The True Religion of the West

"The idea of a strong and robust nation that holds to traditional Christian values is an idea that Western Europe finds repugnant in the extreme. Why? Because such a nation would be an ideological rival and that is something that the current order can’t tolerate."

by Niko Pafras, Pravoslavie — May 5, 2015

I’m not a professional journalist or an expert in international affairs. Fortunately, one doesn’t need to be either to see what is going on in the popular western media these days. 

Living in America I am bombarded on a daily basis with the “expert” opinions on the Ukrainian crisis by a horde of analysts on the nightly news. The recurring theme in these interviews, regardless of political affiliation or news network, is the outrage felt by western leaders at the supposed “aggression” shown by Russia towards Ukraine. 

Conveniently, the aggression of President Poroshenko towards his fellow citizens in eastern Ukraine vis-a-vis the openly neo-Nazi Azov battalion and its ilk, goes almost entirely unreported. Be that as it may, one must ask, what precisely is it in the psyche of western leaders and pundits that makes them foam at the mouth with outrage at the crisis in Ukraine but turn a blind eye when it comes to similar incidents that are conducted by western countries or their allies?

For example, on July 20th, 1974, NATO member Turkey under the leadership of then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit launched the invasion of Cyprus known as “Operation Attila”. What reason did Mr. Ecevit give for this naked aggression and violation of international norms? The prevention of “Enosis”, which is Union with the Greek mainland, and the protection of the Turkish minority from alleged pogroms by Greeks whose population, at the time, made up approximately 77% of the Island. The result of the invasion was the bifurcation of Cyprus into the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and the so-called TRNC or Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus who is only recognized by Turkey. 

On paper, the TRNC is considered by Turkey to be a separate state but in reality, the TRNC is a de facto part of Turkey. In other words, an annexation. Now one would expect, all things being equal, that similar outrage was shown towards Turkey for its illegal invasion and subsequent occupation of northern Cyprus. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where things are not equal. The Western response? Negligible at best. There was no American castigation of Turkey or heavy sanctions. No military build-up of American forces on the Turkish border or heaping of opprobrium by the western media. And interestingly, there were no Hitler-Ecevit comparisons made on a daily basis like there have ubiquitously been throughout the western press since the reunification of Crimea with Russia. No, on the contrary, Turkey cemented its ties with America and Europe and continues to receive billions of dollars worth of military aid through the Truman doctrine.

Unlike the violent invasion of Cyprus by Turkey, which claimed the lives of thousands, Crimea was received into Russia by a free and fair referendum in which an overwhelming majority of Crimean residents chose unification with Russia. The American response to the Turkish invasion was silence. Yet, when it comes to the people of Crimea exercising their democratic rights and their right to self-determination, which America holds as universal right, the response is outrage, sanctions and threats.

How do we explain this response or rather, lack thereof? Interests. Plain and simple. 

Greek Cypriots in Landmark Easter Mass in Turkish-Held North

This report may indicate some cautious optimism.

Pravmir — April 18, 2014

Greek Cypriots have been authorized to hold a Good Friday mass at a church in the Turkish-held town of Famagusta on divided Cyprus for the first time in decades.

Famagusta mayor-in-exile Alexis Galanos said Friday’s landmark service at Saint George Exorinos church will send a message of reconciliation on one of the most important dates in the Greek Orthodox calendar.

It will be the Famagusta church’s first Easter service for almost 60 years, said Galanos who joined forces with Turkish Cypriot mayor Oktay Kayalp to organize the mass expected to draw about 4,000 worshipers.

Turkey’s Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955

Britain’s Role, the U.S. Response and Lessons for Today

MYSTAGOGY — 9/6/2012

Gene Rossides (September 13, 2005)

Greek News

Britain opposed freedom and democracy for Cyprus following World War II and bears the original and primary responsibility for the post-World War II tragedies that have befallen Cyprus. While other colonies were gaining their freedom, Cyprus was told by the British Minister of State for Colonial Affairs Harry Hopkinson, during a House of Commons debate in 1954, that “[t]here can be no question of any change of sovereignty in Cyprus” and that “there are certain territories in the Commonwealth which, owing to their particular circumstances, can never expect to be fully independent.”

Following the Hopkinson “never” statement, Greece decided to bring an application for self-determination to the 1954 UN General Assembly session on behalf of the people of Cyprus. Britain opposed the application. Although Turkey had renounced all rights to Cyprus in the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, Britain claimed that the presence of an eighteen percent Turkish Cypriot minority was an obstacle to a solution. Britain called for a tripartite conference among Britain, Greece and Turkey which was held in London in late August and early September 1955 to discuss the situation in Cyprus. The conference ended in failure. Britain, however, accomplished her objective: greater Turkish involvement in the matter to blunt the Greek Government’s efforts on behalf of self-determination for the people of Cyprus.

Anniversary of Istanbul Pogrom (September 6-7, 1955)

MYSTAGOGY — 9/6/2010

Recent history recalls that during the night of Sept. 6 and into the early morning hours of Sept. 7 enraged mobs descended into the Istanbul neighborhoods where most of the ancient metropolis' ethnic Greeks lived, worked and owned property. The tragic developments that occurred in those fateful hours came to be known as the "Septemvriana" or "Evenings of September" pogrom.

As it turned out, the orchestrated attack on the centuries-old Greek presence in what is now known as Istanbul -- then the glorious Constantinople, the seat of the Byzantine Empire for a millennium -- came a day after a stick of dynamite exploded in the garden of the Turkish consulate of Thessaloniki, a building historically linked with the founder of modern-day Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Several windows of the consulate were broken in what would quickly be uncovered as a staged provocation by Turkey's ruling DP party and its 1950s-era "deep state": the man who placed the stick of dynamite in the courtyard was a Turkish doorman at the consulate, Hasan Mehmetoglu, on orders of a young ethnic Turk college student then studying law at the University of Thessaloniki, Oktay Engin.

The long-planned provocation was timed to coincide with the delicate trilateral talks in London on the fate of Cyprus.

A few broken windows in Thessaloniki led to the ethnic Greek community's "Kristallnacht" in Istanbul 650 kilometers away, as angry mobs of young, mostly working-class, men recruited from the provinces rampaged through the Bosporus metropolis, wrecking everything Greek or Orthodox Christian in their wake, although Armenian and Jewish property were not spared either.

The death toll reached 30, with hundreds injured and thousands of buildings -- shops, residences, cafes, restaurants, factories, clinics, hotels, pharmacies, churches, schools, community centers and even cemeteries -- looted and destroyed.

The Septemvriana pogrom was literally the "beginning of the end" of Hellenism in the ancient metropolis.

Christianity in Peril in Turkish Cyprus

by Michael Curtis at American Thinker - via OCP

Violence against Christians has become all too frequent in recent years, with attacks on them in a wide variety of countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.  Repression and intolerance have been displayed against the Christian community in Nigeria; against the Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt ; by bombing in a chapel in Sulu, Philippines; by bomb arracks against Assyrian Christians in Iraq; by discrimination against them in the Islamic Republic of Iraq; by prosecution under the blasphemy laws in Pakistan and elsewhere.

It was the interruption and disruption by force of the celebration of Christian Mass in the villages of Rizokarpaso and Ayia Triada in northern Cyprus that led the European Parliament in a resolution on January 19, 2011 to comment on the situation of Christians in the context of freedom of religion.  Since the “Arab Spring,” thousands of Christians have fled the countries of the Middle East except Israel.  Christian communities have existed for two thousand years in the Middle East, though they are now declining as a result of low birth rates and emigration caused by discrimination and persecution in most of the Arab and Muslim countries in the area.  The case of northern Cyprus is a recent example of that discrimination and intolerance towards a Christian community.