Policy shift needed from US lobby group

Aleco Haralambides, President of the American Hellenic Institute claims that the biggest problem facing American Greek Lobby groups concerning Greece and Cyprus is indifference (Sunday Mail, August 30).

I would argue that the Greek Lobby in the US is not as well organised or effective as the American Jewish Lobby. Greece and Cyprus lay firmly in the EU and the US has made it perfectly clear it supports Turkey more so on many key issues.

France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark and most EU citizens want a special relationship with Turkey rather than full EU membership.

The US supports Turkey’s EU bid which would demographically destroy Greece and Cyprus, not to mention most EU capitals of the millions of Turks wanting to emigrate there as EU citizens.

France is a permanent UN member and a major player in the international arena, who supports Greece and Cyprus more than Turkey.

Unfortunately the leadership in both countries still thinks that the US is going to solve their problems with Turkey. There needs to be a policy shift and France needs to be upgraded as number one not the US.  

Haralambides also points out that if we see any inaccuracies on Wikipedia to log on and correct them. The first inaccuracy is there are not two million Greeks in America, as he claims. The last three censuses in the US showed less than 1.2 million Greeks.

George K. Georgiou,
Melbourne, Australia

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.