Five prominent Greek Americans with a paid editorial published in the “New York Times”, on Tuesday, December 15, 2020, ask the United States to use all available means to prevent the escalation of tensions attempted by Turkey in Mediterranean. In addition they underline that the United States should endorse the position of Greece “in favor of adherence to international law, including the law of the sea, and of improving relations through dialogue, while abstaining from threats of violence, military activity and belligerent rhetoric.”
The advertisement is signed by John A. Catsimatidis, Andrew Liveris, Dennis Mehiel, Michael Psaros, George P. Stamas and is entitled “Turkey And Greece can and must live together”.
“Turkey and Greece can and must live together”, the Greek American leaders write.
Their peoples deserve a peaceful future of economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation as citizens of modern western democracies. That, after all, will be to the benefit of their neighbors and the wider region.”
They start the editorial by pointing out that Turkey has in recent months become a destabilizing factor in a wider area that includes South Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and has begun a series of geopolitical moves that create tension and potential conflict that does not represent the relationships that the Turkish people have with their neighbors and with the rest of the world.
The Turkish moves are happening on multiple fronts: The conversion of the most symbolic representation of the coexistence of Christianity and Islam, the Hagia Sophia, into a mosque, unlawful activity, backed by military force, in the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean, provocative action in Famagusta that violates UN Security Council Resolutions, military involvement in Syria, Libya and Iraq and lately even interference in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
They also say that the attempted destabilization of the wider region is also of great concern to countries like Israel and Egypt and merits urgent US attention.
“Turkey’s aggressive behavior negatively affects and undermines the positive relations and cross-border exchanges between the neighborly peoples of Turkey and Greece, which have enormous potential.”
New York.- By Apostolos Zoupaniotis