We refer to the most recent events involving the dispute between Greece and the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia as well as your article entitled "Greece to Lift Embargo Against Macedonia if It Scraps Its Flag" which appeared in the September 14, 1995 issue of the New York Times.
To Hellenes, this agreement constitutes but another concession, another sacrifice Greeks must make for the peace and stability of its region. It is clear that the United Nations, and most notably the United States, should be commended for desiring peace and stability in the Balkans. To this end, enormous pressure has been exerted on Greece to lift its trade embargo against the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in the hope of securing that stabilization. The question, however, that most Hellenes ask is, why hasn't such enormous pressure been exerted on Turkey to withdraw its troops from Cyprus and bring peace and stability to a country whose people have suffered for over twenty-one years? Or on Albania to cease its often deadly oppression of its 250,000-large Greek minority? Or on Turkey for ethnically cleansing 200,000 Greeks from Istanbul, starting with its 1955 pogroms, and continuing its persecution today to the point where only 2,000 Constantinopolean Greeks remain (while the Turkish minority in Western Thrace has flourished under Greek democracy, doubling its numbers and even electing MPs to the Greek Parliament)?
The greatest single impediment to the U.S.'s and the U.N.'s ability to bring peace to war-torn regions such as Bosnia is a lack of credibility due to a moral selectivity and the application of unjustifiable double-standards which, for Hellenes, begs the next question: will their own plight be regarded by the world once this current crisis is resolved?
Very truly yours,
Peter Moulinos, Esq.