By Demetris TsakasTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – The various Ke-falonian societies in New York,the Ionian Cultural Federation,and the Federation of HellenicSocieties of Greater New Yorkare preparing to help the earth-quake victims in Kefalonia. A se-ries of meetings have been heldand preliminary action has beentaken, including communicationwith Kefalonian authorities andthe establishment of bank ac-counts.

A group of young adults fromthe Cephalonian BrotherhoodYouth have set a goal of$20,000. They and establisheda page on an internet fundrais-ing facility and have alreadyraised $6608.

During a special meeting thatwas held on February 6, theBoard of Directors of theCephalonian Association “Kefa-los,” decided to donate the firstfive thousand dollars, to open aspecial account with Alma Bankand to convene a special generalassembly meeting on Sunday,January 16 at the CephalonianHouse in Astoria where mem-bers will be asked to vote on set-ting aside constitutional limitsto the amount of money thatcan be raised and distributedwithout the approval of a gen-eral assembly.

At the board meeting of theCephalonian Brotherhood onFebruary 11, decisions weremade to 1) open an account atInvestor’s Bank for the KefaloniaEarthquake Relief Fund, 2) todedicate the proceeds from theorganization’s March 22 dinnerdance to the Fund, 3) to orga-nize fundraising events atvenues that will be donated byKefalonian business persons, 4)host telethons, 5) work with thecommunity’s musicians who willdonate their services for afundraising concert.

The Kefalonians, as pointedout to TNH by the president ofAinos, Basil Kokosis, the secre-tary general of Federation ofCephalonian & Ithacian Soci-eties “Odysseus,” Costas Vage-latos , and the general secretaryof the Cephalonian Association

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By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – Christmas andThanksgiving are the toughesttimes for John Kiriakou, who hascompleted his first year at theFederal Correctional Institutionin Loretto in Western Pennsylva-nia. That is when he most feelshis separation from his wife,Heather, and his five children.

On January 25, 2013, Kiri-akou, whose 15-year tenure withthe CIA produced awards andcommendations – he is alsolauded for leading the team thatcaptured al-Qaeda’s Abu Zubay-dah – was sentenced to 30months in prison for admittinghe violated the Intelligence Iden-tities Protection Act.

The New York Times reportedthat he e-mailed “the name of acovert CIA officer to a freelancereporter, who did not publish it,”and noted “Kiriakou is the firstcurrent or former CIA officer tobe convicted of disclosing classi-fied information to a reporter.”

Kiriakou has said in inter-views that he believed the officerhad retired, and during almosttwo hours of conversation withTNH senior writers DemetriosTsakas and Constantine Sirigossaid “I am 100 percent positive”all of it is payback for his publicstatements about waterboardingto ABC News in 2007.

The first thing visitors observeis that despite Kiriakou’s ordealhe is in good spirits.

He is happy his reputation isintact “because people saw thisfor what it was. This was a polit-ical issue, and although this willsound crazy,” he said after sayinghow terribly he missed his family,“I think I would do it all overagain. Somebody had to standup.”

He also said “thank you” tothe people who have helped himin his time of trouble.

“I have always been proud tobe Greek-American, but I havenever been this proud,” he said,about their support. “The entirecommunity has opened its armsand its wallets. People reallycare…I get 40, 50 letters a day.That’s what kept me going.”

Some individuals stand out,however, including journalistMichael Ignatiou and NikosMouyiaris, the founder of theHellenic American LeadershipCouncil (HALC), whom he hasnever met.

“I call my wife every otherday and one day she asked ‘doyou know Nikos Mouyiaris?’” Hesaid he did not. “He is with theCyprus U.S. Chamber of Com-merce and he just sent us a checkfor $5000,” she told him.

Kiriakou said the money paidthe taxes so they could save theirhouse. Mouyiaris then sent an-other $5000, and HALC ran an

First to PubliclyTalk AboutWaterboarding

By Andy DabilisTNH Staff Writer

NICOSIA – Two years after talksto reunify the island dividedsince an unlawful 1974 Turkishinvasion, Cypriot PresidentNicos Anastasiades and hisTurkish counterpart, DervisEroglu met and laid out a blue-print that reportedly calls forTurkish-Cypriot leaders to sharepower, and creation of a bi-zonal federation.

Talks resumed after Anastasi-ades got hardliner Eroglu toagree on a document outliningthe planned federation.

It’s a different approach fromprevious talks, one that Anas-tasiades insisted was necessaryto prevent talks from draggingon without results like so manyearlier rounds of negotiationsover the last four decades.

“Today’s joint statement out-lines the basic principles for asolution,” Anastasiades told re-porters after the meeting.“What’s required now is the vi-sion and determination of theleaders and the people ofCyprus to rebuild trust betweenthem, but also to achieve a set-tlement that leaves no winnersand losers.”

“The leaders expressed theirdetermination to resume struc-tured negotiations in a results-oriented manner,” said Lisa But-tenheim, the resident UnitedNations envoy on the island,reading from a joint statement.

Flanked by the two leaders,the joint statement Buttenheim

Cyprus toBe BizonalFederation,Heads SayAnastasiades,Eroglu Meet,Lay Blueprint

By Theodore Kalmoukos

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Ecu-menical Patriarch Bartholomewintervened in the ongoing con-flicts at the Holy Trinity parishin Salt lake City, UT by directingArchbishop Demetrios of Amer-ica to solve the problem imme-diately.

Bartholomew became con-cerned after reading TNH’s ar-ticle about the violence whichwas erupted at the Prophet EliasChurch on January 19 duringthe Divine Liturgy, between sup-porters of Rev. Michael

Kouremetis and Parish Councilmembers, including PresidentDemetrios Tsagaris. The follow-ing Sunday, services there andat the Holy Trinity were cele-brated with plainclothes policeofficers on hand.

The Salt Lake City parish be-longs to the Ecclesiastical juris-diction of the Metropolis of Den-ver, whose hierarch isMetropolitan Isiah.

The dispute, now in itsfourth year, began with the planto divide the Holy Trinity Cathe-dral parish into two, despite op-position by the majority of the

parishioners.Fr. Mathew Gilbert is the

priest at Holy Trinity, andKouremetis at Prophet Elias,which became a distinct church.Isaiah supported the split intotwo parishes.

The American media haswritten about these issues anddisputes periodically and isplanning to do so again, sourcestell TNH, though not muchabout this is heard from eitherDemetrios or Bartholomew.

On February 5 Demetriossummoned Isaiah to the Arch-diocesan headquarters in New

York telling him of the patri-arch’s disappointment. The mes-sage was clear that the Patriar-chate will not tolerate thedissolvent of any parish in theUnited States.

Demetrios is responsible forthe entire Archdiocese and is ac-countable to the patriarch.

Problems have also arisen inLynn and in Lowell, MA wherethe century-old Day Greek-American School has witheredover the last three years.

On February 6, Tsagaris gave

Patriarch Intervenes in Salt Lake Church Disputes

Sheep graze next to fuel storage tanks in the depressed Peramaarea, on the fringes of Athens' port of Piraeus. For Perama, theships have sailed. Until recently, this working class town at

Athens’ western tip hosted some of the busiest shipyards inGreece. Perama’s unemployment is among the worst in Greece,where the nationwide figure for November was 28 percent.

By Constantinos E. Scaros

Greece, and to a slightlylesser extent Cyprus are foreignpolicy slackers, according to theEuropean Council on ForeignRelations (ECFR).

The ECFR, established in1987, is the first think thankcomprising European-wide mat-ters. Its objective is to generatemeaningful discussion about a“values-based” European for-eign policy.

This year’s annual ECFRscorecard ranked 28 nations interms of being foreign policy“leaders” or “slackers.” Cyprusended up very low and Greecefinished last. The 28 EuropeanUnion (EU) nations, in alpha-betical order, are: Austria, Bel-gium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus,the Czech Republic, Denmark,

Greece LastIn ForeignPolicy Rank

By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – One of the greatmysteries of life, which philoso-phers, mystics and scientiststhrough the ages have pro-claimed, is that simplicity is atthe root of being and the goodlife. That might be why one ofManhattan’s top event planners,Angela Gianopoulos, makes theDalai Lama happy. She says sim-plicity is at the core of all herdesigns.

It is her artistic intuition –and consummate attention todetail – that is at the heart ofher much sought- after abilityto “bring my client’s brands tolife.” And the absence of clutter,material or conceptual, makesGiannopoulos a master of con-veying her clients’ message.

One of the most memorableof her many spectacular events

was one she created for thecharismatic Buddhist leader. Itwas hosted at the studio ofDonna Karan, one of her clients.

“I felt like we transformedthe space - it was like being ona mountain in Tibet. It was mag-ical. Everyone’s senses wereheightened. Marigolds werestrewn and hung throughout thespace and an incredible goldstatue with many arms soared20 feet high, centering the spaceand the experience,” she toldTNH.

The statue, which was do-nated for the evening byRichard Gere, was not of a Bud-dha but the Bodhisattva of Com-passion.

“That was one of my wowmoments,” in a self-made careerwhose rewards transcend itsmonetary compensations. “TheDalai Lama did a prayer for us.He blessed a scarf and presented

it for me.”Gianopoulos also brings

smiles to the leaders of her ownfaith. She is one of the primemovers of the Blue Dream sum-mertime charity gala of theChurch of the Kimisis in theHamptons, where she has ahome and whose pastor is Fa-ther Alexander Karloutsos.

Blue Dream, which with thesubtle and imaginative tweaksGiannopoulos, is famous for,turns Southampton into San-torini, has become one of the“must attend” Greek-Americanevents in New York.

She does not neglect the sec-ular – her office and apartmentare in worldly Manhattan – andshe has done numerous eventsfor Bill Clinton. she pauses andsays: “He has a presence!”

According to its website, her

Events Planner Angela Gianopoulos

AP Photo/thANAssis stAvrAKis

Ex-CIA Officer Kiriakou Tells TNH Jail Sentence is “Payback”

Continued on page 11

Continued on page 10

Continued on page 5

Continued on page 6

Cyprus President Nicos Anas-tasiades during a nationallytelevised news conference.

Kefalonian Groups Unite for Earthquake Relief

Officers and members of the Cephalonian Brotherhood and of its youth organization are seenat their February 11 meeting in Astoria. Also present was Protopresbyter Jerasimos Ballas.

tNh/CostAs Bej

TNH Staff

NEW YORK – 40 Members ofCongress signed a letter to Sec-retary of State John Kerry urginghim to support NATO member-ship for a number of candidateentities, including the Former Yu-goslav Republic of Macedonia(FYROM), despite its continuedintransigence in its dispute withGreece.

The letter was written by Re-publican Congressman MichaelTurner, and the lead Democratsigning it is Congressman ElliotEngel, the Ranking Member ofthe House Foreign Affairs Com-mittee. Engel has traditionallybeen a strong supporter on issuesimportant to the Greek-Americancommunity, especially regardingCyprus.

In the following statement byEngel, he emphasized his com-mitment to the principle ofwidely sharing the benefits ofNATO membership, the require-ment that candidates meet all ofthe alliance’s requirements beingimplicit:

“As we approach the 2014NATO Summit, it is importantthat the United States supportsthe aspirations of those stateswhich seek to integrate with the

40 US Reps:Let FYROMJoin NATO

Continued on page 11Continued on page 14Continued on page 2

AP Photo/Petros KArAdjiAs

Death of A Town

“Kefalos,” Gerasimos Patrikios,are breathlessly monitoringevery tremor in Kefalonia andthe damage caused by the earth-quake in Lixouri and other ar-eas.

Most of them are in constantcommunication with their par-ents and relatives, who despitethe tremors, are facing the situ-ation with great composure.

Patrikios told TNH that theboard decided to proceed withthe opening of a special accountat Alma Bank, so that they could

ask members to make donationsat the general assembly meet-ing.

Shortly after the meeting ofits board, the president and thegeneral secretary of Kefalos,Nick Alysandratos and Patrikios,respectively, sent a letter to thedeputy mayor Vangelis Kekatos,informing him of the decisionsand asking him to propose howto allocate the money they raise.

Mr. Kekatos, who is respon-sible for the departments of Wel-fare and Tourism thanked themand promised that he will soonrespond.

The president of Ainos, BasilKokosis said: "The desire ofCephalonians in the diaspora tohelp is very touching."

Asked about the initiatives ofAinos, he "we are in constantcontact with our compatriotsand local authorities and knowthe real needs of the earthquakevictims." He added that he ispleased with the activities of thegovernment in behalf of theearthquake victims.

Vagelatos said variousfundraising events are beingplanned and they seek to coop-erate with other organizationsto ensure maximum participa-tion and effectiveness.

More initiatives will soon beannounced.

Four young women who aremembers of Cephalonian Broth-erhood Youth also took action.Stacy Thomatos Pristouris,Koula Linardatos, Tracey Stefan-itsis, and Eliana Stefanitsis saidthey established a fund to startcollecting money to send to Ke-falonia and are committed tohelping in any way they can.“We didn't want to sit back andwait for someone else to startit,” Pristouris told TNH.

“We are aiming to surpassour goal of $20,000 and do thebest we can to send as much aswe can to our beautiful Island.We can make one promise andthat is that we will personallysee that every penny is ac-counted for and spent wisely. Afew of us are willing to fly toKefalonia and oversee every dol-lar of our donations. We can as-sure the public that the moneywill go into the right hands.”

Gofundme.com is a websitethat enables any person to raisefunds for any cause. There is a5% service fee. The EarthquakeRelief Fund: Kefalonia, Greececan be accessed at www.go-fundme.com/6n09lg.

COMMUNITY2 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014

By Constantinos E. Scaros

HONOLULU, HI – “The sunnever sets on the British empire”was a phrase most often usedduring the eighteenth and earlynineteenth centuries to describeGreat Britain’s ubiquitous globalreach: namely, that its territoriesspanned the earth so that at anypoint in time, the sun was shin-ing on at least one of them.

The same can be said for theexpanse of Greeks throughoutthe United States, particularlyconfirmed by a visit to the SaintsConstantine and Helen GreekOrthodox Church in Honolulu,HI.

I took a trip to Hawaii adecade ago, when I lectured atan educational conference inHonolulu. Much to my pleasantsurprise, while strolling theneighborhood where my hotelwas situated, I came upon theSs. Constantine and HelenChurch and immediatelythought to myself: “wow, weGreeks really are everywhere!”

I believe it was late in theweek (a Thursday or Friday),and I made time in my scheduleto attend the Sunday morningliturgy.

In that particular instance,my motivations were more cul-tural than religious. Although Iam a relatively-frequent church-goer, I do not attend every Sun-day and do not typically seekout a church to attend when Iam traveling. But in this case,the church was very close to myhotel, I had a good suit with meto wear, and I figured: “Greeksin Hawaii? This, I’ve got to see!”

Mind you, I had already beenin Honolulu for close to a week– I wasn’t about to squander theopportunity to visit there all theway from New York by limitingmy time to a four-day confer-ence – and my surroundings hadembedded themselves into mysenses of sight, sound, smell,and taste, and occupied a greatdeal of my thoughts. What a re-markable contrast, then, it wasto step into that church and hearthe Sunday Liturgy as if I werein any number of other GreekOrthodox Churches in theUnited States!

I appreciated then – as I do

now – the consistency of theGreek Orthodox liturgy, whichallows the faithful to experienceit no matter which particularchurch they visit throughout thecountry, or the world.

And though I never thoughtI’d compare the Greek OrthodoxChurch to McDonald’s, the fol-lowing example seems fitting:during the early part of my Hon-olulu trip, a bunch of my col-leagues and I attended a luau –which is a traditional Hawaiianfeast, replete with music anddancing. The show was magnif-icent, though we couldn’t saythe same about the food. A fewof us – me included – got sick.Before consulting with the hotelconcierge on a list of “safe”restaurants to frequent fromthat point forward, I decidedthat for the moment, I’d satisfymy hunger at that old standby:McDonald’s.

Oh, franchise fast food willkill you slowly if you eat it often,

but I figured for one or twomealtimes, a Big Mac is a BigMac – what you get in Honoluluis what you get in New YorkCity.

And it’s exactly the samewith a Greek Orthodox churchservice, minus a couple of re-gional idiosyncrasies.

For instance, I was amazedat how well-behaved the con-gregants were. No loud talking,no shoving to rush out of thepews and grab the antidoronlike seagulls on the beach chas-ing crumbs.

After moving to Pennsylvaniaa few years ago, I came to theconclusion that Greek-Americanchurchgoers are quite and pa-tient in most places – my home-town New York MetropolitanArea being an obvious excep-tion.

Another notable difference,however, between the Greeks ofHawaii and those I’ve encoun-tered anywhere else in Americaare that many of them will weara dressy Hawaiian shirt (finematerial and understated floral

print – i.e., not the loud, silkyMargaritaville kind) to church!Some of the men and womenalso wore leis – floral wreaths –around their necks.

Watching the priest, fullyadorned in rasa, chanting inGreek to a sea of Hawaiianshirts and leis – the epitome of“Greek Orthodoxy meetsHawaii,” is a sight to behold!

In 1965, then-ArchbishopIakovos performed a DivineLiturgy in Hawaii – which onlyhad been a state for barely overfive years at that point – andwas committed to establishinga church there. By 1968, theChurch had moved into its newhome.

It remains the oldest GreekOrthodox Church in Hawaii –the other, is a Greek OrthodoxMission in Maui. Besides GreekOrthodox Churches, there arealso a small handful of RussianOrthodox Churches on the is-land-state. The Russians, in fact,were the first to establish Or-thodoxy in Hawaii, back in the1800s.

Other Orthodox sects – suchas Serbians, Antiochians and theOrthodox Church of America(OCA) established parishes inHawaii as well.

The parish, under the author-ity of the Metropolis of SanFrancisco, is well-known toGreeks and non-Greeks alike, fa-mous for its annual Greek festi-val near Waikiki Beach.

I strongly recommend to allmy fellow Greeks – if your trav-els bring you to Honolulu, by allmeans do not leave there with-out visiting the Church and, ifpossible, attending the Sundayservice. It is an experience youwill remember a decade later –as I do right now – as if it wereonly yesterday.

As to “why the sun never setson the Greek-American empire,”although the 50 states’ timezones only span five hours, U.S.territories – which includeSamoa and Mariana islands,span virtually the entire 24-hourday. But are there Greeks onthose islands, too? The short an-swer: yes. To be featured in an-other article at another time. Af-ter all, what would an island bewithout Greeks on it?

Sun Never Sets on the Greek-American Empire

ABOvE: the Greek OrthodoxCathedral of Saints Constan-tine and Helen in Honolulu.Some of the men are seenwearing Hawaiian shirts,quite normal for Hawaii’sGreek Orthodox faithful.LEFT: Palm Trees and Prosky-nesis. Saints Constantine andHelen in Honolulu. Unmistak-ably Greek Orthodox, unmis-takably Hawaii.

n THRU MARCH 2WASHINGTON, DC – Heaven onEarth: Art of Byzantium fromGreek Collections will be pre-sented at the National Galleryof Art from Oct. 6 2013-Mar. 2,2014. In the first exhibition de-voted to Byzantine art at theGallery, some 170 rare and im-portant works, drawn exclu-sively from Greek collections,the exhibit will offer a fascinat-ing glimpse of the soul andsplendor of the Byzantine Em-pire. Recognized masterpieces,many never lent before to theUnited States, will be on viewwith newly discovered and pre-viously unpublished objectsfrom recent archaeological ex-cavations in Greece. The exhi-bition is organized by the Hel-lenic Ministry of Education andReligious Affairs, Culture, andSports, Athens, with the collab-oration of the Benaki Museum,Athens, in association with theNational Gallery of Art, Wash-ington, and the J. Paul GettyMuseum, Los Angeles. AfterWashington, the exhibition trav-els to the J. Paul Getty Museum,Los Angeles, where it will be dis-played at the Getty Villa fromApril 9 through August 25,2014.

n FEBRUARY 20ASTORIA – Hellenic Public Ra-dio, Cosmos FM 91.5 WNYEPresents Tsiknopempti WithCosmos FM 91.5, ApokriatikoXephantoma! RSVP now, do notbe left out! Thursday, Feb. 207PM at the Chian Cultural Cen-ter, 44-01 Broadway in Astoria.Traditional Tsiknopempti Feast,Live Greek Music with GregorisMarinakis, Vicky Palma & theMikrokosmos Ensemble. Specialguest appearance by Betty Har-lafti. Valet Parking is available.For more information & RSVP:(718) 204-8900 or cos-mosfm@gaepis.org. Tickets arealso available at the Cosmos FMoffice: 23-18 29th Street in As-toria. Ticket price is $75.

MANHATTAN – The OnassisFoundation cordially invites youto attend a lecture and bookpresentation by Dr. Edith Hall,Professor of Classics at King'sCollege London: “Adventureswith Iphigenia in Tauris: A Cul-tural History of Euripides' BlackSea Tragedy, on Thursday, Feb.20, 2014 at 6:30M at the RubinMuseum of Art 150 West 17thStreet in Manhattan. Receptionto follow. Reservations required.Please call 917-657-9911 week-days only, 9AM-5PM.

n FEBRUARY 22-23PALM DESERT, CA – Be Greekfor a Day (or a weekend!) The18th Anniversary Palm DesertGreek Festival 2014 will takeplace on Saturday and Sunday,February 22nd & 23rd at the St.George Greek Orthodox Churchof the Desert at 74-109 Larreain Palm Desert. For directions,festival hours, and general in-formation, please contact theChurch office at (760) 568-9901.St. George Greek Ortho-dox Church of the Desert 74109Larrea Street, Palm Desert, CA92261 Web: Church websiteSaturday, Feb. 22 and Sun. Feb.23 11AM- 8PM. Contact churchor visit their website(s) to con-firm dates, times, and location.Be Greek for a Day! FestivalHighlights: Live Greek BouzoukiMusic & Traditional GreekDancing. Authentic Greek Food,Appetizers & those heavenlyPastries. Greek Wine, GreekBeer & Greek Coffee. HerculesKids Zone. Souvenir Agora Mar-ket w/ over 20 Unique Vendors.Complimentary Church Toursw/ Byzantine Art & MosaicIconography. Greek Grocery,Book Store and Greek Novelties. Admission: only $3, active USMilitary & kids under 12, alwaysFree The Palm Desert. Greek Fes-tival is a community celebrationof Greek culture - from guidedChurch tours to Byzantine icons;live Greek music and traditionalfolk dancing; souvenirs, ethnicgroceries, and religious items.But, the heart of our festival isthe wonderful homemade Greekfood and pastries created fromgenerational, family recipes. Inany Greek village, the naturalgathering place is the Kafenionor coffeehouse. Here you can sipboth Greek and American cof-fees and iced Frappe as you en-joy the mouth-watering Louk-oumades (honey-sweetenedfritter pastries prepared in frontof you) - all while playing agame of backgammon or Tavli.Greek and American specialtycoffees are also on hand to ac-company the delicious pastriesand deserts at our village Kafe-nion. Try the authentic Greekgrocery to take home a taste ofGreece to your kitchen. TheBakaliko is our answer to the

old-time Greek general store.Here the shelves stocked withimported Greek food and sundryitems direct from Greece, includ-ing specialty ingredients neededfor Greek food and pastry prepa-ration. Opa!

n MARCH 7ASTORIA – CYPRECO Presents:“Lefkara Lace Embroidery” aFree Event for the Entire Familyon Friday, Mar. 7 at 8PM at theStathakion Cultural Center, 22-51 29th St. in Astoria.CYPRECO’s new folk arts pro-gram is dedicated to the LefkaraLace Embroidery, a centuries-oldtraditional craft representativeto the island of Cyprus andmore specifically to the smallmountain village of Lefkara.This unique program will revivethe lace making tradition inLefkara through the screeningof an original documentarywhich highlights and examinesthe historical development ofthis craft, the unique designsand techniques. Featuring alsoan exhibit of Lefkara embroi-deries. Admission is free, how-ever a reservation if preferred.To book your seats call 718-545-1151 or email cypreco@earth-link.net. For more informationvisit cyprecoofamerica.com.

n MARCH 22-23TORONTO, CAN. – The GreekCommunity of Toronto is de-lighted to invite you to theGreek National IndependenceDay Gala, which will take placeon Saturday, Mar. 22 beginningat 6:30PM, at the ParamountConference and Event Centre,22 Rowntree Dairy Road inWoodbridge, Ontario. The Galawill feature dinner, dancing, andentertainment. Tickets are $100for adults, $75 for students, and$50 for children. On the follow-ing day, Sunday, Mar. 23, theGreek Community of Torontowill celebrate Greek Indepen-dence Day with a parade! It be-gins at 1PM at Danforth Avenue(Jones to Broadview), and Pa-rade participants will gather atthe Eastern High School, 16Phin Ave. (Danforth and Dan-lands). For questions and moreinformation about either event,and if you are interested in par-ticipating in either, or both,please call us at: (416) 425-2485 or email us at:info@greekcommunity.org.

n MARCH 27MANHATTAN – The Officers andDirectors of Greek American Pro-fessional Women (AGAPW) cor-dially invite you to our 2014Women’s History Month Celebra-tion Gala and “Greek AmericanWoman of the Year” Award, inhonor this year of AmbassadorEleni Tsakopoulos Koulanakis, onThursday, Mar. 27 7-9PM at theCentury Association PenthouseSuite, 7 West 43rd St. in Man-hattan. There will be a presenta-tion by Ms. Evgenia Soldados,J.D. on “The Historical Contri-butions of Greek AmericanWomen to our Country andCommunity,” and a live perfor-mance by renowned composerof world fusion music and sitaristNana Simopoulos and sopranoFlora Kirou. Reception with wineand hors d’oeuvres. Requestedminimum donation: $100. Stu-dents and seniors $35. Pre-reg-istration is required. Kindly RSVPto www.eventbrite.com/e/wom-ens-history-month-celebration-tickets-10316818883. For fur-ther information, please contactDr. Olga Alexakos at oalex-akos@nyc.rr.com or (917) 405-6833.

n APRIL 16TORONTO, CAN. – The GreekCommunity of Toronto (GCT) ishappy to announce the TorontoRaptors – GCT Member Privi-leges Program. Join us for theRaptors final home game againstthe New York Knicks to close outthe 2013-2014 NBA season, atspecial GCT rates! About theGCT Member Privileges Pro-gram: The GCT Member Privi-leges Program has been de-signed with our members inmind. This exclusive on-line dis-count program offers savingsand discounts from partners inthe Greater Toronto Area andfeatures savings for commonlyused products and services suchas major sporting events, travel,local attractions, computers andmore. Contact us before April 16in order to receive informationabout special rates to othergames, as well as other eventsthrough this special GCT mem-bership rewards program! Formore information or to join thisprogram please contact PeterThemos at peterthemos@greek-community.org Dennis Kosmatosat denniskosmatos@gmail.com.Member Price: $17.00 Non-Member Price: $26.00.

GOINGS ON...

QUESTION OF THE WEEKHow do you feel about Greek Orthodox Churches providing

a live podcast of their Sunday Liturgy services online?Please email your response to

scaros@thenationalherald.com We may publish some responses as Letters to the Editor in

a future issue.

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Continued from page 1

Officers of the Cephalonian Brotherhood at their Feb. 11 meeting,among them was Fr. Gerasimos Ballas and Jerry Stefanitsis.

Kefalonian OrganizationsMobilize for Earthquake

tNh/CostAs Bej

By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – The February 8meeting of the Greek AmericanWriters Association at Manhat-tan’s famous Cornelia Street Caféwas a celebration of the newestissue of the international literarymagazine, Illuminations, and theauthors and poems it featured.

The invitation to the eventhosted by writer Penelope Kara-george, a frequent TNH contrib-utor and the Association’s newdirector, noted that it is a specialissue which “focuses on the real-ity and myths of Greece andGreek-America with contributorsfrom around the globe.”

The journal’s editor MegScott-Copses was a special guest.Along with presenters NicholasAlexiou, Chancellor’s Lecturerwith Department of Sociology atQueens College and lecturer, en-trepreneur and poet BasilRouskas, she was seated on thestage in the subterranean spacethat for years has been a darkbut beloved vessel for some ofNew York’s most original litera-ture and music.

Perhaps in tribute to the lo-cation of long stretches of timesGreek-American spend in them,Alexiou noted “good things comein basements.”

Scott-Copses first shared hermotivations for the issue. Someof them are personal – her hus-band is a pediatrician fromGreece, where she was marriedand baptized her children – oth-ers flow from her love of Hellenicculture.

In her editor’s note she wrotehow she was struck by some-thing George Seferis said: “Thereis no ancient Greece in Greece,”meaning, he continued, that“Greece is a continuousprocess…for us Greece goes onliving.”

For some “Greek is a deadlanguage” and Greek civilizationis found in museum, “but for us,”Seferis said, “it is another story.”

Scott-Copses said “In part, itis this ‘other story’ that I wishedto explore in issue 29.”

Her journey traverses the en-tire Greek world, with experi-ences of “the happening-right-nowness of modern day Greece,”expressed by Greek writers whowould tell her “about Greece andthe Greek Diaspora experience.”

The presenters recited theirown poems from the issue, andsome by other writers. And theyshared some private thoughtsabout their works. WhenRouskas read “Cousin fromAthens Calling” he illustratedhow personal and communaltragedy is the trigger for muchliterature by saying, “Mybrother’s death was a magnet formy writing about loss.”

Alexiou recently published acollection titled ΑΣΤΟΡΙΑ, whosepoems “resonate with a verystrong sense of the rich historyof Greeks living in Astoria.” Hewrites of exile, community andthe Greek identity in Americaand of the delights and tensionof having two homelands.

Guests noted the intimate re-lationship between immigrationand exile, whether voluntary ornot.

Listening to Alexiou read “Onthe Outskirts of Queens, guestssaw the connection between therealities of Greeks strugglingthrough crisis on the peripheryof Europe and Greek-Americans,whom he noted exist “on the pe-riphery of the periphery,” mar-ginalized in both the Greek andAmerican contexts.

Poet, playwright, dramateacher and actress Lili Bitawanted to attend but was un-able, but her work was presentedat the Café. They were aboutgrowing up in Greece. Peoplewere amused, or mused aboutthe meaning for their own lives,of a Greek girl’s “10 command-ments.”

Alexiou said “They takeprecedence over the laws ofMosses,” and when each is pro-claimed – as a child Lili Bita

heard pronouncements through-out the day – there is a preamble:“girls from good families…” orsimply, “good girls..

The first is: never cross theirlegs (bad luck, and especiallybad in church) and number 10is, naturally: 2) keep house.

Bad girls who did not keepthem ended up in “jails, hospi-tals, or worse, houses with redlanterns where devils in humanform tormented their still-livingflesh.” Alexiou paused and said“I wish I could embody her per-forming spirit.”

Scott-Copses read “My nameis Caryatid” which delighted herbecause her husband is fromKaryes. The passionate pieceabout the lone Caryatid that wastorn from the terrified embraceof her sisters by Lord Elgin andexiled to the British Museum.She laments in the closing lines: My sisters no longer comfort me. Night leaves me no star. Here Istand,Beyond pity or hope. My name isCaryatid.

Nick Samaris also hoped toattend, but he is on the road pro-moting his new collection titledAmerican Psalm, World Psalm.The guest heard “In Tharri” and“Bodies of Ascent,” with itspoignant beginning “There arestill places left on this earth toname yourself pilgrim.”

Karageorge recited one of herpoems, “Prisoner of Summer” ofa time on the Lemnos island sheloves when life did not cast herin the role of carefree tourist:“Through the shutter slits, I sur-vey the world like a captive, myview narrow, or am I the enemy,aiming fire?” The poem surveysher inner and exterior landscapeand concludes:Island of exile, of remoteness, ofwindows,Of misfits, of schemers, of eldersWhose hearts burst with goodness,and yet, the whispers,The night talk as I’m leaving andblack eyes are on me.The land of green figs and anxiety,of nervous breakdown,and yet, and yet, the love.

Rouskas’ poems in Illumina-tions included “Revisting GreekLandscapes” and “Greek Island.”

When Alexiou read NeilCarpathios’ “The Only Thing Iever Stole,” knowing and guiltylooks flashed across the dark-ened faces of Greeks and phil-hellenes alike – the poem isabout pilfering pieces of theParthenon.

The guilt was somewhat alle-viated when Alexiou said thatmany of this students at John JayCollege of Criminal Justice haveconfessed to this and when oneman said a relative who workedfor the archaeological servicetold him every season they cartlittle chunks of marble onto thesacred rock for the tourists.

Carpathios’ “My Summerwith Yia Yia,” may have stolenthe show, however, floodingGreek-Americans in the audi-

ences with big fat memories andemotions:She was the first human being I’dmet from another planet.

I was seven.The Association meets at the

Cafe on the second Saturday ofevery second month. Long-timedirector Dean Kostos told Kara-

george he wants to spend moretime writing. She has been think-ing about format changes, likemore “open mics,” and told TNH“I am open to ideas.”

COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014 3

“Illuminations” Literary Journal Featured by Greek American Writers

By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – It is a remarkableyear so far for the Greek-Amer-ican cultural scene in New York.The more cold and snow andice Mother Nature throws at theCity, the more love and beautyand warmth its receives frommother Hellas and the commu-nity’s talented artists.

On February 9 Betty Harlaftiwarmed the hearts and souls of450 people who overflowed themain hall of the Chian CulturalCenter in Astoria with songsfrom their youth – or theirgrandparents’ phonographs.

The concert with the theme,“From Old Athens to New York,”presented by the Orpheus Foun-dation for Greek Music and theArts, was a tribute to MichalisSouyoul, the early 20th centurycomposer from Asia Minorwhose music filled the salons ofthe Greek world and which isexperiencing a revival in Greece.

The event was also a philan-thropic vehicle. Foundation Di-rector Polys Kyriakou told TNHthat 40 percent of the proceedswill be donated to The GreekChildren’s Fund, the CyprusChildren’s Fund and the Athen-ian Fund.

Harlafti entered the stage towarm applause bathed in deepblue light and wearing a light-colored gown.

After a sultry opening num-ber, she welcomed the guestsand then sang “Pame san allote– Let’s go there sometime” withits sweet lyric “si kai ‘go kianvgi I selini – You and me andthe moon if it comes out.”

She began to show her re-markable stylistic range – Har-lafti sings contemporary, folk,opera, and rebetika – with thejazzy opening of Souyoul’s “Pianase si – Who can you be,”which is the title of her recentCD.

There were occasionalpauses in her 30-song programwhen Harlafti provided wel-

come background to some of thepieces. The audience embracedher and she often invited themto sing along.

“I am very touched to be hereto sing to the Diaspora. Even ifyou are far away you are in ourhearts and you are a precious

part of our lives,” she said.A number of songs which

spoke of the trials and tribula-tion of Greece and Cyprus in the20th century evoked expres-sions of patriotism and solidar-ity, including the traditionalCypriot tune, “To giasemi – The

jasmine tree.” Bursts of applause greeted

"Kane Kouragio, Ellada Mou –Have courage, my Greece” withits hopeful lyrics “Yiati to Theleio Theos na Ziseis, Kai Tha Ziseis– Because God Wants You tolive, and You will live.”

The guests were happy notonly hear the songs of theiryouth but to reminisce abouttheir favorite performers. Har-lafti’s dramatic rendering of“Zehra – The song of Liberty”brought the great Sophia Vemboto mind.

Singer Tasos Papaioannou –without his popular guitar –took the stage as Harlafti’s spe-cial musical guest. They bothsang examples of the Archon-torebetika music of the late1940s and 50s that Souyoul pi-oneered.

The well-chosen and enter-taining program created by Kyr-iakou, the concert’s artistic di-rector, included contemporarymusic and a rousing rendition

of “Myrtia –The Myrtle Tree” byMikis Theodorakis and NikosGatsos.

Some song songs touched onthe immigrant experience. Kyri-ako wrote the lyrics for “OlliEhoume Mia Theia Stin Ameriki– We all Have an Aunt in Amer-ica.”

Harlafti was accompanied byGlafkos Kontemeniotis, piano,Megan Gould, violin and man-dolin, Livio Almeida, saxophoneand clarinet, George Kostopou-los, bass and George Maniatis,drums.

Among the evening’s high-lights was a three-minute videomessage from the daughters ofSouyoul expressing their appre-ciation for the Greek diaspora,Harlafti and Orpheus The com-poser died too young at 52 yearsof age and his daughter said “wewill disappear but the music willremain.”

Dancers Irene Zora andDante Polichetti also delightedthe guests with their dancing

onstage, including the famousArgentine tango, “Por unaCabeza” which was sung inSpanish by Harlafti.

The event was just the latestexample of what the communitycan accomplish when in acts inunity. Cooperating organiza-tions, which were thanked byKyriakou, included The ChianFederation, The Cyprus Federa-tion of America, The Dodecane-sian Federation of America, TheIonian Cultural Federation, TheFederation of Cephalonian &Ithacian Societies “Odysseus”,The Arcadian Association ofNew York “Geros tou Morea”,The Pan Macedonian StudiesCenter, The Greek Writers Guildof America, and the Athenians’Society of New York.

Before the final song, Kyri-akou thanked the benefactors“who are always at our side,from the bottom of our heart.”

Cypriot-born Kyriakou, apoet and lyricist, is the Founda-tion’s prime mover. Its goal is topresent Greek music and art ofthe highest quality and drawsupon talented artists fromGreece, Cyprus and the UnitedStates.

Debbie Riga told TNH beforethe start, “I’m looking forwardto discovering a new voicetonight, I love all the old songsbecause my grandmother andaunts used to sing them.”

Zan Zaharoula ManolakosManos loved Harlafti’s perfor-mance: “She is wonderful. Themusicians and the entire showwas fantastic. They gave us a lotof the old Greek Jazz, remindingus of Vembo and all the thingsmy mother has me play on YouTube. And Polys Kyriakou al-ways does a magnificent job.”

The Chian Center was abeautiful setting for the concertbut a number of guests agreedit is time for the community tobuild a serious Hellenic culturalcenter, preferably in Manhattan,with a theater, museum exhibi-tion hall and meeting rooms forits organizations.

Singer Betty Harlafti Dazzles Fans at Astoria’s Chian Cultural Center

The audience embraced Betty Harlafti, who is proud of her rootsin Asia minor and the Peloponnese. The concert, “From OldAthens to New York,” presented by the Orpheus Foundation forGreek music as a tribute to michalis Souyoul, the early 20thcentury composer. Harlafti often invited the guests to sing along.

(L-R) for the Greek American Writers Association: Writer andhost Penelope Karageorge, Basil Rouskas, meg Scott-Copses,editor of Illuminations, and Professor Nicholas Alexiou.

By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

ASTORIA – The Hellenic ReliefFoundation (HRF) filled theStathakion Center with musicand fellowship for its 2nd an-niversary Vasilopita- Boite Nighton January 31.

On January 19, 2012 thegrass roots effort initiated by asmall team of people obtainedits charter from the State of NewYork as a nonprofit organizationand two years later theStathakion overflowed withpeople who wanted to honorand contribute to their efforts.

Decorated with pictures fromthe music scene Greece in the1970s and posters of famed As-toria venues like the BoiteMikrokosmos, the hall was filledwith people reminisced aboutthe past as they enjoyed a de-lightful and meaningful eveningthat raised funds for Greece’sneediest.

Six very long tables, the fulllength of the center’s lower hall– there was simply no room formore, although there was awaiting list – were filled withpeople enjoying the food pre-pared by Peter Zervas and othervolunteers.

The scene reminded theyounger guests of vintage pho-tos New York’s Greek-Americancommunity, when hundredsgathered to celebrate or supportnoble causes like Greek war re-lief.

Board member Stellios Taket-zis estimated that 250 peopleattended and that $10,000 wasraised from tickets and contri-butions from donors.

Grigori Maninakis coordi-nated the program based onsome of the favorites of the mu-sicians. He also delighted his

fans with his warm, rich voicein songs like “Omorfi Poli –Beautiful City.”

Among the singers whojoined Maninakis wereAphrodite Daniel, who presen-tations a beautiful rendition ofthe poignant “Vale Kalo PiatoSto Trapezi – Place a Good Plateon the Table,” Tasos Papaioan-nou, Anna Eliopoulos, YannaKatsageorgi, Alexandra Sk-endrou, Eleni Andreou,EliasMakrynos, Nikitas Tampakis,Elena Toumaras and StavroulaTraitses.

Glafkos Konemetniotisthrilled the guests on piano, asdid Megan Gould on violin andbaglama and Kostas Psarros onbouzouki and guitar.

Among the highlights wereKatsageorgi and Skendrou’sbeautiful duet “Horepsan T' As-pra Poulia - The White BirdsDanced” by Stavros Xarhakos,and Maninakis singing Theodor-kis’ “Strata ti Strata” with NikosGatsos’ shattering lyrics“Fevgoun ta niata san astrapi –Youth passes like a flash of light-ing.”

The evening began withgreetings from Taketzis. He said“I don’t want to call it a cele-bration because it is somethingthat came out of a need.” Hesaid he hopes conditions inGreece will not make such en-deavors necessary for too long.

The Vasilopita was cut by thecoordinator HRF’s volunteers inGreece, Maria Siourdi andawards of Appreciation wherethen given to supportive groupsincluding the Greek AmericanHomeowners Association, theChurch of the ArchangelMichael of Port Washington, In-vestors Bank and Mega Broker-age.

The concert began after brief

video clips of HRF’s recentChristmastime food deliveries.

Dr. Nicholas Mezitis, toldTNH that the Foundation hasbecome acknowledged in thefield of Greek relief both in theGreek-American communityand in Greece among peoplewho have the means to help butwere not confident in the orga-nizations in Greece.

“They found that the way wedo things with transparency, dis-cipline and volunteerism,” at-tractive, he said.

More than 12,000 packageshave been distributed by HRFthroughout Greece totaling 130tons of staple foods and house-

hold necessities. They are nowmaking plans for storage facili-ties in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Mezitis noted that Siourdi,who works with the Founda-tion’s representatives who travelthere, is the point person inGreece. She can call upon a net-work of volunteers and has ac-cess to lists of people in need.

“Our effort has borne fruitover two years. We believe wehave set an example and willdraw in others individuals andgroups. They have worked withgroups such as the Athenians’Society and societies with rootsin Corfu, Nafpaktos, Kalavryta,and Patras.

“Other groups of course maywant to do a similar effort en-tirely independently,” he said,and noted other organizationshave picked up on their modelof transparency and not havingany administrative expenses sothat all the money raised goesto families in need.

“The board of directors cov-ers their own expenses,” Mezitissaid.

Mezitis feels strongly thattheir grass roots approach,avoiding top-heavy structures,is best for this kind of endeavor.“We don’t have presidents andvice presidents. We have a sec-retary who takes minutes at our

meetings and we have a trea-surer. Everyone is assigned tasksand that’s what they do,” hesaid.

In addition to Mezitis andTaketzis the members of theBoard include: Dinos Avlonitis,Stephen E. Ferranti, Georgia Fil-iotis, Dr. Nicholas Mezitis,Demetris Tsatis, Fotis Tsatis,Mary Vasilakou, Philip Vogiat-zoglou-Vogis, John Zervas, andProkopis Zervas.

“We put out the message thatin these times of crisis the peo-ple of Greece are coming to-gether and all the good ele-ments of the Greek charactercome forth – there is a silver lin-ing in each cloud – and we hopewe are able to make a differenceso that the people do not reachextreme situations,” Mezitissaid.

Maninakis told TNH he wasproud of all the musicians, whovolunteered their services, butas always was thrilled to presentsecond and third-generationGreek-Americans.

Dino Rallis said “It was anexceptional night thanks to theorganizers. Everybody on thestage was superb.” The purposewas “to help our people inGreece and I congratulate theHRF and whoever didn’t comemissed out,” he said.

George Alexiou was thrilled.“I didn’t want to leave. It wasso beautiful– congratulations toeveryone,” he said, adding thatthe event showed the peoplehave embraced the HRF’s mis-sion.

“This was a special night. It’ssomething that was missing inthe community but it filled uswith joy and satisfaction. Wewere able enjoy good music andhad the opportunity to help peo-ple in need,” Avlonitis said.

COMMUNITY4 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014

By Constantinos E. Scaros

The practice of “Obama-hug-ging” – i.e., a whole or partialphysical embracing of the pres-ident – has become a politicalliability for Republican gover-nors. NJ Governor ChrisChristie, once widely touted asthe next great Republican hope,was lambasted by the potent un-compromising wing of his partywhen he publicly embracedPresident Obama as they bothsought to help victims of Hurri-cane Sandy in September 2012.But Greek-American CharlieCrist’s problems began long be-fore that – back in 2009, in fact– when as Governor of Floridahe, too, hugged Obama and ac-cepted federal stimulus fundsfrom the then-recently inaugu-rated president. “That simplegesture ended my career as a vi-able Republican politician,”Crist wrote in his new book TheParty’s Over: How the ExtremeRight Hijacked the GOP and IBecame a Democrat, which TNHwill review more extensively ina forthcoming report. Crist, infact, is now running for gover-nor of Florida again, in the 2014

election, this time as a Democ-rat.

The Pennsylvania-born Crist,whose Greek Cypriot father,Charles Sr., shortened the familyname from Cristodoulou, waselected governor of Florida in2006 and served just one term,announcing in advance that hewould not seek reelection butinstead would run for U.S. Sen-ate in 2010. In 2008, he washighly-touted as a possible run-ning mate for Republican Presi-dential Nominee John McCain,because he is “likable andtelegenic,” wrote conservativecolumnist Michael Medved, and“his Greek background andPennsylvania birth might helphim connect with ethnic andblue collar voters in key states.”

But after accepting the stim-ulus money from Obama in2009 – and hugging him on topof it – Crist’s popularity plum-meted, and he was upset in the2010 Senate Primary by TeaParty darling Marco Rubio, whowent on to win the general elec-tion, defeating not only the De-mocrat, Kendrick Meek, but alsoCrist himself, who stayed in therace as an Independent.

That was the first topic po-litical comedian/commentatorBill Maher asked Crist about onMaher’s HBO Show Real Time,on February 7, when Crist wasthe show’s opening guest:“You’re running for governor asa Democrat , you were governoras a Republican, you ran forSenate as an Independent – youlike being in office, you don’tcare how you get there,” Mahersaid with a smile, as the audi-ence laughed. Appreciating thehumor, Crist laughed, too, andsaid: “I like serving.”

Maher then mentioned thatalthough independents outnum-

ber both Democrats and Repub-licans, they cannot seem to getelected. Crist said when you runas an independent, you’re basi-cally on your own – there is noinfrastructure to help and sup-port your campaign. He is en-tirely comfortable with chang-ing from Republican toIndependent to Democrat be-cause “I felt the same way I al-ways had,” he wrote. “I had thesame basic values. I’d neverbeen an ideologue.”

Crist relayed the story behindthe Obama hug. His staff hadtold him that the presidentwould appear in Fort Myers, FLand wanted to know if Cristwould go there to meet him:“Sure, sounds like a great idea,”Crist told them, to which theyreplied “are you sure you wantto do that?” Crist told Maher.“Yeah, why, what’s the matter?”a perplexed Crist replied? “Well,he’s a Democrat,” they quipped.“No kidding,” Crist exclaimed,“but he is the president of theUnited States of America.”

Drawing upon his upbring-ing, Crist said that his parentsraised him (and his three sis-ters) to be respectful of peoplein general, and “particularly ifthe person happens to be thepresident of the United States.”

One of Maher’s constantthemes is that politics and ide-ology aside, many Americans –chiefly, Republican-Americans –simply dislike Obama becauseof the color of his skin. “Do youthink the reaction [to the hug]would have been different if hewas a white Democratic presi-dent?” asked Maher? “That’s agreat question,” Crist replied,and explained how troubled heis that in this day and age somepeople still judge others by theirrace. “It breaks my heart that

that can still exist today, but I’man optimist…and if we can re-member that we’re all Ameri-cans, and we’re all in this to-gether, I think we’ll get to abetter future.”

A few days earlier Crist hadappeared on the Fox NewsChannel’s O’Reilly Factor, thetop-rated prime time politicalTV show in America, hosted byBill’ O’Reilly. Like Maher – whois a social liberal and railsagainst organized religion butshows little sympathy for thetreatment of Muslim jihadists

and generally scoffs at politicalcorrectness – O’Reilly is toocomplex to be pigeonholed intoa neatly-fitting “liberal” or “con-servative” label.

He asked Crist why make theswitch to Democrat whenObama’s popularity is plummet-ing, which, in turn is causingthe nation as a whole to gravi-tate toward Republicans? “Youmay be on the wrong side of his-tory.” Not in Florida, said Crist.

O’Reilly pressed Crist on hischange on abortion: as a Repub-lican he had called for outlaw-ing abortion except in cases ofrape or incest, but now, O’Reillyreminded him, Crist says it’s awoman’s body so it’s her choice.“I’ve always been against abor-tion personally,” Crist says, but“I’m a live and let live kind ofguy.”

Crist spoke on PresidentObama’s behalf at the 2012 De-mocratic National Convention.He had yet to become a Democ-rat at the time, but changed hisparty affiliation shortly there-after. “I didn’t leave the Repub-lican Party, it left me,” Crist said,a play on the words on one ofRepublicans’ most-revered pres-idents, Ronald Reagan: “I didn’tleave the Democratic Party, itleft me” (Reagan had been a De-mocrat much of his life, havingvoted for New Deal PresidentFranklin Roosevelt four times).

Commenting on the otherhighly-exalted Republican,Abraham Lincoln, regarding thestate of the Party today, Cristsaid to Maher, “[Lincoln] mustbe spinning in his grave.” “Heis,” Maher, with deadpan hu-mor, confirmed.

Hellenic Relief Foundation Boite Night Raises Funds, Lifts Many Spirits

There was a waiting list of even more people who wanted to attend the HRF vasilopita- BoiteNight where they enjoyed music and expressed solidarity with the people of Greece.

tNh/CostAs Bej

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Ex-FL Governor Crist: Obama Hug “Ended My Career as a Republican”

Greek-American Charlie Crist had a future in the RepublicanParty that might have carried him all the way to the WhiteHouse. But when he publicly hugged President Obama in 2009,“it ended my career as a Republican,” he said.

Former Florida GovernorCharlie Crist was a Republicanand is now a Democrat. “I did-n’t leave the RepublicanParty,” he says, “it left me.”

COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014 5

By Theodore Kalmoukos

NEW YORK – The Leadership100 Endowment Fund marks its30th Anniversary at its 23rd An-nual Conference, February 13-16 at The Ritz-Carlton Naplesin Naples, FL. Since its begin-nings in 1984 by the late Arch-bishop Iakovos and its Founders,a small group of leading GreekOrthodox laymen, Leadership100 has grown dramatically.Grants now exceed $35.6 mil-lion and its membership, hasreached 925 Greek Orthodoxleaders.

In recognition of the An-niversary, Archbishop Demetrioswill be honored for his extraor-dinary leadership of the GreekOrthodox Archdiocese of Amer-ica and all its ministries and in-stitutions as he marks 15 yearsas archbishop. The Conferencewill highlight the future of phil-anthropy in America and theworld with the presentation ofits Award for Excellence to TheStavros Niarchos Foundation, tobe accepted by Vasili Tsamis,Chief Operating Officer, who

will outline the Foundation’s im-pressive worldwide mission andthe role of philanthropy in theworld economy. The Seleni In-stitute will also be presentedwith the prestigious Award, tobe accepted by Nitzia Logo-thetis, Founder and ExecutiveChair. She will describe the In-stitute’s work in addressingwomen’s health issues and therole of philanthropy and socialchange.

In addition, the Conferencewill receive a report on one ofLeadership 100’s recent grantsby Nicholas J. Furris, Senior Pro-ducer/Director of Greek Ortho-dox Telecommunications (GOT-elecom). The grant toGOTelecom, a National Ministryunder the Department of Com-munications of the Greek Ortho-dox Archdiocese of America,made possible 26 original pro-grams to provide OrthodoxChristians and viewers of otherfaiths with religious educationon the Greek Orthodox faith inAmerica and around the worldby means of a newly-developedGOTelecom TV, and an Inter-

net/cable television channel.The Conference will also in-

clude the traditional Bible Studyand Lecture by Demetrios, thefestive Glendi, the Grand Gala,as well as a special program forchildren chaired by ElaineCotronakis and activities foryoung professionals. As usual,sports and other social activitieswill be available for all confer-ees. Dean Vali & Keffe will pro-vide entertainment.

In keeping with the theme ofthe Conference, “A Vision forthe Future of Orthodoxy andHellenism”, a Business Forum ti-tled “A Vision for the Future ofBusiness” has been scheduled.George S. Tsandikos, the ViceChairman of Leadership 100,who is Managing Director ofRockefeller & Company in NewYork City, will moderate a panelof three of the most prominentmembers of Leadership 100,George D. Behrakis, John Catsi-matidis, and C. Dean Metropou-los, who will examine the futureprospects for business in Amer-ica and in the world as a resultof the economic dislocation of

both the national economy andthe global economy.

Behrakis is a pioneer in thepharmaceutical field and arenowned philanthropist inmedicine and health, higher ed-ucation, and the arts. He hasserved on the Boards and sup-ported numerous medical, edu-cational, cultural, and religiousorganizations, including BostonCollege, Brigham & Women’sHospital, Northeastern Univer-sity, Harvard University, TuftsUniversity Medical School,Johns Hopkins University, theMuseum of Fine Arts in Boston,and the Boston Symphony Or-chestra. He also has served onthe Board of HellenicCollege/Holy Cross School ofTheology and continues to serveon the Executive Committees ofthe Archdiocesan Council andof Leadership 100, as ChairmanEmeritus of the latter.

Catsimatidis is the Chairmanand CEO of the Red AppleGroup, which has holdings in oilrefining, retail petroleum prod-ucts, convenience stores, real es-tate, aviation, and supermar-

kets, with investments in bothmedical and industrial technol-ogy. In 2013, Catsimatidissought the Republican nomina-tion for Mayor of New York City.Starting as a relatively unknownbusinessman, Catsimatidis fin-ished second with 41% of thevote against an establishmentcandidate. Catsimatidis' civicand charitable interests includethe Hellenic Times ScholarshipFoundation, the New York PoliceAthletic League (PAL), the BoyScouts, the Ellis Island AwardsFoundation, the Law Enforce-ment Foundation, and the Juve-nile Diabetes, Alzheimer's andParkinson's Research Founda-tions. He is the co-founder andmajor supporter of the BrooklynTech Alumni Foundation. Hehas served as Vice Chairman ofthe Archdiocesan Council, andsits on the Executive Committeeand Board of Trustees of Lead-ership 100.

C. Dean Metropoulos is cur-rently Chairman and CEO ofMetropoulos & Company, a bou-tique acquisition and manage-ment firm with offices in New

York and Greenwich, Connecti-cut. He has spent the past 25years building, restructuringand growing numerous busi-nesses in the U.S., Mexico andEurope. Many of these weresubsequently taken public orsold to strategic corporations.Metropoulos & Company is verywell known in the private equity,investment banking, and finan-cial community, and is widelyrecognized as the leading invest-ment firm in the consumerspace, having acquired andrepositioned more than 300brands worldwide, and withmore than 78 acquisitions in-volving over $48 billion in in-vested capital. Dean’s sons, Evanand Daren, also principals atMetropoulos & Company, are of-ten credited with many of theunique marketing strategies thathave re-launched and reestab-lished many of the iconic brandsthat the company has built andreinvigorated. A longtime mem-ber of Leadership 100, he wasrecently elected President ofFaith: An Endowment for Ortho-doxy and Hellenism.

The Leadership 100 Endowment Fund Celebrates its 30th AnniversaryArchbishop Demetrios George Behrakis Nitzia Logothetis John Catsimatidis Dean metropoulos Nick Furis

Demetrios a detailed account ofthe Salt Lake events. Archdioce-san Council VP Michael Jaharisand Chancellor Bishop Andoniosof Phasiane were also present.

Upon his return to Salt LakeCity, Tsagaris sent a letter to theparishioners dated February 8,informing them that “PatriarchBartholomew is aware of ourdifficulties and has instructedthe Archbishop to personally in-tercede. Our current dysfunc-tional arrangement betweenlaity and clergy cannot con-tinue.” Tsagaris also wrote that“our Parish Council president,Dimitrios Tsagaris, has just re-turned from New York Citywhere he was the guest of Arch-bishop Demetrios. Many con-cerns regarding our communitywere discussed. We are antici-pating further direction from theArchbishop in the next fewweeks. In the meantime we ex-pect all services and ministriesof the Parish to continue.

“We as your Parish Councilhave been vigorously pursuinga solution to the many issues wehave before our hierarchs. Wecurrently are functioning withthe same Parish Council thatwas ratified by Metropolitan Isa-iah 20 months ago. The newlyelected but unratified ParishCouncil members are participat-ing in our discussions. We cur-rently have an appeal beforeArchbishop Demetrios and theHoly Synod in regards to thestatus of these elected councilmembers and the Parish Assem-bly that elected them. Althoughthe day to day functions of ourchurches are being attended toby our office staff and directorGeorge Kournianos, we nolonger have open communica-tion with our clergy. The ParishCouncil has received numerouscomplaints from parishionersabout the clergy not answeringtheir phones and the lack ofspecified clergy office hours. Allpriests are apparently under di-rection from Metropolitan Isaiahto not participate in mattersconcerning the administrationof the Parish. Despite multipleattempts, in person, via phoneand E-mail, to engage FatherMatthew to participate in Com-munity matters and ParishCouncil meetings he has electednot to attend. (See attached re-quests and response below). At-

tempts to communicate directlywith Metropolitan Isaiah havealso been unsuccessful. We havebeen reassured from the Arch-diocese that this problem willsoon be corrected.

“Metropolitan Isaiah statedto many of our parishioners at-tending the Metropolis basket-ball tournament in Dallas thathe is no longer involved in fa-cilitating a resolution of the cur-rent difficulties facing ourParish. Despite these statements

he has established a fundthrough the Metropolis to raisemoney to maintain FatherMichael’s position. He has con-tinued to encourage separationof our parish The ‘de facto’ sep-aration is now being promotedby a separate account in Denverwhich is diverting stewardshipmonies to a Metropolis account.This account is not sanctionedby the Archdiocese. Manyparishioners are being solicitedto contribute to this account. Weremind you that monies do-nated to this fund are not stew-ardship contributions and donot contribute to maintainingour ministries and facilities. Ourchurches and facilities havemonetary demands beyond justclergy salaries which are not be-ing met at this time throughstewardship. Your Parish Coun-cil is in weekly communicationwith the Archdiocese. Metropol-itan Isaiah has removed himselfas our spiritual leader and wenow await further interventionfrom the Archdiocese.”

Tsagaris declined TNH’s re-quest for comment, saying that“the discussions will remainconfidential for now. His Emi-nence Archbishop Demetrioswill visit the Metropolis of Den-ver immediately after his returnfrom Constantinople where hewill participate in the meetingof the Holy Synod there. We aregoing to have another meetingin Denver and then we will in-form the parish in detail andcertainly I will be most happyto talk to The National Herald.”

Demetrios did not respond toTNH’s request for comment.

OTHER DEvELOPmENTSTNH has learned that from

sources close to the Chancerythat Metropolitan Methodios ofBoston indents to appoint Rev.Mike Kouremetis to the St.Methodios Camp and RetreatCenter in Contoocook, NH.

Methodios had assigned

Kouremetis as presiding priestat St. George parish in Manches-ter, NH where he served for abrief period of time.

Kouremetis’ attempts to beappointed to the St. Nicholasparish in Tarpon Springs, FL andalso in parishes in New Jerseyweren’t successful because therewas resistance by the parish-

ioners.Despite the fact that many

parishioners at Salt Lake feelthat the other priest Fr. MathewGilbert should depart from theparish, his newly-ordained sonChrysostomos has intervenedand stopped his transfer, fornow. Chrysostomos worked atthe Archdiocese and he is a

close associate and friend ofBishop Andonios. He was re-cently appointed priests at theAnnunciation parish in Manhat-tan succeeding ArchimandriteNathaniel Symenonides, whoreplaced Fr. Mark Arey at theOffice of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs if the Archdio-cese.

Patriarch Bartholomew Intervenes in the Salt Lake SituationContinued from page 1

Rev. mathew Gilbert of the Holy Trinity church in Salt LakeCity, where Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has intervened.

Rev. mike Kouremetis of theProphet Elias Church in SaltLake City.

COMMUNITY6 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014

online petition drive that yielded32,000 signatures.

“It was incredible…and thatsupport kept me going,” he said.“You never feel as alone in yourlife as when the FBI comes toyour house and takes you away.”

“I also had a great deal of sup-port from my local AHEPA Chap-ter 438 out of the Church of St.Katherine’s in Falls Church, VA.“These guys really are my broth-ers. Gus Moshos, who is 87 yearsold, focused on helping me likea laser beam. I can’t thank himenough.”

Metropolitan Savas of Pitts-burgh “has been terrific,” he said.“He emails me, prays for my fam-ily, and he will visit me soon.”

Jim Gregorakis, a familyfriend, is a prominent Ahepanand “a faithful visitor andemailer.” Alex Georgiades, a FallsChurch Ahepan and his wholefamily, who are from Cyprus,have been wonderful to me.”Georgiades’ father, the head ofSurgery at the University of Pitts-burgh Medical Center, is creatinga job for Kiriakou for him therewhen he is released.

That may be the best thing ofall. It keeps Kiriakou focused ona brighter future, when he canresume the pursuit of the goodthat drew him to government

service in the first place. “Dr. Georgiades built a hospi-

tal in Cyprus and before my arrestwe were working together tobuild a hospital in Colombia, sowe will pick up where we left off.”

He told TNH “The Catholicshave been fantastic, and ThePeace and Justice Center ofSonoma County, CA gave himthe Peacemaker of the YearAward. The Government Ac-countability project has also beenhelpful.

There were some disappoint-ments. After his arrest he neededto generate political support.Ralph Nader’s family – whom henoted is Greek Orthodox from

Lebanon – told him to get Arch-bishop Demetrios to sign a letterthat prominent Americans wereare circulating asking PresidentObama to commute Kiriakou’ssentence.

Morton Halperin, whodrafted the law under which Kiri-akou was prosecuted and whohas stated that it was not in-tended to be used that way, alsosigned.

Metropolitan Savas signed,and Kiriakou sent the Archdio-cese supporting documentation.He said that Father AlexanderKarloutsos told him the Arch-bishop would ask PresidentObama directly, but as far as Kiri-akou knows, that did not hap-pen.

Father Karloutsos informedTNH that while others may havesaid they would speak to thearchbishop about the president,he did not tell Kiriakou so.Rather, “we did reach out to theproper authorities based oneleemosynary concern for amember of the Church.”

Clearly, Kiriakou’s Hellenicheritage gives him strength. “Iam very proudly 100 percentRhodian,” he said. His grandfa-thers migrated from the islandof Rhodes to Western Pennsyl-vania and worked in the steelmills.

He is the first-born (in 1964)

of Christos and Stella Kiriakou.He was soon followed by hisbrother Emmanuel, who is nowa top music producer in Holly-wood, and his sister, Tina.

FIRST, THE SHOCKAlthough it is not far from

where his family lived, Lorettowas never on Kiriakou’s radar.It’s not where he believed puttinghis life on the line would get him.“I devoted my entire life to thenational security, and I everthought something like thiswould happen. “You are in shockwhen you first get here,” whathappened didn’t hit him untillater.

He has five roommates, in-cluding two child molesters, adrug dealer from Detroit, and theformer Auditor General of Cleve-land, OH.

It’s not the company he haskept throughout his life, expectfor his fifth roommate, a retiredintelligence officer with whomhe worked overseas. They arenow good friends.

Loretto doesn’t have cells, justopen cubicles, six people in each,although they are designed forfour.

He gets up every morning at5:45. Breakfast is at 6 and hegoes back to bed at 6:30. “I sleepuntil 10:30 because there isnothing else to do,” he said – hisfrustration masked by a smile.

After lunch at 11, he answersletter and works on his nextbook. He exercises after dinner,which is at 5PM, and then hangsout with friends.

He reads also reads “Morethan I’ve ever read in my life…People send me books. I’ve prob-ably read 100 books in the lastyear.”

Writing his next book alsogets him through the day.

His editor told him not writeabout prison: “Nobody caresabout what happens to you inprison. It has to be about civilrights and civil liberties, it has tobe about the case and about how

political it was,” Kiriakou wastold.

He said the message will be:“What happened to me couldhappen to anybody… If theywant to get you, they will getyou.”

On the other hand, his col-leagues from Liberty Universitywho visited said he must alsowrite about prison life. The titlehe and his roommate and formercolleague came up with is “Doingtime like a spy, how the CIAtaught us to survive and thrivein prison.”

SOmE CHARGE WILL STICK“They charged me with three

counts of espionage based on alunch I had with the New YorkTimes and ABC News when Isaid torture [including water-boarding] was official U.S. Gov-ernment policy and I thoughtthat it was wrong and unconsti-tutional.” Those charges werethrown out.

The government also droppedcharges pertaining to his book,The Reluctant Spy: My SecretLife in the CIA's War on Terror.

Asked how this has affectedhim as a person and a citizen,he said “I honestly feel that Ihaven’t changed of the years.The government has changed.”

He believes that every presi-dent, no matter what the cam-paign platform “is very quicklyrecruited by the intelligence es-tablishment of this country andbecomes part of the team.

“President Obama cam-paigned in 2008 for increasedtransparency but in fact he hasonly been an extension of theBush Administration. If anything,we have less transparency now.”

Kiriakou said that after hiscomments on waterboarding, afew things happened that henow feels he should have seenas warnings, including harass-ment of his wife, Heather, whothen worked for the CIA. AfterKiriakou’s sentencing, she re-signed under pressure.

After retiring from the CIA,Kiriakou went to the Senate For-eign Relations Committee as asenior investigator. A reportercalled him about allegations thatthe CIA was placing torturers un-der cover in the State Depart-ment, so he sent the agency aletter of inquiry signed by then-Senator (now Secretary of State)John Kerry. After six weeks, theresponse was especially nasty.

Another time a human rightsactivist contacted him regardingthe death of 2000 Taliban fight-ers early in the Afghan War. Thepress at the time called it theDasht-i-Leili massacre and it wasblamed on Afghan forces.

Kiriakou’s source said a wit-ness said that there were twoAmericans present, and the im-plication is that on November 30,2001 they had to be CIA.

After speaking with high offi-cials for several weeks, SenatorKerry told him “Drop it.” Kiri-akou told TNH “I guess I had re-ally angered the CIA…All thesethings, and the next thing I knowI am under arrest.”

THEY CAN’T ImPRISON YOURvOICE

Kiriakou has something to sayabout his fate. He sent two mes-sages to supporters called “Let-ters from Loretto” that each gotone million hits on the Internet.

They were posted on fire-doglake.com, one of the most in-fluential political websites. Laterin the day they were publishedby Esquire, Playboy, the Econo-mist, and GQ. The following dayit was all over the major TV net-works.

“I got called into the warden’soffice and he said ‘you have tostop.’”

Kiriakou’s response was “Ihave a Constitutional right tofreedom of speech and I did notgive up that right when I camethrough these gates.”

When the news about CIA-leaker Edward Snowden went vi-ral, he wrote an open letter toSnowden urging him not tomake the same mistakes that hedid, to say nothing to the FBI.

That got another million hitsand he kept writing. Until Au-gust, when the warden askedhim “What will it take for you tostop writing these letters?” andKiriakou responded “What’s itgoing to take for you to send mehome to my family?” “What doyou want?” the Warden asked:“One year in a halfway house. Iwould leave May 1st,” Kiriakoureplied.

He was told that was impos-sible, and was offered sixmonths, which he turned down.

The warden said he wouldmake the request, but there wasno guarantee, since the decisionsare made in Washington.

Kiriakou was pleased. Hestopped writing and turneddown all press interviews and hewithdrew two complaints he hadmade against staff – he had beenharassed even to the point ofhaving his Greek name made funof. “I will not be treated with dis-

respect. I will not be,” he saidemphatically.

He told TNH “some theguards are very good guys andsome are bullies.” One yelled athim once “Hey – you think you’rea tough guy?” “Sometimes I am,”he said, “sometimes I’m not.”

They counteroffered with anattempt to try for nine monthsinstead of a year, but by Decem-ber told him they could notachieve that, either. “The deal isoff, ” Kiriakou said, and theyreplied: “We hope you won’tstart writing.”

He resumed that day. He still hopes for nine

months, but “if they give me thesix I’ll get out on October 31.And then we will see what lifeholds.”

He plans more books butwould also like to do a radio pro-gram.

There is a lot for him to talkabout on radio, like Afghanistanand drones, and events inGreece.

“I remember waking up and Icould not wait to get to work inthe morning,” he said of his CIAtenure, especially when he wasin Greece from 1998 to 2000,working to break November 17.

He was stunned by the recentescape of that terrorist group’sChristodoulos Xiros. “The guyhas 23 murder convictions…andthey let him go…I understandexhibiting compassion, but youcan’t do that to a sociopath.”

Regarding striking a balancebetween liberty and security, hequoted Benjamin Franklin “’If acountry increases it security inthe pursuit of liberty too much,it will end up with neither’ – Ibelieve that. I believe whistle-blowing is critical to the survivalof the democracy.”

He says the system in place is

not sufficient to protect ourrights.

“Intelligent people can dis-agree on what Snowden did…but the truth of the matter is itexposed government illegalityand crimes against the Americanpeople, and that has to stop.”

In the meantime, he has thesupport of Congressmen likeJames Moran of Virginia andLloyd Doggett of Texas, whohave written the Bureau of Pris-ons. Moran, who has taken aninterest from the start, is nowworking with one of his bosses,a former top CIA official, andthree dozen other Congressmen,governors, and top officials towrite an op-ed in the WashingtonPost saying Kiriakou shouldnever have been prosecuted tobegin with and that he shouldbe released.

LOSSES, KEEPING IN TOUCHKiriakou speaks to his chil-

dren every other day, sometimesevery day. They are allowed just300 minutes phone time permonth – which amounts to only10 minutes a day.

Not only has he lost every-thing, he still owes his attorneys$880,000.

“My family had to move outof our house,” which they thenrented. They moved into a verysmall house a block away.

He sold his possessions oneBay and he cashed out all hisstocks, bonds, and mutual fundsto pay his legal bills and heraised another $50,000 to payhis law firm, Trout Cacheris,which reduced the bill. “They aregood people,” he said.

The sentence caused him tolose his pension, although a pres-idential pardon can restore it.

His family visits once amonth. His oldest child, Chris, isstudying economics at Ohio StateUniversity. Costas is a high schoolsenior. Maximos is 9, Kate (Ka-terina) is 7, and Charlie (Kyri-akos) is 2.

“It’s terrible for them. Maxi-mos prays every single night forJesus to tell them to let me go.”

Asked how he would react ifone of his children wanted towork for the CIA, he took a deepbreath, paused and said, “Younever know. They are indepen-dent people…I would tell themthe same thing I tell my studentsat Liberty University,” he contin-ued, “the only way to change theorganization is from the inside…if that’s what they want to do, Iwould support it.”

If in the future a director ofthe CIA were to acknowledgethat what happened to him wasan injustice and asked him to re-turn to help implement reforms,Kiriakou would say: “Yes. Done.I’ll take it.”

After all is said and done, hesaid “I love the CIA. I’m veryproud of my service there, thethings I did and what I accom-plished.”

ONCE A SPY?Asked how the inmates look

at him, he said “when I first gothere…they thought I was hereto spy on them. But when theMafia took me in – because Ihate the FBI just as much as theydo – people thought ‘he is OK.’”

He agreed that the Mafiosiare the aristocracy of the prison.“They are generally older, andthey are respected as not beingcommon criminals…they won’tgo into your locker and stealyour food when you go to thebathroom. There is a certainhonor to them.”

The bottom rung are the childmolesters. There are 400 ofthem, 30 percent of the popula-tion. “I think they are monsters.Their crimes sicken me…it’s asickness, and they have no ideathat they are sick.”

Over time, he was ap-proached by inmates whoneeded help with things like fil-ing appeals. He did so gladly,without accepting payment. Theonly ones he refuses to help arethe pedophiles.

GREEK mUSIC THERAPYEntertainment is limited. Var-

ious groups dominate the TV,and because of the child moles-ters there is no Internet accessexcept for email. “They let us buyan overpriced MP3 player and Idownloaded songs.” He was alsomoved to buy a little transistorradio and one night when hecould not sleep, he searched forinteresting stations and discov-ered a Greek program inToronto. That night it was allDalaras and the next day he be-gan to download Greek music –Theodorakis, Maria Farantouri,Grigoris Bithikotsis, and more.

He said the Greek music istherapeutic.

TNH’s visit has convinced himto subscribe. “I subscribed to TheNational Herald for years. I missit a lot. I used to read the onlineedition every day.”

HOW TO HELPKiriakou’s main message to

Greek-Americans is a requestthat they contact their Congress-men for help. Everything can befound on firedoglake.com, in-cluding sample letters.

After One Year in Prison, John Kiriakou Focuses on the Future

The injustice felt by John Kiriakou pales in comparison to thepain of being separated from his wife and children. He hopesto be sent to a halfway house near them by November.

Continued from page 1

In a previous life, the building housing the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, inWestern Pennsylvania, where John Kiriakou is imprisoned, was a Catholic monastery.

Kiriakou was the guest of honor at an event in Washington, D.C. January 2013, where hisportrait was unveiled as part of a series on "Americans Who Tell The Truth."

The government droppedcharges regarding to the book,The Reluctant Spy: my SecretLife in the CIA's War on Terror.

TNH Staff

NEW YORK – The Greek-American com-munity is Astoria was shocked to learn ofthe indictment and arrest on February 11of Christos Fasarakis, well-known to thecommunity as a banker, family man, andformer president of the Cretan Association“Omonia.”

Fasarakis, 42, was among seven defen-dants whose charges included narcoticstrafficking, money laundering, andfirearms offenses based, in part, on theirparticipation in a transnational heroin andcocaine trafficking conspiracy involvingthe ‘Ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most pow-erful organized crime syndicates, andmembers of the Gambino and Bonannocrime families in the United States.

Fasarakis himself was charged with onecount of money laundering and one countof money laundering conspiracy. He faces

a maximum sentence of 20 years impris-onment on each charge. He is free on $1million bail.

The charges were announced by LorettaE. Lynch, United States Attorney for theEastern District of New York, and GeorgeVenizelos, Assistant Director in Charge,FBI and New York Field Office.

According to the NY Daily News, "FBIAssistant Director George Venizelos saidthat mob associates do not usually carryout rogue operations of this magnitudeand that the Gambino hierarchy 'probablyknew, but that's part of the ongoing inves-tigation.'"

John Kriaras, also a former Presidentof Omonia was stunned. “He was one ofour best presidents …he has three chil-dren… I can’t believe it.”

Fasarakis Indicted for Money Laundering in Drug Ring

tNh/CostAs Bej

COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014 7

By Steve FrangosTNH Staff Writer

PART 3

CHICAGO- Versatility was thehallmark of the Charissi familyof dancers. By spring 1929, theCharissi family had moved fromAnn Arbor, MI to the LongBeach seashore. Playing up onher French background CalliopeCharissi placed an advertise-ment in the May 19, 1929 edi-tion of Cornell University’s cam-pus newspaper Cornell DailySun under the title ‘Deauville-in-Long-Beach’ which reads:‘Bring the brilliant Deauville at-mosphere to Long Beach (Direc-tion of Mme. Calliope Charissi)Bringing The BrilliantDEAUVILLE Atmosphere ToLong Beach, New York’s MostExclusive Seaside Resort. ABeautiful French Studio-Club-house With Membership OfGirls From Barnard…Michi-gan…Syracuse…N.Y.U….Ten-nessee…Will Cornell Join Too?A Rich Summer Program OfClassic Art And Recreation:DANCING Grecian Classic, In-terpretative, Ballet. French Con-versational, Group, Playlets.Classic Sports Fencing, Archery,Discus Throwing Etc.” TheDeauville spoken of in this ad-vertisement refers to the seasideresort In France of the samename. Known as the “Queen OfNormandy Beaches,” Deauvilleis one of the most prestigiousseaside resorts in all of Europe.Sometime between the earlyspring and late winter of 1929,Calliope Charissi finally estab-lished herself and her familypermanently in New York City.The Parisian School of Dancing,located at 140 West 72nd Street,with Mme. Charissi as Directricebecame their base. What is in-teresting to gleam from the pro-gression of advertisements wefind on the Charissi’s sequenceof schools is the growing diver-sity of their programing. For the72nd street studio we hear:‘Classes in Grecian, Classic, Bal-let, Interpretative, Pantomime,

Character and Oriental Dancesunder personal supervision ofCalliope Charissi. Also specialcourses in modern ballroom, tapand tango… (New York TimesNovember 3, 1929). It is fromthis location that CalliopeCharissi fulfilled her ambitionsas a dynasty.

As with the majority of so-journers the establishment ofthe Charissi family in Americatook considerable time and ef-fort. By 1929, and the foundingof the 72nd Street studio it wassix years since, on November19, 1923, internationally ac-claimed dancer Charissi arrivedat Ellis Island with her ten chil-dren: Ketty, Beatrice, Noel, Nico,Costa, Helen, Andre, Marie,Nenette, and Rita. The collectiveactions of the Charissi family,once they reached North Amer-ica, seems based on the saying,“talent is cheaper than tablesalt. What separates the talentedindividual from the successfulone is a lot of hard work.” Thesheer diversity of dancing stylesthat the Charissi family mas-tered and then taught madethem, overtime, much sought af-ter ‘one-stop’ dance instructors.For the sake of brevity I will onlyoffer vignettes on three of Cal-liope Charissi’s children: Ketty,Nico, and Nenette.

Charissi did not fade awaybut remained active as per-former, teacher and public fig-ure until her death. One suchexample would be her perfor-mance on March 30, 1930, atthe Sixty-ninth Regiment Ar-mory in New York City where“several thousand Greek resi-dents of Greater New York at-tended (an evening) centennialcelebration of the independenceof modern Greece…Fifty-sixGreek societies were repre-sented at the celebration, whichincluded a pageant interpretingthe Greek national anthem, or‘Hymn to Liberty,’ given by or-phan girls from the Greek-Amer-ican Institute in the Bronx, un-der the leadership of Mme.Calliope Charissi, Greek actressand mother of eleven children

(New York Times March 31,1930).” Calliope Charissi fameddancer, mother and intrepidspirit died on September 6,1946 in Manhattan. At the timeof her death Mme. Charissi’sobituary notice in BillboardMagazine noted that she was“survived by eleven children, all

dancers.” Kathryn, known as Ketty to

her family, was the oldestCharissi child to come to NorthAmerica had danced with herfamily in Europe and NorthAfrica in the early 1920s beforecoming to North America whereshe continued to dance with her

family on the vaudeville stage.In 1926, Kathryn married

Russian-born Count StephenTshemensky. Kathryn onceclaimed Tshemensky a cousin tothe queen of Serbia, who was atalented pianist also possessed“a voice like Caruso.” Kathrynmet Tshemensky in Detroit,while he was a private secretaryto Henry Ford. The young Russ-ian was hired partly because ofhis fluency in German, French,Serbian, Greek, Romanian,Russian, and English. Kathrynlater explained, "I took as myprofessional name the Frenchversion of his first name, be-cause there were enough danc-ing Charisse’s already."

Kathryn Charissi Tshemen-sky, now known professionallyas Madame Etienne, opened adance studio in Detroit, whichsoon had the capacity to field400 chorus girls to acts aroundthe country.

With the Detroit race riots of1943, Etienne and Tshemenskyleft Detroit. Etienne’s studio waswithin blocks of the worst riot-ing. The Detroit rioting brokeout in June 1943, and lasted forthree days before federal troopsregained control. The rioting be-gan on Belle Isle on June 20,1943, and continued until June22, killing 34, wounding 433,and destroying property valuedat $2 million. Etienne and herhusband simply picked up andmoved leaving behind, cos-tumes, properties and literallyeverything.

In 1943, Etienne and Tshe-mensky established a dance stu-dio at 1717 Vine St. in Holly-wood. Tshemensky was businessmanager, pianist, and generalfactotum. When Etienne arrivedin California she had in tow atalented student from Detroit,Mitzi Gaynor, then just 8 yearsold. In the first week of heropening the new studio Etienneenrolled seven pupils. Soon Eti-enne was teaching as many as250 pupils weekly, ranging from3 years old to 90. “I put on mytutu at 10:30AM and didn't takeit off until 10:30 p.m. I danced

with my pupils all the way,” shewould later report. BesidesGaynor, in the years that fol-lowed Etienne taught suchdancer/actors Vera Ellen, Vir-ginia Mayo, Gale Storm, EleanorDonahue, John Clifford andMatt Mattox. Mme. Etienneeven had the distinction, if thatis the right word, of having fandancer Sally Rand enrolling inher studio to brush up on herballet.

Etienne never gave up per-forming. At 92, she danced aminuet in a production shechoreographed at the Ebell The-ater. Such was Mme. Etienne’scommunity standing that theEaster services at the 1994 Hol-lywood bowl were dedicated toher. Of Etienne’s later life, afterher husband’s death in 1985, wehear that: “She was alwaysdressed in a flamboyant outfit,always in full make up and shealways wore a tiara. She neverate a meal at the restaurantsince she did all her own cook-ing at home. And she was in hernineties. She and her youngcompanion, Brent Wilday,would come to the Coffee Shopin the late afternoon to have icecream (lastcappucino.com Jan-uary 3, 2012).” On August 21,1995, Madame Etienne died ofa heart attack.

Aside from her performancesand teaching, that influencedseveral generations of profes-sional dancers, Madame Etienneleft behind, The Etienne KathrynMadame Ballet School locatedin the heart of Hollywood, at1952 Carmen Avenue Los An-geles, CA 90068.

The studio itself is housed ina converted Spanish-style build-ing. The grounds are sur-rounded by a wrought ironfence and landscaped withlemon trees and towering pinetrees. The studio offers privateballet instruction, from beginnerto advanced levels. It is no ex-aggeration, then, to say that thelegacy of Etienne Charissi Tshe-mensky lives on.

hellenenow1@yahoo.com

Madame Calliope Charissi and Her Ten Children: Stars of the Vaudeville Stage

Kathryn “Kettie” Charissi was the oldest of madame Calliope’sten children. Her stage name was madame Etienne, and sheand her husband owned and operated a dance studio in Detroit.After that city’s race riots in 1943, they moved to Hollywoodand continued their successes there. Kettie performed through-out her life, even dancing a minuet at age 92.

By Phylis (Kiki) SembosSpecial to The National Herald

A perfect sunny, cloudless,seventy degrees, Valentine’s Daydawned. Yiannis, wearing a silk-wool Armani suit imported fromItaly and Sevastaki shoes fromAthens, entered Dixon’s, allsmiles, holding a shopping bag.He ordered coffee for everyoneand a dozen glazed donuts andlaid them before his surprisedfriends who thanked him, gra-ciously. Then, he producedthree, two pound, fancy, redsatin boxes of chocolates.

“One for your wife, George.Give her my best regards, willyou?” he handed one huge heartto a stunned George who wasso overwhelmhe al-

mostk i s s e dhis hand.“And this,for your wife,John, with manythanks. It’s difficultto thank her enough.Tell her we always enjoyher koulourakia and the beauti-ful flowers she gives my daugh-ter each new season.”

Turning, he gave the thirdheart to Dimos. “And, this foryour wife with my everlastinggratitude for the sumptuousThanksgiving Day dinner andfor the many pies and cakes shegave me and my family over theyears. What a woman! This giftis too small for such a person.But, Maybe, I’ll do better nextyear.”

For Kipreos, he had a pair oftickets to a Broadway show.“Take that pretty girl, Stella,with you,” he smiled, winking.Cries of gratitude and affectionwere showered on Yiannis asonlookers around them watchedwith touching amazement at the

wonderful man’sgenerosity.

“ Iwantt o

staywith youall but Ihave othererrands todo.” he waved a hand, saying

with modesty, as they thankedhim, repeatedly, “‘think nothingof it, guys. It was my pleasure.”They continued waving as hepassed in front of the wide glasswindow of the cafeteria until hewas no longer seen. Then, Yian-nis entered a jewelry store onFifth Avenue to pick up Areti’sgift. She was at home, waiting.He told her not to go to workthat day. Valentine’s Day was avery special occasion. Once athome he handed her the smallblack velvet box that sheopened, with a fluttering heart.In the little box was a platinum,heart shaped, ruby ring sur-rounded with diamonds, thatshe, tearfully, placed on herwork worn finger. He kissed herlike Clark Gable did VivianLeigh in Gone With the Wind,adding that he had made reser-vations for the two of them at avery fine, high class Greekrestaurant in mid-town Manhat-

tan. “It’s so lit-tle com-

p a r e dto all

yourgood-

n e s sand care,

Areti, myd a r l i n g .

Nothing’s toogood for you”

Touched deeply,she, tearfully, she took

his hand in hers, “Whatdid I do to deserve such a

generous, affectionate, loving,

kind, understanding husbandlike you? Saint Valentine wasnothing compared to you, myown saint.” Taking in a breath,her hand over her heart, sheconfessed that she, too, had agift for him. “I worry that if Ileave you, Yiannaki mou, I wantyou to be safe and comfortable.That’s why I bought a $100,000life insurance so that, when I

leave you and go to heaven, youmay never have towork....work...work..” Theword, ‘work’ shocked Yiannis,awake before the alarm clockrang. He sat up, sweating,scratching his head. “Damn!What a nightmare! Must havebeen that cheese cake I ate latelast night. I’ll never do THATagain!” Then, he looked at the

calendar. Valentine’s Day. Dou-ble damn! He thought about hisdream, cringing – silk suit, ex-pensive shoes, donuts and cof-fee for the guys in Dixon’s – jew-elry for Areti. “What th’ hell! Idon’t feel too well. Time to playsick!” he said, pulling the coversover his head. “I’ll go for a boxof...something... tomorrow –when they’re half price.”

Yiannis and Saint Valentine

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DEATH NOTICESn ADAMS, DAFNIBROCKTON, MA (From the En-terprise, published on Feb. 5) –Dafni (Roussopoulos) Adams,79, of Brockton, passed awayMonday, Feb. 3, 2014, sur-rounded by her family. She wasthe wife of James Adams. BornMarch 28, 1934, in Agiasma,Greece, she was the daughter ofthe late Argirios and HarikliaRoussopoulos. Dafni was a re-tired seamstress. She enjoyedgardening, cooking and most ofall, spoiling her grandchildren.She is survived by her husband,James Adams of Brockton; herchildren, Arthur Adamopoulosand his fiance, Melissa of WestBridgewater, Paul Adamopoulosand his wife Melissa of FortWorth, Texas, and ChristinaEfremidis and her husbandCharles of Easton; her grandchil-dren, Michael, Stacey, Teli, Dim-itra, Dylan, Alex and Alexis; hersiblings, Panagiota Papadopou-los and Foti Roussopoulos ofGreece and Telly Roussopoulosof Brockton. She is also survivedby several nieces and nephews.Funeral from the Russell & PicaFuneral Home, 165 Belmont St.(Rte. 123), Brockton, Friday at10 a.m., followed by a funeralservice in the AnnunciationGreek Orthodox Church, 457Oak St., Brockton, at 11 a.m. In-terment will follow in MelroseCemetery, Brockton. Callinghours Thursday 4-8 p.m. In lieuof flowers, donations may bemade to the Annunciation GreekOrthodox Church or ChildrensHospital. For guest book and di-rections, visit www.Russellpica-funeralhome.com.

n AGRONIS, JOHNHUNTINGTON, CT (From theConnecticut Post, published onFeb. 3) – John S. Agronis, age77, of Huntington, beloved hus-band of Marietta Leonetti Agro-nis, passed away peacefully onFriday, January 31, 2014 atBridgeport Hospital with his lov-ing family by his side. Born inHaradros, Greece on May 2,1936 he was a son of the lateSocrates and Eleni Raliou Agri-ogiannis. Mr. Agronis came tothe United States in 1954 wherehe settled in Bridgeport. Whileattending school, he met thelove of his life, Marietta and theywere married in 1963. From ayoung age John acquired a tal-ent and passion for carpentry,which he acquired from his fa-ther. Throughout his life hecame to master his craft andmany of his projects will con-tinue to shine in the homes ofhis family. Later in life he was aself- employed restaurant pro-prietor for many years before hisretirement in 2006. He was anextremely hard worker and wasproud to have passed his carpen-try skills and work ethic downto his son and grandsons. Hewas a dedicated husband, fatherand grandfather who truly lovedhis return trips home to Greeceas well as his wife's home townin Italy. His greatest enjoymenthowever, was found in the timehe spent with his children andgrandchildren. In addition to hisbeloved wife of 50 years, Mari-etta, survivors include two lov-ing children, Helen Zervos andher husband Demetri of Monroeand George Agronis and his wifeRachel of Ohio, eight cherishedgrandchildren, Anthony Zervosand his wife Jessica, John andLeonardo Zervos, and Matthew,Adriaghia, Acacia, Athena andAriel Argonis, a brother, AndreaAgriogiannis and his wife Tri-antafile of Greece, and sisters,Athanasia Papoulia and her hus-band Hercules of Greece andVaseliki Vitali and her husbandDario of Florida, and severalnieces and nephews. To light avirtual candle, please visitwww.abriola.com

n ANASTASOPOULOS, DIMITRIOS

CEDAR GROVE, NJ (From theStar-Ledger, published on Feb.3) – Dimitrios Anastasopoulos,70, of Cedar Grove, N.J., passedaway on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014. Funeral services will be onWednesday, at 9:45 a.m., fromShook's Cedar Grove FuneralHome, 486 Pompton Ave., CedarGrove, thence to St. GeorgeGreek Orthodox Church inClifton, N.J., at 10:30 a.m. In-terment will follow at ProspectHill Cemetery, Caldwell, N.J. Vis-iting hours will be on Tuesday,from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m., atthe funeral home. Memories andcondolences may be shared atwww.shookscedargrove.com.Born in Sparti, Greece, Dimitrioslived in Newark, N.J., andMaplewood, N.J., before movingto Cedar Grove in 1980. Heworked as a switchboard opera-tor for Verizon, which was for-merly New York Telephone andNynex, in New York City. He wasa member of the Verizon Re-tirees Club. He was the belovedhusband of 37 years to Stavroula(Metrakos) Anastasopoulos; de-

voted father to Evangelos Anas-tasopoulos and his wife, Fotoula;cherished grandfather to VoulaAnastasopoulos; dear brother toDestina Spartalis and PeggySigalos, and their husbands;brother-in-law to Helen Me-trakos and Dimitra Mouzakitis,and their husbands. He leavesbehind cousins, nieces, andnephews whom he cared aboutdearly. In lieu of flowers, dona-tions may be made in his mem-ory to St. George Greek Ortho-dox Church, 818 Valley Road,Clifton, N.J. 07013.

n FALES, ITEN NOACAMBRIDGE, MA (From theBoston Globe, published on Feb.9) – Iten Noa Fales, of 11 HilliardStreet, Cambridge, died on Jan-uary 6 while on a visit in EastHampton, New York. She was 97years old. Born Ida Judith Noaon May 7, 1916, in Berlin, Ger-many, to Hermann and EmilieFrehde Noa, she came to theUnited States in 1937 when shewas forcibly expatriated by theGerman National Socialist state.She married Albert L. Scott, Jr.,in 1940 and raised her family onMartha's Vineyard, where shewas a year-round and, later, sea-sonal resident from 1945 to1986. She is survived by her firsthusband and by 4 children, 9grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. She was prede-ceased by an infant daughter andby her second husband, De-Coursey Fales, Jr. Mrs. Falesworked as a librarian at theBoston Athenaeum and for Har-vard University libraries. Latershe was the music and dramacritic at WGBH-FM, where shehad her own radio magazineshow, "Iten Scott Presents." Aftermoving to Cambridge in 1967,Mrs. Fales became active in civicaffairs and was well known forher advocacy for the preservationof her neighborhood, which in-cluded Harvard Square. She wasan enthusiastic patron of localcultural institutions such as theCambridge Music Club, the Mu-seum of Fine Arts, the BSO, and,most especially, the Greek Insti-tute. Greek history and cultureand the Greek people were verydear to Mr. and Mrs. Fales. Theytraveled to Greece every yearand together edited the journal"Greek, Roman, and ByzantineStudies." Donations in Iten NoaFales's memory can be made tothe Greek Institute, 1038 Mass.Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138.

n MARINOS, PETERBOSTON, MA (From the BostonGlobe, published on Jan. 29) –MARINOS, Panagiotis "Peter" V.Of Boston, January 26.Belovedhusband of Stella (Saih) Mari-nos. Devoted father of Vasilios-Marinos. Cherished son of thelate Vasilios and Triantafylia(Frosinou) Marinos. Lovingbrother of Nikolaos Marinos andhis wife Sofia, Ioannis Marinos,Eleni Marinos-Makri and herhusband Athanasios, all ofGreece and Sevasti Marinos-Mourikis of Ipswich. Also sur-vived by Aunts, Uncles, manyNieces, Nephews, cousins andother loving relatives andfriends. Peter immigrated toAmerica in the late 60s. He didntspeak a word of English, but hevery quickly learned the lan-guage and acclimated himself inthis country. His first job was atBostons famous Pauls Mall Clubas a bartender on Boylstonstreet. There he met and inter-acted with many Hollywoodcelebrities who performed at theclub. In fact, when the clubclosed, Peter was interviewed bythe press. Shortly thereafter, heopened up his own establish-ment Peters Place Bar & Grill inthe heart of Bostons FinancialDistrict, which became very pop-ular and a landmark for manyin the city and the surroundings.In 1998, he embarked in a newventure by opening TradersRestaurant & Lounge in thesame area, which eventually wasturned into an upscale SportsLounge & Night Club, The Place.In addition to being a successfulrestaurateur, he had a great pas-sion for the stock market. Hewasa self-educated stock investorwith a keen sense of vision andthe ability to analyze the marketand make successful investingdecisions. Not only this bene-fited him but, also, he used thisskill to help others invest wiselywithout being compensated inreturn. His success was completeafter the birth of his son, Vasil-ios. Since then, he dedicated histime and energy in the upbring-ing of his son. IntermentAhladeri, Evia, Greece. In lieu offlowers, donations may be madeto the Dormition of the VirginMary Greek Orthodox Church,29 Central St., Somerville in hismemory. For online condolencesplease visit www.rogersfuneral-home.net.

n OLYMPIADIS, NICKOLAOSATLANTA, GA (From the AtlantaJournal-Constitution, publishedon Jan. 25) – Nickolaos GeorgeOlympiadis, born August 4,1934 in Galati, Romania, fellasleep in the Lord on Thursday,January, 23, 2014 at Hospice At-lanta. The fourth child of Greekparents, Despina Vasilios and

Georgeos Olympiadis, he en-joyed school, excelling in math-ematics, and also enjoyed soccer,swimming & ping pong. AfterWWII his family returned toGreece living in Athens and thenSyros where he was known toswim from Syros to Tinos andback, often to the amazement offriends. He attended the Univer-sity of Athens studying Dentistryand was well known for winningmany on-campus ping-pongtournaments. In 1958 he immi-grated to the United States tojoin his oldest brother, Aristo inAlpharetta, GA. He soon foundemployment as a gas station at-tended and then landed a job ina clothing factory, where theowner assisted him in workingwith Immigration to join the USArmy to facilitate his naturaliza-tion. He trained at Fort Hood atthe same time as Elvis Presley.After his military service hemoved to New York city workingfor Cartier on 5th Avenue. Hesoon returned to Atlanta andworked at the Ambassadorrestaurant and later as a Man-ager at Zestos on Roswell Roadin Buckhead. Over the years hedeveloped his skills in construc-tion and facilities management.In the 70's he, along with hisbrother Aristo, opened TheGreek Coffee House on RoswellRoad between Sandy Springsand Buckhead. In the 80's heopened Fat Boy Junior, a fast-food restaurant in Marietta, GA.After retiring in the 90's he de-cided to build his own log cabinhome and settled in Milton,Georgia. All his adult life he en-joyed swimming, fishing, hunt-ing, and playing cards with hisfriends. During his retirement heenjoyed gardening and takinghis grandchildren on tractorrides. He is preceded by his par-ents, his brother, Polychronis(1933), his brother, Aristotelis(2005), and his wife RhenaTavaras (1968). He is survivedby his sister EkateriniOlympiadis, his wife CathrynCochran of 37 years, his sons,Daniel Olympiadis, GeorgeosNickolaos Olympiadis, hisdaughter Michelle OlympiadisConstantinides and his grand-children, Phaethon, Nikolaos,and Ekaterini Irini. The funeralwill be held Saturday, January25, 1014, at 2:00pm at the HolyTransfiguration Greek OrthodoxChurch, 3431 Trickum Road,Marietta, Georgia 30066. The in-terment will be at GreenwoodCemetery, 1173 Cascade Circle,SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30311.In-gram Funeral Home & Crema-tory, Cumming, Georgia is incharge of arrangements. Condo-lences may be made at www.in-gramfuneralhome.com.

n PAPPAS, HELEN KATHERINPORTLAND, ME (From the Port-land Press-Herald, published onJan. 28) – Helen Katherine Pap-pas, 92, of Portland, passedaway on Jan. 23, 2014, at theGosnell Memorial HospiceHouse. She was born in Portlandon April 24, 1921, the daughterof Stratus and Kiriaki (Nicholas)Papas who were natives of Mar-mara, Greece. She grew up inPortland, graduating from Port-land High School in 1938. Helenand her husband, Theodoreowned Theodore's LobsterHouse and later King's Fish &Chips. Helen truly embraced herGreek heritage. She loved thelanguage, food the music andwas known for her Greek danc-ing. She was very active in theGreek Orthodox Church, Daugh-ters of Penelope and theWomen's Auxiliary of the Elks.Helen also loved the holidays,where her family always lookedforward to her cooking of pas-tries, spinach pies and otherGreek foods. She enjoyed trav-eling and playing bridge withher friends. Her biggest love andpassion was her family. She waspredeceased by her parents; hersisters, Mary Vamvakis and IdaDemarkis; and her husband,Theodore Nicholas Pappas. He-len is survived by her children,Sylvia Swiger and her husbandWalter of South Portland, MaryPappas Burns and her life part-ner Phillip Reeves of Florida,Nicholas Pappas and his wifeAnita of South Carolina; hergrandchildren, Jimmy Boucou-valas and his wife Jasmin, LouisTevanian and his wife Kristen,Malcolm Tevanian and his wifeLeeAnna and Kimberly AllardMoccia and her partner Kim-berly Moccia; as well as hergreat-grandchildren, Alexander,Christopher, Benjamin andAlexa. She is also survived byher nephew, Nicholas Vamvakisand his wife Carol of Virginia.The family would like to thankthe staffs at Deering Pavilion, St.Joseph's Rehabilitation and Res-idence and Gosnell Hospice fortheir care and compassion forHelen. In lieu of flowers, pleaseconsider donations in Helen'smemory to: The American HeartAssociation of Maine 51 U.S.Route 1, Suite M Scarborough,Maine 04074.

n SKALIS, DIMITRIOSHOLLYWOOD HILLS, CA (Fromthe Sun-Sentinel, published onJan. 25) – Dimitrios PanayiotisSkalis, 86, of Xironomi, Greece

and Hollywood Hills, Floridapassed away on Monday, Janu-ary 20th, 2014 at Broward Nurs-ing & Rehabilitation Center, sur-rounded by his loving wife anddaughter. He was born Decem-ber 10, 1927 in Xironomi,Greece, son of Panayiotis Eu-aggelos Skalis and MagdaliniArapaki Skalis. He immigratedto the United States in July of1970, settling in New Jerseywhere for many years he workedin the diner business as a chefand restaurant owner. In July of1985, he and his family movedto Hollywood Hills, Florida andhe continued his trade as a chef.Survived by his beloved wifeStiliani Stella Skalis and hisdaughter Penny PanayiotaSkalis. A devoted husband, fa-ther, brother, brother-in-law anduncle. He was a person whomade a lasting impression witheveryone that he met on a dailybasis. Visitation on Sunday, Jan-uary 26, 2014 from 4:30pm-8:00pm. Trisagion 7pm at FredHunter's Hollywood MemorialHome, 6301 Taft Street in Hol-lywood, Florida. Funeral serviceon Monday, January 27, 2014 at11am. Relatives and closefriends are kindly invited to at-tend the service that will be heldat Annunciation Greek OrthodoxChurch 12250 NW 2nd AvenueNorth Miami, FL.

n TSAPATSARIS, STELLALOWELL, MA (From the LowellSun, published on Jan. 26) –Stella Tsapatsaris, a life-long res-ident of the Acre section of Low-ell, died on January 23, at Low-ell General Hospital, after a briefillness. Born in Lowell, on Janu-ary 4, 1923, she was the daugh-ter of the late Nicholas andDemetra (Zaroulis) Tsapatsaris.She received her education inthe Lowell Public Schools, at-tending the Bartlett School andgraduating from Lowell HighSchool in 1941. She was a grad-uate of Lowell Commercial Col-lege, and went on to a career asan executive secretary and book-keeper in Lowell and Boston formore than 42 years. During thattime, she was employed by At-lantic Parachute/Textron, MassMohair Plush Co. Mills, JoanFabrics, Worth's of Boston,United Heel, and Pilgrim Health.Stella regularly attended theHoly Trinity Greek OrthodoxChurch of Lowell, where she hadbeen an active member of thechurch, Philoptochos Society,and past president of the Daugh-ters of Penelope. She was also apast member of the WhistlerHouse Museum and HellenicCulture and Heritage Society.During the summers, she en-joyed vacationing at the familyhome on Cape Cod, where shealso assisted her brothers inkeeping the books and payrollat Carl's Restaurant, their sum-mer business in West Yarmouth,for 20 years. Stella was repeat-edly complemented on her ex-pert record keeping of therestaurant's books by the Com-monwealth of Massachusetts TaxExaminers. In retirement, sheenjoyed traveling to Greece,solving crossword puzzles, bak-ing and cooking, reading aboutfashion, following politics, and,cheering on the Boston Red Soxand New England Patriots. Mostof all, she enjoyed spending timewith her many relatives, includ-ing her beloved nieces, nephews,and god daughters. She will beremembered by her nieces andnephews for her thoughtfulness,generous gift-giving, and ex-panding their outlook on life asthey were growing up. Stella issurvived by her brothers Peter,Charles, Steven, and George,and sister-in-law, Nancy Tsapat-saris; as well as many cousins,nieces, nephews, and goddaughters. She was predeceasedby her brother, Michael, and sis-ters-in-law, Elaine, Elizabeth andDorothea Tsapatsaris.Relatives and friends will be re-ceived at the M.R. Laurin Fu-neral Home, 295 Pawtucket St.,Lowell on Monday, January 27thfrom 9:00 am to 10:30 am. Herfuneral service will follow at theHoly Trinity Hellenic OrthodoxChurch in Lowell at 11:00 am.Interment will be in WestlawnCemetery, Lowell. In lieu of flow-ers, memorial donations may bemade in her memory to the HolyTrinity Church Restoration Fund,Lewis St. Lowell, Ma. 01854. Fu-neral arrangements under thedirection of directors, Louis M.Fazio III, M. Richard Laurin, andScott Laurin. For condolences ordirections, please go towww.laurinfuneralhome.com.

n XALIS, JOHNPALM DESERT, AZ (From theDesert Sun, published on Feb. 6)– On Christmas Eve, 2013, anerrant reindeer scooped up ourbeloved brother and uncle, JohnXalis, and flew him to the north-ern-most pole where he regalesus still with his mellifluous voiceand conductor-like arm dance.Tissues, floating from John X'somnipresent Kleenex box, weremistaken for desert snowflakesthat special night -and the cough(that plagued him so) turnedinto a howling wind heard acrossthe hemisphere. Born on May6,1922, John James Xalis was

the fifth of seven children cre-ated by James and Fotine Xalis;pioneer movie palace impresar-ios (Douglas Arizona's GrandTheatre) and proud, creativeGreeks of the early 20th centurywest. It was a family legacy JohnX. never forgot. As his intellectblossomed and his sensibilitiesgrew, he headed his class atPhoenix Union H.S. and at-tended Georgetown Universityin Washington D.C., where hecompleted a masters in foreignpolicy after serving with the104th Infantry at The Battle ofthe Buldge in World II. A Tim-berwolf (104th) to the end, hewas never a family man butdeeply of The Family of Man.Teaching was both his professionand his passion; receiving hiscredential from Arizona StateUniversity after a brief stint withthe Library of Congress. A cupof coffee with John X. was a sem-inar in historical benchmarksthat just may include a little-known fact from an edition ofTidbits. An intellectual odysseyof European travels (a PASOKactivist in Greece) and teachingpositions, in his chosen fields ofhistory and Spanish, followed …retiring in Palm Springs, Calif.By 1992, where the Greek flagflew next to the Stars & Stripes,

in his cherished Diplomat condoon East Palm Canyon. As his ea-gle-like intensity expanded withage, an ever-shrinking commu-nity of elderly haunts, likeElmer's and Manhattan Deli,feted his elegant presence whilehis biological family comfortedhim and basked in his rich sto-rytelling. John X's erudite naturenever flagged and all who wit-nessed his determined yet lovingperseverance were left with adeeper sense of raw courage inthe face of adversity and waninghealth. He will never be forgot-ten nor forsaken by: sisters Con-stance X. Loomos (loving confi-dante) and Alixe Angeles;brother Frederick Xalis; niecesand nephews Timi L. Freshman,Diane X. Miller, Alexa Palmer, --Dean J. Loomos, Nick Angeles,Ted Angeles and Nick Xalis.Marika Tsircou, Caro Krissman,Jim Miller and Damian Millerwill also miss their great-uncleas will his faithful care-giver Is-abela Rendun and cousin Evan-geline Diamos. Memorial ser-vices were held at St. GeorgeGreek Orthodox Church (in PalmDesert) where an especially lov-ing, depth-of-character eulogywas delivered by his favoriteniece Timi Loomos Freshman.Now…about that reindeer.

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DANIEL DENNIS DUKELSKIY LLC, a domesticLLC, filed with the SSNY on 10/15/13. Officelocation: Kings County. SSNY is designated asagent upon whom process against the LLC maybe served. SSNY shall mail process to The LLC,100 Oceana Dr. W., Unit 1H, Brooklyn, NY11235. General Purpose.

273276/10709

Sozo Consulting LLC Arts of Org filedwith NY Sec of State (SSNY) on8/13/13. Office: Kings County. SSNYdesignated as agent of LLC upon whomprocess may be served. SSNY shall mailprocess to: 414 Albemarle Rd, #3A,Brooklyn, NY 11218. General Purposes.

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BEAUTIFUL BEAST, LLC, a domestic LLC, filedwith the SSNY on 9/30/13. Office location:Kings County. SSNY is designated as agentupon whom process against the LLC may beserved. SSNY shall mail process to: TheLLC, 549A Halsey St., Brooklyn, NY 11233.General Purpose.

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BRUTAL HONESTY LLC. Notice of formation of limited liability company (LLC).Name: Brutal Honesty LLC. Articles of Organizationfiled with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on8/26/10. NY office location: Kings County. SSNY hasbeen designated as agent of the LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. The post office address towhich the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process againstthe LLC served upon him/her is The LLC 1424 E 89th St.Brooklyn, NY, 11236. Purpose/character of LLC: AnyLawful Purpose.

273213/18891

MOUNTAIN & MCDOWALL REALTY, LLC, adomestic LLC, filed with the SSNY on12/31/13. Office location: Kings County.SSNY is designated as agent upon whomprocess against the LLC may be served. SSNYshall mail process to Rugh McDowall, 582Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11205. GeneralPurpose.

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Notice of formation of WONDERPROPERTY LLC Articles of Org. filed NYSec. of State (SSNY) 01/17/2014. Office inKings Co. SSNY design. Agent of LLC uponwhom process may be served. SSNY shall mailcopy of process to: Wonder Property LLC,8606 Flatlands Avenue, Brooklyn, NY11236. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

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Notice of Formation of TRIPLE APP LLC, a do-mestic LLC, Articles of Organization filed withthe SSNY on 12/20/2013. Office location:Kings County. SSNY is designated as agentupon whom process against the LLC may beserved, SSNY shall mail process to: THE LAWOFFICE OF SERGIO MUNOZ SARMIENTO, 310Powers St. #3L Brooklyn, NY 11211. Purpose:Any Lawful Purposes.

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Notice of formation of Elenatos Realty, LLC.Articles of Organization filed with the Secretaryof State of New York (SSNY) on April 25, 2013.Office location: Kings County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 25218th Street, Suite 5A, Brooklyn, NY 11215. Pur-pose: any lawful purpose.

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Notice of formation of Tomrick Realty, LLC. Articlesof Organization filed with the Secretary ofState of New York (SSNY) on April 25, 2013.Office location: Kings County. SSNY designatedas agent of LLC upon whom process against itmay be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 25218th Street, Suite 5A, Brooklyn, NY 11215.Purpose: any lawful purpose.

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Notice of formation of ATP & Associates RE Fund,LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Sec-retary of State of New York (SSNY) on January3, 2014. Office location: Kings County. SSNY des-ignated as agent of LLC upon whom processagainst it may be served. SSNY shall mail processto: 252 18th Street, Suite 5A, Brooklyn, NY11215. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

273250/18950

Notice of formation of 950 ST MARKS APTSLLC Articles of Organization filed NY Secre-tary of State (SSNY) 5/24/11 Office inKings Co. SSNY designated Agent of LLCupon whom process may be served. SSNYshall mail copy of process to: The LLC POBOX 300513 Brooklyn, NY 11230. Purpose:Any lawful activity.

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Notice of formation of KG CARROLLGARDENS LLC, (DOM. LLC). Articles of Orga-nization filed with the NY Secretary of State(SSNY) on 12/10/13. Office location: KingsCounty. SSNY is designated as Agent of LLCupon whom process against it may be served.SSNY shall mail copy of any process to: YunSok Lee, 268 East Broadway, A505, New York,NY 10002. Purpose: General Purposes.

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By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – The Consul Gen-eral of Greece in New York,George Iliopoulos, invited mem-bers of the Greek- and Jewish-American communities to com-memoration of “HolocaustRemembrance Day of the GreekJewry” at the Greek Press Officein Midtown Manhattan on Feb-ruary 5.

The Greek consulate and theAmerican Friends of the JewishMuseum of Greece were co-sponsors of the event, whichwas an extended meditationwith words and music on thepower of remembrance.

The evening’s somber tonewas complemented by the spiritof fellowship among those whogathered for a program ofprayer, history and music.

Iliopoulos welcomed theguests and focused on the im-portance of education as themeans for fulfilling the declara-tion heard often that night:“Never again.”

“We must take the necessarysteps to educate our youth.Learning about the past is thepre-requisite required for a bet-ter future,” he said.

Rabbi Martin R. Cohen, pro-fessor of Jewish History and He-brew Union College led thegathering in prayers for thecommemoration of those whodied in the Holocaust and thetraditional Kadish prayer for the

dead. The prayer was sung by can-

torial student Inbal Sharett-Singer, who is the great grand-daughter of the second primeminister of Israel and has Greek-Jewish roots. She is writing herdissertation on the Sephardicmusic of Greece with an empha-sis on Thessaloniki.

Two other cantorial studentspresented the 23rd Psalm.Emma Goldin sang and JayO’Brien accompanied on guitar.

Rabbi Cohen intoned “Bindthem in the bonds of eternal lifeand may their earthly restingplace be one of peace,” and lateron there was a moment of si-lence.

The event continued in mu-sical mode with songs presentedby soprano Lina Orfanos accom-panied by Spiros Exaras on gui-tar. They began with Theodor-akis’ “Song of Songs” fromMauthausen, which has lyrics byIakovos Kambanellis, followedby the Kessariani by StavrosXarhakos with lyrics by LefterisPapadopoulos. The final piece

was Theodorakis’ “Kane Koura-gio – Have Courage.”

Orfanos offered a movingperformance and later told theguests that her mother Sophia,who was present, is a Holocaustsurvivor – a hidden child. Shesaid that when she was singing“I had to try not to cry. When Ising I think of my mother’s fam-ily that I lost, and I am gratefulwe are here today.”

The audience also watched avideo with a message fromGreek Prime Minister AntonisSamaras. In the context ofGreece just having assumed thesix-month EU presidency, he saidEuropeans have a moral obliga-tion to mark the Holocaust.

“We must see that it is taughtto new generations “we con-demn unequivocally racism andanti-semitism as extreme crimi-nal acts. There is no room forracism and anti-semitism in ourEurope. It is not a politicalchoice; it is the foundation stoneof our unity and our commonfuture.”

During his brief speech,Rabbi Cohen said “we must par-ticipate in such sad but neces-sary commemorations.”

He cited a newspaper articlewhich noted that the great sci-entific and technological ad-vances recent decades can leadto harm if society does not alsostand up for the great humanis-tic values which are informedby Jewish and Christian culturewhich also come from the Greek

world.The speakers, who included

Archbishop Demetrios of Amer-ica, Solomon Asser, the Presi-dent of the American Friends ofthe Jewish Museum of Greece,emphasized such events will in-crease in importance as timepasses and takes away the re-maining Holocaust witnessesand survivors.

Asser noted some of thetragic – and heroic – history ofthe happenings during the nazioccupation of Greece. It is esti-mated that 87 percent ofGreece’s Jewish population waswiped out, the largest percent-age in Europe, but he also em-phasized that Greece is the onlycountry where religious andcivil officials stood up to thenazis in defense of their coun-try’s Jews.

He said that the Museum iscommitted to making sure his-tory is not forgotten and re-peated through programs thatwill train teachers all overGreece to convey to the newgeneration what happened.

Archbishop Demetrios wastouched by the evening’s musi-cal dimension and noted it wasone of the more beautiful of themany way of rememberingthings. He praised the musi-cians and highlighted the threesongs sung beautifully by Or-fanos, and acknowledgedExaras’ sophisticated accompa-niment on guitar.

The archbishop meditated on

the importance of rememberingand noted that “one of the aimsof dictatorships is to take awaypeople’s memories, so we mustcultivate it…you cannot have adecent present and livable fu-ture without a strong past.”

He was especially pleased tohear the 23rd psalm sung in He-brew, and in return offered thepsalm in the Greek of the Sep-tuagint. He called the psalm is“a basic religious text that givescourage in difficult times.”

Asher Matathias, professor of

Political Science at St. John’sUniversity, noted that gatheringwas prompted by the Interna-tional Holocaust Commemora-tion Day, which marks the Jan-uary 27, 1945, liberation ofAuschwitz-Birkenau, the largestNazi death camp, by Soviettroops. Matathias, who survivedas a child by being hidden byGreeks, appreciates the day’s es-tablishment by the UN nineyears ago, and its commemora-tion by Greece’s Consuls Generalin New York.

COMMUNITYTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014 9

By Constantine S. SirigosTNH Staff Writer

NEW YORK – The HellenicAmerican Leadership Council(HALC) and the American Jew-ish Committee (AJC) hosted acommemoration of Interna-tional Holocaust RemembranceDay in Manhattan on January27.

The event featured a screen-ing of the documentary Kissingto the Children and a presenta-tion about the conflicted feel-ings of European Jews who es-caped the Holocaust bytelevision director and producerGary Gumpert.

Guests were welcomed byIoni Gliati, regional coordinatorof HALC and Alex Bronzo, theassociate director of AJC NewYork, who said the gatheringwas a fitting ending to a daythat began at the United Nationswith a speech by Steven Spiel-berg.

Jo Fine, a member of the AJCboard, introduced Gumpert,who is also an emeritus profes-sor at Queens College.

Gumpert began by telling ofhis experience in the occupiedterritory on Cyprus with a friendwho returned to his home forthe first time since the invasion.“He trembled as he enteredwhat was once a familiar place.I shared with him what he felt,in terms of displacement, hisloss, forced relocation, and theneed to start over again,” hesaid.

“It is this theme of forced re-location that brings me heretonight. I was born January 21,1933. On January 30 AdolfHitler was sworn in as Chancel-lor.”

Gumpert proceeded to re-count the impact of the rise ofHitler on his family and their es-cape to America.

“We all know the Nazis ex-terminated 6 million Jews, andI could have been one of them,he said. “I still do not under-stand why I was not.” Gumpertasked “What magical blessingspermitted us to migrate to NewYork while so many otherswould perish?”

“I lived a good life,” he con-tinued, “so can I call myself aHolocaust survivor?” He notedhe does not bear a concentra-tion camp tattoo, nor was he a

hidden child. “Is there somemeasurable degree of sufferingthat is necessary in order to bea Holocaust victim,” he won-dered.

He turned to the more excru-ciating experience of his par-ents, “who were faced with thetask of restructuring their livesfrom the ground up…they hadlost everything,” but he also hes-itated to call them Holocaustvictims.

Nevertheless, their lives – in-cluding his father’s, whichended prematurely, whereshaped by the Holocaust. “Manywere unable to cope, and theyreally didn’t survive.”

Echoing the words of manyCypriot, Armenian, and Pontianchildren whose families enduredgenocides, he said “it is sad thatmy parents did not, could not,or would not, share their pastwith me. I resented it. It is saidthat I did not ask enough ques-tions.”

“I am not a Holocaust sur-vivor, but someone shaped bythe shattering events of thepast,” he concluded.

He then reiterated the bondhe feels with his Cypriot friends.

“Surviving the 1974 invasion,they found themselves inrefugee housing, and had to be-gin anew, but also surround bythe ghosts of their past.”

Ironically, during a trip toCyprus he learned that from1946-1949 the British had in-terned 53,000 Jews in campsbecause they would not let theminto the Holy Land. He and Su-san Drucker, Professor of Com-munication, Hofstra University,are producing a documentaryabout them.

That cruel story has a happyending however, as the campswere the place where theylearned Hebrew, prepared fortheir ultimate life in Israel, andeven learned to be fighters fortheir new home.

Before Solomon Asser, theDirector of the AmericanFriends of the Jewish Museumof Greece introduced Kissing tothe Children, which was di-rected by Vassilis Loules, he said“I want to start by saluting ourprevious speaker. Regarding thequestion of whether he was aHolocaust survivor or not… youare definitely a witness, andthere are not enough witnesses

left…a lot of people have noidea you can be chased awayfrom your home because of yourcolor, or religion.”

He also sympathized withGumpert for not asking enoughquestions. Neither did he. Asserknew some things, but only ex-perienced the depth of hismother’s feelings after her ap-pearance in the movie. “As hu-man beings we have this abilityto shut down bad experiencesand just move forward. It helpsus survive,” he said.

Bronzo noted importance tothe deepening relationship be-tween Greek and Jewish-Amer-icans that they “gather tomemorialize the 6 million whoperished and it was particularlymeaningful to see through thefilm that Greeks and Jew havea shared story through the 20thcentury.”

Gliati told TNH “it is our dutyto maintain the memory of theHolocaust and fight against theevil of anti-Semitism, which of-fends the meaning of humanity,as it is conceived and served bythe Greek spirit."

Eternal be their memory.

By Demetris Tsakas

NEW YORK – Three months agothe Chian Federation awardedits 34th Homeric Award toAthena Kromidas, the principalof the William SpiropoulosSchool of the community of St.Nicholas in Flushing, but did notstop there.

In light of the annual cele-bration of Greek Letters, theFederation’s Board of Directorsdonated $20,000 to the School.

On February 6, FederationPresident Stavros Haviaras,along with Homeric AwardChairman and prior Federationpresident Nicholas Michaliosvisited the St. Nicholas in orderto present the check.

Haviaras and Michalios re-ceived a very warm reception.Kromidas welcomed them andgave them a tour.

They were next greeted byGeorge Kanellopoulos, the prin-cipal of the Stephen and AretiCherpelis Greek AfternoonSchool, and the students andteachers, who invited them tovisit their classrooms.

The faces of the children andteachers glowed when theywere informed of the reasonswhy the leaders of the ChianFederation visited the School.

Kromidas showed them theclassrooms, the science labora-tory, and the computer room.

With respect to the computerroom, Kromidas acknowledgedthe School faced a challenge be-cause what was consideredmodern six months to a yearago is now obsolete.

The hallways and classroomsimpressed the visitors. Shiningwith cleanliness, they framed inthe best way the achievementsof the 462 students from Kinder-garten to 8th grade.

The tour concluded with avisit to the Library, which is amultipurpose room which canalso be used for lectures andpresentations.

Kromidas noted that many ofthe books are donated by com-munity members and invitedrepresentatives of the ChianFederation to encourage itsmembers to donate books ormoney for the library fund.

There immediately followeda simple ceremony in the office

of the pastor, Fr. Paul Palesty,where Haviaras and Michalioshanded the check to Kromidasand Palesty.

Fr. Palesty thanked themboth for the donation and forhonoring Kromidas with theHomeric Award. He pointed outthat all of the community’s or-ganizations are dedicated to theadvancement of its schools andemphasized that in is not a co-incidence that it finances areunified.

"Our schools are an integralinstitutions of the greater com-munity," said Father Palesty, andhe expressed his satisfactionwith the fact that they providethe opportunity for its childrento participate in Greek culture.

Haviaras had served for morethan ten years president of Kimi-sis Tis Theotokou in Brooklyn,in the period before its dayschool was converted into acharter school, and the discus-sion that ensued with recipientsof the donation delved deeplyinto the issues of Greek educa-tion and culture in the UnitedStates.

Father Palesty referred to thecurrent educational challenges,noting that few families speakthe Greek language at home be-cause of the absence of thegrandfathers and grandmotherswho did not speak English. Hesaid that complicates the workof teachers.

He added, however, that chil-dren's participation in the DivineLiturgy and Sunday Schoolplays a key role, because itmakes children feel their ties tothe community more strongly.They know that they belongsomewhere.

Haviaras and Michalios thenexpressed their admiration forthe work being done at St.Nicholas of Flushing.

The hosts invited the Feder-ation leaders to meet with moreofficers and board members sothey, too, could express theirgratitude. Father Palesty pointedout that it was it the first dona-tion of the year.

"For us it is very importantbecause it shows that we are notalone, and that we have manyothers, and especially the ChianFederation, who actively sup-port our work," he said.

Stavros Haviaras, president of the Chian Federation and priorpresident Nicholas michalios present a check for $20,000 toAthena Kromidas, principal of the William Spiropoulos Schoolof St. Nicholas in Flushing, and its pastor, Fr. Paul Palesty.

Chian Federation Donates$20,000 to Saint Nicholas

tNh/CostAs Bej

The guests at the Greek Press Office were deeply moved by the musical performances on Feb.5. (L-R) Jay O’Brien, Emma Goldin and Inbal Sharett-Singer, and Rabbi martin R. Cohen.

On a stormy night, members of the Greek- and Jewish-American communities came out for“Holocaust Remembrance Day of the Greek Jewry,” near the United Nations headquarters.

Greek and Jewish Communities Converge for Holocaust Commemoration

HALC, AJC Host International Holocaust Remembrance

Gary Gumpert answers questions during the International Holocaust Remembrance Day gath-ering in manhattan. Ioni Gliati of HALC stands at right and Alex Bronzo of the ACJ is seated inthe front row. The film Kissing to the Children was screened at the event.

Though evoking asomber tone befittingthe solemn occasion,the heartfelt spiritof fellowship amongthe attendees wasuplifting and inspiring

Estonia, Finland, France, Ger-many, Greece, Hungary, Ireland,Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxem-bourg, Malta, the Netherlands,

Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slo-vakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,and the United Kingdom.

In several cases, the ECFRdid not issue a rating of “leader”or “slacker,” but simply left a

country unranked in the specificcategory in question.

ECFR CATEGORIESThe nations were ranked in

six general categories, each ofwhich contained a number of

subcategories. In the category Re-lations with China, comprised ofthe subcategories (Use of High-Level Contacts to Strengthen toEurope’s Strategic Approach toChina; Asian Security Issues inBilateral Dialogue; Trade Dis-putes with China, Support for Eu-rope’s Tough Stance on Anti-Dumping Investigations; SupportEurope’s Tough Line on SolarPanel Case; and Support StrongEuropean Position on Tibet, ruleof Law and Human Rights, nei-ther Greece nor Cyprus wasranked (i.e., the ECFR did notrate either of those countries asa “leader” or a “slacker”). Franceled the group – and was the high-est-ranked country in the reportoverall – deemed a leader inAsian Security and Solar Panelissues. The UK, too, was a leaderin Asian security, but a slacker inTrade Disputes with China andthe Tibet issue.

Regarding the second cate-gory, Relations with Russia,Cyprus was not ranked in anyof the five subcategories: Sup-port European Commission inResisting Russian Pressure onEastern Partnership Countries;Relations with Russia on EnergyIssues; Support Strong Euro-pean Position on Rule of Lawand Human Rights and PressFreedom; Action to PressureRussia to Use its Leverage toStop Conflict in Syria; and Ac-tion to Pressure Russia to UseLeverage to Engage New IranianGovernment in Nuclear Negoti-ations. Greece, too, was notranked in four of the five, butregarding Energy Issues wasdeemed a slacker. Germany andSweden each received leaderdistinctions for the EuropeanCommission, Rule of Law, andPressure on Russia subissues,and Germany received a fourthleader distinction, for IranianNuclear Negotiations.

The next category, Relationswith the United States, also sawno ranking for either Greece orCyprus. The subcategories werePutting Asia on the Agenda withthe U.S.; Support Pushing theU.S. in Placing the Use ofDrones into a Broader LegalFramework; Pushing for theTransatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership (TTIP, be-tween Europe and the UnitedStates); Pushing for a Tough Eu-ropean Response to the Snow-den Revelations on U.S. Spying;and Pushing for Translating Co-operation to Shape the Courseand Outcome of the Syrian CivilWar. As a whole, none of the 28nations received high marks forU.S. relations, though five na-tions – Germany, Italy, theNetherlands, Sweden, and theUK each received leader distinc-tions for TTIP.

The category of Relationswith Wider Europe comprisesfive subcategories: SupportStrong Line on the Release ofTyrnoshenko (the imprisonedformer Ukranian Prime Minis-ter); Support Efforts to Achievea Vista-Free Regime with Geor-gia, Ukraine, and Moldova; Ef-forts to Diversity Energy Supplyin Europe to Reduce Depen-dency from Russia; Steps toSupport Opening Chapter 23and 24 in [EU] Accession Nego-tiations with Turkey; and Sup-port for a Strong European Po-sition [regarding] Serbia andKosovo Negotiations. Greecewas ranked for none, andCyprus was considered a slackeron the Chapters 23 and 24 issueon Turkey. Only one of the 28countries, Poland, gained threeleader distinctions, one for eachof the first three subcategories.

The Middle East and NorthAfrica category also containedfive subcategories: Pushing fora Clear European Response tothe Conflict in Syria; Pushingfor a Strong EU Response to theMilitary Takeover in Egypt;Pushing through Agreement onEligibility-Occupied Territories,Grants, Prices, etc.; Pushing forComprehensive European Strat-egy Toward Iran Following Elec-tions; and Supporting Closer Se-curity Cooperation in the NorthAfrica Region in 2013. By farthe least active category, and an-other one in which neitherGreece nor Cyprus was ranked.

The final category, Multilat-eral Issues and Crisis Manage-ment, was the most prolific.Most nations were ranked in thefirst subcategory: Increase inDevelopment Aid. There wereonly 9 leaders compared to 11slackers, two of the 11 Greeceand Cyprus. The second subcat-egory, Increase in HumanitarianAid featured 9 leaders and 8slackers. Among the slackersagain, Greece and Cyprus. Thethird subcatetory, Steps Takento Assist Syrian Refugees, alsofeatured a great deal of rank-ings, with leaders ahead ofslackers 11-4. The only instancein which Cyprus and Greece dif-fered was this subcategory:Cyprus was a leader, Greece aslacker. By contrast, the fourthsubcategory, Steps Taken toSupport French Intervention inMali, barely received any notice,and was the only Multilateral Is-sues subcategory in which Swe-den did not attain leader status.The final subcategory, Supportfor Somalia, also saw little re-sponse, with only six nationsranked, all leaders, neitherGreece nor Cyprus among them.

GREECE AND CYPRUSOf the 30 issues that the

ECFR addressed, Greece re-ceived 0 leader distinctions, 4for slacker, and 26 non-rank-ings. Cyprus fared only slightlybetter: 1 leader, 3 slacker, and26 non-rankings. In comparingGreece with some other Euro-pean countries whoseeconomies were adversely af-fected over the past few years –Ireland, Italy, Portugal, andSpain, here’s how they fared:Ireland: 2 leader, 2 slacker.Italy: 9 leader, 2 slacker. Portu-gal: 0 leader, 2 slacker. Spain: 4leader, 3 slacker. Clearly, Cyprusfared worse than all those na-tions, and Greece worst of all.

Why did Cyprus and Greecerank so low? Dr. Dimitar Bechev,a Senior Policy Fellow at ECFRand a leading international ex-pert on the Balkans, explainedit to TNH. Cyprus is preventingnegotiations from continuing re-garding Turkey’s acceptanceinto the European Union. Theprocess involves coming toagreement on 33 of the 35“Chapters” that comprise the

EU’s total body of law. “Nicosiashould lift vetoes on chapters todo with judicial reform and jus-tice and home affairs,” Bechevsaid, referring to Chapters 23and 24. Conversely, the ECFR inits report praised Belgium, Italy,and Sweden for encouraging ne-gotiations on those chapters,“keeping talks afloat as a wayto help Turkey improve its de-mocratic performance.”

As for Greece, there weretwo main concerns, Bechev toldTNH. The first has to do withgas supply routes to Europe andGreece’s reluctance to supportthe EU-favored Third EnergyPackage. There are various op-tions, the ECFR reported, andthe lack of European unity hascaused inefficiency and delay.Nonetheless, Greece is not theonly uncooperative country inthis respect, Bechev added.

The other issue causingGreece’s low ranking, Bechev ex-plained, was its treatment ofSyrian refugees. Greece needs toimprove its treatment of Asylumseekers, he said, and the EFCRreported that 11,000 Syrianswere arrested trying to cross intoGreece, with questions abouthow they are being treated.

Though it is unclear whetherEFCR’s methodology factors ineconomic and political condi-tions of the countries it ranks,the overall leaders and slackersdo not appear to correlate tosuch demographics. In anyevent, of the 28 nations in thereport, Greece was at the verybottom.

GREECE JUDGED TOOHARSHLY

Dr. Thanos Dokos, DirectorGeneral of the Hellenic Founda-tion for European & Foreign Pol-icy (ELIAMEP), took exceptionto some of the findings. Though“the EU Foreign Policy Scorecardis a very useful tool for foreignpolicy experts and officials,” hetold TNH, it does not necessarilyget everything right. Surely “onecould criticize the [Greek] gov-ernment of not being alwaysproactive and not exploitingsome opportunities regarding[its] regional role, Dokos said,but “criticizing a country goingthrough a deep financial crisisfor reducing its humanitarianand development assistancesounds rather absurd.”

Moreover, Dokos explainedto TNH that although it wouldbe great if Greece could providemore assistance to Syrianrefugees, “Greece is over-whelmed with large numbers ofillegal immigrants from variouscountries that well exceed its re-ception and absorption capaci-ties.” He also raised the issuethat the ECFR “ignores the veryimportant Trans-AdriaticPipeline agreement signed in2013 which will bring Azeri gasthrough Greece to the Europeanmarket.”

ECFR Ranks Greece Last in Foreign Policy out of 28 European Countries

By Andy Dabilis

Even as Greek Prime MinisterAntonis Samaras is hoping thata coming primary surplus of asmuch as 1.1 billion euros couldspur hopes for debt relief from$325 billion in internationalbailouts, it’s being ruled out byGermany, the biggest contribu-tor to the rescue aid.

Disputing a report in thenews magazine Der Spiegel thata third bailout package was be-ing readied for Greece, the Ger-man Finance Ministry reiteratedthat there is no chance Greecewill be allowed to stiff thelenders.

“There is no new situationregarding Greece,” saidspokesman Marco Semmel-mann. Asked about the possibil-ity of a debt write-down, hesaid: “I can deny that categori-cally.”

If Greece is allowed debt re-lief, the cost would have to bepassed on to taxpayers in theother 17 Eurozone countrieswho would have to pass for gen-erations of wild overspendingby Greek politicians.

Weekly Der Spiegel reportedthat Berlin was preparing theground for a third aid packagefor Greece of 10-20 billion euroswhich could include a furtherhaircut affecting public creditorsor a “limited additional pro-

gram” involving fresh fundsfrom the European rescue fund.

The magazine said it hadseen a five-page ministry posi-tion paper outlining the detailsof the Greek aid, including al-lowing Greece not to repay allit owes to the Troika of the Eu-ropean Union-InternationalMonetary Fund-European Cen-tral Bank (EU-IMF-ECB.) TheIMF also previously rejected theidea of taking losses but saidthat the ECB and EU lendersshould.

In 2011, a previous Greekgovernment stiffed private in-vestors, including those in theDiaspora and Greek and Cypriotbanks and other bondholders,with 74 percent losses but stillhasn’t made a dent in a stagger-ing $430 billion debt.

German Chancellor AngelaMerkel and Finance MinisterWolfgang Schaeuble have re-peatedly ruled out a haircut aswell. There was no report onwhether a third bailout is beingset.

The position paper report-edly said if Greece gets moremoney it would have to speeddelayed reforms and it couldforce Prime Minister AntonisSamaras to go back on his wordnot to impose more austeritymeasures.

The timing is also critical asSamaras’ coalition of his New

Democracy Conservatives andhis partner the PASOK Socialistsface a tough in the EuropeanParliament and Greek municipalelections from the major oppo-sition Coalition of the RadicalLeft (SYRIZA).

The Leftists oppose thebailout deals with the Troika.SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras,who said he would revise or re-nege on the deal, said Greece’sruling parties will be repudiatedin the elections and he will

come to power.While there has been talk

that there could be a remainingneed for some refinancing, anyfurther package would be farsmaller than the aid granted sofar.

The bailouts run out this yearbut envoys from the Troika stillhaven’t completed negotiationson delayed reforms and howGreece will close a hole of asmuch as 2.4 billion euros ($3.23billion) in the 2014 budget.

A senior EU official said lastmonth that Greece was not inurgent need of funds now andextra money would only beneeded when Greece must payback debt, including an 11 bil-lion euro ($14.83 billion) bond,also in May.

A GREEK COmEBACKSamaras said that he has put

the country on the road to re-covery with additional rescueaid from international lenders.

“We do not need a new, thirdaid program,” Samaras told Bildin an interview. “We are reach-ing the goals of our current pro-gram and it is showing results.”

That was uncertain in Ger-many. “What is sure is that anyfurther aid would be much lessexpansive than whatever helpso far,” German Finance Minis-ter Wolfgang Schaeuble toldWirtschaftswoche magazine re-cently. Samaras insisted that hehad received no notificationfrom Schaeuble regarding a newfinancial package.

Germany is the biggest con-tributor to the loans – fromwhich it has made handsomeprofits – but has insisted onharsh austerity measures in re-turn and Samaras, trying to holddown social and political unrest,said he wouldn’t impose morepay cuts, tax hikes and slashedpensions that could be attachedto a third bailout.

The Greek prime ministeralso dismissed claims thatGreece is lagging in structuralreforms, saying that the countrycarried out 76 percent of its“prior actions” last year.

The Troika has reportedlyidentified 153 uncompleted re-forms, however, and is due toreturn to Athens this month todiscuss a 2.4 billion euro ($3.27billion) hole in the 2014 budgetbefore releasing the next install-ment of rescue aid.

Samaras dismissed the ideaof one-off wealth tax, as sug-gested by the Bundesbank, andinsisted that wealthy Greeks, in-cluding ship owners, are beingtaxed properly although criticssaid they have largely escapedsacrificed and even prosperedduring a crisis that has seenrecord unemployment and deeppoverty.

The premier also rejected anECB study from last year, whichBild quoted on its front page lastweek, suggesting that Greekswere wealthier than Germanswhen property ownership istaken into account.

“Greeks are definitely not onaverage richer than the Ger-mans because the numbers andproperty prices mentioned inthe research are no longer cor-rect,” he said. “Property priceshave fallen greatly during thecrisis.

German Finance Ministry Reaffirms There will be No Haircut for Greece

GREECE10 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014

ACROSS1 Beantown6 Type of white wine11 Hallloween mth. (abbrev.)12 Animal Liberation Orch. (abbrev.)14 Dental Anthropology Assoc. (abbrev.)15 Zimbabwe's former name16 Dance partn. of Fred Astaire (init.)17 High or low card in a deck18 Active Noise Reduct. (abbrev.)19 Corn unit21 Chocolate bar ingredient24 Greek name of Juno27 Word of realization28 Tenth Greek letter30 Greek-derived word meaning period of longtime31 Madonna's costar in flm. DepseratelySeeking Susan (init.)33 Star of MASH telev. show (init.)34 Acknowledge36 A Kennedy39 The Satanic Verses auth. (init.)40 Flanked by N and Q42 Jazzy Mouskouri43 Greek island dance46 Organized Crm. (abbrev.)48 "____ ta Mallakia Sou" Gounaris song50 High School dance51 Gillan of Deep Purple54 Played a juror in 12 Angry Men56 ____- ki'etsi so-so, to a Greek57 Excel on a test60 Type of dig. photo frame (abbrev.)61 Director Kostas64 City in Nevada65 Footnote terminolog. (abbrev.)66 Actor Penghilis69 Paradoxical70 Spin the ______ (kissing game)

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T I M W R I T E S C A R S

Solution to last week’s puzzle

THE HERALD SQUARETNH's Crossword Challenge

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14

15 16 17

18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30

31 32 33 34 35

36 37 38 39

40 41 42 43 44 45

46 47 48 49 50

51 52 53 54 55

56 57 58 59

60 61 62 63

64 65 66 67 68

69 70

www.CrosswordWeaver.com

German Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble

Continued from page 1

The Greek flag may be flying high, but Greece was ranked lastout of 28 countries on foreign policy, according to the ECFR.

GREECE CYPRUSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014 11

read offered no details on howthe federation would work or if,as former Cypriot PresidentDemetris Christofias hadagreed, a Turkish-Cypriot leaderwould become President of thecountry on a rotating basis. Itwill be up to negotiators to ham-mer out the details but thatcould be a hard sell for Anas-tasiades as Cypriots in 2004 by74 percent vote rejected a com-promise plan that was backedby the Turks, who want to jointhe European Union.

Anastasiades, who heads theinternationally-recognizedCypriot government, and Erogluwill now leave key negotiatorsto thrash out the finer points ofany deal, the detail where talkstypically flounder.

Anastasiades faces strong do-mestic pressure from critics whosay the document contains theseeds of possible Turkish Cypriotstatehood, which could unravelany peace accord and lead to apermanent partition.

He will face difficulties con-vincing everyone on his side, no-tably from the center-right De-mocratic Party. Its leaderNicholas Papadopoulos has al-ready denounced the declara-tion as a bad deal that bodes illfor the course of negotiationsand urged Anastasiades not to

sign it. The Democratic Party isa partner in Anastasiades’ rulingcoalition government.

European Commission Pres-ident Jose Manuel Barroso and

European Council PresidentHerman Van Rompuy in a state-ment hailed the restart of talksand said the declaration laid “asolid foundation” for a peace ac-

cord.Turkish Prime Minister Recep

Tayyip Erdogan, whose coun-try’s troubled EU membershipbid is further hobbled by the

Cyprus dispute, expressed hopethe talks take “no backwardsteps.”

The main point of contentionhad been on the sovereignty sta-tus of a reunified Cyprus amidconcerns among Greek Cypriotsthat Eroglu was seeking recog-nition for his community as aseparate state that would act asa buffer against domination bythe majority Greek Cypriots. ButGreek Cypriots argued thatwould plant the seeds of perma-nent partition in case any newarrangement collapsed.

Anastasiades said the draftdeclaration “safeguards the im-portant principles and basis fora solution.”

Debt-laden Cyprus agreedlast year to a bailout with itseuro partners and the Interna-tional Monetary Fund. A peacedeal could reap a huge financialdividend.

After months of stalemate,things began moving followinga visit to Cyprus by U.S. Under-secretary of State Victoria Nu-land.

On Feb. 7, Anastasiadesspoke to Vice President JoeBiden who according to Cypriotofficials expressed “unwaveringU.S. support for a just and last-ing settlement.” They said Bidenwas encouraging “creativethinking” to boost the chancesof success.

The main point of contentionhad been on the sovereignty sta-tus of a reunified Cyprus amidconcerns among Greek Cypriotsthat Eroglu was seeking recog-nition for his community as aseparate state that would act asa buffer against domination bythe majority Greek Cypriots. ButGreek Cypriots argued thatwould plant the seeds of perma-nent partition in case any newarrangement collapsed.

A solution for Cyprus hasevaded negotiators for almostfour decades. UN Secretary Gen-eral Ban Ki-moon has severaltimes predicted breakthroughsonly to be proved wrong and hisspecial envoy for Cyprus,Alexander Downer, recently saidhe’s giving up the quest to findan answer.

Anastasiades had said twomonths earlier that the talkswere dead because the TurkishCypriots were intractable andhad set non-negotiable demandswithout offering any conces-sions. Turkey blames the Cypri-ots for being intransigent, a pat-tern that has repeated itself foryears, foiling any attempt to getthe sides talking seriously.

The UN urged the two sidesto concentrate on contentiouscore issues.

(material from the AssociatedPress was used in this report)

Greek and Turkish Leaders in Cyprus Discuss Power-Sharing Federation

Alliance. In particular, and as theletter authored by Rep. Turnerand that I and 40 of my col-leagues signed specifies, theUnited States should support theapplication for NATO member-ship for Montenegro and Mace-donia at this year’s summit, en-courage continued progress inimplementing the MembershipAction Plan (MAP) for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and advocate forgranting a MAP to Georgia. I alsoecho the call in the letter for theUnited States to work with NATOto ensure that Kosovo…be pro-vided a pathway for eventualmembership in the Alliance.

“Support for these initiativeswill encourage these nations tofurther pursue important demo-cratic reforms and strengthentheir commitment to partneringwith Euro-Atlantic institutions,both of which are important toachieve our vision of a Europewhole, free, and at peace.”

TNH had not received a re-sponse to its enquiries from En-gel’s office at press time.

Excerpts from the letter fol-lows:

“Dear Secretary Kerry,“As we approach the 2014

North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-tion (NATO) Summit hosted bythe United Kingdom, we encour-age your continued efforts tomake enlargement a key priorityfor the United States and the Al-liance.

“It is our firm belief that thegenuine prospect of NATO mem-bership for the current group ofaspirant states will furtherstrengthen democratic institu-tions and values and increasestability and security in the re-gion.

“In contrast, failure to recog-nize and reward their significantefforts could discourage aspirantcountries from pursuing furtherdemocratic reforms and weakentheir commitment to partneringwith Euro-Atlantic institutions.In addition, the Ukrainian gov-ernment’s recent decision not tosign a long awaited associationagreement with the EU—in de-fiance of the popular preferencefor European integration—raisesconcerns about back-sliding ondemocracy and the possibilitythat states in the region will bepressured by outside forces seek-ing to divide the continent andundermine the vision of a Europewhole, free, and at peace.”

Signatories: Michael R.Turner, Eliot L. Engel, Bill Keat-ing,Doug Lamborn, MikeMichaud, John Shimkus,TomCotton, Gary Peters, Mo Brooks,Paul Cook, Robert B. Aderholt,Alcee L. Hastings, AdamKinzinger, Bill Shuster,Madeleine Z. Bordallo, JimBridenstine, William Enyart,Trent Franks, Tom Marino, EddieBernice Johnson, Albio Sires,William Lacy Clay, Mark Mead-ows, Brett Guthrie, Candice S.

Miller, Bill Pascrell, Tom Latham,Jeff Miller, John Larson, SteveStivers, Alan Lowenthal, BillyLong, Ami Bera, Gregory W.Meeks, Brian Higgins, GraceMeng, Bennie G. Thompson,Kerry Bentivolio, Gerry Connolly,Frank Wolf.

COmmUNITY REACTIONThe reaction of the leading

community organizations activeon Capitol Hill was a mixture ofdisappointment and perspectivegiven that NATO’s explicit posi-

tion is that FYROM must resolveits dispute with Greece.

“The American Hellenic Insti-tute is profoundly disappointedwith a congressional letter toSecretary of State John Kerrysigned by 40 U.S. representativesthat backs FYROM’s membershipin NATO,” Nick Larigakis, Presi-dent of the American HellenicInstitute (AHI) told TNH.

“In particular, we are disap-pointed that the letter has thesupport of U.S. RepresentativeEliot Engel…and U.S. Represen-tatives Albio Sires and GraceMeng, members of the HouseCommittee on Foreign Affairs.All four legislators are membersof the Congressional Caucus onHellenic Issues and have beenbig supporters on issues of con-cern to the community in thepast.”

Andy Manatos, the presidentand founder of the National Co-ordinated Effort of Hellenes,pointed out that the 40 signa-tures on the letter is a substantialfall off from the 53 that ap-peared in the 2012 version, andsaid, “I think that shows it is los-ing momentum.”

He also emphasized that “El-liot Engel is one of the best peo-ple on Capitol Hill regardingCyprus, Greece, and the Ecu-menical Patriarchate…and Iguarantee you that if the ques-

tion were put to Elliot ‘do youthink FYROM should come to acommonly-agreed upon namewith Greece before joiningNATO, would that be preferable,’I think he would say ‘absolutely.’”

The Executive Director of theHellenic American LeadershipCouncil (HALC), Endy Ze-menides, put the letter into per-spective for community concernby noting, “clearly the motivatingfactor in the letter is not FYROM.He said Elliot Engel, who hasmany Albanians in his district,has been a strong supporter ofthe Kosovars and Georgia. “Theyare the main drivers,” he said.

“What the Congressmen whosigned this letter need to under-stand is that is the position ofthe NATO alliance is that if FY-ROM does not want to come toa mutually agreeable solutionwith Greece, they don’t get in.”

He said that the signatoriesneed to acknowledge the factthat a deal was put on the table.“Greece made a fantastic over-ture in 2008 and there has beenno answer,” he said, adding “TheCongressmen need to be edu-cated,” by the community.

Zemenides also pointed outthat NATO operates on the basisof unanimity. “Why would youput in a country that exhibitshostility towards a NATO mem-ber?” The bottom line, he said is

that “they can write all the let-ters they want, but Greecewields a veto, and NATO hassaid they are not putting it onthe agenda…this letter will gonowhere. It will fall on deaf earsthroughout the world.”

AHEPA Supreme PresidentAnthony Kouzounis explained toTNH that this is not a new de-velopment. “Every time theyhave a NATO summit there is al-ways Congressional action takenby FYROM supporters promotingFYROM’s membership in NATO,so the letter itself is not unusual,but what is disappointing is thatranking member Engel and a sig-nificant number of the membersof the Committee on Foreign Af-fairs and Hellenic Caucus mem-bers also signed the letters.

Bill Keating, the rankingmember of the subcommittee onEurope, is on the Hellenic Cau-cus, as are signatories MikeMichaud, Gary Peters, Alcee L.Hastings, Fred Franks, EddieBernice Johnson, Albio Sires, BillPascrell, William Clay, JohnLarsen, Gregory Meeks, GraceMeng, and Jerry Connolly, co-chair of the Turkish caucus.

“Maybe this is a wakeup callfor our community that our mes-sages may not be gettingthrough to some members ofCongress on this issue,” Kouzu-nis said.

40 Congress Members Want FYROM in NATO, Community Disappointed

(L-R): Supreme President Anthony D. Kouzounis, DemetriosKaloidis, Amb. Nicos Emiliou, Consul Gen. Koula Sophianou,Congressman Elliot Engel, Bishop Sevastianos, Amb. GeorgeChacali, Joanne Saltas, and Philip Christopher.

TNH Staff

ATHENS – With crucial munic-ipal and European Parliamentelections looming and its coali-tion support fading fast, PrimeMinister Antonis Samaras’ NewDemocracy-led government saidit will not allow Greeks livingabroad, nor second-generationimmigrants living legally inGreece, to vote or stand as can-didates.

The move was made unilat-erally and without debatethrough a legislative amend-ment submitted to Parliamentby Interior Minister YiannisMichelakis and effectively re-vokes a 2010 law named for hispredecessor, Yiannis Ragousis,which extended voting rights tosecond-generation immigrantsliving in the country, and ethnicGreeks based abroad.

There was no indicationwhether the move was madeout of fear that Greeks livingabroad are disaffected by harshausterity measures that havecreated record unemploymentand deep poverty and would beopposed to the coalition, asmight be immigrants who havebeen the target of assaults.

The move means that immi-grants who were born in Greece,speak Greek, and attended Greekschools won’t be allowed to votenor run for office. Greeks of theDiaspora have been talking fruit-lessly for years with the Greekgovernment about being allowedto vote in Greek elections.

Citizens of countries in theEuropean Free Trade Area – Ice-land, Liechtenstein, Norway andSwitzerland – who are legal res-idents in Greece are also re-voked of their right to vote and

to stand as a candidate in elec-tions, according to the new leg-islation.

The government denied ithad revoked the Ragousis Lawand said it was only following aruling by the Council of Statelast year that declared it uncon-stitutional.

That ruling said the Consti-tution grants the right to voteand stand as a candidate in elec-tions to Greek citizens alone.That right cannot be extendedto others unless there is a con-stitutional review, it said.

Samaras, whose electioncampaign in 2012 included ananti-immigrant platform, hasseen his party fall behind themajor opposition Coalition ofthe Radical Left (SYRIZA) whichis opposed to the austerity mea-sures the government has im-posed on the orders of interna-

tional lenders.A story in the Financial

Times also indicated that NewDemocracy is now falling fur-ther behind SYRIZA, which hastaken a growing lead in recentpolls and that the Conservativesmay be fighting for second placein the EU elections with the ul-tra-right extremist Golden DawnParty whose leaders have beenjailed or arrested on charges ofrunning a criminal gang.

“The government wants tooutlaw Golden Dawn, whichwould equal a destructive coupto the political system of Greece.National Dawn was created torepresent the thousands ofGreek patriots and to run in theelections if we get outlawed,”said Kasidiaris in the interviewwith FT.

“National Dawn’s list will in-clude well-respected candidates,

like retired armed forces gener-als, academics and doctors.They will receive strong supportby the growing numbers ofGreek nationalists,” he added.

“The government’s goal wasto put me in jail before the elec-tions, so that I wouldn’t be ableto speak publicly,” said Ka-sidiaris, who took up the lead-ership of the party after the ar-rest of Nikos Michaloliakos acouple of months ago. Headded, “I will continue to be acandidate, unless they pass alaw depriving me of my civilrights.”

Golden Dawn wants Greecepopulated only by 100 percentGreeks and said it would deportimmigrants and plant landmineson the borders to keep out oth-ers seeking to enter Greece forasylum or use the country to getto other EU countries.

By Exec. Fiat, Samaras Gov’t Strips Diaspora of Greece Voting Rights

Continued from page 1

Cyprus president Nicos Anastasiades (L) and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu shake handsas U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative to Cyprus Lisa Buttenheim smiles after theirmeeting at a UN compound in the UN buffer zone in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus.

TNH Staff

ATHENS – Former HellenicPostbank chairman Angelos Fil-ippidis, charged in connectionwith an alleged bad loanscheme at the failed state-owned institution, was releasedon two million euros bail aftertelling an interrogator he haddone nothing wrong and theloans had been guaranteed.

Filippidis had returned fromTurkey where he had been ar-rested after Greek authoritiestracked him on his cell phonewhile he was calling TV stationsto defend himself.

He had been set free therebefore he could be extraditedand then return. He was ar-rested after he came back toAthens.

He reportedly gave the pros-ecutor detailed financial reportsand analysis and said he would

fight the charges. As he was en-tering the interrogator’s officehe said there were no impropri-eties at the bank where prose-cutors alleged some 500 millioneuros in loans were given outwithout collateral and weren’tbeing repaid.

In a lengthy defense, he dis-puted it and said, “If I lose, theprosecutors will approve theloans.”

Filippidis is accused of pro-viding major loans to Greekbusinessmen without any assur-ances. Investigators found 14million euros in various secretforeign bank accounts in Filip-pidis’ name and said he had25,000 euros and a Swiss resi-dency permit on him when firstarrested.

The government arrested 29people after discovering that thefailed state-owned bank al-legedly gave the loans to promi-

nent businessmen and compa-nies without requiring collat-eral, much of the money endingup in the businessmen’s per-sonal bank accounts.

Investigators said the probeuncovered a series of bribes andkickbacks, and at least threeprominent businessmen thatbenefited from the scheme areunder arrest.

Police asked Swiss authori-ties to open Filippidis’ accountsat HSBC Private Bank, BanquePrivee and other institutions asthey seek to examine the originof his wealth.

Authorities said they are ex-panding the probe to trackmoney flows in Montenegro asthe country has shared informa-tion on one suspect involvedthat played a key role in TTBank’s scheme.

Police also arrested KyriakosGriveas and his wife Anastasia

Vatsika in Manchester, England;authorities said they received19.8 million euros in loans theydid not repay. They were freedon 61,000 euros bail each.

The scandal broke at a badtime for the Greek banking sec-tor, which relies on a 50 billioneuro recapitalization the gov-ernment took from internationalbailout funds to restore financialintegrity.

The previous governmentimposed 74 percent losses oninvestors and bondholders in2011, and austerity measuresbrought about nearly 40 percentin non-performing loans in thebanking sector. TT Bank wasrescued by the government lastyear.

“Some banks may need ad-ditional funds after a stress testis completed by analysts,” saidGeorge Provopoulos, Governorof the Bank of Greece.

Former Scandal Bank Chairman Freed as Probe Expands

The former head of Greece’s Hellenic Postbank, Angelos Filippidiswas released on €2 million bail after telling an interrogator hehad done nothing wrong and the loans had been guaranteed.

Continued from page 1

AP Photo/Petros KArAdjiAs

euroKiNissi

EDITORIALS LETTERS12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014

Seahawks Fan BlastsSuper Bowl Prediction

To the Editor:

Having just received ourcopy of the February 1 issue (ittakes a while for the mail to gethere to the Seattle area), I feelcompelled to write and suggestthat Constantinos E. Scaros andAndy Dabilis should stick towriting about Greece andGreek-Americans and leave pre-dictions of pro football gamesto others.

Clearly, their article favoring

the Denver Broncos in the SuperBowl over our Seattle Seahawks(“Manning up for the Big Game:Here’s our Prediction for SuperBowl 48”) was misguided.

Of the four scenarios Mr.Scaros mentioned, the final one"Seattle winning big" is whatcame to pass: 43-8. As varioussports commentators have ex-plained, the Seahawks’ awe-some defense had Peyton Man-ning and the Broncos figuredout and held them almost score-less.

Nowhere did either Messrs.Scaros or Dabilis give any creditto the power of the 12th man –Seattle's loyal fans – in support-ing the team's winning seasonand championship.

If they had a question onthis, they should have seen allof the "12" flags flying through-out the city week after week,and been at the victory paradeand rally attended by over700,000 people jammed intoDowntown Seattle, the largestpublic event in the city's history,despite temperatures in the mid-20s and a further wind chill fac-tor.

I will look forward to theirfollow-up articles explaining, asMr. Scaros stated they would doif they were wrong, "what lousysports prognosticators we are."

Clifford ArgueMercer Island, WA

From our website…

In response to “What aGolden Dawn Nazi MayorMeans,” by Andy Dabilis (postedon Feb. 3):

I’d rather have Greeks decidethe fate of Greece and not for-eigners. Greece is not America,and what I’ve seen from the“home of the brave” in recentdecades makes me cringe.

It’s easy for America to copout on immigration being a land

of immigrants to begin with, butshame on Greeks who would in-sult the intelligence of thosewho love their Greek heritageand their territorial homelandby slandering those who see thedangers of weak governance.

I’m a bit tired of your editor-ial tirades. Explain to yourGreek Orthodox readers howgay marriage is the Orthodoxway. This we would all love tohear!

singrelioti

The Corruption ContinuesJust a few days ago Greece was declared the most corrupt country

in Europe, more corrupt than even the former Soviet colonies ofBulgaria and Romania.

Ninety-nine percent of the Greeks – a rare consensus – believethat corruption is indeed still prevalent in their homeland.

One would expect that at least since the emergence of the eco-nomic crisis, this cancer eating away at the heart of the Greek Statewould have been eliminated, but alas, that is not the case. That theissue has for the most part been ignored is not only a shame, but ab-solutely infuriating, too.

If the Greek political system is unable to take on corruption –particularly as it itself depends upon the corrupt – then DiasporaGreeks should take the lead and raise their voices in anger.

We should insist that the relevant international organizations –and Greece’s creditors – demand an end to this misery, which affectsthe depths of Hellenism and seriously damages the country.

The ink had barely dried on corruption articles when the FinancialTimes (FT) published unimaginable revelations about the privatiza-tion of Greece’s legalized gambling company OPAP.

All of us, I think, to varying degrees had a feeling that somethingwas not quite right about the privatization. Then, we read the namesof the key "players" and thought, "Aha! Now we understand."

But who would have imagined just how deep the matter ex-tends?

The FT revealed that "a clause inserted into an existing investmentlaw froze until last month the Greek gaming regulator’s obligationto carry out a ‘probity’ check on potential buyers of OPAP, to ensurethey were not involved in any criminal activities or money-launder-ing.

“The leading investors in OPAP are Jiri Smecj, a Czech billionaire,and Dimitris Melissanidis, a Greek oil tycoon. Mr. Smecj controlsEmma Capital, an investment company which set up Emma Delta asa vehicle to bid for OPAP,” FT reported.

Shedding more light for readers less familiar with the cast ofcharacters, FT added: “Mr. Melissanidis presented himself to Greekmedia and the Athens business community as Emma Delta’s repre-sentative in the capital during OPAP’s privatisation process. Mr.Melissanidis, a self-made billionaire, is the largest shareholder inAegean Marine Petroleum, a global supplier of marine fuel listed onthe New York Stock Exchange.

A listing prospectus for Aegean Marine published in 2006 statedthat Mr. Melissanidis, its founder, had been subject to proceedings,including criminal cases, in the past. However, he was acquitted ofthe allegations except for two matters in the 1980s, for which hewas fined.

“Mr. Melissanidis was criticised by Evangelos Marinakis, a leadingshipowner and chairman of Olympiakos, Greece’s most successfulfootball club, after AEK was awarded €1.9m of sponsorship by OPAPlast September. The decision was unprecedented as individual clubsin the third division have not previously been considered eligible forOPAP funding.”

The disclosures are particularly serious – they are essentially abomb for the coalition government – because they were an act ofParliament. The clause could not be passed without the knowledgeand participation – or at minimum, the tolerance – of the coalitionpartners.

You may have noticed that this major news about more Greekcorruption was revealed by a non-Greek media outlet.

It is also noteworthy that “the investigation was confirmed to theFinancial Times by people co-operating with Ioannis Sevis, the pros-ecutor.”

Justice. We wish. And therein lies the hope.

Those Influential GreeksOne of the issues often discussed in the Greek-American commu-

nity, as well as in Greece and Cyprus, is the degree of influence thecommunity has with American authorities.

The majority of those on the other side of the Atlantic is thatsuch influence is small, if not downright negligible.

The community, however, knows that its influence is significant –given its numbers – and that it would be even greater if Greece andCyprus exhibited more seriousness in their objectives and cooperatedwith the Diaspora in addressing their issues of concern in America.

But there is another very important aspect that we have to bearin mind: the opinion of others. In that regard, our influence is im-pressive.

This has been seen in publications such as Time magazine, andothers, and in the following revealing incident: James Woolsey, theDirector of the CIA from February 1993 to January 1995, is callingfor the release of Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted of spying forIsrael and is serving the 29th year of his sentence.

“That doesn't mean that what he did wasn't serious, he said, I'veseen the materials in 1993 and what he disclosed was very confi-dential content. But I tell people 'imagine he's a Greek Americanand free him.’"

In a letter published in the Wall Street Journal Woolsey wrote:“One especially damaging Greek-American spy, Steven Lalas, receiveda 14-year sentence; just over half of what Pollard has already served.”

But there is no comparison between the offenses of Lalas andPollard: The first worked at the U.S. Embassy in Athens and had ac-cess to information of limited importance, pertaining to relationsbetween Greece and the United States. But Lalas was based in Wash-ington and gave Israel top U.S. military secrets.

How then can the two cases be compared?For the sake of history, we note two items regarding Lalas: First,

he was caught because of incredible carelessness: a member of theGreek government had denied a U.S. statement before it was officiallytransmitted to them, on the basis of what Lalas gave them.

So, they realized that someone leaked the information throughthe Embassy in Greece.

Second, the way Greece dealt with him after his conviction wasunacceptable: his family was practically going hungry, and when hewas released he could not find work.

So, we thank Woolsey for the influence he credited to us – we ac-cept the compliment gladly – but we emphasize that there is only alimited relationship between the cases of these two American agents.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

COMMENTARY

By Father John E. ArtemasSpecial to The National Herald

Enough is enough! With dis-may and concern for a longtime, I have been following thearticles and letters of EmmanuelKaravousanos in The NationalHerald, most recently, "Exclu-sionary Christianity is Fifth Cen-tury Thinking," in the January25 edition.

First of all, let us affirm thataccording to the Bible and theOrthodox Church, there are in-deed true prophets after Christ,and there are also many falseones. The idea that we have trueand false prophets is not "out-dated," as Mr. Karavousanospontificates. As long as truthand falsehood exist, there willcontinue to be true and falseprophets.

It is abundantly clear fromhis writings that Mr. Karavou-sanos is one of many dangerous"false prophets." (Let us remem-ber that a true prophet is notonly one who foretells the fu-ture, but one who boldly pro-claims the truth, inspired by theSpirit of God.)

Mr. Karavousanos says that"we are no longer so muchChristian, Buddhist, Hindu,Greek, Mexican...we are gainingthe insight to see above all else,we are all human beings." In-deed we are. But that realizationalone does not, and has nothelped us to become "one" andat peace with each other. Justlook at the continuing violence,conflicts, and killings around theworld. There continues to bejust as much violence as ever(perhaps more than before). Tosuggest, then, as he does, thatall religions are basically thesame displays serious ignoranceand pseudosophistication. Wecan

agree that all religions pos-sess some elements of truth. ButChristianity alone, the Faith re-vealed by God Himself, pos-sesses The Truth, which is not aphilosophy or theory, but theonly Divine Person, Jesus Christ.

In that sense Christianity is"exclusionary" indeed. Not thatit intends to exclude anyone,

but because it is special andunique compared to all otherfaiths. And this claim and"Gospel" remains the same as it

did yesterday, today, and as itwill until the end of time.

This conviction does not andshould not make Christians elit-ist, arrogant, and judgmental ofothers, but loving, compassion-ate and "evangelistic," as theycontinue to proclaim the GoodNews to all humanity.

Moreover, Mr. Karavousanossays that "God is simply a gen-uine, attainable state of mind, amystical experience that we canseek and gain." What absurdity!If God is simply "a state ofmind," then He has no objectiveexistence. It is up to you and meto "create Him"...in our minds!Such preposterous ideas areatheistic and totally hostile toChristianity and to most reli-gions.

He also claims that "the uni-verse always was and alwayswill be. It was not created." IfGod is only "a state of mind,"then of course the universe wasnot created; there was no oneto create it! Some Greekphilosophers, including Aristo-tle, did suggest that the universealways existed. But Christianity,and several other religions insistthat "God created the Heavensand the Earth." Most contempo-rary astrophysicists espouse the

"Big Bang" theory of creation.

They cannot explain who cre-ated the universe, but they insistthat there was a moment of cre-ation. And Christianity agrees.But keeping faith out of it for amoment, can Mr. Karavousanosprove the astrophysicistswrong?

After sowing seeds of "poison"in the minds of readers, he con-cludes, inconsistently, that "thisis not a suggestion that we aban-don our Greek Orthodox faith,but let's keep it personal andsomething that can be transmit-ted to our children with a quietpride. One faith is not better thananother." Mr. Karavousanos, Je-sus Christ vehemently disagreeswith you. He insists: "I am theWay, the Truth, and the Life. Noone comes to the Father exceptby me"(John 14:6).

Mr. Karavousanos speaks of"our" Greek Orthodox Faith. Butthis Greek Orthodox Faith is nothis. His views and beliefs arenon-Orthodox, non-Christian,and even non-theistic. And if hereally believes that, then whywould he not invite us to aban-don the Greek Orthodox Faithand accept "religion"? Whywould he want us to continuebelieving in falsehoods?

How sad! Mr. K. is 81 yearsold, as he tells us. He seems to

be knowledgeable in secularlearning and some philosophy.But he doesn't know muchabout Christianity or Christol-ogy. His views are clearly hostileto Christianity and to many his-toric religions, and his attacksseem to be intentional and in-sidious.

One of our bishops shouldcall him to his office, and if Mr.K. persists in his "heresies," andis found to be in his rationalmind, he should be excommu-nicated and deprived of allrights and privileges in theChurch, including a Church fu-neral. Such action may seem ex-treme, but it is necessary for Mr.Karavousanos’ own good, butalso for the protection of our Or-thodox Christian people.

There is enough moral cor-ruption and falsehood andenough false prophets in theworld. We don't need any more.

Father John E. Artemas is Proto-presbyter of the St. GeorgeGreek Orthodox Church in DeKalb, IL.Emmanuel J. Karavousanos isauthor of the book The Gift ofmystical Insight: The Secret Un-locked. The Logic Revealed(Bloomington, IN – Author-House, 2007).

Karavousanos Should Be Excommunicated for Heresies

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TO OUR READERS

the National herald welcomesletters from its readers in-tended for publication. theyshould include the writer’sname, address, and telephonenumber and be addressed to:the editor, the National her-ald, 37-10 30th street, longisland City, Ny 11101. letterscan also be faxed to (718) 472-0510 or e-mailed toscaros@thenationalherald.com.we reserve the right to editletters for publication and re-gret that we are unable to ac-knowledge or return those leftunpublished.

GeorGe sArAFoGlou / sPeCiAl to the NAtioNAl herAld

Observations By Antonis H. Diamataris

Dimon…So Very Greek

Despite what has been said to the con-trary, I take pleasure in informing you thataccording to reliable sources, Jamie Di-mon – Chairman, President and CEO ofthe banking giant JPMorgan Chase, hasnot completely lost his Greekness.

At least not when it comes to exercisingthe art of favoritism.

I say “not completely,” as in “almost.”Although his grandfather was a Greek im-migrant named Papadimitriou – who evenwrote articles about the stock market forThe National Herald – Dimon wants noth-ing to do with his Greekness or with theGreek-American community.

You might have read that a new bankscandal broke out recently.

Apparently, the well-connected childrenof Chinese Mandarins were hired by U.S.banks that do business in China in ex-change for favorable treatment by the Chi-nese.

Reportedly, a leading Chinese bank au-ditor asked Dimon to hire a young womanwho had applied for work at his bank.And so, just like that, she was hired.

Dimon denies that he knew about thehiring, but U.S. authorities are investigat-ing whether he and the bank violated anti-corruption laws.

How very Greek, indeed!We hope that he overcomes this prob-

lem and wish all the best to Dimon, whoepitomizes this brand of...Greekness.

Modern ExportsGreece’s exports declined in 2013 com-

pared with 2012.What happened? Why are exports

growing rapidly in countries like Spainand Portugal, but not in Greece?

Either internal devaluation has notgone far enough, or the country has sode-industrialized that it produces almostnothing to export. Greece even importstomatoes!

A better model would be for Greece topromote high technology.

Why not create a Silicon Valley – inCrete for example, near the PolytechnicUniversity – whose products would be ex-ported at a much faster rate than cheeseand figs?

Let’s look forward rather than back-ward.

Genuine PatriotismRegarding the Cyprus issue, those “pa-

triots” in Athens and Nicosia are at itagain.

"They are selling out!...No compro-mise!...Reject the Anglo/American plans!”etc.

This has gone on for 40 years. Theyreject one proposal after another ongrounds of patriotism, bravery, and ro-manticism.

And that’s how we have gotten wherewe are now. With the balance of poweragainst us – one step before partition.

Cyprus has a serious leadership today.Let's support it. They are hardly traitors:they are patriots, trying to do the best fortheir country.

And let's make sure, as Samaras said,that there will be no recriminations be-tween Athens and Nicosia, as in the past.

The brutal policy of negation destroysus. It is time to unite, be positive, andshow genuine patriotism.

By Andreas C. ChrysafisSpecial to The National Herald

It appears that a deal is inprocess to partition the islandof Cyprus in one form or an-other. The “yes” government ofPresident Nicos Anastasiadeshas decided to abandon the ter-ritorial integrity of the Republicof Cyprus and create a newCyprus, one that he believeswould meet not only the inter-ests of Cyprus but also thegeopolitical interests of theUnited States, United Kingdom,Germany, Greece, Turkey, andFrance, and especially the inter-ests of the European Union.

The failed UN Annan Plan ison the table once again, thistime having entered through theside door.

Whatever the merits, theterms and negotiations in ques-tion should be put forth to thepeople to approve, not to thepolitical factions. In a truedemocracy, no temporary gov-ernment or career politician hasthe legitimacy to make consti-tutional changes or the right toalter the basic fabric of the na-tion without public consent –only citizens can do thatthrough a referendum!

The government’s readinessfor the resumption of the talkson the basis of “two communi-ties” rather than “one Cypriotnation” will ultimately bringabout a two-state solution andtrigger instability for years tocome. In that case, then, whynot consider three, four, or evenfive state-solutions to accommo-

date all the other ethnic minori-ties living on the island? No na-tion would ever allow the intro-duction of such sheer madnesson its own soil, yet for some rea-son it is perfectly okay to sug-gest it for Cyprus?

The only way forward to along-lasting solution is to incor-porate the same political systemenjoyed by all other democraticnations: one person, one-vote.One citizenship, one nation,based on the rule of law. Andjustice that guarantees religiousand ethnic diversity

Equality is the only way toachieve peace and security forall. If not, dark clouds shall ap-pear over Cyprus during thenext few months and will notgive way to sunshine quite soeasily.

Expect Dark Clouds to Hover over Cyprus

VIEWPOINTSTHE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014 13

Along with the irresoluteproblem of Middle East peace –an oxymoron second only toGreek Worker or Honest Politi-cian – there is no more tediousnews story than the vexingproblem of reunifying Cyprus,which has been split since anunlawful 1974 invasion byTurkey.

The Turks are still there, oc-cupying the northern 30 per-cent, a dreary little faux Repub-lic only they recognize and needa standing army to make surethere’s no attempt to take backwhat isn’t theirs.

The ghost city of Varosha,with 1974 abandoned cars stillin showrooms, and empty hotelsand buildings, is a reminder ofthe detritus left behind by thecomplicit agreement of theUnited States, courtesy of HenryKissinger, winner of the NobelWar Prize, and the United King-dom, to let Turkey land withoutany resistance from the interna-tional community.

Bringing together Cypriotsand Turks on the same island,now mortal enemies, hasevaded many diplomats and of-ficials who thought they couldjust jawbone a resolution, in-cluding Koffi Annan, whose2004 plan – revised five times –to unify the island was to keepit separate with two states.

That’s rather like continuingsegregation in the United Stateswhile declaring the country uni-fied, but the Turks were so des-perate to gain any kind of legit-imacy to their illegitimacy that65 percent of them supported itin a referendum.

Only 24 percent of Cypriotsdid, which told you need to

know about jury-rigged schemes byincompetent politi-cians who don’thave a clue how tosolve any problem –which is their intentor they’d be out ofbusiness.

The reason noone has been able tosolve this conun-drum is because itcan’t be solved with-out selling out theCypriots, which theUN, US, UK, NATOand EuropeanUnion would dearly love to doso Turkey would be appeased,become a member of the EU andkick billions into the coffers ofBrussels so politicians couldkeep traveling first-class andstay at five-star hotels.

As the late, great physicistRichard Feynman said, you canfix radios by thinking, and breakproblems down to their simplestcommon denominators. ForCyprus it amounts to this: imag-ine someone invaded your homeand has been occupying the topfloor for 40 years and nowcomes a mediator who suggeststhe answer is to let them staythere but pay you a couple ofbucks.

Former Cypriot PresidentDemetris “Commie” Christofiaswas driven out of office forsheer incompetence, along withhis inability to gain a single inchof progress in non-talks withTurkish Cypriot leader DervisEroglu, a hardliner who won’teven listen to arguments thataren’t his.

As Zorba said, “On a deaf

man’s door youcan knock for-ever,” and the onlysound currentCypriot PresidentNicos Anastasiadeswill hear when heknocks on Eroglu’sdoor when they re-sume talks on Feb.11 is an echo.

Only a monthago, Anastasiadesdeclared the talksdead after meetingEroglu for dinnerand looking him inthe face to see the

fish eye. Now Anastasiades, aswas Christofias, is being snook-ered into thinking this guy is se-rious about anything other thangrowing Turkish dominion onCyprus, not compromise.

If the Turks didn’t buyChristofias’ cockeyed ideas, in-cluding letting a Turk be Presi-dent of Cyprus every other year,then they aren’t going to acceptanything that requires conces-sion or conciliation.

This problem is so frustratingthat the UN’s envoy, AlexanderDowner, who occasionally jettedto Nicosia, first-class, said a fewwords to both sides, had a cou-ple of photo ops and took offknowing he was spitting into thewind, has thrown up his handsand quit, joining a long line offailed negotiators.

One of the reasons that Anas-tasiades will fail is that he’s justa politician out of touch withthe people too, although he maybe hoping that the passage oftime means today’s youngCypriots don’t remember all thedead and missing Cypriots –

many taken to Turkey and stillunaccounted for. That should bethe first topic on the table butit’s been forgotten because thedead don’t matter.

After the crushing defeat ofthe Annan Plan, an academicstudy of voter attitudes found itwas an easier call than predict-ing a Greek defense ministerwill steal from defense con-tracts. The conclusion was thatit was doomed to rejection be-cause it was developed throughan “ill-designed process of secretdiplomacy” which disregardedthe views of the Cypriot public.

There are many people will-ing to give in to the Turks andaccept any kind of half-bakedcompromise just for the sake ofdoing so. They often point outthat you can’t fix history andthat the invasion is over, butthey’re usually the same oneswho call Istanbul by its ancientname of Constantinople, whichthen should be a stopover onthe way to Persia.

If you’re not willing to forgetwhat happened in 1453, youshouldn’t forget what happenedin 1974 because dealing withthe Turks is like trusting a slime-ball like Mark Zuckerberg, whoscrewed his own Harvard room-mate and Facebook co-founderEduardo Saverin for the sake ofmoney and because he thoughthe could do it.

Saverin told Zuckerbergsomething Anastasiades shouldstudy to get ready for the nego-tiations. “You’d better lawyer up… because I’m not coming backfor 30 percent. I’m coming backfor EVERYTHING.”

adabilis@thenationalherald.com

I am biased about manythings – and I freely and happilyadmit it. In fact, all thinking peo-ple are. Bias is not necessarily abad thing, neither is prejudice,and neither is discrimination.Here’s a quick example: if I go tothe supermarket to buy a cartonof milk on February 10 and noticeone with an expiration date ofFebruary 4, I’m not buying it! In-stead, I’m buying the one that ex-pires on, say, February 17. I ambiased, prejudiced, in favor offresh milk. I am discriminatingagainst spoiled milk. And there’sabsolutely nothing wrong withthat. So, what about my politicalbias?

If I happen to mention thatRonald Reagan is my favoritepresident and that George W.Bush was scapegoated and mis-understood, some are quick to la-bel me as a Republican – a radicalrightwinger who sees nothingwrong with the Tea Party neo-cons that have hijacked our soci-ety. Except that’s not true. I’veprobably filled this column’sspace over the past few yearswith as many tirades against theTea Party and a number of con-servative talk show hosts as youmight expect from a New YorkTimes or Boston Globe columnist.And I’ve taken so many potshotsat 2012 GOP Presidential Candi-date Mitt Romney, I’m almoststarting to feel guilty and com-pelled to say something nice.

Though I am no huge fan ofBill Clinton, I say that he’s defi-nitely got the brains, charisma,and political savvy in the family– his wife is just along for theride. “Billary” is no supercouple– it’s a superstar and a coattailrider. That, of course, makes hy-persensitive feminists think I havea problem with women in poli-tics. Also not true. I would havetaken former British Prime Min-ister Margaret Thatcher as presi-dent (if she were eligible, ofcourse) over any post-Reaganchief executive we’ve had. AndI’d have taken former UN Am-bassador Jeane Kirkpatrick overat least half of them.

I am the first to lambasteHarry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, An-thony Wiener (even before thescandal), Barney Frank, and forgood measure, Barbara Boxerand Dick Durbin, though I havedefended Barack Obama at justabout every turn. Obviously,some say, I bend over backwardsso as not to insult a black person

(the rest of thosepoliticians are allwhite). That mightsound like a goodguess, except whenconsidering that Ifreely bash MarionBerry, DonaldPayne, Jr., and KeithEllison, amongcountless otherAfrican-Americanpoliticians. And I ap-plaud the likes ofblack politicians likeHerman Cain andElbert Guillory. Yousee, I give credit orcriticism regardless of irrelevantfactors, such as the color of one’sskin. In fact, I am astounded thatin this day and age, thousands ofyears after the creation of the hu-man race, that some folks stillbase their biases on skin color. Itis simply mind-boggling.

In numerous articles over theyears, I have defended a manwho joined the ConfederateStates of America, another wholed thousands of Native AmericanIndians to a forced relocation thatresulted in their deaths throughbrutal weather, and another wholaunched the most deadly nuclearattack in world history, killinghundreds of thousands of inno-cent civilians – among them,helpless infants. Surely I do notfavor genocide, infanticide, orslavery – all of those are abhor-rent to me. Why on earth, then,would I defend anyone associ-ated with those phenomena?The perpetrators in question areJohn Tyler, Andrew Jackson, andHarry Truman. And the othersI’ve mentioned to this point:Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush,Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.What do they all have in com-

mon? They’ve allbeen president ofthe United States!That is my bias: Iam an admitted un-controllable, incon-solable defender ofpresidents!

Why would “themost powerful per-son in the world”even need a de-fense? “Look athim! Jet-settingaround the world inhis fancy privateplane, wasting ourhard-earned tax dol-

lars and doing nothing! How didhe become president, anyway?”some will say. “My dog knowsmore about being president thanhe does! He doesn’t have a carein the world. Millions of Ameri-cans are suffering, and he doesn’tcare! All he cares about is smiling,waving, and having his picturetaken!” And so on…

That bitter rant could applyto Obama, to George W. Bush, toBill Clinton…to any of them.

Alright, then, those ungratefulAmericans who are quick to bashtheir commander-in-chief, I say:during these long and difficultdays about which you waste notime reminding the rest of us (asif we don’t have our own prob-lems), is your life threatened ona daily basis? What about thelives of your spouses and chil-dren? Do you need a small armyof bodyguards to follow you atevery turn, because every morn-ing in a nation of 300 millionthere are plenty who wake upwith the fantasy of killing you,and a few among them who ac-tually would if the opportunitypresented itself?

Tough day at the job waiting

tables, fixing cars, or plowing thefields? Imagine how muchtougher it would be if you hadone if not several people tryingto make your job even tougher –intentionally doing things tomake you fail at your task. Suchas: tripping you as you walkedby carrying a tray of food; pour-ing maple syrup into the engineof the car you are trying to fix;lacing your crops with poison, orsetting fire to them.

Oh, you don’t have suchthings happening to you on adaily basis? Well, presidents do!While they are busy beingblamed for everything in theworld, having to make pinpointdecisions that affect lives of sol-diers, diplomats, and civilians,not to mention the entire worldeconomy, they have to dodge life-threatening situations, too, all thewhile enduring a barrage of at-tacks from their political oppo-nents. Oh, and they cannot ap-pear angry, sad, or even toohappy (lest people think they areinsensitive). Why, they can’t evenyawn or cough, as the rumorswill spread that they are nolonger up for the job.

As a final exercise, oh presi-dent bashers, find a photo ofyourselves from four years agoand compare it to a current one.Now, do the same thing withPresident Obama. Who has agedmore in the last four years? Whohas gotten grayer, and addedmore wrinkles? In most cases, itwill be he and not you, becauselike it or not, he has the moststressful job in the world.

That’s why I have a strong biasin favor of presidents – andthough I criticize them at times,more often than not I give themthe benefit of the doubt.

Happy Presidents Day!

I Have a Bias and I’m Proud! Can You Guess What it is?

LETTER FROM ATHENS

Neverending Cyprus Problem Indeed Will Never End

by ANDYDABILIS

Special to The National Herald

The lack ofstrategic planningwhen it comes tothe advancementof Greek Educationon behalf of the or-ganized Greek-American Commu-nity is lamentable.Considering theabsence of any of-ficial fund and themiscommunicationbetween institu-tions at a locallevel, it is almostwondrous thatGreek schools were ever formedand lasted as long as they didin the first place.

Traditionally in America – forbetter or for worse – the burdenof providing Greek educationhas traditionally fallen uponparish communities. The schoolwas the second temple of theparish; a temple of learning andeducation that operated in com-plete harmony and unison withthe parish, as per the Hellenicmodel.

That is why it is so particu-larly enraging when official rep-resentatives of the Church – i.e.,clergymen – ignore this fact andallow their egos, complexes, orwhatever other baggage theyare carrying get in the way ofGreek Education.

When a priest threatens toclose the parish Greek schoolbecause of lack of church atten-dance by the children or unsat-isfactory participation in churchevents by the parents, he turnshis back on centuries of GreekOrthodox tradition and operatescontrary to the spirit of theGospel.

While you cannot blame apriest or parish council for want-ing maximum participation inchurch services and activities orfeeling overlooked when theyounger generation is less than

responsive, threats of schoolsclosures are vengeful, selfishdeeds that are unbecoming ofsomeone who would preach theWord of God. After all, what ofthe Lord’s command about for-giving someone “seventy timesseven” or the parable of “TheGood Shepherd?” Is not meek-ness and forbearance the farmore Christian example thanthreatening punitive measures?

At the end of the day, whatpeople like the person in this ex-ample (a real-life figure) don’tunderstand is that they aretransferring blame for what isat least partially their fault ontoothers. Instead of first evaluat-ing the degree to which theywere able to form relationshipsand reach out to these membersof their flock, they instead writethem off as no good and look toexert pressure upon them. As ifyou can “force” someone intocoming to church?! The veryidea negates the mode in whichGod operates. And tragically, inostensibly trying to serve Christ,they become very un-Christlike.

In one school, the local pre-siding priest didn’t even go tobless the students and teachersfor Epiphany, either because hewas too busy engaging in othersorts of “outreach” or becausehe wanted to punish them fornot attending services the weekbefore. What a far cry from thevillage priests who go fromhome to home blessing all themembers of their flock, whetherthey are punctual or not in theirchurch attendance. So much forunconditional love…

How can a priest (or his

choice mouthpieceson the parish coun-cil) pass judgmenton families for notattending church ifhe has not consis-tently tried to builda pastoral relation-ship with theyouth? There arestudents looking todiscuss their hopesand dreams for to-morrow, there areyoung people withquestions abouttheir faith and her-

itage, there are talents and in-terests that young people mayhave that he can awaken, i.e.chanting, the altar, iconography,theological discourse, etc. Everyinteraction is a teachable mo-ment waiting to happen.

Part of the problem may stemfrom this CEO-fantasy that pos-sesses some clergymen. While itis true that priests in Americahave to wear many hats in orderto keep a parish community run-ning well, the second they beginto think of themselves as CEOsrather than celebrants of God’ssacraments and teachers is themoment that they leave thedoor open for hubris to makeits tragic appearance.

Phrases like “business is busi-ness,” as the closed-mindedcleric who served as the impetusfor this column likes to say, re-ally have no place being utteredby a parish’s spiritual leader. Ifthat saying were to hold true,an MBA would be a pre-requi-site for six-figure salaried cler-gymen who fancy themselves ascaptains of industry. Manage-ment experience (and not somehokey seminar) would also be amust for parish council mem-bers – or members of the exec-utive board, at the very least.

Rather than playing theblame game or resorting to

petty black-mail, a parishpriest shouldlead by ex-ample. Wher-ever there isapathy, heshould re-spond withcare and in-terest. Wher-ever there isl u k e w a r m -ness, heshould lendfervor. Wher-ever there islack ofknowledge,he should en-hance withteaching. St.Paul theApostle says

it best: “I have become all thingsto all people so that by all pos-sible means I might save some.”

This kind of pettiness andunfaithfulness to the awesomeresponsibility of promotingGreek education in America isnot in keeping with the traditionof a Church that can boastteachers like The Three Hierar-chs, St. Cosmas the Aetolian, St.Photios the Great, etc.

One would hope that suchreprehensible misuse of admin-istrative and pastoral authorityis limited to problematic person-alities. Unfortunately, if thoseproblematic personalities servein financially robust communi-ties which have the resourcesand potential to greatly con-tribute towards education, thenthe damage is even greater.

At any rate, to further safe-guard against such “too cool forschool” men of the cloth or theirassociates on parish councils,statutory changes will likely benecessary. The Western mental-ity that if your head hurts, youshould cut it off is foreign to theHellenic tradition. TheManichaistic “duality” of goodvs. bad has permeated ourthinking is adulterating the Hel-lenic “tropos.” After all, theGreek word for forgiveness (syg-gnomi, synchoro) literallymeans to “make room” forsomeone and understand theiropinions. There are too few re-sources available and the causetoo great for divisiveness to ex-ist.

Follow me on Twitter@CTripoulas

An Orthodox Priest againstGreek Education in America?

by ChristopherTRIPOULAS

Special to The National Herald

by CONSTANTINOS E.SCAROS

Special to The National Herald

COMMUNITY14 THE NATIONAL HERALD, FEBRUARY 15-21, 2014

company, Studio3, is a full ser-vice event design and produc-tion firm, founded in 2003…Weserve clients in the beauty, fash-ion, and lifestyle industries.”

Her love and respect forbuildings (“I would have pur-sued architecture but I just don’tlike those darn numbers”) is atthe core of ability to transportguests to new worlds.

Although she loves the trans-formations that she effects, shedoes not like “completely alter-ing a space… I don’t compro-mise the integrity of a space… Ilove working with the bones ofa place and extracting thebeauty, and bringing it alive ina different way,” all in the ser-vice of a great cause or a world-class client.

She designed the inauguralgala last year of The HellenicInitiative, one of the leading en-deavors of the diaspora to helpGreece. She cannot reveal thenext venue but told TNH: “Lookout. It’s going to be phenome-nal!”

BROOKLYN GIRL,mANHATTAN WOmAN

Her passion and simplicityhave roots in her Hellenic Her-itage and the borough of herbirth.

“I’m a Brooklyn girl,” she saiddespite the facts that she nowlives in Manhattan and her for-mative years were on Long Is-land.

She has an older sister,Christina, and a youngerbrother. George. Her father is

from Agrinion and her mother,Irene, with roots in Kalavrita,was the inspiration for her in-dependence by promoting edu-cation.

“Dad was a hard worker, hehad retail flower shops in Brook-lyn, including Irene’s florist.

Her dad had a creative di-mension too. “He was good atit, but back then it was alsoabout survival. I really respecthim. He made a lot of sacri-fices.”

She remembers visiting theshop when she was little. “Theyput us in the corner. I wouldtake all the flowers that weregoing into the trash and makemy own designs and center-pieces,” she said.

Watching her dad in theflorist putting things togetherhelped her understand colors,

textures and composition. And she possessed the imag-

ination and vision to go further,“outside the box” – which is thename of her next venture.

She attended C. W. Post,where she made “the amazingrelationships, friends who arestill very dear to me.”

It was also were she first ex-perience freedom and diversityand where important seedswere sown.

“I had the prettiest dormroom on campus, and even thenI was designing dorm rooms forfriends and all my sorority sis-ters.”

She also valued the artclasses she took there. “I’ve al-ways loved the arts anythingcreative,” and her parents

helped pave the way. “They rec-ognized that I had artistic talentso they got me private instruc-tion for piano and painting.”

But after graduation she wasnot sure what she wanted to do.On campus she was voted the“first one who will get marriedafter college,” something that isstill in the future.

Asked where is the world shewants to hold a special event,she said “I’d like it to be mywedding. She is a simple personat heart. Her vision is to have awedding that is “ftoho – poorbut beautiful.”

“I almost became a stylist fora magazine,” but the pay waspainfully low and there was noone to offer career guidance.

She feels she never really hada mentor, but said working withcertain clients has had a power-ful impact on her, especiallyDonna Karan, one of her firstcelebrity clients.

“From when we first met,she understood me, I under-stood her.” Giannopouloswanted to emulate her in everyway, including her philanthropicwork.

“In my line of work I havemet interesting and powerfulpeople and I am proud to saythey are clients and friends,” shesaid.

A SPECIAL PLACE CALLEDBARNEY’S

All that began in a wonderfulplace (now the site of the RubinMuseum of art, which has manyBuddhas) called Barney’s NewYork.

She was in visual merchan-dizing and their creative servicesteam. She loved working on thewindows with great teams andshe rose through the ranks.

“I worked with Simon Doo-nan who was a creative genius,”he was part of the team thathelped launch the stores in andout of New York. “I loved it.Loved it! It was incredible work-ing with these amazing creativeminds.”

And she was thrilled to workin places like Seattle and Bev-erly Hills; less so in Cleveland.

After seven years at Barney’sshe was bitten by the entrepre-neurial bug, but the path shetook led back to the family busi-ness. She thought mixing oldand new generation would leadto a creative and commercial ex-plosion. Close enough. It was awar. She returned to Barneysand peace and harmony re-

turned. Giannopoulos’ big break

came in 2003 through a collegefriend. “She had me pitch a jobwith Andre Agassi. It was aproduct launch.” After its greatsuccess her career took off asshe began to meet one designer

after another.She began with a partner, but

that only lasted 1½ years . “Itwas disappointing. I didn’t wantto be by myself – I wanted tocollaborate. We parted ways andthen I went on my own andvoila!”

She converts concepts intoexperiences, and loves to ex-plore and pioneer. “We bookedChristies auction house when noone was booking auctionhouses. We turned a room intoa giant chessboard – whereguests actually played withpieces inspired by works of artand with the theme was ‘life asa great game.’”

She is committed to quality,and works engage all the senses.Told that the liturgics of the Or-thodox Church expressed thatprinciple, she said “Maybe I waspaying attention after all.”

When the conversationturned to her employees, allyoung women, and she ac-knowledged “you are only asgood as your team.”

Giannopoulos project man-agers are working on excitingvenues and clients, includingprojects for Kenneth Cole, andshe devotes time to developingnew business.

Asked how she keeps intouch with the newest trends

she said “I draw inspirationfrom everything,” including theart world. “Galleries inspire me,and restaurants.”

She says she is not a foodie,but when there is time, she likesto cook.

She loves the simplicity ofGreek food, but says “I don’t likewhen they fuss and experimenttoo much with it. I wantspanakopita that tastes likespanakopita.”

Yes, she is a purist. “There issomething about simplicity…That is where real beauty comesfrom. There is something aboutone single flower, or one singlebite that is incredible. It’s notabout abundance. More is notbetter.”

“I don’t have a favorite song,flower, friend – anything,” shesaid. But Giannopoulos is be-yond eclectic, she is simply opento all good and beautiful things.

One person after anotherwalks through the portals of theworld’s created by her imagina-tion and tell their friends oftheir new favorite event.

Mets owner Fred Wilpon toldher that the wedding Gi-annopoulos produced for co-owner Saul Katz’s daughter wasmore beautiful that his owndaughter’s. Presumably the lat-ter was not nearby.

TNH Interview with Manhattan Events Planner Angela GianopoulosContinued from page 1

Simplicity is Angela Gianopoulos’ signature design principle. Not so for architect Frank Ghery,but Studio3, can certainly accent the spectacular space with a touch of elegance.

Angela Gianopoulos, Olga Palladino, and their team evoke theGreek Isles in the Hamptons every summer for the Blue DreamPhilanthropic Gala of the Church of the Dormition.

Event planner Angela Gi-anopoulos, the founder of Stu-dio3 in New York, can seewhat others cannot - and keepit simple.

exce

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