critical appraisal of Cyprus in its first half century. Coufoudakis highlights both the failures of the past and the considerable achievements of the Cypriot state. He presses his conviction that a future, united Cypriot state, based on the rule of law rather than the rule of armed occupation, is possible but cautions that changes in approach must be adopted. Toward that end he closes with advice that the present generation of Cypriots, Cypriot decision makers, and their supporters around the world may wish to note.
Gregory R. Copley, president of the Washington-based International Strategic Studies Association, writes on the changing strategic situation in the eastern Mediterranean since the end of the Cold War and its implications for the West in general and perhaps for Cyprus in particular. Copley is noted for his ability to not only look down “the strategic block” but around “its corner” and he explains how Cyprus exists in an increasingly dangerous environment or “eye of the storm.” Indeed, Copley believes that the island’s future may be more threatened than ever as a result of the strategic decline of the West and the emerging influence of Iran and Russia in the Mediterranean thru proxy states, that include Syria and Turkey. If he was alive today, Thomas Jefferson might refer to Copley’s assessment as “a fire bell in the night” that the West and Cyprus need to address with a shift of policies in order to contain the flames of a political-military tinder box that has already ignited.
The article by Dr. Harry Dinella, a former US Army Foreign Area Officer for the Balkans, involves an historical view of the World War II Holocaust in Greece and the virtual destruction of Greece’s Jewish communities. The persecution of Jewish Greeks by Germany’s war machine has been a neglected area of study for scholars in and out of Greece. His article provides an overview of Greece’s Jewish communities and offers insights into how the German’s engineered the capture, deportation, and murder of the overwhelming majority of Jewish Greeks during the war.
The final article is by Nicholas G. Karambelas, Esq., a Washington-based attorney and an expert in international law. There is little doubt that part of Turkey’s vision for northern Cyprus is, over time, to establish a new status quo that is accepted, if for no other reason, just because of its enduring nature. Turkey’s Cypriot policy since 1974 is based on its possession and occupation of the northern portion of the island. In this article Karambelas demonstrates clearly that Turkey cannot, despite its best efforts circumnavigate international law and particularly European Union law in matters like EU trade with northern Cyprus, legally a part of the Republic of Cyprus. This fine article is not only for attorneys, but for everyone interested in the fact that the rule of law regarding northern Cyprus does, indeed, extend beyond the Turkish perspective regarding “possession” as “nine-tenths of the law.”
Sincerely,
Gene Rossides
December 2010
Washington, D.C.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
November 11th, 2014 at 11:31 am
.
thanks!!