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.