I congratulate Christopher Hitchens for acknowledging the tragedy of the Cypriots (Minority Report, October 23, 1995). He correctly points out that the editorial staff of The New York Times shed crocodile tears when ethnic cleansing interferes with American interests but are silent when Washington's favorite butcher, the Turkish Government, drives 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their ancient homeland and replaces them with Anatolian Turks. The New York Times once reported Hitler as saying, "who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?;" [*] the Times itself is now saying "who still talks nowadays of the ethnic cleansing of the Greek Cypriots?"
Sincerely yours,
A.T. Papathanasis. Ph.D.[*] New York Times, November 24, 1945, p.7.