Detroit Public TV Airs Groundbreaking Cyprus DocumentaryCommunity Urged to Request PBS Affiliates to Air DocumentaryWASHINGTON, DC—Detroit Public Television, WTVS Channel 56, premiered the one-hour documentary, “Cyprus Still Divided: A U.S. Foreign Policy Failure,” on Mon., Sept. 13, 2010, announced the American Hellenic Institute Foundation. “We appreciate Detroit Public Television for supporting this important and groundbreaking programming that scrutinizes the formulation and the decision-making process of U.S. policy toward Cyprus surrounding the 1974 Turkish invasion,” said Executive Director Nick Larigakis. “We urge the community to contact their PBS affiliates and request they follow Detroit Public Television’s example and air the documentary.” All PBS affiliate stations received the feed for “Cyprus Still Divided” on September 12 and have the ability to air the documentary. “Cyprus Still Divided” reveals the web of domestic politics, the realpolitik of Henry Kissinger, and repeated refusal of successive U.S. presidents to demand that the rule of law and fundamental human rights be upheld in Cyprus. For example, the documentary presents a recently declassified 1974 State Department memorandum that clearly indicts Secretary of State Kissinger, who wrote, “There is no American reason why the Turks should not have one-third of Cyprus.” “Cyprus Still Divided” also looks to the future of the divided island in the context of the ongoing settlement negotiations between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot community that began in September 2008. The documentary says: “By abandoning the rule of law and its principles, the United States had a role in causing the present division of Cyprus. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. can perform a role in reunifying Cyprus.” The documentary was produced by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, George Veras and made possible by solicited financial support through the American Hellenic Institute Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, tax-exempt educational and research organization. The DVD is available for purchase at $24.95 plus $3.50 for shipping and handling from pr@ahiworld.org. To learn how to contact your PBS affiliate to request it to air “Cyprus Still Divided,” please visit https://www.ahiworld.org/action_alerts/090310.html. Excerpts from “Cyprus Still Divided: A U.S. Foreign Policy Failure” Journalist Christopher Hitchens on Kissinger: “It’s difficult to encapsulate the wickedness of Kissinger’s role in a sentence but if you wanted to try for a epigram it would be: ‘To support the Greeks as long as they were fascists and to turn against them only when they were democrats, to support the Turks only when they were aggressors and to end up with a country ruined and partitioned’ which, I have to believe, was, in fact, the objective of the policy in the first place.” Thomas Boyatt, State Department employee who was removed by Kissinger as head of the Cyprus desk operation shortly after the Turkish invasion: “I recommended to Dr. Kissinger that he use his considerable influence to keep the Turkish army in the enclave where they were originally before they drove to both coasts and we, obviously, did not bring enough pressure to achieve that because they did break out of the Kyrenian pocket and their tanks went to both coasts, dividing the island in half.”### For additional information, please contact Demetra Atsaloglou at (202) 785-8430 or at pr@ahiworld.org. For general information about the activities of AHI, please see our website at https://www.ahiworld.org. |
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Detroit Public TV Airs Groundbreaking Cyprus Documentary
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