We welcome US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to Athens today, the start of her official visit to Greece, and wish her every success.
As the First Lady of the USA Hillary Clinton has been to Greece several times but this is her first as Secretary of State, and comes at a critical moment in Greece's recent history.
Greece's economic crisis dominates every discussion at the moment but there are several issues which remain of great concern and which need resolution, so we are taking this opportunity to endorse the letter the American Hellenic Institute (AHI) sent to Secretary Clinton prior to her travel to Turkey and Greece, released on July 12, 2011.
The American Hellenic Institute is a Washington based, non-profit Greek American public policy center that works to strengthen relations between the United States and Greece and Cyprus, and within the Greek American community regularly taking significant initiatives to enhance the bilateral relationship.
The letter written by AHI President and COO, Nick Larigakis, raises issues of great concern to the Greek American community (and to the Global Greek Community, we would add) :
issues that exist in southeast Europe and the eastern Mediterranean and which are problematic in the context of the Greek American relationship;
issues which are based within the universally accepted principles of the rule of law and international law, including U.S. laws;
issues which include Turkey's Occupation of Cyprus, the suppression of religious freedom and violation of the minority communities, as well as FYROM's continuing intransigence and irredentism which makes resolution of the name issue a near impossibility...
issues that exist in southeast Europe and the eastern Mediterranean and which are problematic in the context of the Greek American relationship;
issues which are based within the universally accepted principles of the rule of law and international law, including U.S. laws;
issues which include Turkey's Occupation of Cyprus, the suppression of religious freedom and violation of the minority communities, as well as FYROM's continuing intransigence and irredentism which makes resolution of the name issue a near impossibility...
The
first page of AHI's 9 page letter to Secretary Clinton
We were pleased to see that Secretary Clinton's schedule included a visit to the Patriarchate in Istanbul (Constantinople). Photos below are from an independent blog on Hillary Clinton http://secretaryclinton.wordpress.com/
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I
at The Patriarchate, Fanari, July 16, 2011.
REUTERS/Ahmet Dumanli/Anatolian
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