The National Heralda b

VOL. 9, ISSUE 440 A WEEKLY GREEK AMERICAN PUBLICATION MARCH 18, 2006 $1.00 - GREECE: 1.75 Euro

www.thenationalherald.com

*031806*

By Neophytos KyriakouSpecial to The National Herald

NICOSIA - A report releasedon March 8 by the non-govern-mental think tank, InternationalCrisis Group, which is consideredto reflect the opinions of foreigncenters, has rendered a very nega-tive assessment of the GreekCypriot side's handling of theCyprus question, following thefailure of the latest United Na-tions settlement proposal twoyears ago.

The ICG report considers theGreek Cypriot side responsible forthe current dead end in the issue'sprogress, warning that the islandnation could “slip by default to-ward permanent partition and theindependence of the north,whether formally recognized ornot.”

The Cypriot Government, aswell as the political parties in Ni-cosia, mostly the opposition party,

rejected the report as unaccept-ably biased and a “product of Ang-lo-American conspiracy and pro-paganda,” according to a recentreport published by the Washing-ton Times (see page 9).

In its report, ICG also harshlycriticizes Republic of Cyprus Pres-ident Tassos Papadopoulos' poli-cies.

NICOSIA's REACTIONThe Cypriot Government re-

sponse pointed out that the ICGreport is a third-party criticismwhich fails to acknowledge theCypriot people's democraticrights.

“When third parties, foreign-ers, blast the democratically elect-ed Cypriot President, they offendand blast the dignity and intelli-gence of a people, and blast thecountry itself,” stated DeputyGovernment RepresentativeChristodoulos Pasiardes.

Mr. Pasiardes made a distinc-tion between the ICG and thewriters of the report, and said theywere “untrustworthy to the pointof being provocative.”

“A group of foreigners is basi-cally suggesting the removal ofPresident Papadopoulos from thePresidency of the Cypriot Repub-lic and that is not just an opinion, itis a position, a suggestion - aprovocative position and an unac-ceptable suggestion,” he added.

By Dimitri SoultogiannisSpecial to The National

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Al-most a thousand people enjoyeda festive evening duringAHEPA's 37th Biennial Banquetat the Washington Hilton lastFriday night, March 10, in asalute to Senator Paul Sarbanesof Maryland and CongressmanMichael Bilirakis of Florida fortheir distinguished political ca-reers and achievements.

Senator Sarbanes was firstelected to the United States Se-nate as a Democrat in 1976. Be-fore that, he represented hisstate in the U.S. House of Repre-sentatives for six years. Rep. Bili-rakis was first elected to theHouse in 1982. Both men are ex-pected to retire later this yearwhen their terms expire.

Members of the AmericanHellenic Educational Progres-sive Association and GreekAmericans from across the coun-try attended the event, by mostaccounts AHEPA's largest gath-

ering within the last 10-12 years,to honor the Greek AmericanSenator and Congressman fortheir decades of service in theU.S. Congress.

Among the distinguishedguests were His Eminence Arch-bishop Demetrios of Americaand George Stephanopoulos,host of ABC News' “This Week”and a former advisor to Presi-dent Bill Clinton, who was theevening's master of ceremonies,and Undersecretary of State forPolitical Affairs and former U.S.Ambassador to Greece andNATO R. Nicholas Burns.

“I feel blessed being here withyou this evening with this distin-guished group of people. We arehonoring two great statesmentonight, two generous men ofgenuine strength, excellence andcreativity. May God grant themmany years of life and goodhealth,” the Archbishop said.

Senator Sarbanes and Rep.Bilirakis are the kind of public

By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK - Now that he isgetting ready to retire after hisfifth term expires this year, thefirst United States Senator ofGreek heritage said he is “upbeat”about the Greek American com-munity and said the communityhas done a “good job” in keepingHellenic issues “on the table.”

If not for the community's con-sistent efforts, Hellenic issueswould have faded from the “Con-gressional agenda,” according toSenator Paul Sarbanes of Mary-land.

Senator Sarbanes and Con-gressman Michael Bilirakis ofFlorida, who is also retiring afterhis 12th term expires this year,were honored by AHEPA lastweekend for their longstandingservice to the United StatesCongress (see related story, page1).

Just prior to the event, the Se-nator took some time to offer hisreflection upon his career in theU.S. Congress, and his vision forthe community.

The community's political ef-fectiveness has increased in justthe past 3-5 years, he explained, inpart because Greece has emergedas a more important player withgreater political leverage in theBalkans.

He said that establishing Hel-lenic Studies chairs and programsat universities and collegesthroughout the country is crucialto preserving and advancing Hel-lenism in America; that the com-munity ought to support its exist-ing scholarship programs morevigorously; that it should get moreactively involved with the grass-roots efforts of AHEPA and theAmerican Hellenic Institute; sup-port Hellenic College/Holy CrossGreek Orthodox School of Theol-ogy more strongly, and stay closeto the Greek Orthodox Church.

He also said he was optimisticabout the community's politicalfuture, citing California StateTreasurer Phil Angelides' currentbid to be the next Governor ofCalifornia. The full text of the Se-nator's interview with The Nation-al Herald follows.

TNH: The Sarbanes-Oxley Actaside, Senator, what would youconsider to be your most impor-tant contributions throughoutyour career?

SARBANES: Well, that's a

By Stavros MarmarinosSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK - The vote forwho will be grand marshals at an-nual Greek Independence Day Pa-rade up New York's Fifth Avenuehas been cast. This year, the honorgoes to New York Mayor MichaelBloomberg, Pittsburgh business-man and philanthropist John Ran-gos, Council of Hellenes Abroad(SAE) World President AndrewAthens and Marathon NationalBank of New York Chairman PaulStathoulopoulos.

Senator Paul Sarbanes of Mary-land and National Herald Publish-er Antonis Diamataris were lastyear's grand marshals.

This year's parade will be heldon Sunday, April 2.

The grand marshal selectionswere made last Wednesday,March 8, by the Board of the Fed-eration of Hellenic Societies ofGreater New York, which orga-

Bloomberg Among this Year’s Grand Marshals

Continued on Page 4

Continued on Page 2

By Ray QuintanillaChicago Tribune

CHICAGO - The crowd in thepews at Holy Trinity Greek Ortho-dox Church on Chicago's North-west Side is sparse most Sundays.The collection plate at what hassometimes been called the "moth-er church" is feeling a pinch, too.

That has left church leaderswith the most difficult decision inthe church's 108-year history:whether to pack up and relocate tothe north suburbs, following awave of parishioners who have leftthe city.

It wouldn't be the first move forHoly Trinity. Unlike some historicchurches in the city which shuttheir doors when their flocksmoved on, Holy Trinity movedfrom Greektown to the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood in 1965, af-ter the original building was de-molished to make way for theUniversity of Illinois at Chicagocampus.

And difficult though it mightbe, some say the church is willingto pick up and move again.

"We have to face reality thattimes have changed," said Jim Lo-gothetis, president of Holy Trini-

Continued on Page 5

Chicago ChurchCoping withChanges in theNeighborhood

By Helena SmithThe Observer

ATHENS - If Vodafone's topbrass think their corporate woesare trouble enough, they shouldlook at their Greek subsidiary andthink again. Not since the mobilephone giant's foundation has itbeen so buffeted by allegations ofskullduggery as it has in Athens inrecent weeks.

Last Friday, March 10 - as Ge-orge Koronias, VodafoneGreece's CEO, sat before a parlia-mentary committee to explain hisfirm's role in an operation toeavesdrop on the country's politi-cal and military elite - the scandalhad not only begun to resemblethe plot of a John Le Carre novel,but also assume Olympian propor-tions. Worse still - and despite giv-ing testimony for more than 10hours - Koronias failed to con-vince the committee that the Unit-ed Kingdom-based operator boreno responsibility for Greece's

WiretappingScandal TakesOn Some NewDimensions

Hellenic beauty personifiedThis year’s Miss Greek Independence 2006 contestants flirt with the camera before the results were an-nounced. This year’s winner, Georgia Lilikas, is pictured far left. In the upper row, fifth from the left, is An-na Zarkas, this year’s Miss Junior Greek Independence titleholder. See story on page 4.

Continued on Page 9

AHEPA Honors SenatorSarbanes & CongressmanBilirakis for their Service

Sarbanes: Community Has Done a Good Job

Cypriot Government AngryAbout Think Tank Report

Continued on Page 9

Grinding it out under the boardsThe Memphis Grizzlies Jake Tskalides looking for the basket, defended by the Boston Celtics Paul Pierceduring the third quarter of their NBA basketball game this past Tuesday, March 14, in Memphis, Ten-nessee. Tskalides, who is from Greece, had a game-high 19 points as the Grizzlies went onto win 93-76.

By Dimitri SoultogiannisSpecial to The National Herald

WASHINGTON, D.C. -Charles Moskos, professor emeri-tus of Sociology at NorthwesternUniversity, talked about the futuredirection of the Greek-Americancommunity and the challenges thecommunity faces in the 21st Cen-tury, underscoring how importantit is for Greek Americans to pre-serve their heritage and “remainas Greek as they can.”

In his address at the Washing-ton Club, which hosted byAHEPA (American Hellenic Edu-cational Progressive Association)last Saturday morning, March 11,as part of AHEPA's testimonialweekend in honor of Senator PaulSarbanes (D-Maryland) and Con-gressman Mike Bilirakis (R-Flori-da), Dr. Moskos made the follow-

ing light-hearted comment aboutthe significance of being Greek,but with a clear message: “Neverask anyone if they are Greek, be-cause if they are they will be all tooglad to tell you, and if not, why em-barrass them,” he said.

According to Dr. Moskos, oneof the country's pre-eminent soci-ologists, the big immigrationwaves from Greece replenishingthe Greek American populationbelong to the past.

“Since 1980, Greeks fromGreece are entering this country ata rate of 1,000 to 1,200 a year,” hesaid. “Now the question is, whathappens with those of us who arealready here? How do we preserveour Hellenism? Of course therewill always be a Greek Americancommunity, but there will only bea remnant of what we have today,unless we do something about it.”

According to the 2000 U.S.Census, he pointed out, the GreekAmerican community is propor-tionately under-populated today,noting that the Census does notcollect data by religion, but by eth-nicity.”

The latest census indicatesthere are 1.2 million Americanswho claim to be of Greek heritage,he said, yet the Greek Orthodoxpopulation in the United Statesadds up to 1.5 million people.

For Dr. Moskos, interfaith mar-riage is the single most importantcontributing factor in the commu-nity's dilution, and it needs to beaddressed by the Church morethoroughly.

“Nowadays, interfaith marriagehas become the norm, rather thanthe exception. In the last 25 years,

Moskos: Stay as Greek as you Can

Continued on Page 6

Continued on Page 6

TNH/COSTAS BEJ

AP PHOTO/NIKKI BOERTMAN

servants who “never sleep or rest,”His Eminence added. “Even whenthey retire, they will probably re-main politically active.” The Arch-bishop also commended AHEPA:“It is very difficult for any organi-zation to endure in our time ifthere is no substance, and AHEPAis truly an organization with char-acter and substance.”

Mr. Burns also noted AHEPA'simportance not only to the GreekAmerican community, but also toAmerican society as a whole. Thecountry needs a vital Greek Ameri-can community in order to main-tain a strong bond between theUnited States and Greece, headded.

“All you Greek Americans outthere, please stay united. You arethe rock in this relationship be-tween the two countries, betweenthe United States and Greece. I'mproud and honored to be heretonight to recognize with you thesetruly great men. AHEPA, you havea great history. Born in Georgiadue to discrimination againstGreek immigrants, you have doneso much for both Greece and theUnited States, and we thank you

for that,” he said, noting SenatorSarbanes' and Rep. Bilirakis' ac-complishments as legislators andtheir hard work in advancing Hel-lenic issues.

“Tonight, we are here to honortwo men who have contributed somuch to all AHEPA's accomplish-ments, both of whom are icons ofthe Greek American community,”he said.

“While I couldn't begin to re-count the influence of Congress-man Mike Bilirakis tonight, I wantto recognize one of his most im-portant accomplishments: the co-founding, and his continued co-chairmanship, of the HellenicCaucus in the House of Represen-tatives,” he said. And it would behard to overstate the positive im-pact Senator Sarbanes has had onissues regarding U.S. policy, andon our friends in Greece andCyprus. He also introduced me to(Baltimore Orioles Owner) PeterAngelos, and together, we formedthe Friends of Greek Baseball.The rest is history, played out atthe 2004 Games in Athens,” hesaid.

“It is a privilege and honor forme to share the podium with thesetwo great Americans. During my

tenure as U.S. Ambassador toGreece, and in the years since, Ihave benefited personally fromtheir wise counsel and appreciatedtheir support. I look forward tocontinuing that relationship in themonths and years to come,” Mr.Burns added.

U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snoweof Maine and CongresswomanCarolyn Maloney of New York al-so conveyed messages.

Senator Snowe, whose scheduleprevented her from attending theBanquet, sent a message thankingthe two men for their excellentwork and contributions to the U.S.Government and the Americanpeople: “Over the course of threedecades in the Senate, Paul Sar-banes has distinguished himself asa giant, not only for those of uswho share his Greek ancestry, butfor the people of Maryland andthe nation. To me, he has been aliving symbol of the fact that theuncommon power of our commonheritage can transcend even thebounds of political partisanship. Inthis country, that is often too rarea virtue, and marks one of thecountless reasons I will miss hav-ing Paul as a colleague,” she said.

“When Mike Bilrakis came to

Congress with passion and energy,committed to achieving results,and it is therefore not surprisingthat the National Journal subse-quently identified him as one ofthe most 'legislatively productive'members in the House. On issuesclose to my own heart, such ashealthcare, commerce and veter-ans' affairs, he has worked tireless-ly to improve the lives of Ameri-cans everywhere. Like Paul, he hasbeen a powerful advocate for Hel-lenes and his leadership in theHouse Hellenic Caucus has in-spired many to join and supportour issues,” she added.

Mrs. Snowe also commendedAHEPA and its members for epit-omizing Hellenism's finest virtues:advancing education, philan-thropy, civic responsibility and thepursuit of excellence.

Rep. Maloney, Mr. Bilirakis'Democratic counterpart in theHouse Hellenic Caucus, conveyedher best wishes through BanquetCo-Chairman Nicholas Kara-costas: “I would like to join all ofyou to thank them both Paul Sar-banes and Michael Bilirakis fordecades of public service. I wishthem both the very best,” she said.

Greek and Cypriot Ambas-sadors to the United StatesAlexandros Mallias and EuripidesEvriviades, respectively, were alsoamong the evening's distinguishedspeakers. They thanked the twoGreek American politicians fortheir tremendous service to allthree countries.

“I'm delighted to be heretonight to salute two Greek giants,two great examples of leadershipand integrity. I also want to thankthem for always keeping theCyprus issue alive,” AmbassadorEvriviades said.

Rep. Bilirakis thanked allspeakers for their kind words,echoing Mr. Burns' remarks andthe importance of keeping theGreek American community func-tioning cohesively.

“Thank you AHEPA for thiswonderful award. It's a great hon-or. I'm very proud to be a GreekAmerican, as well as a member ofthis fine organization. I was raisedthat way. My parents always toldme to never forget who I am andwhere I come from. Most of usshare a common bond. We areGreek Americans, and we are fa-miliar with both worlds and cul-tures. Not many people can saythat,” he said.

“Many people thought I wascrazy when I told them I was run-ning for Congress in 1982, a trulybad year for Republicans. Peoplewere telling me 'you aren't goingto win because you're Greek.'Well, I won because I am Greek,”he added.

Mr. Bilirakis also said it isshameful not to have more GreekAmerican voices in Congress: “Weshould be encouraging youngGreek Americans to get more in-volved with the political process. Ifour children don't get involved,nothing will ever change in thiscountry,” he said, thanking hisfamily for their love and support.

Senator Sarbanes opened hisremarks by thanking his wife,Christine, “for being such an im-portant part” of his life and efforts.He also praised his colleague andfriend, Rep. Bilirakis. “Mike and Iworked closely together. He is anabsolute pillar of strength. I appre-ciate the opportunity to haveworked with him,” he said, addinghow important it is for the UnitedStates to have Greek Americanvoices in both the Senate and theHouse of Representatives.

“We don't want the House ofRepresentatives without anyGreek Americans in it. That's whywe want our kids to win,” the Se-nator said, referring to his sonJohn and Rep. Bilirakis' son Gus,both of whom are following intheir father's footsteps by runningfor House seats.

“From the very beginning,AHEPA has been trying to passonto our children both the Ameri-can and the Hellenic cultures, and

this is very important,” he added.“My parents taught me to alwaystake pride in my Greek heritage,and to serve the community. Evenduring elections, I had many sup-porters who were helping me sim-ply because I was a Greek withSpartan roots.

Mr. Sarbanes said he has triedto adhere to three fundamentalprinciples throughout his life andpolitical career: integrity, opportu-nity and fairness: “I've workedhard over the years so that everyAmerican can count on and abideby those three principles,” he said,praising AHEPA's civic and phi-lanthropic contributions to Ameri-can society, and citing Mr.Stephanopoulos as a prime exam-ple of Greek Americans who havebenefited from their associationwith AHEPA.

“There are many people whohave benefited from AHEPA'sprograms, like GeorgeStephanopoulos, for instance.Twenty-seven years ago, Georgereceived a scholarship fromAHEPA which helped him coverhis expenses in college,” he said,concluding his remarks with a ref-erence to Greek-Turkish relationsand the Cyprus issue: “Turkeymust respect fundamental humanrights and remove the occupation-al forces from Cyprus.”

John Sarbanes, who is seeking aCongressional seat in Maryland,spoke of the legacy his father isleaving behind. “Tonight I amspeaking to all of you, not as apolitician running for office, but asthe eldest son of Paul Sarbanes. Afather always wants his children tobe proud of him, and tonight, Icouldn't be more proud of my dad.Paul Sarbanes is the only person inMaryland's history to be re-electedto the U.S. Senate five times. I ad-mire his passion for public serviceand democracy. And My fatherhas also been a dedicated memberof AHEPA for more than 31years,” he said.

Gus Bilirakis, who is seeking tosucceed his father in Florida,pledged to honor the legacies ofRep. Bilirakis and Senator Sar-banes: “if elected, John and I willdo our best in the U.S. Congress.We will have to work hard in orderto be able to keep up with our fa-thers' legacies,” he said.

The evening concluded withAHEPA Supreme President GusJames' address. Mr. James saidthis year's Banquet was a “historicnight” for both AHEPA and theGreek American community.“AHEPA is on the move againwith a new attitude and effort,” hesaid, noting that the evening's suc-cess was also crucial in AHEPA'scurrent effort to organize its annu-al trip to Greece and Cyprus,which this year will be open to theorganization's entire membershipand also hopes to include mem-bers of Congress.

2 COMMUNITY THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006

Senator Sarbanes and Rep. Bilirakis Honored at AHEPA’s 37th Biennial BanquetContinued from page 1

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(L-R) His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, AHEPA Supreme President Gus James, John Sar-banes, Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and AHEPA Supreme Vice President Ike Gulas as Senator Sar-banes is presented with AHEPA’s Public Service Award in honor of his 30 years as a member of the U.S. Senate.

(L-R) AHEPA Supreme President Gus James, Gus Bilirakis, Congressman Mike Bilirakis of Florida andAHEPA Board of Trustees Chairman Lee Millas as Rep. Bilirakis is presented with AHEPA’s Public Ser-vice Award in honor of his 24 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

PHOTOS: BILL PETROS

By Dimitri SoultogiannisSpecial to The National Herald

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Un-dersecretary of State for PoliticalAffairs R. Nicholas Burns, a for-mer United States Ambassador toGreece and NATO, commendedthe Greek American communityfor its contributions in helping tostrengthen the bonds with, andcultivate a solid relationship be-tween, Greece and the UnitedStates.

During his salute to Congress-man Michael Bilirakis (R-Florida)and Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-Maryland) at AHEPA's 37th Bien-nial Banquet last Friday, March10, Mr. Burns underscored the im-portance of a strong and unitedGreek American community.

“An integral strength of theU.S.-Greece relationship here inthe United States is the role of theGreek American community,” hesaid, adding that the Greek Amer-ican community is “a vital asset tobilateral relations (between thetwo countries): from programs likethe AHEPA Emergency Relief Ef-fort to help victims of HurricaneKatrina, to scholarships and cul-tural exchange programs, to youthprograms that help keep the richHellenic heritage alive in the Unit-ed States. Personally, I could nothave served effectively as ambas-sador without support from all ofyou.”

Mr. Burns, who is himself amember of AHEPA, also notedAHEPA's “long and proud histo-ry” as an American organization.“AHEPA has its roots in the civilrights struggles of the 1920's,” henoted. “It contributed to the de-fense of democracy in World WarII which secured our freedom, andit funded the statue of PresidentTruman in Athens which many ofus have had the pleasure to visit.And the organization providessupport on a more personal level.AHEPA served as a rock-solidsupport network for me as ambas-sador in Athens, and for all otherU.S ambassadors to the HellenicRepublic,” he said.

Mr. Burns then praised SenatorSarbanes and Rep. Bilirakis fortheir accomplishments after 30years in the Senate and 24 years inthe House of Representatives, re-spectively. He also stated his en-thusiasm at the two men's sons'decisions to seek election to Con-gressional seats this November.

EXCELLENT MENTOR“While I couldn't begin to re-

count the influence of Congress-man Mike Bilirakis, I want to rec-ognize one of his most importantaccomplishments: the co-foundingand his continued co-chairman-ship of the Hellenic Caucus in theU.S House of Representatives.The Hellenic Caucus, I'm pleasedto report, now includes more than135 members in the House. Overthe years, Congressman Bilirakishas sponsored dozens of resolu-tions in support of Greek andCypriot relations with the UnitedStates, and ensured that we re-member Greece's sacrifices andtriumphs in opposing the AxisPowers and other enemies of free-dom. He was instrumental in theawarding of the CongressionalGold Metal to his All Holiness Ec-umenical Patriarch Bartholomew(of Constantinople) in 1997, andhe has long worked to achieve apeaceful solution in Cyprus. Con-gressman Bilirakis' legacy will bedearly missed; however, I'm toldthat another generation of theBilirakis dynasty, namely Gus Bili-rakis, is looking to fill some verylarge shoes by running for his fa-ther's current seat in Florida. Iwish Gus well in his future politi-cal career. He has an excellentmentor,” Mr. Burns said.

STANDUP GUY“It would be hard to overstate

the positive impact Senator Sar-banes has had on issues regardingU.S policy and our Hellenicfriends in Greece and Cyprus. As asenior member of the Senate For-eign Relations Committee, he hastirelessly advocated on behalf ofhis Maryland constituents and thewider Hellenic American commu-nity on virtually every issue of im-portance to them, from Cyprus toNATO to regional security. And Ican tell you from firsthand experi-ence that Paul is a standup guy. Iremember how, in 1998, when Ihad a particularly tough time inGreece over my criticism of the 17November terrorist group, the Se-nator came to Athens for the 50thanniversary of the Fulbright Pro-gram and spoke in my defense. Iwas enormously grateful and havenever forgotten that. Paul, youhave earned our deepest respect

and our sincerest gratitude. Andsince we have already broachedthe issue of dynasties, let me alsowish good luck to John Sarbanes,who is running for his father's pre-vious seat in the House for Mary-land,” Mr. Burns added.

Mr. Burns also praised formerForeign Minister Petros Molyvi-atis; said he is looking forward toworking with Mr. Molyviatis' suc-cessor, “one of the most dynamicfigures in Greece today,” DoraBakoyanni; and said U.S.-Greecerelations are very healthy.

MAKE NO MISTAKE“I also look forward to continu-

ing to help expand and strengthenthe U.S.-Greece relationship.Make no mistake: Relations be-tween the U.S. and Greece are ex-cellent, and getting stronger. Iwant especially to thank formerForeign Minister Petros Molyvi-atis for his superb work in creatinga warm atmosphere for this rela-tionship to flourish. Moreover, I'mtremendously pleased to be work-ing with my longtime friend, DoraBakoyanni in her new role as For-eign Minister. Dora brings an ex-traordinary record of achieve-

ment, and I know U.S.-Greece re-lations will thrive during hertenure,” he said.

Mr. Burns concluded his re-marks by emphasizing that Greeceand the United States are workingtogether to advance shared goals,identifying the following seven ar-eas of cooperation:

ñ In the Balkans, where we areworking to complete the vision setout by President Bush for aEurope whole, free and at peace.

ñ On Turkish accession to theEuropean Union, because aTurkey anchored in the West isgood for Turkey, good for itsneighbors, good for the E.U., andas nine U.S. presidents have said,good for the United States.

ñ On Cyprus, where we contin-ue working with Greece and ourother partners to see the issues re-solved, so that the benefits of E.U.membership can be brought to thewhole island.

ñ On the Broader Middle East,where - alongside other Europeannations and the United States -Greece serves as a founding con-tributor to the foundation for thefuture, an independent, non-gov-

ernmental organization which sup-ports civil society groups in the re-gion promoting democracy and re-form.

ñ In the war on terrorism, inwhich the United States andGreece are working together topromote reconstruction inAfghanistan and Iraq. Greeceworks to eliminate terrorist orga-nizations. Consider its notablesuccess against 17 November.

ñ In Afghanistan, Greek com-bat engineers and medical person-nel serve in NATO's InternationalSecurity Assistance Force.

ñ And during Operation IraqiFreedom, Greece has provided in-valuable support by facilitatinghundreds of port calls and thou-sands of military flights at its Sou-da Bay base in Crete.

“The U.S.-Greece strategicpartnership - based on 100 years offriendship - is important not onlyto our two countries, but to peaceand stability in Europe and aroundthe world. And the support of theGreek American community, in-cluding AHEPA, is important tothat strategic partnership,” Mr.Burns said.

THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006 COMMUNITY 3

GOINGS ON...

March 18The American Hellenic Institutehosts its 31st Anniversary Hel-lenic Heritage Achievement andNational Public Service AwardsDinner at the Capital Hilton inWashington, DC in honor of theDaughters of Penelope, the Na-tional Philoptochos Society, TheRev. Dr. John T. Tavlarides Deanof the Saint Sophia Cathedral ofWashington, D.C. and business-man and philanthropist KyriakosTsakopoulos and CongressmanChris Van Hollen. Master of Cere-monies, Larry Michael the “Voiceof Redskins Radio.” Music by“Apollonia.” Silent auction at 6pm; reception at 6 pm; dinner at 7pm. Black tie. Complimentaryvalet parking-www.ahiworld.org.

March 18The Holy Trinity Community ofNew Rochelle, NY presents thetheatrical production, “The Apol-ogy of Socrates” at the Holy Trini-ty Social Hall; at 7:30 pm. Benefit-ing the community's outreach pro-grams. Performed by Emmy-award winner Yannis Simonides.Directed by Loukas Skipitaris.Costumes by Academy-award win-ner Theoni Vahlioti-Aldredge.Music by Caryn Heilman. Tickets:$40 adults; $20 seniors and stu-dents. RSVP-(914) 235-6100. In-formation at theapologypro-ject@hotmail.com.

March 18The Pancyprian Association'sWomen's Issues Network hoststhe 2006 Woman of the YearAward honoring Martha Mavrom-mati, Consul General of Cyprus inNew York. At Terrace on thePark, 52-11 111 Street, FlushingMeadow Park, N.Y. Cocktails,6:30 pm; dinner, 7 pm; donation,$75. For tickets and to be includedin the program, respond by March13. RSVP-F. Christodoulidou,(718) 932-3100. Send checks to:Dr. F. Christodoulidou, 27-47Crescent St., Astoria, NY 11102,Fax: (718) 726-7385.

March 18Mourayo Restaurant at 1732 Con-necticut Ave NW (Dupont MetroStop) in Washington, DC hosts anafternoon of meze and discussionabout Crete's culinary bountieswith professional chef Nikki Rose,founder and director of “Crete'sCulinary Sanctuaries;” 1-4 pm.Cost: $35 for Slow Food DC mem-bers; $40 non-members. Limitedspace. RSVP by March 11 to Mar-sha Weiner,ContentMaven@IronicDelights.com. Info-www.cookingincrete.com.

March 18-June 16“Penelopeia: The Other Journey,Emigration,” an international ex-hibition of various artistic and cul-tural programs is hosted at theHellenic Museum and CulturalCenter in Chicago, IL. Document-ing women's life journeys from an-tiquity to the present, the project isinspired by Penelope, the femaleprotagonist of Homer's epic “TheOdyssey.” Curated by Dr. ZoeKosmidou, Cultural Counselor atthe Embassy of Greece in Wash-ington DC. Museum hours: Tues-day-Friday 10 am-4 pm; Saturday,11 am-4 pm. Regular admission,$5; HMCC members and childrenfree-(312) 655.1234 orwww.penelopeia.net.

March 19The Cathedral Fellowship hosts ascreening of the documentary“The Greeks of Southern Califor-nia, Through the Century: ThePioneers, 1900-1942” at theCathedral Center of the HolyTrinity Cathedral, 337 East 74thStreet in Manhattan; at 6 pm. Doc-umentary narrated by OlympiaDukakis and John Kapelos. Dona-tion $5. Refreshments served-(917) 691-4161 or cathedralfel-low@hotmail.com.

March 21The American Hellenic Institutehosts a Business Network Lun-cheon at the Capital Hilton Hotel,16th & K Streets, NW Washing-ton, DC. Guest speaker Dr.Kostantinos Zacharopoulos, gen-eral manager of Tourism Develop-ment Co. will discuss “Investing inGreek Real Estate: Opportunitiesin the Public and Private Sector.”Reception: 11:45 am; luncheon:12:15 pm. RSVP by March 17 at(202) 785-8430 or info@ahi-world.org.

March 22“Our Story-Our People” a slideshow presentation and lectureabout the history of the GreekAmerican Immigrant with Kather-ine Boulukos and Anastasia Ni-

cholas, co-founders of The GreekMuseum, The Center for GreekAmerican Heritage is held at theFreeport Public Library, 144 WestMerrick Road, Freeport, LI; at 2pm. Admission free-(5l6) 868-4092 orTheGreekMuseum@aol.com.

March 22-April 12Lent Services continue at theGreek Orthodox ArchdiocesanCathedral of the Holy Trinity, 319-337 East 74th Street in Manhattan.March 22, 29, April 4, 12: Presanc-tified Liturgy at 6 pm. March 24,31: Third and Fourth Salutationsat 7 pm. March 25: Annunciationof the Virgin Mary at 9:30 am.April 4: The Akathist Hymn at 7pm. Sunday services begin at 9 amwith Orthros followed by theDivine Liturgy at 10 am-(212) 288-3215.

March 23The American Hellenic Institutehosts a Noon Forum to commem-orate Greek Independence Day atthe Hellenic House, 1220 16thStreet, NW in Washington, DC;12-1 pm. James Marketos, AHIChairman and Attorney at Lawwill discuss “George Jarvis: anAmerican Fighter for Greek Inde-pendence.” Light refreshmentsserved. RSVP by March 21 at(202) 785-8430 or info@ahi-world.org.

March 24The Embassy of Greece Press andCommunications Office hosts abook presentation of the GreekState Literature Award winner forbest novel in 2004 “ForeignWords” by Vassilis Alexakis at theEmbassy of Greece, 2221 Mas-sachusetts Avenue NW in Wash-ington, DC; at 6 pm. Introductionby Ambassador of Greece Alexan-dros Mallias. Book translated inEnglish by Alyson Waters, manag-ing editor of Yale French Studiesand lecturer in the French Depart-ment at Yale University-(202)332-2727.

March 25The Hellenic Society Prometheasand the Hellenic Organizations ofthe Washington MetropolitanArea host a celebration of the185th Anniversary of the GreekIndependence at St. KatherineGreek Orthodox Church, 3149Glen Carlyn Rd in Falls Church,VA; at 5:30 pm. Keynote speakerDr. Victor Papacosma, Professorof History and Director of theLemnitzer Center for NATO andDirector of the Modern GreekStudies Association will discuss,“Rigas Velestinlis (Feraios): HisContribution to Hellenic Indepen-dence and Legacy Today,” inEnglish. Program includes briefliterary readings, patriotic songsby the SS. Constantine and HelenChurch Choir directed byTheodore Papaloizos and folkdancing by the Return to Originsdance troupe directed by Renaand Elena Papapostolou. Recep-tion to follow.

March 25-26The St. Demetrios Church at 321St. Demetrios Street, North Wild-wood in Cape May County, NJ cel-ebrates the 185th Anniversary ofGreek Independence Day withcivic and parish celebrations –Lester Katsanis, (609) 522-4664 or(800) 432-6774.

March 27The American Hellenic Institutehosts a noon forum presented byAthanasios Moulakis a scholar atthe Woodrow Wilson Internation-al Center and Director, Institutefor Mediterranean Studies at theUniversity of Lugano, Switzerlandon “What Constitution for a Unit-ed Cyprus? Reflections on thefailed Annan Plan” at the Hel-lenic House, 1220 16th Street, NWin Washington, DC; 12 pm-1 pm.Light refreshments served. RSVPby March 24 to (202) 785-8430 orinfo@ahiworld.org.

March 18-May 6The exhibition, “From Byzantiumto Modern Greece: Hellenic Artin Adversity, 1453-1830” contin-ues at the Onassis Cultural Center,Olympic Tower, 645 Fifth Avenue(entrance on 51st or 52nd Street,between Fifth and Madison Av-enues) in New York City. Orga-nized by the Alexander S. OnassisPublic Benefit Foundation, theshow features 137 icons, paintings,woodcarving, embroidery and anearly El Greco painting from thecollection of the Benaki Museumin Athens. Hours: Monday-Satur-day 10 am-6 pm. Admission free -(212) 486-8314 or www.onassis-usa.org.

Burns: Make Sure Community Remains United

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Greece andNATO, during AHEPA’s 37th Biennial Banquet honoring Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and Con-gressman Mike Bilirakis of Florida last Friday, March 10. Mr. Burns said the Greek American communityis central to the U.S.-Greece relationship.

BILL PETROS

nizes the Parade each year.“The real fight starts now,” said

the Federation Parade CommitteePresident Dino Rallis. He urgedcommittee members to put asideany personal differences and uniteto ensure the event's success.

Federation President NicosDiamantides noted that the Pa-rade and its various attendantevents constitute one of the GreekAmerican community's greatestannual events, adding that prepa-ration for the event requires agreat deal hard work on the Feder-ation's part. “We have a responsi-bility to the Omogeneia to makesure the Parade and its related fes-tivities turn out well,” he said.

Some candidates for grandmarshal were proposed this yearorally, despite the Parade's charterrules, which require that a propos-al be issued in writing, and to fol-low an assurance from the candi-date that he or she has acceptedthe nomination, he explained.Consequently, oral proposals arerejected, he said.

Mayor Bloomberg acceptedConstantine Lambrakis' nomina-tion, and was unanimously accept-ed. After Mr. Diamantides pro-

posed four marshals for this year'sparade, however, more candidates'names' were brought to the table.Mr. Athens was nominated for hiscontributions to the community,and to Hellenism in general, “andnot only for his work at SAE,” Mr.Diamantides said. Mr. Athens' phi-lanthropy was cited for his philan-thropic activities, and Mr. Rangoswas also hailed for his philanthropy.

Former Federation PresidentGeorge Georgopoulos pointed outthat last year's selection of Mr.Diamataris has proven to be ahighly successful one, as the Her-ald publisher has been selected tolead this year's Boston GID Pa-rade on April 9.

Meanwhile, preparations forthis year's Parade-related eventshave kicked off. Federation repre-sentatives met with members ofPan-Gregorian Enterprises, repre-senting Greek American restaura-teurs in New Jersey, Long Island,Upstate New York and Connecti-cut. Restaurant owners will be fea-tured among the special honoreesof the traditional event hosted atAstoria's Crystal Palace on theFriday before the Parade, whichthis year falls on March 31.

At the meeting, restaurantowners bought 250 raffle tickets

worth $50; 200 tickets worth $10;and 50 pages of the Federation'sannual Parade Journal, as well astickets for the special Friday event.

Members of the Federationand its leadership are now makingtheir rounds throughout the NewYork area to discuss the Paradeand its organizational needs.

Last Sunday, for example, agroup of Federation representa-tives, including Mr. Diamantides,Mr. Rallis, Apostolos Tomopou-los, Theodore Moschokarfis, Har-ry Kallas and Gregory Nodaros,went to St. Demetrios Church inJamaica, Queens where they spenttime after the Dive Liturgy in-forming the Jamaica communityabout the Parade during a meetingat the Church's community center.

Another group featuring Geor-gia Kaloides, Eleni Psarras andChrysoula Zikopoulos, amongothers, went to the Holy CrossChurch community in Brooklynthe same day.

The Parade Committee holds12 meetings each Thursdayevening at 8 PM at the StathakionCenter, the Federation's head-quarters in Astoria, holding itstenth meeting this past Thursday.For more information, please callthe Federation at 718-204-6500.

4 PEOPLE THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006

NYC’s Mayor to be a Grand Marshal

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By Stavros MarmarinosSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK - Georgia Lilikaswasn't able to sleep until 4 AM lastSunday. A few hours later, shefound out that she hadn't stayedawake for nothing: Georgia wasvoted Miss Greek Independence2006. The annual contest is held bythe Federation of Hellenic Soci-eties of Greater New York, whichorganizes the Greek Indepen-dence Parade of New York and itsattendant events.

Anna Zarkas is this year's MissJunior Greek Independence. An-na is the sister of last year's MissJunior title winner, HarikliaZarkas.

For the Miss Independencecontest, Sophia Liristis was 1strunner-up, Maria Mantas was 2ndrunner-up, Anna Dritsas is MissSparta; Garifallia Frementitis isMiss Patras; Eugenia Kolovou isMiss Arcadia; Christina Merkou isMiss Nafpaktos; Triada Papaniko-laou is Miss Thessaloniki; andEllen Joy Triantafyllou is Miss An-tiparos.

The results for the remaining

Miss Junior Independence contes-tants were as follows: BarbaraHatzopoulou was 1st runner-up;Niki Soukeras was 2nd runner-up;Katerina Belekiou is Miss Pyrgos,Avgerini Liristis is Miss Errikousa;Maria Liristis is Miss Kassos; andIrene Pandazopoulou is MissSparta.

“Greece is above everything. Iwish for all the young Greeks of

the community to never stop lov-ing it,” said Miss Lilikas after theannouncement of her selection asMiss Greek Independence. Thenew Greek Independence Dayqueen studied Marketing andModern Greek at Rutgers Univer-sity in New Jersey, where she iscurrently employed by a pharma-ceutical advertising company. Shesaid her goal is to continue herstudies in International Relations.

Her mother, Stacey, said Geor-gia has always been proud of her

heritage and wished her the best inlife. Her sister Paraskevi addedthat “she worked very hard at hercollege's Hellenic Club.”

And Georgia Nomikos, hergodmother, said “I am so proud ofher. She is a real Greek,” while heruncle, George Lilikas, wished hisniece every success.

Miss Junior Greek Indepen-dence dedicated her win to herparents and her grandmother. “Iwould like to urge all Greek girlsto remain Greek,” she said. MissZarkas is a senior at College PointHigh School in New York andwants to study Psychology.

Her father, John, who hailsfrom northern Epiros said he isvery proud of his daughter, thesecond girl in the Zarkas family towin the title.

“Everyone was telling me tohave more daughters, but Istopped,” he said laughing.

His wife, Voula, who hails fromthe Ionian island of Cephalonia,said she was very proud of both ofher daughters. “What's more im-portant is that they are good kids,and they are proud of beingGreek,” she said.

By Theodore KalmoukosSpecial to The National Herald

BOSTON - Boston's 12th an-nual Greek Independence Day Pa-rade will be held on Sunday, April9. The Federation of Hellenic So-cieties of Greater New Englandhas unanimously chosen NationalHerald Publisher Antonis Dia-mataris to be this year's GrandMarshal.

“I am moved and humbled bythis honor, which was bestowed bythe Federation of Hellenic Soci-eties of Greater New England up-on my family and myself, and ofcourse upon the National Herald,the newspaper of Hellenism inAmerica, which I have had thehonor and privilege of serving aspublisher for the past 26 years,”said Mr. Diamataris who, alongwith Senator Paul Sarbanes ofMaryland, was Grand Marshall forlast year's GID Parade in NewYork.

“I have followed the New Eng-land Federation's efforts veryclosely, and I believe the organiza-tion deserves every measure ofsupport,” he said.

“I hope that its example of or-ganizing a parade and parallelevents celebrating Greek Indepen-dence will be followed by othercommunities in other U.S. cities,as well, because the Greek Inde-pendence Day Parade is a great in-stitution that unites us and repre-sents both our Hellenism and ourGreek Orthodox faith. The exam-ple and lesson of the Greek Revo-lution of 1821 has tremendous ap-peal to this day,” he added.

The Parade celebrates theGreek Revolution of 1821 andGreek Independence Day (de-

clared on March 25, 1821), and al-so to honor its heroes and hero-ines, and to promote Greek histo-ry and culture.

In its official invitation to Mr.Diamataris, the Federation Pa-rade Committee stated, “We in-vite you to be Grand Marshal atthe Greek Parade of Boston, tocelebrate with us, and to brightenthe celebratory events and the Pa-rade of the Hellenic community ofNew England with your presence.”

Speaking to the National Her-

ald, Federation President VasilisKafkas pointed out that the group“recognizes Mr. Diamataris' andthe Herald's great contributions toHellenism in America. The Heraldis the sole newspaper in the Unit-ed States, which keeps the GreekAmerican community informed onissues which concern us directly, toinclude Greek and Cypriot as wellas international issues.”

Mr. Kafkas added that Mr. Dia-mataris has managed to make theHerald “a high quality publication,

recognized across America andthe homeland, as well as by Greeksof the Diaspora around theworld.”

He also said the Herald'sGreek-language daily plays a cen-tral role in the preservation anduse of the Greek language inAmerica through its coverage ofimportant issues, and that it main-tains a bond of unity for Hellenismand members of the Greek Ameri-can community throughout thecountry.

“Our selection of Mr. Dia-mataris for Grand Marshall is theleast the Federation could do toexpress its gratitude and apprecia-tion of the contributions of the Na-tional Herald and its publisher,”Mr. Kafkas said.

The Federation's 2nd VicePresident, Yiannis Katsaros, alsopraised Mr. Diamataris: “We allknow the magnitude of his contri-bution to Hellenism through theNational Herald. The newspaperhas unique appeal and influenceacross America, and in othercountries, and this honor is anopen thank you note to this man,”he added.

The parade will be held at 1 PMon Boylston Street. Parade orga-nizers are predicting that it will bea big success, as planning startedearlier than usual this year, and isprogressing rapidly. Last year, anestimated 35-40 thousand peopleattended. Organizers are hopingthis year's numbers will exceedthat.

According to Mr. Kafkas,preparations for the big event aregoing “very well,” and groups as-signed with its organization are“working feverishly, day andnight,” to ensure the Parade's suc-cess. “I observe with great joy thatthe Greek American communityof New England has responded toour expectations and, more specif-ically, to the presentations andgatherings, which have been tak-ing place throughout the NewEngland area,” he said.

Mr. Kafkas also praisedMetropolitan Methodios of Bos-ton for his contributions, addingthat His Eminence's support is “aconstant source of inspiration forthe community,” and commended

Greek Consul General of BostonConstantine Orfanos for support-ing the Federation.

The Parade's permanent grandmarshals, Metropolitan Method-ios and Boston Mayor ThomasMenino, will join Mr. Diamataris,although more names could beadded in the weeks ahead, accord-ing to Mr. Kafkas.

The Federation is also workingon organizing the participation ofcollege and university studentsmore than ever before, he said.

This year, he added, the Feder-ation will host its youth event atthe Saint Nektarios communitycenter in Roslindale on April 1,with the participation of an un-precedented nine dance troupes.Boston's Miss Greek Indepen-dence 2006 will be selected thatsame evening.

“The request for tickets for thatevening is greater this year,” Mr.Kafkas noted. “It's already a suc-cess.”

Other featured events in theFederation's schedule are an eventhosted at the State House in Bos-ton on April 7 at 11:30 AM withMassachusetts Governor MittRomney, to be followed by a re-ception at the city's Greek Con-sulate.

Mr. Katsaros said the ParadeCommittee has more than 23members this year, all of whomworked very hard for the event'ssuccess. “We are also putting em-phasis on the post-Parade eventthat will take place at the Botani-cal Gardens. There will be a Greekpanigyri (outdoor fare) with mu-sic, dance and food. Last year,5,000 people came by. This year,we expect more than 20,000,” hesaid.

New England Community Gearing Up for GID Parade in Boston

The Grand Marshals of last year’s Greek Independence Day Parade marching up New York’s Fifth Avenuebefore 100,000 people. From left to right are Heracles Diamataris, Litsa Diamataris, National Herald Pub-lisher Antonis Diamataris, Vanessa Diamataris, U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and his wifeChristine.

Continued from page 1

Two Young Women Wear their GIDCrowns with Pride in their Heritage

TNH ARCHIVES

Wearing their crowns, Miss Greek Independence 2006 Georgia Lilikas, right, poses with Anna Zarkas, MissJunior Greek Independence 2006. The two girls will be waving at tens of thousands during New York’s an-nual Greek Independence Day Parade on Sunday, April 2.

TNH/COSTAS BEJ

“Greece is aboveeverything... never

stop loving it”[ ]

THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006 FEATURE 5

By Zoe TsineSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK - It's not everydaythat a Greek American institutionhosts a contemporary art exhibition,let alone an all-female one with aninternational outreach.

The Hellenic Museum & Cultur-al Center in Chicago is currentlyhosting “Penelopeia: The OtherJourney; e-migration,” an art exhi-bition featuring collaborations be-tween Greek and non-Greek wom-en artists.

The show is more than a tempo-rary display of artwork. It is thethird in a series of exhibitions creat-ed as part of “The Penelopeia Pro-ject,” an ambitious international ef-fort, inspired by Penelope, the fe-male protagonist in Homer's epic,“The Odyssey.” The PenelopeiaProject kicked off in 2003, and hassince generated a variety of culturalevents in art, music and writing.

Bearing the subtitle, “e-migra-tion,” the current exhibition inChicago focuses on the diachronicnotion of traveling, trans-bordercrossing, migration and displace-ment from ancient times to themodern, electronic age - as the pre-fix “e” in e-migration suggests. Theshow features paintings and pho-tographs, as well as multi-mediaand video art installations.

But how can Penelope, the hero-ine who famously waited in the con-fines of her palace for her husbandto return from an adventurous jour-ney, be an inspiration to a projectcentered on the notion of move-ment?

DARING, BRAVEAND WITTY WOMAN

“There is no contradictionhere,” Dr. Zoe Kosmidou, the exhi-bition's curator and a cultural coun-selor at the Greek Embassy inWashington, told The NationalHerald. “Penelope was a daring,brave and witty woman, who basi-cally ruled her country for 20 yearsduring her husband's absence.Women, who are confined withintheir homes or within social normsmay still, just like Penelope, tran-scend all borders, mental and physi-cal,” she argued.

Using the concept of migrationin a metaphorical way is one of themost characteristic elements of theexhibition.

“A metaphorical journey is one

every woman can identify with,” Dr.Kosmidou added, citing as repre-sentative of the show's identity, thework of Greek-born, New York-based artist Despo Magoni.

In 2003, after Dr. Kosmidoucontacted her about participating inthe exhibition, Mrs. Magoni startedrecording the daily internationalnews, along with her own personalexperiences, in small paintings. Theartist compiled “The Ledger,” asort of artistic journal featured inthe exhibition, which charts out hermental traveling through such di-verse events as the news of theNigerian woman who was con-demned to death for having a childout of wedlock and the artist's owndiscovery of a butterfly on a Brook-lyn street.

Mrs. Magoni then correspondedwith 33 women around the world,using photocopies of the Ledger'spages accompanied by personalnotes. These art letters, and the re-sponses she received, resulted in“The Correspondence,” a mail artproject which is also shown at theHellenic Museum.

Mrs. Magoni told the Heraldthat her participation in thePenelopeia Project reaffirmed herbelief in creativity as life's ultimatejourney: “Creativity happens in theconfines of a room,” she said.

“I spend a lot of time in my stu-dio, and I identify with Penelope'sjourney. She was not docile. Shewas powerful, just like all the wom-en who are left behind by their menin times of war have to be. I thinkthat by making Penelope weave,Homer was trying to tell us that shediscovered a world of imaginationshe had never thought existed.”Mrs. Magoni added.

Imagination is a key element inanother work cited by Dr. Kosmi-dou: “Carrying Comfort,” an instal-lation of photographs by GreekAmerican Eleftheria Lialios, whichis matched with a display of slippersby the Portuguese artist Rita Anto-nio. The project uses the seeminglyopposite ideas of burden and com-fort to challenge the viewer's under-standing of the lives of lower-class

women.In Mrs. Lialios' photograph

“Caged Spirit,” for example, an oldmentally-challenged Greek ladystands inside a kind of fenced cage,where she was locked away in thedays after a killer earthquake hit theGreek town of Kalamata in 1986.Pasted on her shadow, Mrs. Lialioshas incorporated an abstract image,a kind of “photographic spirit.”

Mrs. Lialios, who sees herself asa political artist, told the Herald shewanted to show that only in deathcould this woman find physical andmental freedom. “There is no mi-gration for most women, even to-day,” the artist argued. “Most wom-en are still constrained in theirhomes, like Penelope, and have nocontrol in the public sphere.”

The handmade slippers by Mrs.Antonio, which surround the pho-tographs, further enhance this view-point. Slippers, a symbol of domes-tic comfort, are worn as regularshoes by rural women. The slipperdisplay is a poignant metaphor ofthe journey women born into pover-ty take through life, a life oftenspent entirely in their birthplace.

Artists paired up in the show al-so include Greek CanadianChrysanne Stathacos, whose work isshown with that of Swedish MiaEnell; Greek-born Tanacross Dimi-triadi with Mai Ghoussoub fromLebanon; and Maro Michalakakosof Athens with French-bornBeatrice Plumet.

The Penelopeia Project's lastexhibition was organized by theGreek Embassy in the Spring of2004 as part of a celebration ofGreece as that year's Olympichost. Dr. Kosmidou is now dis-cussing the possibility of taking afourth exhibition to Europe andAfrica.

Meanwhile, the Hellenic Muse-um show has been receiving greatresponse from Chicago's publicand art institutions, thanks to an“excellent organization,” Dr. Kos-midou said.

Starting on April 8, the muse-um will host “Modern DayPenelopes: A Cross-Cultural Sym-posium,” which will feature multi-ethnic panels of women represent-ing various cultural organizations.

“Penelopeia: The Other Jour-ney; e-migration,” runs until June16 at the Hellenic Museum & Cul-tural Center, 801 W. Adams Street,4th Floor, Chicago, Illinois (TEL:312-655-1234). Museum hours areTuesday through Friday from 10AM to 4 PM; Saturday from 11 AMto 4 PM. Admission is $5 for non-members; free for members andchildren under 12 years of age. Formore information about thePenelopeia Project visit the web atwww.penelopeia.net.

Just Like Penelope: Exhibition Documents Women's Mental Journeys

A view from “Carrying Comfort,” an installation of photographs byEleftheria Lialios, matched with a display of slippers by Rita Antonio,now shown at the Hellenic Museum in Chicago. The two artists usedthe seemingly opposite ideas of burden and comfort to capture the ex-periences of lower-class women.

ty's 25-member parish council.Belmont-Cragin was once

home to thousands of Europeanimmigrants, many from Greece.Today, those moving into theneighborhood are more likely tospeak Spanish than English orGreek, and many are Catholic.

SHRINKING PIPELINEAt the same time, as many as 60

percent of the church's 500 fami-lies have migrated to Chicago'snorth and northwest suburbs. Theonce-thriving pipeline of Greekfaithful into Chicago has beenshrinking since the 1970's.

Holy Trinity's Rev. GeorgeKaloudis said he wants the churchto stay put in the 6000 block ofWest Diversey Avenue and try to

survive the difficult times. Thecosts of a move would be huge,and it might disenfranchise somelongtime parishioners still in thecity.

Why not let the suburbanitescontinue to drive in for services,Kaloudis asked?

"This is a wonderful churchwith lots of wonderful people. Idon't want to talk about its future.It's not something I want to thinkabout. As far as I know, the churchis staying put. End of story,"Kaloudis said.

But many on Holy Trinity'sparish council feel they must talkabout it. Dr. Spiro Karras, councilvice president, said parishionersand neighbors should not fearchange.

"This is a historical church, and

everyone involved wants what isbest for the church," Karras said.

About five years ago, HolyTrinity leaders said, they decidedto close the church school andtemporarily move it to anothersection of the city because of drop-ping enrollment. The plan calls formoving the school again to thenorth suburbs next fall, officialssaid.

Those promoting the moves de-cline to talk about a preferred des-tination, fearing it would drive upthe cost of property.

Holy Trinity's history dates to1897, when it opened near Halstedand Harrison Streets at what wasthen called the "Greek Delta."

In those early years Holy Trini-ty served a critical role in assimi-lating thousands of immigrants

from Greece.It had a similar anchoring role

in Belmont-Cragin after the 1965move. But the one-story brickbuildings along Diversey offer apeek at the neighborhood'schanges in the last 40 years.

The colorful Greek butchershops, bakeries and specialtystores are gone. They have beenreplaced with retail outlets cater-ing to the burgeoning Hispanicpopulation.

A neighborhood grocery acrossthe street from Holy Trinity adver-tises beef carne arrachera insteadof lamb, a Greek staple aroundfestival time.

Between 1990 and 2000, thenumber of African Americans liv-ing in the neighborhood tripled toabout 2,500. The number of His-

panics reached 50,881, an increaseof about 34,000 over ten years.

Meanwhile, the number of resi-dents who identified themselves asnon-Hispanic whites in the neigh-borhood stood at about 22,000 inthe year 2000, a decline of about15,500 from the previous decade.

Melinda Rodriguez, whomoved into the neighborhoodthree years ago, said she walks pastHoly Trinity nearly every day. Forthe first couple of years, she saidshe wasn't quite sure what thebuilding at Diversey and MeadeAvenue was.

"It looks more like a library or amuseum where they display di-nosaurs or something," said Ro-driguez, 38. "I never see anybodygoing in there."

Marvin Roberts, who rents a

bungalow a block away from HolyTrinity, said losing the churchwould be a blow for residents ofany faith.

"I'm one of these people whobelieves a church should neverclose," said Roberts, 47, whomoved into Belmont-Cragin a yearago.

"If you are losing members,then go out and find some newones. If we lose that church,there's no telling what will be inthat building a year from now."

The Chicago Tribune pub-lished the above on March 7. Theoriginal headline is, “ChurchWonders if it Should FollowFaithful: Neighborhood changesleave century-old Greek Ortho-dox parish in a predicament.”

Church in Chicago Struggles to Cope with Neighborhood Changes

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"Your book is terrific." Vicky Yannias, Odyssey Magazine

"It is a ... perceptive and moving account, reading almost like a novel, of the triumphant Americaniza-tion of Constant's stalwart mother...Connie Constant knows how to tell a good story, to educate, as well as to entertain." Efthalia Walsh, author

"If memoirs, like newspapers, are the first draft of history, then historians and sociologists...will be grateful for the book Connie Constant has given them." Prof. Demetrios Liappas

by Constance M. Constant

a b

Continued from page 1

Despo Magoni, one of several Greek and International women artistsshowcased at an ongoing exhibition at the Hellenic Museum & Cultur-al Center in Chicago, inspired by Penelope, the female protagonist of“The Odyssey.” Mrs. Magoni collaborated with 33 women around theworld to compile a mail-art work pictured behind her.

LEFT: “Organium 2003,” a floralinstallation by ChrysanneStathacos, on display at an all-fe-male art exhibition in Chicago’sHellenic Museum until June 16.RIGHT: “Caged Spirit,” a photo-graph by Eleftheria Lialios,shows a mentally-challengedwoman locked away in isolationafter a deadly 1986 earthquake inKalamata.

pretty big thing to put aside, butearly on, when I was still a memberof the House of Representatives, Iwas directly involved with the im-peachment proceedings againstPresident Nixon. I would say thatwas pretty important. But I wouldalso say that, overall, my most im-portant contribution, and the one Iam personally most proud of, ishaving represented my state, andthe rest of the country, with in-tegrity and good judgment in try-ing to set a standard in the wayCongress deals with important is-sues affecting the life of the Amer-ican people. I also feel very strong-ly about the opportunity I've had -as the first Greek American elect-ed to the Senate - to represent theGreek American community, acommunity I feel very close to, ona range of issues over the years - is-sues ranging from Cyprus to theAegean, the Balkans and the rela-tionship between Greece and theUnited States as a whole. That hasalways been a pretty big priorityfor me. When the State Depart-ment put out travel advisorieswarning Americans against travel-ing to Greece, I went to Greece toblunt the effects of that. We - someof my Senate colleagues and I - feltthat was excessive. I always tried toapproach U.S.-Greece relationsconstructively in an effort to en-hance that relationship, whichshould always remain close - and itis close; it just runs into somebumpy patches once in a while.

TNH: You also cast your10,000th vote on behalf of yourconstituents back in March of2003. That's a pretty significantachievement.

SARBANES: It's actually justshy of 11,000 now. And yes, I'mquite proud of that, but the num-ber of votes you cast doesn't fullymeasure your accomplishments asa public servant.

TNH: In your six years as a con-gressman and three decades as aU.S. senator, what would you sayhave been some of the GreekAmerican community's failuresand accomplishments in advancingissues of Hellenic concern politi-cally?

SARBANES: I think we have aneffective community. People ofGreek heritage have risen to verysignificant positions in every fieldof endeavor in American society -professionally, academically and inbusiness - and that has given us areasonable amount of clout, politi-cally speaking, especially when youstop to consider our numbers.There aren't that many Greeks inthis country, but our voice is stillheard.

TNH: When you consider theCyprus and the FYROM issues,particularly as they have so clearlyregressed under the Bush Admin-istration, is that still a fair state-ment to make?

SARBANES: Regrettably, thishas been a rough administrationfor Hellenic issues. Two days afterthe President was re-elected, theState Department announced it

would officially recognizeFYROM as the “Republic ofMacedonia,” thereby eliminatingthe United States from its good of-fices to help bring resolution to theproblem. When you extend recog-nition like that to one side, you areno longer in a position to accom-modate both sides. But given whatwe're up against, I think the com-munity has still done a pretty goodjob.

TNH: What's the communityup against?

SARBANES: There's a schoolof thought in Washington concern-ing geopolitics that's pretty strongat the Pentagon, the Intelligencecommunity and some parts of theforeign policy establishment. Thatschool looks at geopolitical issuesprimarily through the lens of thestrategic-military concept. Now, ofcourse it's important to considergeopolitical issues from that stand-point, but when it becomes the on-ly model people use to weigh thoseissues, the focus becomes very nar-row, and that has been a consider-able obstacle, particularly underthis administration. That's whatI'm referring to when I say whatwe're up against, so given that, thecommunity doesn't always fully ap-preciate what is working against itsinterests.

TNH: What are some of thecommunity's political achieve-ments, in your judgment?

SARBANES: Cyprus is now inthe European Union. That's a con-siderable achievement. Now tech-nically, that happened within thecontext of the E.U., but some peo-ple here were very worried thatthat might not have come to pass.The E.U. certainly sets its ownagenda, but the U.S. is also in a po-sition to bring considerable pres-sure to bear. The community had alot to do with how the U.S.Government - certainly at the levelof the Congress, but also to someextent within the Executive Branch- approached the Cyprus issue inthat respect. If Cyprus had not ac-ceded to the E.U., it would havebeen an isolated outpost in theEastern Mediterranean, and muchmore vulnerable to the Turkishthreat. The community had a lot todo with preventing Cyprus' acces-sion to the European Union fromtaking a negative turn. We got theClinton Administration to supportCyprus' European course, and thatsupport was also inherited by thesucceeding administration, whichmade it more difficult for the cur-rent administration to oppose thatpolicy.

TNH: The current administra-tion is now quite openly supportingthe Turkish Cypriot side. Hasn'tthat introduced a negative twist toU.S. policy towards Cyprus?

SARBANES: We just have towait and see how things unfold.Greece has become a much moreimportant country in its own right.It was president of the EuropeanUnion for the first six months of2003, and is now a more influentialmember of the E.U., and that pro-file will continue to be enhanced asnew countries enter the European

community. Greece also hosted avery safe and successful OlympicGames in 2004, in spite of what allthe naysayers and doomsday criticswere saying in the months beforethe Games. Greece has been sup-portive of Turkey's European can-didacy, so Greek policy has clearlyevolved. And let's not forget thatGreece dealt with its longstandinginternal terrorist threat - 17November has pretty much beendismantled - and the GreekGovernment has been cooperatingin the fight against internationalterrorism, as well. Greece has alsomatured within the context of itsrelationship with the UnitedStates. It has become a more inde-pendent partner in the U.S.-Greece friendship. From a geopo-litical standpoint, all that makesGreece a more substantial playerin Europe and the Balkans, soGreece's clout has increased, and itcan exercise greater political lever-age now than it was able to do be-fore.

TNH: So Greece's emergenceas a more substantive country po-litically has added to the GreekAmerican community's ability toadvance Hellenic issues in theUnited States?

SARBANES: I would say so,yes. The larger point, I think, isthat the community has been verygood about keeping Hellenic issueson the table. As a Greek Ameri-can, I represent the community inthe Senate, along with SenatorSnowe, and Mike Bilirakis does thesame in the House. But if it weren'tfor the community's efforts, thoseissues would have faded from theCongressional agenda. Adminis-trations come and go, and their re-sponsiveness to our issues vary, but

the community enjoys a good levelof support in the Congress, andthat's because of it has been activeabout getting those issues heard.

TNH: You sound like you havea very positive view about the com-munity's political effectiveness.

SARBANES: I'm upbeat aboutour community. I've always main-tained that Greek Americans are avery strong force in American soci-ety because we have held onto ourvalues: family, hard work, educa-tion and faith. All those things con-stitute our inner strength, which weinherited from our parents andgrandparents. The American peo-ple respect that, and that gives usfortitude.

TNH: Now that you're gettingready to complete your last term asa member of the U.S. Senate, whatis your vision for the communityand its institutions? How does thecommunity preserve and advanceHellenism in the future?

SARBANES: We shouldn't becomplacent. We still have a lot todo. But we shouldn't degrade our-selves either. We should be doingall we can to establish HellenicStudies chairs and programs acrossthe country. Another direction weshould continue to follow is to ex-pand our support for scholarshipprograms among our larger organi-zations, like AHEPA. The futurefor Hellenism in America dependson education. It also depends onthe Church. The younger genera-tions should also stay close to theChurch and support its ministries.And we need to be doing all we canto support out theological school,too. It's the training ground for ourpriests, and they're the future ofour Church.

TNH: What about the commu-

nity's grassroots efforts?SARBANES: We can always

use more grassroots activity andactivism. AHEPA and AHI have alot to do with stimulating that ef-fort, and I think those organiza-tions deserve the community's sup-port. I would also say that The Na-tional Herald has an importantrole to play in this regard. It isrecording our community's history,and plays a key role in keeping thecommunity informed, so the news-paper's readership is provided witha chance to stay aware, take actionand remain vigilant. I look forwardto receiving it each week. Thereare a lot of terrific stories yet totell. Peter Liacouras was presidentof Temple University. ConstantinePapadakis is president of DrexelUniversity. They have done a ter-rific job in leading those institu-tions. Let's not forget that we had aGreek American presidential nom-inee in 1988: Michael Dukakis.Now stop and think about that fora minute. That's a huge accom-plishment. But it didn't end withMike Dukakis, and it doesn't endwith me and Mike Bilirakis, either.We have Phil Angelides, who's thestate treasurer in California, andhe's now a serious candidate forgovernor of his state. California isthe largest, most populous state inthe country. If he wins, that wouldbe huge - governor of California.That would automatically makehim a national candidate. We alsohave Mike Gianaris, a Harvard-ed-ucated assemblyman in the NewYork State Legislature. He wasabout to run for State AttorneyGeneral of New York. He recentlyopted not to do that, but he's only35 years old. He's a bright youngman with a bright future, and I likewhat I see in him.

TNH: About Phil Angelides'gubernatorial candidacy in Califor-nia, he's up against a lot when youconsider Arnold Schwarzenegger'scelebrity status. Assuming he getspast the upcoming Democratic pri-mary, how do you think he'll fareagainst Arnold?

SARBANES: My view ofcelebrity status in politics is simple:It's the wrong sort of appeal. Beinga celebrity has nothing to do withbeing able to govern well. The pollsare showing that Phil is withinreach, and we know that GovernorSchwarzenegger has stumbled inhis effort to govern effectively. It'llbe a tough race, but I think An-gelides has a very good shot.

TNH: Thank you, Senator.SARBANES: Thank you.Senator Sarbanes (D-Mary-

land) announced on March 11,2005 that he would not seek re-election to the United States Se-nate for a sixth term this comingNovember.

In his official statement, hethanked “foremost” his parents,“who came to this country as immi-grants from Greece. From them, Ifirst learned about the meaning ofa democratic society and the po-tential it offers to move up the lad-der of opportunity on the basis ofability, hard work and conviction.”

He also took a swipe at the

Bush Administration, promising to“work hard to continue to serve allMarylanders to the very best of ourabilities, and to oppose the tragicand misguided policies of this ad-ministration, especially the currentradical attempt to undermine theSocial Security system.”

Senator Sarbanes has been rep-resenting the residents of Mary-land in the U.S. Congress for al-most four decades. He was electedto the U.S. House of Representa-tives in 1970, more than 35 yearsago, and then to the U.S. Senate in1976, where he has been servingthe Old Line State (a.k.a., the FreeState) ever since.

He is the longest-serving sena-tor in Maryland's history. Hereached a milestone on March 21,2003 when he cast his 10,000th votein the Senate on behalf of his state,thereby becoming only the 23rdsenator in U.S. Senate history toachieve that distinction (at presstime, he was closing in on his11,000th vote).

He is a 1954 graduate of Prince-ton University, a Rhodes Scholar,and a 1960 graduate of the Har-vard University School of Law.While serving as a member of theHouse Judiciary Committee inves-tigating the Watergate scandal, hedrew national attention in 1974 ashe introduced the first article ofimpeachment against PresidentRichard M. Nixon.

Consistently at the forefront ofHellenic issues on Capitol Hill, Se-nator Sarbanes is also a great pro-ponent of corporate reform, andhis legacy will be richly remem-bered for the landmark legislationhe authored with Rep. Michael G.Oxley (R-Ohio), the Sarbanes-Ox-ley Act, which broadly overhauledcorporate fraud, securities and ac-counting laws in July 2002. Mr.Sarbanes was Chairman of the Se-nate Banking Committee then, andhis bill won the Senate's unani-mous approval with a 97-0 vote.

The Senator's decision not torun for re-election was greetedwith quiet dismay by the Demo-cratic Party's national leadership,and with cautious optimism byRepublicans, who welcome an op-portunity to grab his Senate seat,but who also know that, althoughMaryland has a Republican gover-nor, Maryland voters are likely toelect another Democrat to succeedMr. Sarbanes.

Upon Senator Sarbanes' an-nouncement to retire, SenatorCharles E. Schumer (D-NewYork) said he was confident thatDemocrats would retain the seat.“Make no mistake about it: Mary-land is a blue state, and will staythat way in 2006. There is a deepbench of highly qualifiedDemocrats who will pick up wherePaul is leaving off,” he said.

Unless another Greek Ameri-can manages to get elected to theU.S. Senate, Senator Sarbanes' in-tended departure would reducethe number of Greek Americansenators from one to two, leavingSenator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) to hold the Hellenic fort inthe Senate.

6 FEATURE THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006

Continued from page 1

Sarbanes: Community Has Done a Good Job Keeping its Issues Alive

about two thirds of all marriages in theChurch are with non-Orthodox, and forthose who marry outside the church, 99percent of them marry non-Greeks,” saidDr. Moskos, who is himself married to anon-Greek.

“My wife is German, but she speaks

better Greek than I do, and rolls phyllodough by hand, something that evenGreek women in Greece don't do any-more,” he said, stressing Phil-Hellenes'potential of “becoming powerful Greeks.”

Religion is an important aspect of theGreek American community's culture andfuture, he explained, and that is goodnews because it is through the Church that

Hellenism will be preserved.“The Orthodox faith is on the verge of

a major breakthrough in contemporaryAmerican society,” he added, citing thegrowing number of Greek Orthodoxmonasteries in the United States.

“In order to keep a Greek Americanidentity, you have to walk along two differ-ent paths. One is sacred. One is secular.One is religious. The other is ethnic. Andthey both overlap,” Dr. Moskos said, cit-ing that the United Kingdom's “fastestgrowing religion is Greek Orthodoxy.”

The Church in America's entrant rateexceeds the rate of departure, he said: “Ican see more Americans becoming GreekOrthodox, rather than Orthodox leavingthe fold, with the church following a pat-tern similar to the one emerging in GreatBritain,” he said.

Dr. Moskos also stressed the need foryoung Greek Americans to strengthentheir ties with Greece and Cyprus.

“I think we need to bolster GreekAmerican connections with Greece andCyprus. The big thing today is a junioryear abroad, and believe it or not, it is stillcheaper to go to Greece than countrieslike France or Spain,” he said.

“For Greek American students, as wellas non-Greeks, why not go to Greece fortheir junior year abroad? That's some-thing that should be strongly emphasized;likewise, why not a fifth year abroad? Whynot spend a year in Greece before goingonto career or to graduate school? Insteadof scholarships, money should be given foroverseas study in Greece,” he said, urging

AHEPA to shift its attention in that direc-tion.

Dr. Moskos also said the communityshould be more supportive of its media,urging that parents should encouragetheir children to read the National Her-ald. “The National Herald has been doinga splendid job in keeping track of Greekissues and keeps the community well-in-formed,” he said.

When asked by the National Heraldwhether he believes more Greek schoolscan operate on a fulltime basis, instead ofsimply during the afternoons or just onSaturdays for a few hours, Dr. Moskosreplied, “I don't think that can beachieved on a national level, and since itseems like we're out of options, I firmlybelieve we should focus on study-abroadprograms.”

The Greek Government should alsocontribute financially to such programs,he added, “just like Turkey does.”

Dr. Moskos teaches a course in GreekAmerican sociology every fourth semesterat Northwestern University. “The fact thatthis course is not only attended by GreekAmerican students, but also by Americanswho can not identify themselves ethnical-ly, is very interesting,” he said. “Maybe tenstudents are Greek Americans, and the 60others are everything under the sun,” hesaid.

Dr. Moskos has authored more than200 articles, which have been published inscholarly journals, as well in the country'sleading newspapers. His writing has beentranslated in 19 languages. According to

the Wall Street Journal, he is “the world'smost influential military sociologist.” Hisresearch has taken him to combat units inVietnam, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Somalia,Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. He is alsoa recipient of the Distinguished ServiceAward, the United States Army's highestdecoration for a civilian. The third editionof his book, “Greek Americans: Struggleand Success,” is being published and willsoon be available in bookstores.

Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, who has served the U.S. Senatefor 30 years, says the Greek American community has been effective inkeeping Hellenic issues on the table.

Moskos: Junior Year Abroad Should be Spent in GreeceContinued from page 1

Dr. Charles Moskos, one of the country’spre-eminent sociologists, has studied thecommunity’s ability to maintain its cul-tural identity.

By Evan C. LambrouSpecial to The National Herald

NEW YORK - The slow pacewins the race. That's Senator PaulSarbanes' philosophy. A picture be-gins to emerge of a man who ishardworking, not fast-talking - notyour typical politician. Methodicaland deliberate, he is interested ingetting the job done.

The Maryland Democrat whochampioned corporate and ac-counting reform is retiring this year,after completing his fifth six-yearterm in the United States Senate.Including the six years he served inthe House of Representatives, bythe time his current term expires, hewill have served the U.S. Congressfor 36 years, retiring as the longest-serving senator in Maryland's histo-ry.

He announced that he would notseek re-election to a sixth Senateterm last year. It was well publicizedin the pages of this newspaper (seeMarch 19, 2005 edition). It was ma-jor news for the State of Maryland,for the Greek American communi-ty, and ultimately for the country.After all, it's not often that someoneserves on Capitol Hill for almostfour decades.

But what is it about Paul Sar-banes that makes him special?What are the implications of his re-tirement for the Greek Americancommunity, and for the country?

For answers to these and otherquestions, The National Heraldconsulted Peter Marudas, the Sena-tor's top aide for many years. Mr.Marudas, who served as the Sena-tor's chief of staff for a total of 23years (1971-1987 and 1995-2001)before retiring himself almost fiveyears ago, gave an overview of Se-nator Sarbanes and his career, withextensive references to the Sena-tor's involvement with the Nixonimpeachment proceedings and thecorporate scandals which ultimatelyled to the benchmark Sarbanes-Ox-ley Act of 2002.

The one thing most often saidabout Senator Sarbanes, even hisopponents will agree, is that he is apublic servant who is “deeply com-mitted to serving his constituentsresponsibly, with honor and utmostintegrity,” according to Mr. Maru-das.

That's nothing new, Mr. Maru-das said, and it is something whichwas noticed very early in Mr. Sar-banes' political career - even beforehe was first elected to the UnitedStates Congress in 1970.

“That statement also applies to

the context of Maryland State poli-tics. When he was first elected tothe Maryland State Legislature'sHouse of Delegates in 1966, theBaltimore Evening Sun - where Iworked as a journalist and which nolonger exists - in an editorial at thetime, commented, why would a per-son of such caliber, with his back-ground, start at the 'bottom rung.'The 'bottom rung' was the termthey were using to refer to theHouse of Delegates, and they statedvery clearly that Paul could have,and should have, started his careerby seeking higher office. The factthat he didn't was, and still is, a tes-tament to his good character andhumility,” Mr. Marudas said.

HALLMARK“His character and humility have

been the hallmark of his politicalcareer. He has always viewed him-self as a public servant, and he hasalways taken his job very seriously,”Mr. Marudas added.

When Senator Sarbanes was stilla member of the House of Repre-sentatives, Mr. Marudas pointedout, he introduced the first article ofimpeachment against PresidentNixon.

“This was all happening at a timewhen significant cases of politicalcorruption were emerging from theState of Maryland. He was viewedas part of a reform movement, andin contrast to others, he was viewedas an honest person. He has neverbeen self-righteous. He has neverworn his integrity on his sleeve,”Mr. Marudas said.

“When he introduced the firstarticle of impeachment againstNixon, he was just a junior memberof the House. He had barely servedfor four years at the time, and(House Judiciary CommitteeChairman) Peter Rodino of NewJersey decided that Sarbanesshould be the one to do it. We wereall stunned. Here was this youngcongressman from Maryland ap-pearing before the whole nation.Why? Because Rodino viewed Sar-banes as competent enough to doit,” Mr. Marudas added, citing theSenator's work ethic and the pub-lic's confidence in him.

“He's an extremely hard worker.He's extremely conscientious. Andthe reason he got elected and re-elected so many times is becausethe people really trusted him. Evenhis opponents admit this, and theyrespect him for it. He's earned ahigh level of respect in Washingtonbecause of the way he always did,and still does, his work,” Mr. Maru-das said.

“The Nixon impeachment tookplace when he was still a congress-man, but he also found himselfyears later investigating corruptionas a member of the Senate, when heserved on the Senate's special com-mittee to investigate the Iran-Con-tra scandal,” Mr. Marudas noted.

Senator Sarbanes was alsoRanking Democrat of the SenateBanking, Housing & Urban AffairsCommittee under Senator AlfonseD'Amato of New York, Mr. Maru-das said, which conducted theWhitewater Scandal.

The Iran-Contra Affair (alsoknown as “Irangate”) was a mid-1980's American political scandal.The Reagan Administration soldarms to Iran, an avowed enemy. Atthe time, Americans were beingheld hostage in Lebanon byHezbollah, a militant Shi'a organi-zation loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini.The Reagan Administration calcu-lated that, by selling arms to Iran,that country would influence theHezbollah kidnappers in Lebanonto release the hostages. But thearms shipments began before thefirst hostage was taken, and ended along time after the last hostage wasreleased. Iran was in the midst of awar with Iraq, and could find fewnations willing to supply it withweapons. Selling these arms gener-ated large amounts of cash. Thearms were eventually sold, andtube-launched, optically tracked,wire-guided missiles were shippedto Iran. The U.S. diverted the pro-ceeds to the Contras, rightwingguerrillas engaged in an insurgency

against the socialist Sandinista gov-ernment of Nicaragua. Congresshad not authorized this activity, andboth the sale of weapons to Iran andthe funding of the Contras violatedstated administration policy andfederal legislation. Hezbollah pro-ceeded to take more hostages afterthey had released old ones, and fail-ing to produce any meaningful re-sults, the arms-for-hostages pro-gram was cancelled at the end of1986.

The Whitewater Scandal beganwith a New York Times article dur-ing the 1992 Presidential campaignand continued into Bill Clinton'spresidency. After Deputy WhiteHouse Counsel Vincent Foster'sdeath, it was learned that ChiefWhite House Counsel BernardNussbaum had removed documentsconcerning the Whitewater Devel-opment Corporation from Foster'soffice. President Clinton and hiswife Hillary had invested in this cor-poration, and critics suspected themof fraud in connection with this in-vestment during the U.S. Securities& Exchange Commission's investi-gation of the failure due to insol-vency of Madison Guaranty, anArkansas trust company. Threeseparate inquiries determined thatthe evidence was insufficient toprove to a jury beyond a reasonabledoubt that the Clintons knowinglyparticipated in any criminal con-duct.

From Watergate to Irangate toWhitewater, how and why did Sena-tor Sarbanes find himself in thethick of investigating major political

scandals?Because he was widely regarded

as an able and intelligent legislator,and he had a very good reputation,according to Mr. Marudas, who alsocited the Senator's upbringing as areason.

“He always conducted his busi-ness fairly, and he never publiclyembarrassed anyone who appearedbefore him. He is a highly skilledquestioner who knows how to get tothe nature of the problem and poli-cy being pursued, and he is alwayswell prepared,” Mr. Marudas said.

“Another reason he has hadsuch a distinguished career is be-cause he learned the principles ofhonesty and hard work from hisparents. It was the way he wasbrought up: to be respectful, and totreat people well. He grew up with asmall-town set of values, which healways carries with him wherever hegoes, and after a while, his politicalpersona transcended partisan divi-sions. That's why he always wonelections by wide margins. Peoplereally respect him, and that's a rarequality in this day and age,” Mr.Marudas said.

THE STEALTH SENATOR,TORTOISE VS. THE HARE“His opponents often called him

the 'stealth senator' because he wasalways so quiet about the way he didhis work. They always tried to paintthat as a negative picture about him,but the voters knew better. PaulSarbanes may speak softly, but hecarries a big stick,” Mr. Marudasadded.

Consistent with Senator Sar-banes' integrity and character, Mr.Marudas noted, the Senator, in hiscapacity as Chairman of the SenateBanking Committee, was the “logi-cal choice and the right man at theright time” to author the landmarklegislation bearing his name, whichdramatically altered the country'scorporate landscape in 2002.

“When the Enron scandal broke,it caused a great deal of under-standable concern and anguishthroughout the country because ofthe effect it had on stockholdersand employees with the loss of theirholdings and jobs. Most legislatorswere immediately very vocal, butSenator Sarbanes was noticeably re-strained in his initial comments.The reason for that is because that'sthe way he always approachedthings. Rather than issue instantpress releases and statements, hecommenced with a series of hear-ings and invited the best economicminds in the country to discuss whatwent wrong - like (former FederalReserve Chairman) Paul Volckerand (former SEC Chairman)Arthur Leavitt. It was classic tor-toise versus the hare, where thehares took off and started makingall kinds of statements, while thetortoise went to work and graduallygathered the data,” Mr. Marudassaid.

“The ardor for reform began tofalter because the Bush Administra-tion got cool on the need for

change, and many people on theRepublican side of Congress werearguing that the market would han-dle it (the Enron debacle). ThenWorldCom and other scandalserupted, and that generated anoth-er frenzy - another panic - thatsomething needed to be done, andall of a sudden, Sarbanes emergeswith this piece of legislation. Well, itreally wasn't so sudden. He hadbeen quietly working on it all along.It was done carefully and deliber-ately, and it got past Phil Gramm ofTexas, who stiffly opposed it be-cause he didn't want Congressmessing around with the marketand putting to many regulations onbusiness,” Mr. Marudas said.

Senator Gramm was leading theopposition to Senator Sarbanes'bill, Mr. Marudas explained, and byall appearances, CommitteeRepublicans were following him,but then Senator Mike Enzi of Wy-oming, “the only CPA in the Se-nate,” told the Committee that hehad spent some time with SenatorSarbanes the night before and saidhe was going to vote for the bill.

“And that was it. The committeevoted on it 17-4. It was typical Sar-banes - using a consensus-buildingapproach to win bipartisan support.He skillfully handled all the tedious,unglamorous work for manymonths and produced a solid pieceof legislation to serve the public in-terest. He was really the drivingforce behind Sarbanes-Oxley forthe entire Congress,” Mr. Marudasadded.

When a senator with those cre-dentials leaves the Senate, whatdoes it mean for the Greek Ameri-can community, Mr. Marudas wasasked? It does not necessarily haveto be viewed as a loss, he answered,but rather as a change, and the Se-nator will very likely maintain hisconnection to the community, aswell as to the Congress.

“It's certainly a major develop-ment - no question about it. He'sbeen there for so long. You can callit a loss, but it's really a change. Se-nator Sarbanes will probably re-main involved and stay in contactwith both the community and theCapitol. And the community, whichhas done a lot of networking overthe years, still has friends in theCongress. Until some other GreekAmericans get elected to Congress,the community will have to rely onits non-Greek supporters. Groupslike AHEPA, AHI and the Nation-al Coordinated Effort of Hellenesshould continue emphasizing andproviding grassroots support andwork with our friends in the U.S.Government,” he said.

The Departure of Senator Sar-banes and Congressman Mike Bili-rakis of Florida, who is also retiringat the end of 2006 after 24 years inthe House, “is both an endpoint anda starting point,” Mr. Marudas said.“Hopefully, their stellar careers willinspire members of the youngergeneration to take their exampleand run for office.”

By Irwin BlockMontreal Gazette

MONTREAL - Montreal'sGreek community is preparing a se-ries of public events to mark the cen-tenary of its umbrella organization.

Annual events like Greek Inde-pendence Day are being enhanced,and new ones added, to celebratethe founding in 1906 of the HellenicCommunity of Montreal. The non-profit organization promotes Greekculture and traditions.

A partial timetable was madepublic at a news conference lastweek at Hellenic Community head-quarters on Wilderton Avenue inCote des Neiges district.

The history of Greek immigra-tion to the city actually began in1843, but the biggest waves were be-tween 1950 and 1970.

Marika Salamis-Asimakopulos,honorary co-chairperson of the cele-brations, recalled how the commu-nity grew exponentially after the Se-cond World War: "I have a photofrom 1933 of most of the communityat an annual picnic," she said. "Thatwould be impossible today."

According to the 2001 census,55,870 residents in the Montreal re-gion listed Greek in responses toethnic origin. Community officialssay this under-represents the actualnumbers, which are closer to 80-85thousand.

In the early postwar years, theGreek community was still smallenough that everyone would knoweach other by name, Salamis-Asi-makopulos said.

In 1954, she recalled, she wouldjoin her father, the late Rev. Ni-cholas Salamis, to greet new arrivalson the train from Halifax. The new-comers were "fleeing bad times for anew life of hope," she added.

Her father become so busy withweddings and baptisms, she wouldrarely see him on weekends.

The Greek community went on-to "change the flavor of Montreal,"Salamis-Asimakopulos said. "I look

around, and Greeks are thriving inevery walk of life. It's hard to imag-ine Montreal without the Greeks."

Mayor Gerald Tremblay was onhand to reiterate the city's supportfor the Hellenic Village project,aimed at sprucing up Park Avenuebetween Mount Royal and VanHorne Avenues to highlight theGreek community's presence there.

The city plans to add signs to re-flect Greek ownership of shops andthe many restaurants which stillserve Greek food in the rapidlychanging area.

Hellenic Community PresidentJohn Theodosopoulos recalled suchmilestones as the 1910 inaugurationof the Evangelismos tis Theotokou(Annunciation to the Mother ofGod) Church - the city's first GreekOrthodox church - on St. LaurentBoulevard north of SherbrookeStreet. At the same time, it helpedset up the first school where Greekwas taught.

The initial Platon Greek DaySchool opened in 1911. It served 25students in a building behind thechurch. In 1925, the communitybought a Methodist church at Sher-brooke and Clark Streets and con-verted it into the Church of the HolyTrinity. Evangelismos tis Theotokouwas incorporated into that church in1931. Fire gutted the building inJanuary 1986.

Community members movedfrom around St. Laurent Boulevardto Park Avenue, and then to ParkExtension, where two Greek Ortho-dox churches were established -Koimisis tis Theotokou (Dormitionof the Mother of God) in 1968, anda new Evangelismos tis Theotokouin 1975.

By then, community memberswere moving to New Bordeaux,Laval's Chomedey district, the WestIsland and the South Shore.

The first Socrates School, offer-ing Greek as part of its curriculum,was opened in 1970 in St. Laurent.In 1971, it changed from a mainlyEnglish school to a mainly French

one, with Greek as a second lan-guage and English as a third. Therenow are Socrates schools in Montre-al, Roxboro, St. Laurent and St. Hu-bert.

While there was an exodus ofthousands of anglophones after theParti Quebecois won power in 1976,Theodosopoulos noted, the Greekcommunity stayed.

St. George's Cathedral, the com-munity's main church, was openedon Wilderton Avenue in December1962. In 1982, the first phase of theHellenic Community Centeropened next door.

The main event this spring is slat-ed for March 25, to mark Greece'sindependence in 1821. A photo ex-

hibition is also planned to highlight100 years of memories and achieve-ments by Montreal's Greeks.

In mid-May, there will be athree-day folklore and music festivalat the community center, followedby a Hellenic Flame Festival in July;an exhibition of modern Greek mo-saics; and a visit by a Greek navalship.

The Montreal Gazette pub-lished the above on March 10. Theoriginal headline is, “HellenicCommunity Marks 100th, Specialcelebrations planned: From ahandful of immigrants a centuryago, Greeks now thrive in everywalk of life here.”

THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006 FEATURE 7

Profiling a Senator: Sarbanes Speaks Softly, but Carries a Big Stick

Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland, left, with Greek DevelopmentMinister Demetris Sioufas during a recent meeting at the Senator's of-fice in Washington, D.C.

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Hellenic Community in Montreal Celebrates its 100th Anniversary

Hellenic Medical Society of New Yorkand

The Hellenic Link, Inc.cordially invite the public to attend the:

Dr. Demetrios Flessas Sixth Annual Memorial Lecture His professional life was a paradigm of honoring the Hippocratic

Ideals exemplifying a compassionate and humanitarian medical practice among Hellenes and Americans.

Lecture on:"Byzantine Medicine & Social Concern"

Sunday, April 2, 2006 at 6:00 pm(After the Greek Independence Day Parade)

Guest Speaker:

Rev. Dr. Demetrios J. ConstantelosDistinguished Research Scholar and the Charles Cooper Townsend

Sr. Distinguished Professor of History and Religious StudiesEmeritus, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Location:Archdiocesan Cathedral Center

337 East 74th StreetNew York, NY 10021

Reception will follow

R.S.V.P. by March 28, 2006(212) 683-4447

Hellenic Medical Society of New York, 401 East 34th StreetNew York, NY 10016

8 OBITUARIES/CLASSIFIEDS THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006

Mourad, John H. - Age 87; ofRacine, WI. Services were on Fri-day, March 10; died March 4. Dur-ing World War II he served in theGreek army. He was employed byJ.I. Case Co. for 25 years, retiring in1982, and was a member of the 20Year Club. He was a member ofthe Kimissis Theotokou GreekOrthodox Church. Survivors in-clude his wife, Morfia; his son, BillVasilios Mourad of Racine; abrother, Sava (Despina) Arapoglouof Kozane, Greece; a sister, MaryArapoglou of Kozane, Greece; andtwo grandchildren. Memorials aresuggested to the Kimissis Theotok-ou Greek Orthodox Church. TheMaresh-Meredith & AcklamFuneral Home, in Racine, handledthe arrangements. For information,call the funeral home at (262) 634-7888.

Rigas, Leo A. - Age 76; of PineBrook, NJ; a service was on March11 in St. George Greek OrthodoxChurch, Clifton, after the funeralfrom Shook's Cedar Grove FuneralHome in Cedar Grove. Mr. Rigas,who died Wednesday, March 8 athome, was a truck driver for Sch-mitt Builders of Secaucus for 30years before retiring in 1990. Mostrecently, he was a bus driver's aidewith the Kevah Konnor Bus Co. inPine Brook for three years. Heserved in the Army during theKorean War. Born in Holyoke,Mass., he lived in Jersey City andFairfield for 25 years before mov-ing to Pine Brook five years ago.Surviving are his wife, Frosine; adaughter, Stella Blake; a son, An-drew; brothers, Ted Rigas and AlecWaddleton; a sister, Leona Rizzo,and six grandchildren.

Seferlis, Antonia B. - Age 100;died March 3 after a brief illness,surrounded by her loving family.She was born in Plattsburgh andwas a Syracuse resident most of herlife. Survivors: two daughters and ason-in- law, Angeline Booras ofNew Hartford and Sandra and Paul(Lucky) Grigoriadis of Syracuse; sixgrandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. She was prede-ceased by her husband, William G.Seferlis, and a daughter, Georgia P.Seferlis. Services were on Tuesday,March 7 at St. Sophia's GreekOrthodox Church. Interment: Oak-wood Cemetery. Arrangements en-trusted to Chase Funeral HomeInc.

Simons, Artemesia (Syme-onides) - Born near Sohoum, Ge-orgia (Russia) on August 2, 1908.Scarred by the ravages of war in1922, she became a refugee withthe rest of her family and moved toGreece. She was married in Greeceto Symeon Symeonides. Her legacyof indomitable faith in God, andtaking care of her family shall liveforever with all those who were for-

tunate to have known her. She leftan indelible impression to all withwhom she came into contact.Alone, widowed by a CarbonCounty mine explosion, pregnantwith a fourth child, in a strangeland, battling extreme hardships,ignorance, and prejudice, sheworked very hard to raise a familywithin her most precious GreekOrthodox faith. Her awesome in-ner strength provided her with thecourage to deal with all the blowsthat life has dealt her; she was chal-lenged beyond endurance and sheendured. Her constant companionwas her beloved special son Fotioswith whom she spent most of herlife. In our mind they became thedynamic duo that protected eachother from birth to death. May herPontian spirit; her Greek ethic; herOrthodox faith; and, forthrightnessbe a great beacon to her progenyand to all those whose life she hastouched during her ninety sevenplus years. Everyone that came intocontact with her profited from herwill to live, her will to protect herchildren, and her uncompromisingdemand for integrity in her rela-tionship with others. We shall trea-sure every moment we spent withher. Her spirit and her advice shallalways be with us. She will eternallylive in our hearts and minds. Weshall always be inspired by her lifeaccomplishments; we shall treasurethe values we were lucky and privi-leged to receive from her. We re-member with fondness her passionfor gardening and her award win-ning yard. As we go through ourjourney of life we shall always beguided by her faith, unquestionedhonor, and single minded integrity;we shall always remember thesparkle in her eye. She enteredeternity in her sleep on Tsi-knopempti, February 23, 2006. Sheis now resting in God's bosom. Pre-ceded in death by her parents, hus-band, sons John and Fotios. Sur-vived by children Despoina (Nor-ris) Struck, George Simons, Sophia(Nick) Colessides; grandchildrenJohn (Michelle) Struck, DimitriStruck; Mark (Lynne) Simons, Les-lie (Don) Faught, Amy (Don) Jen-nings; great grandchildren: Alexis,Yianni, and Zoe Struck; Katrina,and Elissa Simons; Connor Crozi-er; Alexandra Ward, Grace Jen-nings; numerous nieces andnephews in Greece. Special friendsTina Katis and Jon Anast. The fam-ily appreciates the services of theBrighton Gardens in Salt Lake andColorado Springs, and the hospiceservice, who assisted Yiayia in herfinal days. Funeral service was onMonday, February 27, 2006 at As-sumption Greek Orthodox Church,Price, Utah. Contributions suggest-ed to be made to the AssumptionGreek Orthodox Church, P.O. Box688, Price, Utah 84501.

Prousis, Marion (nee Harris) -

Beloved wife of the late Kay (Kyri-akos)Prousis; loving mother ofMichael (Stephanie) Prousis,Danae (Dennis) Rasor and Theo(Betty) Prousis; proud grandmoth-er of Alexis, Melli, Samantha andAnthony Prousis, Katie, Greg andBecky Rasor, James and AndrewFurdell; dear sister of Helene (thelate Savas) Georgiou and the lateDorothy (the late Ted) Kotsakis;sister-in-law of Elena and PatriciaProussis. Visitation was on Tues-day, February 14 until time of fu-neral service in SS. Peter and PaulGreek Orthodox Church in Glen-view, IL. Kindly omit flowers. Me-morial donations may be made toNorthwestern University FeinbergSchool of Medicine (forAlzheimers research), 710 N. LakeShore Dr., Chicago, IL 60611.

Taratsides, Panagiotis. - Diedon March 11. He gave 38 years ofservice to St. Nicholas GreekOrthodox Church, in Baltimore;beloved husband of Athena Tarat-sides, devoted father of GeorgeTaratsides and Despina Hiotis,dear brother of Anatoly Stelios,loving grandfather of Athena andPhilip Hiotis. Relatives and friendsgathered at Charles S. Zeiler & Sonin Baltimore on Monday, March20. Further visitation was held onthe following day with service im-mediately following at St. NicholasGreek Orthodox Church, 520 S.Ponca St. Trisaghion. Services wereheld on Monday.

Trefonas, Louis Marco Dr. -Age 74; loving husband, father,

grandfather and brother, passedaway Thursday, March 2, 2006. Hewas born in Chicago, IL to Peterand Eugenia Trefonas. He was arenowned Professor of Chemistryand former Vice President of Re-search & Graduate Dean at UCF.Louis is survived by his wife of 48years, Gail Trefonas, Rhododen-dron, OR; son and daughter-in-law, Peter and Heidi Trefonas,Medway, MA; daughter and son-in-law, Stephanie and Nick Keller,Castro Valley, CA; daughter, Jen-nifer Trefonas, Seattle, WA; sonand daughter-in-law, Mark andMonica Trefonas, Sandy, OR; sonand daughter-in-law, Paul andRandi Trefonas, London, UK; sonand daughter-in-law, Jason andElisabeth Trefonas, Jackson Hole,WY; eight grandchildren: Alexa,Alexander, Andrew, Brandon, Pay-ton, Peter, Sierra and Tiffany; onebrother, Peter Trefonas and onesister, Katherine Stathakos both ofChicago, IL. We love you and willmiss you. Wake was on Sunday,March 12 at Salerno's GalewoodChapels. Services were on Monday,March 13 at Saint Basil GreekOrthodox Church in Chicago.Father Chris officiated. Interment1:30 p.m. Elmwood Cemetery,Chicago, IL.

Tsiboukas, Dimitra (neeSikaras) - Beloved wife of the lateNikolaos; devoted mother of Maria(Peter) Koutsopoulos and Theodo-ra (Algis) Deckys; fond grand-mother of Andrea (Chad) Smith,Dimitra (Kevin) Bullens and great-grandmother of Ryan, Kevin andDaniel; dear sister of Nikolaos(Angeleki) in Greece, Frank (He-len) and Bill (Pota) Sikaras; dearaunt of many nieces and nephews.Family and friends met Mondaymorning, March 13 at Holy TrinityGreek Orthodox Church in Chica-go, for funeral service. IntermentElmwood Cemetery. Arrange-ments by Hellenic Funeral Service(Nicholas M. Pishos Funeral Direc-tor) (773) 745-1333.

Vlangas, James William. - Diedon March 8; loving husband ofRosemarie; devoted father of Ge-orgette E. Vlangas, Louis J. Vlan-gas, Jamy A. Bosey and the lateWilliam J. Vlangas; father-in-law ofJoanna Vlangas; dear grandfatherof David J. Updegraff, AmandaBrannock, Ronald C. Moore,Thomas G. Hare and Stacey A.Hare; great-grandfather of Alexan-dra Vlangas-Perry, Austin Hare,James and Hailey Moore and Grif-fin Brannock; brother of HelenGretes and Alexander Vlangas. Al-so survived by several nieces andnephews. Friends called at the fam-ily owned Ruck Towson FuneralHome in Baltimore on March 11and 12, where a Trisagon Servicewas also held. Mr. Vlangas was laidinstate at the Greek Orthodox

Cathedral of the Annunciation, onMarch 13, with funeral service. In-terment Greek Orthodox Ceme-tery, Windsor Mill Road.

Zachary, (Zacharakopoulos)John G. M.D., Ph.D. - Age 94;beloved husband of Pota, neeYakas; loving father of ConnieTuros and George Zachary; proudgrandfather of Nicole (Manuel)Marin, Michelle Turos, DannaiTuros, Destenee Zachary, JoeyTuros, Tamara Turos, John andZachary; cherished greatgrandfa-ther of Emmanuel, Ryan, Danielle,

Arielle and Valerie; dear brother ofMaria (Marinos) Kormas and thelate Licourgos and PanosZacharakopoulos in Greece. Dr.Zachary, an Orthopedic Surgeon,practiced medicine for 51 years inGreece, Illinois Masonic andSwedish Covenant Hospitals inChicago, retiring in 1988. Visitationwas on Tuesday, February 18 at theSmith-Corcoran Funeral Home inChicago, IL. Funeral was on Wed-nesday, February 15 from the fu-neral home to St. Demetrios GreekOrthodox Church in Chicago forfuneral service.

This is a service to the community.

Announcements of deaths may be telephoned to the Classified Department of The National Herald at

(718) 784-5255, Monday through Friday,

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST or e-mailed to: classifieds@then-

ationalherald.com

DeathsMourad, John H.

Prousis, Marion(nee Harris)

Rigas, Leo A.

Seferlis,Antonia B.

Simons,Artemesia(Symeonides)

Taratsides, Panagiotis. -

Trefonas, Louis Marco Dr.

Tsiboukas, Dimitra(nee Sikaras)

Vlangas, James William.

Zachary, (Zacharakopou-los) John G. M.D., Ph.D

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George Rallis, a former GreekPrime Minister and foreign minis-ter, who monitored Greece's ac-cession into the European Eco-nomic Community died this pastWednesday, March 15, from heartfailure at age 88.

The son and grandson of twoPrime Ministers, Mr. Rallis wasfirst elected to the Hellenic Parlia-ment in 1950. He was first given aministerial post in 1954 and servedat various times as minister ofstate, transportation and publicworks, public order, education, in-terior and foreign affairs, beforetaking over as Prime Minister incharge of a New Democracy gov-ernment from 1980 to 1981.

He studied law and political sci-ence at the University of Athens,from which he graduated in 1939.He served the Greek Cavalry inAlbania during the 1941 Italian-Greek war, and later also servedthe Hellenic Army during theGreek Civil War.

As a close collaborator of thelate Prime Minister, ConstantineKaramanlis, he participated in thefounding of the National RadicalParty, ERE, in 1956. He resignedfrom ERE's 1958 government,along with 14 other members ofParliament over a disagreementwith Mr. Karamanlis on electorallegislation. He was suspendedfrom ERE, to which he returned in

1961.In 1967, as public order minis-

ter of the last pre-dictatorship gov-ernment of Panagiotis Kanel-lopoulos, Mr. Rallis solicited thehelp of the Greek military sta-tioned in northern Greece againstthe colonels. That effort failed,and he was arrested on April 21,1967 and placed under house ar-rest for two months. He was laterexiled to the island of Kassos untilSeptember 1968.

After the democracy was rein-stated in 1974, he became a lead-ing member of New Democracyand successfully monitored the ac-cession of Greece to the EuropeanEconomic Community in 1978.

When Mr. Karamanlis becamePresident of the Hellenic Republicin 1980, Mr. Rallis became PrimeMinister, during which timeGreece returned to NATO for thefirst time since the 1974 Cyprus in-vasion. He served as prime minis-ter until 1980, when Andreas Pa-pandreou's socialist party,PASOK, first came to power.

Mr. Rallis returned to the Par-liament in 1990 but resigned in1993, after a disagreement withthen Prime Minister ConstantineMitsotakis on the Skopje issue. Hereturned to the party in 1997, un-der then ND Party Chairman Mil-tiades Evert.

Mr. Rallis authored several

books on politics and ModernGreek history. Condolences weresent by President of the HellenicRepublic Karolos Papoulias,Prime Minister Costas Karaman-lis, Hellenic Parliament SpeakerAnna Psarouda-Benaki and themain opposition leader, PASOKParty Chairman George Papan-dreou, among others.

The above incorporates infor-mation from reports posted byFLASH.gr and the Athens andMacedonian Press Agencies.

Former Prime Minister of Greece George Rallis Dies of Heart Failure at 88 Years of Age

By Amy C. RippelOrlando Sentinel

Louis Marco Trefonas was a sci-entist by profession, a chemistryprofessor and researcher whosework can be seen throughout theUniversity of Central Florida.

But his other passion - the arts -created what some might consideran usual marriage of the concreteand the creative, his friends andfamily said.

Trefonas, 74, a former UCF vicepresident for research and gradu-ate dean, died last Thursday,March 9, in an Oregon hospital. Heretired from UCF in 1999.

He was a chemist who, at onepoint, collaborated at HarvardUniversity with a former mentor,who went onto receive the 1976Nobel Prize in chemistry basedpartly on their work. And he lovednature and the arts, shown by his

support for UCF visual arts and hisinstrumental role in establishing anarboretum at the school.

"He brought a needed sense ofcreativity to the University of Cen-tral Florida that he repeatedlydemonstrated in his commitmentto all of our research programs,"Rusty Okoniewski, a close friendwho worked with Trefonas at UCF,told Trefonas' son-in-law NickKeller.

"Although science was certainlyhis first love, I will always remem-ber his strong desire to foster thearts on our campus as well. Hislegacy can be seen throughoutUCF."

Born in Chicago, Trefonas mar-ried his love, Gail Thames, in 1957.

In 1954, Trefonas earned hisMaster of Science degree from theUniversity of Chicago and went on-to complete his doctorate in chem-istry in 1959. He took his first

teaching job in 1960 as a Universityof New Orleans chemistry profes-sor. He later served as the school'schemistry chairman.

In 1972, Trefonas took a sabbat-ical to spend a year in research atHarvard, his family said.

In 1980, Trefonas moved toCentral Florida to work at UCF.His family and friends said heworked to bring research groups tothe UCF Research Park.

"He is best known for his studyon the molecular structure of com-pounds used in cancer research,and for his long affiliation with theAmerican Cancer Society, Centerfor Research and Education in Op-tics and Lasers, Florida Solar Ener-gy Center and the UCF Arbore-tum, which he co-founded," hisfamily said in a written statement.

UCF Art Professor WalterGaudnek said Trefonas alwaystook a personal interest in the arts

program. "That's a blessing," hesaid.

Trefonas was a longtime mem-ber of the Holy Trinity GreekOrthodox Church in Maitland,Florida.

He is survived by his sons, Peterof Medway, Massachusetts, Markof Sandy, Oregon, Paul of Londonand Jason of Jackson Hole, Wy-oming; his daughters, StephanieKeller of Castro Valley, Californiaand Jennifer of Seattle; his brother,Peter, and his sister, KatherineStathakos, both of Chicago; andeight grandchildren.

Pishos Galewood FuneralChapels, Chicago, handled the fu-neral arrangements.

The Orlando Sentinel Pub-lished the above on March 12. Theoriginal headline is, “ScientistLouis Trefonas Left Legacy Dur-ing his Two Decades with UCF.”

Louis Marco Trefonas, Scientist, Researcher and Professor, Dies at 74

George Rallis, a former GreekPrime Minister. E

UR

OK

INIS

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He called the report an “un-precedented attempt of politicalinterference” in a country's inter-nal affairs.

According to information ob-tained by the National Herald, adelegation of ICG representativeswas expected to present the reportin a press conference held at theLedra Pallas Hotel in Cyprus.

CYPRUS STALEMATEThe title of the report is, “The

Cyprus Stalemate: What Next?” Itfeatures detailed recommenda-tions towards both the Greek andTurkish Cypriot sides, as well as tothe European Union and the Unit-ed States, for a resolution.

The report attempts to analyzethe divided island republic's stateof affairs after the plan submittedby U.N. Secretary-General KofiAnnan was defeated in referen-dum in April 2004, and states thatthe Annan Plan still offers theright framework for a final solu-tion.

“Given that no negotiated set-tlement is presently in sight, theonly way forward appears to be aseries of unilateral efforts by therelevant domestic and internation-

al actors aimed at sustaining thepro-solution momentum in thenorth; inducing political change inthe south; and advancing inter-communal reconciliation,” the re-port states, further suggesting thatthe promotion of “efforts to reuni-fy Cyprus within the broad frame-work laid down in the AnnanPlan” which, “if built around theconcept of a bizonal and bicom-munal federation,” would bring“the best-case outcome.”

The report states that PresidentPapadopoulos “does not seem tohave any inclination, or coherentstrategy on how to get unificationback on track, and the prospectslook bleak.” Mr. Papadopoulos,and the Cypriot Government ingeneral, “should realize that, ifthey persist in their refusal to en-gage with the United Nations andwith Cyprus's other internationalpartners, the island will slip by de-fault toward permanent partitionand the independence of thenorth, whether formally recog-nized or not. The idea that TurkishCypriots will instead accept minor-ity status in a centralized GreekCypriot state is a pipe dream,” thereport states.

The report also states that

Cypriots have “lost their moralhigh ground in the Cyprus issue”by their stubborn opposition to co-operate with their Turkish compa-triots, and are “now regarded asthe intransigent side and can nolonger rely on international sym-pathy for the events of 1974.”

The ICG report could have anadverse effect on Greek efforts toresolve the longstanding Cyprusproblem, one of the internationalcommunity's most intractable dis-putes. ICG is one of the most im-portant think tanks dealing with“problematic areas,” and some ofits leading members have, in thepast, handled political issues for theUnited States the European Unionin a manner which makes it safe tosay that the group exercises sub-stantial policymaking influence.

ICG is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organi-zation, with more than 110 staffmembers on five continents. Thegroup is headquartered in Brusselsand has four advocacy offices lo-cated in Washington DC, NewYork, London and Moscow. It ispartially funded by several impor-tant U.S. institutions, includingthe Ford Foundation, theCarnegie Endowment, the Rocke-

feller Foundation and the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to Information post-ed on the ICG website (www.cri-sisgroup.org), the group's work in-volves “field-based analysis andhigh-level advocacy to prevent andresolve deadly conflict.” ICGworks closely with governmentsand those who influence them, in-cluding the media, “to highlight itscrisis analyses, and to generatesupport for its policy prescrip-tions.”

ICG's board of directors in-cludes members of Congress andformer foreign ministers from sev-eral countries (e.g., Belgium,Canada, Sweden and Holland),E.U. officials, members of the U.S.Government and journalists. LordPatten of Barnes, former Euro-pean Commissioner for ExternalRelations from the United King-dom, is chairman; former Aus-tralian Foreign Minister GarethEvans is president and chief execu-tive officer; and former U.S. Assis-tant Secretary of State and Am-bassador to Turkey MortonAbramowitz and Open Society In-stitute Chairman George Sorosare members of its executive com-mittee.

THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006 GREECE/CYPRUS 9

LONDON - Thousands of Bri-tish families who bought cheaphouses or land in northern Cypruswere told last Friday, March 10,that their investments were secure,even if European courts ruled thattheir property was stolen fromGreek owners during the 1974 divi-sion of the island.

Ferdi Soyer, the prime ministerof the (so-called) Turkish Republicof Northern Cyprus gave a "stateguarantee'' that their ownershipcould not be successfully chal-lenged.

The political standoff betweenthe Greek and Turkish sides ofCyprus would ensure that courtclaims were not enforced, he said.

During a visit to London, Mr.Soyer said, "There is no chance thatthey will lose their property. I wantto say this very clearly. For Britishpeople who buy a house, or whowant to take land in north Cyprus:Do not be afraid. Everything is un-der our state guarantee.''

TOTALLY UNSAFEBut Yannis Kasoulides, a Greek

Cypriot Member of Parliament,said the guarantee was meaning-less. "No politician can give guaran-tees to people when these mattersare before the courts. The courtshave the last say. It is totally unsafeto buy a house or build on land thatlegally belongs to someone else.''

Up to 2,000 Britons are thoughtto have invested in cheap propertyin the Turkish-occupied north ofthe island. Some did so despiteknowing that there were Greekfamilies with title deeds to the land.

British bargain-hunting causedanger in the Greek Cypriot south,where some families harbor memo-ries of fleeing their homes at gun-point.

Greek Cypriot claimants haveenjoyed a string of legal victoriesagainst British property owners, inGreek Cypriot courts and in theEuropean Court of Human Rights.

Those victories were givenadded teeth after the southernRepublic of Cyprus joined theEuropean Union in 2004, allowinglawyers to ask British courts to en-force rulings by local judges - rais-ing the prospect of Britons havingtheir United Kingdom assets seizedto pay compensation.

The former British colony ofCyprus has been split since 1974,when Turkey invaded the north inresponse to a military coup on theisland, backed by Athens.

In recent years the border be-tween the two sides has opened up,but relations remain frosty, and di-rect air travel is still not possible tothe north.

In 1983, the Turkish-held area,which constitutes about one thirdof the island, declared itself theTRNC.

Mr. Soyer said a solution to landdisputes on both sides could onlybe found as part of an overall settle-ment tackling the continued isola-tion of his country.

Northern Cyprus is recognizedas a state only by Turkey, and con-tinues to be constrained by complexeconomic and trade restrictions.

But residents in the south haveenjoyed the benefits of E.U. mem-bership since 2004, despite reject-ing a reunification referendum toreunify the divided island republic.'

Last year, British owners wereput on alert after a number of legalchallenges to holiday homes in thenorth by Greek Cypriot authorities.Cyprus' E.U. membership allowedthem to press the U.K. courts to en-force a decision by their courts call-ing for the land to be confiscatedand compensation paid to therightful owner.

It emerged that the Prime Min-ister's wife Cherie Blair was repre-senting Linda and David Orams ofHove, East Sussex, who paid£160,000 (more than $276,000) fora two-story villa.

Mr. Soyer said all legal proceed-ings were effectively on hold until apolitical resolution was found. "It isa political issue,'' he said, addingthat a diplomatic standoff betweenthe two countries meant that, if anyfurther cases were brought, thenorth would begin trying to reclaimproperty in the south on which ho-tels, houses and roads have beenbuilt.

During his visit, Mr. Soyer metForeign Office officials to discussways of ending his country's isola-tion.

Communication with the southwas "zero,'' he said, despite state-ments by the British and U.S.Governments that they want to seeprogress.

"Europe must take responsibili-ty for putting pressure on theGreek Cypriots and push them to asolution. They have lost their moti-vation for a solution after gettingE.U. membership.''

Isolation had created a "human-itarian problem,'' with slow eco-nomic growth, electricity shortagesand red tape impeding imports andexports, he said.

Northern Cyprus has also be-come a notorious haven for Britishcriminals due to the lack of an ex-tradition agreement between thetwo governments.

One of the best known is tycoonAsil Nadir, who fled Great Britainbefore he could be tried at the OldBailey over a £34 million ($58.73million) fraud in 1993.

The Polly Peck founder was atthe center of a Serious Fraud Of-fice inquiry, and has since battled invain to have the charges againsthim dropped.

In 2003, suspected fraudsterStanley Rankin, 55, who had beenon the run from British justice forseven years, was shot dead there.He fled Britain after being caughtby police in London with forgedpromissory notes worth £1.5 mil-lion ($2.6 million) in December1995.

Mr. Soyer said his governmenthas a good'' relationship with Bri-tish police, but it has not receivedany court decision or warrant de-manding Mr. Nadir's arrest.

"We are prepared to sign an ex-tradition treaty,'' he said, addingthat northern Cyprus's isolationfrom its southern neighbor wasmaking it more difficult to fightdrug smuggling and people traf-ficking, and to deal with a recentoutbreak of bird flu.

"Birds do not have Turkish orGreek flags around their necks. Wemust make relations with each oth-er, but they refuse these things,'' hesaid.

On a visit to the island in 2004,Prime Minister Tony Blair calledfor the lifting of trade sanctions andthe introduction of direct commer-cial flights.

He said the international isola-tion of northern Cyprus should belifted after its citizens backed aUnited Nations plan aimed at unit-ing the island.

Turkey has a particular interestin resolving issues over the dividedisland as its own E.U. aspirationsare linked to its future.

The above incorporates infor-mation published by the Press As-sociation and the Daily Telegraphon March 10-11 (by Chris Green-wood and David Rennie, respec-tively).

Turks Say British HomesSafe in Occupied Cyprus

By Andrew BorowiecThe Washington Times

NICOSIA - An internationalthink tank has blamed GreekCypriots for the impasse on the is-land in a stinging report, prompt-ing dark muttering from politi-cians in Nicosia that they are thevictims of an "Anglo-Americanconspiracy."

The report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Groupcoincides with U.S. efforts to es-tablish trade links with the (so-called) Turkish Republic ofNorthern Cyprus after decades ofisolation - a move which GreekCypriots see as tantamount todiplomatic recognition of a territo-ry now recognized only by Turkey.

The ICG report singled outRepublic of Cyprus President Tas-sos Papadopoulos as a major cul-prit, saying he "does not seem tohave any inclination, or coherentstrategy on how to get unification

back on track, and the prospectslook bleak."

The Cypriot Governmentpromptly rejected the report aslacking credibility, while politi-cians claimed that Cyprus was "avictim of the Anglo-Americanconspiracy." Marios Matsakis, aCypriot parliamentarian, said theICG was an "Anglo-American pro-paganda tool" which serves the po-litical interests of the UnitedStates and Great Britain.

Both countries have been in-creasingly critical of the economicblockade of northern Cyprus,which was instigated by Greeceand the Greek Cypriots, and hasbeen honored by the EuropeanUnion.

The Bush Administration nowfeels that trade would ease the bar-riers and promote unification ef-forts, paralyzed by the Greek Cypri-ot rejection in last year's referen-dum of the latest United Nationsproposal for a bi-communal state.

The ICG describes itself as anonprofit, nongovernmental orga-nization with staff on five conti-nents. It is funded in part by theFord Foundation, the CarnegieEndowment, the RockefellerFoundation and the Bill & Melin-da Gates Foundation.

Claiming that the Greek Cypri-ots "have lost their moral highground in the Cyprus issue" bytheir stubborn opposition to coop-erate with their Turkish compatri-ots, the report said, "The GreekCypriots are now regarded as theintransigent side and can nolonger rely on international sym-pathy for the events of 1974."

A Greek coup that yearprompted an effort to link Cypruswith Greece. Turkey responded bysending troops to occupy the northof the island and establish a sepa-rate Turkish Cypriot state.

In an analysis considered to beaccurate by a number of diplomatsand observers on the island, the

40-page report made the followingkey points:

ñ Over the years, the GreekCypriots have been persuaded bytheir politicians, educational sys-tem and the media "of the legaland moral superiority of theircause."

ñ "The political class has rarelyargued the need of a genuine pow-er-sharing solution."

ñ The Turkish Cypriots haveno means of making their caseheard in Brussels, the headquar-ters of the European Union.

ñ By blockading the north eco-nomically, the Greek Cypriotsseek to systematically weaken itand eliminate any prospect forpower-sharing as proposed by theinternational community.

The Washington Times pub-lished the above on March 13.The original headline is, “ThinkTank Faults Government for Is-land's Deadlock.”

biggest spy scandal.Last month, the Greek Govern-

ment announced, to general sur-prise, that Vodafone's facilitieshad been used by "persons un-known" to tap calls from before the2004 Athens Olympics to March2005. Among the 160-odd peoplewhose conversations were listenedto were Prime Minister CostasKaramanlis, several of his cabinetministers, the heads of the armedforces and Olympic security offi-cials.

Koronias denied that Vodafonehad the technical know-how to in-stall the spy software and laid theblame at the door of Ericsson. Asmanufacturer of Vodafone's tele-com infrastructure, including legalinterception software, the Swedish

company would have been able toinstall illicit bugging devices intothe system, he claimed.

"Only Ericsson's staff couldhave set up such a device," he said.Ericsson furiously countered thatVodafone not only knew about theillegal software, but had also acti-vated it at the request of British in-telligence agents.

Then, as if reading from a man-ual on how to commit commercialsuicide, the CEO told the commit-tee it was feasible that all Voda-fone's communications centers hadbeen decked out with wiretaps pri-or to the Games. He also admittedthat Kostas Tsalikides, a top tech-nician at the company - found deada day after Vodafone reported thewiretaps to the government lastMarch - may have stumbled acrossthe high-tech surveillance devices.

His death, the focus of a judicialprobe, is now seen as key to solvingthe mystery of the "Greek Water-gate."

Koronias conceded, "Tsalikidescould have, in his position at thecompany (as network planningmanager), located the illegal soft-ware."

Koronias' confessions came asVodafone Greece also came underfire from the Government. NewDemocracy, the ruling party, ac-cused the company of being eco-nomical with the truth.

The public criticism followedclaims by the country's indepen-dent security watchdog (ADAE)that Vodafone had failed to informthe authorities three of its commu-nications hubs - and not two asoriginally reported - were bugged.Some 67 portable phones are be-

lieved to have been monitored bythe third station.

"When (Koronias) reported thecase (to the Greek Government),the crucial issue that there was athird surveillance point was notmentioned, whatever this may sayabout his credibility and the ulteri-or motives behind the move," saidDeputy Government SpokesmanEvangelos Antonaros.

ADAE, which released the find-ings of its investigation into the af-fair on March 1, claimed thesnoopers not only had access toVodafone's communications cen-ters, but had frequently servicedthe surveillance systems. Inexplica-bly, it said, Koronias had failed toalert the watchdog when the listen-ing devices were discovered. Then,even more mysteriously, he dis-mantled the taps, making it impos-

sible to trace the eavesdroppers.Greeks have been gripped and

appalled by the revelations, withthe conservatives' popularity rat-ings taking a heavy blow. Somepolls show that around 67 percentpersonally blame Prime MinisterKaramanlis for his handling of theaffair. "Who is Big Brother," askedAlekos Alavanos, who heads theLeft Coalition party. "Everyonesmells a cover-up."

Because the antennae which re-layed the calls to the recordingequipment were close to the Unit-ed States Embassy, many believe"Big Brother" is the CIA.

Koronias appeared to confirmthose suspicions, telling the parlia-mentary committee that thesurveillance system required peo-ple with expertise in a number ofhi-tech areas, "as well as plenty of

money."More tellingly, the U.S. Em-

bassy's former political counselor,John Brady Kiesling, also pointeda finger at Washington. The CIA'sfingerprints were all over opera-tion, he said.

"Everything points to the U.S.Embassy," said Kiesling, who leftthe State Department in disgustover the Iraq war. "Nobody elsewould have, or be interested in, alist (of people tapped) that wouldlook like that."

The Observer published theabove on March 12. The originalheadline is, “Wrong Signals overGreek Phone-Tapping Scandal:'Who is Big Brother,' politiciansare asking as Vodafone strugglesto exonerate the firm fromGreece's 'Watergate.' ”

Wiretapping Scandal Starts Taking on Some New Dimensions as Plot ThickensContinued from page 1

Think Tank Puts the Blame on the Greek Cypriot Side

Cypriot Government Angry about Think Tank ReportContinued from page 1

Working to HelpBring ResolutionTo Global Issues

Adamantios Vassilakis, GreekAmbassador to United Nations,leaving a U.N. Security Councilmeeting held in the offices of theFrench Mission to the U.N. inNew York this past Tuesday,March 14. The Hon. Mr.Vassilakis heads three com-mittees for the Security Council,each dealing with Africanconflicts. The Security Council iscurrently up to its neck with Iran’snuclear ambitions. Greece’s term asa non-permanent member of theSecurity Council expires at theend of this year. A

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10 EDITORIALS/LETTERS THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006

“Deadlock in Cyprus: What Next?” That's the title of a report issuedby the International Crisis Group, a think tank based in Brussels partlyfinanced by some of America's largest and most important foundations.

This report contains many inaccuracies, not to mention inappropriatelanguage referring to a head of State like Republic of Cyprus PresidentTassos Papadopoulos: “He does not seem to have any inclination or co-herent strategy on how to get unification back on track, and theprospects are bleak.”

How could any Cypriot not want reunification? It almost looks likeICG is calling for the overthrow of Mr. Papadopoulos, the democratical-ly elected leader of the Cypriot Government.

These kinds of conclusions and characterizations are totally uncalled-for and are counterproductive to the authors' objectives. The report willactually help increase Mr. Papadopoulos' popularity and adds insult toinjury to the Greek Cypriot community, which sees a large part of itsland still under Turkish occupation.

ICG can not be ignored, however. It clearly represents the thinking ofsome in the United States Government, as well as important countries inthe European Union.

That is why the Cypriot leadership can not dismiss it, and why it cannot ignore two specific aspects of it:

1. The Bush Administration “now feels that trade (with the Turk-ish-occupied area) would ease barriers and promote unification efforts.”

2. “The Greek Cypriots are now regarded as the intransigent side,and can no longer rely on international sympathy for the events of 1974.”

If barriers were “eased,” then it would not be long before the island'soccupied territory would be recognized as a seperate state. And if per-ceptions of Greek Cypriot intransigence continue to linger, then Cypruswould lose a very valuable ally: international public opinion.

That's why the Cypriot leadership must take initiative and try to re-verse this impression. Given the fact that Cyprus is holding presidentialelections in May, however, one might not expect much in that respect.

Time to look aheadAHEPA honored, in grand style, two outstanding Greek Americans

last weekend for their long, honorable and substantial service to thecountry and this community: Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland andCongressman Mike Bilirakis of Florida.

It is significant that AHEPA, the largest and oldest Greek Americanorganization, honored two of our country's top legislators.

But the event which draw so many people from across the land alsomarked the end of a great era: the era which will be long remembered asthe time when 2 percent of the United States Senate consisted of GreekAmericans; an era when a son of Greek immigrants earned the respectand trust of the people of Maryland, and who got elected and re-electedby large margins so many times; an era when a Greek American senatorearned the respect of his Senate colleagues, which allowed him to reachthe highest echelons of the Senate Foreign Relations and Banking Com-mittees, and who authored legislation which is now one of the country'smost important laws dealing with the issue of corporate ethics for a morejust society.

The core issue, and what is so refreshing and unique about SenatorSarbanes, is that he exemplifies the highest ideals of Hellenism: charac-ter, principals, faith in education and its potential to transform and uplifta community, and dedication to public service as a noble and worthy en-deavor.

Rep. Bilirakis also served honorably and passionately for the thingshe believed: taking care of the country's veterans, healthcare, and issueswhich affect Greece and Cyprus, establishing the House of Representa-tives Hellenic Caucus, which now has more than 130 members. The onlyGreek American left in House, he will also be greatly missed.

Mr. Sarbanes and Mr. Bilirakis have distinguished themselves, and wethink their major contributions to the Greek American community, andto the motherland is found readily in the many instances they were ableto help prevent bad decisions from adversely affecting Greece andCyprus. On top of that, they have never been involved in any scandals.

Let's hope that the community will be fortunate enough to have an-other Paul Sarbanes and Mike Bilirakis in the years to come.

Unfortunately, the prospects are not that great presently. We do notsee much in the Greek American political pipeline presently to encour-age us that the vacuum left by Mr. Sarbanes and Mr. Bilirakis will befilled any time soon.

We now need to look forward and watch where the community isheaded in terms of elected officials at all levels of government. It won'tbe easy, but there are some bright spots on the horizon. Let's begin byhelping John Sarbanes and Gus Bilirakis get elected to Congress thisFall.

And as Senator Sarbanes states in his interview this week (see leadstory), one of our greatest hopes rests in California State Treasurer PhilAngelides, who is running for Governor of California. A Greek Ameri-can governor of the largest, most populous State in the Union would def-initely be a tremendous political achievement, one of potentially nation-al proportions.

As Senator Sarbanes says, “There aren't that many Greeks in thiscountry, but our voice is still heard,” and it's heard because people likeSenator Sarbanes and Congressman Bilirakis, and so many others in dif-ferent walks of life, who have earned the respect of our fellow Ameri-cans. And while that is something we ought to be very proud of, we stillneed to do a little more.

As Rep. Bilirakis told us in his interview last week, we need to partici-pate more actively in the political process at all levels. Whether it is for aschool district, federal, state or local seat, we must encourage our youngpeople to get more involved. We must organize ourselves better to beconsidered an important voting bloc.

After all, this is our country, and Greek American lives are also af-fected day-in and day-out by the policies put in place.

Cypriot leadership's task

By John Brady KieslingCharleston Gazette

The election of Hamas is a sci-entific experiment. It tests Presi-dent Bush's theory that democrat-ic evolution is an effective antidoteto totalitarianism. His temptationis to intervene to ensure that Ha-mas will fail. For the results to bemeaningful, however, Hamasneeds an honest chance to govern.

When scientists removed thedominant males from the hugecage at the Yerkes National Pri-mate Research Center in Georgia,the little band of pigtailedmacaques under study there slidslowly into civil war.

A similar thing happened in2003, when the U.S. military re-moved Iraq's dominant males.Dominance hierarchies are a basicorganizing principle for manyspecies, including ours. Those hi-erarchies are easy for an outsiderto subvert, but impossible for anoutsider to impose.

When I toured the West Bankin July 2004 with a group of formerU.S. diplomats, the similarities toYerkes were uncomfortable. Israelwas building a seven-meter-highconcrete wall to supplement thechain-link fences and barbed wire.Scientific observation took placeround-the-clock: electronicsurveillance and a massive net-work of Shinbet officers and in-formers. From time to time, the Is-raeli Government would conductan experiment by removing somedominant Palestinian male with amissile strike.

The Palestine being created byIsraeli policy may have been un-governable even then. Too manyangry humans were crowded into

too-small cages. The Palestinianleadership, aging secular revolu-tionaries from Beirut and Tunis,was balanced uneasily atop a tradi-tional society of tribal elders.

The peace deal with Israelmeant no younger leader couldmatch the legitimacy Arafat hadbuilt up over decades of self-sacri-ficial violence. Arafat did notwaste his hoarded legitimacy try-ing to govern. His "alpha male" fol-lowers embezzled or extorted themoney to buy their children a tick-et out of the cage. Their corrup-tion undermined, perhaps fatally,the habits of deference to authori-ty which keep a society function-ing.

The United States and Euro-pean Union tried to legitimizeAbu Mazen's Palestinian Authori-ty with cash for salaries, publicworks and basic security. Israelwas an unhelpful partner in this ef-fort, and it failed.

Meanwhile, Hamas hadevolved to fill an ecological nicheArafat and Fatah had left vacant.Hamas was religious, because Is-lam was the major untappedsource of political legitimacy. Itwas well organized, because disci-pline and forethought were its onlycompetitive advantage in a gamedominated by competing clans. Itwas virtuous, because Arafat with-held from Fatah's rivals any goodopportunities for corruption. Andit was violent, because status inany dominance hierarchy dependson proven willingness to avengeinsults, and daily insults were afact of Palestinian life. A cruel en-vironment taught Hamas to becruel but capable, a thrift-shopversion of the Israeli army acrossthe wall.

Terrorism is local politics notpolicy, a tactic of the weak ratherthan an ideology of the strong.

When Greece's 17N terroristgang murdered American officials,it was not to defend the Greekpeople against U.S. "imperialism,"but rather to endow a threadbarepolitical program with RobinHood glamour.

When Hamas murdered Is-raelis, it was to show that, unlikethe Palestinian Authority, it hadits eye firmly fixed on the duty ofgovernments: "to establish justice;ensure domestic tranquility; pro-vide for the common defense; pro-mote the general welfare; and se-cure the blessings of liberty to our-selves and our posterity."

Once Arafat died, Hamas hadno credible rival in the politicalcompetition which mattered. TheJanuary 2006 parliamentary elec-tions formalized Hamas' transitionfrom terrorist organization to rul-ing party. Hamas would play bydemocratic rules because suchrules now favored it.

Hamas is closer to today's ideo-logical mainstream than we care toadmit. It is certainly not the firstpolitical party on the planet to wina democratic election by glorifyingmilitary operations and panderingto religious bigots. Democraticrules do not require Hamas to gov-ern Palestine on the basis of itselectoral platform. President Bushprudently ignores his murderous2000 campaign promise to movethe U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.Hamas will not destroy Israel in2006 or ever. But it will not re-nounce that goal, not if it wishes tobe obeyed by a million Palestini-ans who respected such bravado.

Palestinians are human beings,

not macaques. They aspire to ra-tional calculation of personal andnational self-interest. Hamas lead-ers know their victory in honestelections gives them perhaps ayear to prove their fitness to gov-ern. They are just as helpless asFatah at the key legitimizing taskof any dominance hierarchy: de-fending the tribe and its territoryagainst predators.

Israel made a point of humiliat-ing the Palestinian Authority as itsresponse to Hamas terror attacks.If Israel now similarly strengthensHamas' rivals, Hamas will returnto suicidal violence. To commit itsfuture to democratic rules, Hamasmust find a braver, better Israelipartner than Abu Mazen had.

The election of Hamas is a sci-entific experiment. It tests Presi-dent Bush's theory that democrat-ic evolution is an effective antidoteto totalitarianism. His temptationis to intervene to ensure that Ha-mas will fail. For the results to bemeaningful, however, Hamasneeds an honest chance to govern.

The Palestinian people willthen decide, through a free elec-tion four years from now, whetherIslamic extremism is an evolution-ary dead end. If the United Statesand Europe withhold the aid onwhich Palestinians depend for sur-vival, they lose the leverage overHamas to compel that free elec-tion. If so, this little experiment,like so many others on powerlessfellow primates, will have taughtus nothing.

The Charleston Gazette pub-lished the above on February 26.The original headline is, “Wel-come to the Monkey House, Mr.President.”

Kiesling: Hamas Needs an Honest Chance to Govern

By Andy ManatosChicago Tribune

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Manyyears ago, a lobbyist I knew want-ed to thank a United States sena-tor for casting a vote which bene-fited his client. He took a briefcaseof cash to the senator's office andoffered it to him behind closeddoors. The senator waved the giftoff, saying that he cast his vote be-cause it was in the best interests ofthe American people, not becausehe expected any gain for himself.As the lobbyist was leaving thebuilding, a young staffer stoppedhim. The senator, the staffer in-formed the lobbyist, had sent himto find the name of the lobbyist'shotel. Later that night, he wouldpick up the "package" the lobbyisthad for him.

A generation ago, this was com-mon. With minimal oversight,members of Congress had ampleopportunity to pad their incomewith gifts from grateful lobbyists.More than a few arrived in Wash-ington with little more than theirgovernment salary and left as mil-lionaires.

But that was then. Despite theconventional wisdom, the capitalhas changed. To be sure, Washing-ton loves a scandal, and theAbramoff and Cunningham scan-dals have offered a steady diet ofjuicy details. But the impressionthat we've returned to Washing-

ton's bad old days is false. Thebribery scandals unfolding inWashington are deeply serious,and the offenders need to be pros-ecuted. But these men representrare exceptions, and their crimesrepresent nothing more than thecorruption of the men who com-mitted them.

If the old days seemed more in-nocent, it's only because corrup-tion went unseen. The laws regu-lating money and politics were sobroad, for instance, that it wasn'tuncommon for a chairman to beoffered "retainers" from interestswho had important legislation be-fore his committee. Campaign-fi-nance laws were so lax, aLouisianan I knew was able topromise a Senate candidate fromanother state his entire $200,000campaign budget. Although legal,this behavior severely corruptedour system. Bribery is bribery,whether it's prosecutable or not.

In the wake of Watergate,Congress passed political reformswhich set relatively clear limits onthe relationship of money to poli-tics. These restrictions have gone along way toward making theAmerican Government one of thecleanest in the world, according toTransparency International, an or-ganization whose goal is to curbcorruption in international trans-actions.

But good government doesn'tmake good copy. A Gallup poll

found that half of Americans be-lieved most members of Congresswere corrupt. I've found just theopposite. Recently, I listened to acontributor express dissatisfactionwith his member's vote saying, "butthat is what the contributions wereall about." The member replied, "Ifthat's what the contributions werefor, I will return them."

Lobbyists make convenient vil-lains, but our 1st Amendmentfreedom "to petition the govern-ment for a redress of grievances" isa hallmark of open, democraticgovernment. Undeniably, moneyis influential in politics, as it isthroughout American society. Butthe vast majority of lobbyists suc-ceed on the strength of their abilityto argue their case. My firm, forexample, recently secured a recordnumber of congressional co-spon-sors for a bill, without ever havingmade any contributions to 90 per-cent of the co-sponsors. We gotthem the old-fashioned way: withmerit, constituent representationand expertise.

Periodic reforms, such as thosewhich both parties have proposed,make future Abramoffs and Cun-ninghams less likely. But in theirhaste, parts of these proposals riskdoing some lasting harm to Ameri-can policymaking and the qualityof leadership we enjoy fromCongress. One proposal wouldeliminate privately financed for-eign travel. This isn't the first time

such proposals have been put for-ward.

Years ago, I suggested to Sena-tor Paul Douglas of Illinois thatthe Senate could do away withsuch "boondoggles." The manknown as the "conscience of theSenate" disabused me of my cyni-cism.

There were abuses then, asthere are now. But Douglas taughtme that these trips offer congress-men and senators insights and per-spectives that they could never re-ceive by staying at home. As com-plex as the world has become,Douglas is more right today thanhe was then.

As a member of a family whichhas lobbied for three generationsand has been dealing in Washing-ton public policy for nearly a thirdof our country's history, I agreewith German Chancellor Otto vonBismarck, who said, "To retain re-spect for sausage and laws, onemust not watch them in the mak-ing." Our political system is clean-er than it has ever been. The "badold days" are gone, with the excep-tion of the rare crook now andagain.

The Chicago Tribune pub-lished the above on March 7. Theoriginal headline is, “Lobbyingand a Briefcase of Cash.” Mr.Manatos is President of theWashington-based National Co-ordinated Effort of Hellenes.

Old-Fashioned D.C. Corruption a Thing of the Past

PRESS CLIPPINGS

With All its WealthCommunity ShouldHelp HC/HC More

To the Editor,In the last few issues, the Na-

tional Herald has suggested theexistence of a Greek Americanpuzzle. One issue stated that theArchdiocese is in debt and howHellenic College/Holy Crossneeds more financial support.Another issue stated that Leader-ship 100 has $57 million, while amore recent issue published a listof the 50 Wealthiest Greek Ameri-cans in this country. So, what is thepuzzle?

The puzzle is this: It would ap-pear that, with all this money, theGreek American communitycould support the only institutionof higher learning in this country.After more than 75 years, HC/HCis still not financially secure. Incomparison, Brandeis Universitywas founded ten years after HolyCross, and is very secure financial-

ly because the Jewish Americancommunity actively supports theirinstitutions. So, why has the GreekAmerican community not support-ed HC/HC?

In trying to answer that ques-tion, there are three possible rea-sons why Greek Americans havenot been real supporters of this sa-cred institution.

First, there appears to be strongopposition to the school's format.Some want just Holy Cross to ex-ist; others agree to the currentHC/HC; and others oppose justfor the sake of opposing.

Second, many oppose supportbecause they do not trust how orwhere the money is spent. But if adonor wants his or her money tobe used for a specific thing, it hasto be used in that way, otherwiseone can withdraw or sue.

Lastly, the situation may be theresult of a power struggle. Whoshould have control? Should it bethe college's officials, or the Arch-bishop and the Metropolitans?Any one of or a combination ofthose dynamics could be the rea-

son.Is this puzzle real, or is it a fig-

ment of my imagination? We haveparishes which resemble palaces;Leadership 100; and at least 50fabulously wealthy communitymembers. Yet our only institutionof higher learning is not financiallysecure. It is a shame that, after7more than seven decades,HC/HC is not standing on solid fi-nancial ground.

Respectfully submitted,Harris P. Jameson

Wakefield, Massachusetts

Story about PriestLeaving his FamilyIs Very Unbecoming

To the Editor:I have just finished reading

your February 25 edition. I noticedyou felt that the article, “PriestLeaves his Family and Parish forWoman,” was news. If this is news,I will not complain about the Na-

tional Enquirer.I had the same feeling after

reading your “news” in your Fe-bruary 11 edition, which coveredtwo priests almost coming toblows. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,Helen Petrow

Omaha, Nebraska

TO OUR READERS

The National Herald welcomesletters from its readers intend-ed for publication. They shouldinclude the writer’s name, ad-dress, and telephone numberand be addressed to: The Editor,The National Herald, 37-10 30thStreet, Long Island City, NY11101. Letters can also be faxedto (718) 472-0510 or e-mailed toenglish.edition@thenational-herald.com. We reserve theright to edit letters for publica-tion and regret that we are un-able to acknowledge or returnthose left unpublished.

The National HeraldA weekend publication of the NATIONAL HERALD, INC. (∂£¡π∫√™ ∫∏ƒÀ•),

reporting the news and addressing the issues of paramount interest to the Greek American community of the United States of America.

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THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006 VIEWPOINTS 11

On February 28, Republic ofCyprus President Tassos Pa-padopoulos met with United Na-tions Secretary-General Kofi An-nan in Paris. In a story published inThe National Herald's Greek-lan-guage daily, the newspaper's corre-spondent from Nicosia called themeeting “decisive for the futurecourse of the Cypriot problem.” Itwas not.

What came out of that meetingwas an agreement to try to formspecial committees of GreekCypriots and Turkish Cypriots tobegin discussions “on a technicallevel” for the solution of minor ev-eryday problems. The next day, theheadline over a report by the samecorrespondent was, “Small Stepsof Progress at the Meeting of Tas-sos and Annan.”

During the Paris meeting, therewas hardly any mention of the An-nan Plan which, according to Presi-dent Papadopoulos, is no longerrelevant. On his part, the U.N. Sec-retary-General stated clearly thathe was not ready to appoint andauthorize a special representativeto restart the political talks for thedivided island republic's reunifica-tion, while the Cypriot Presidentre-emphasized his position thatany such talks must be well pre-pared, and that the final arrange-ments must be agreed upon by thetwo communities before the agree-ments are again put to a referen-dum for public approval.

Papadopoulos added that anydiscussions could not be subjectedto restricting timetables or dead-lines, or to mediation. He alsobrought up his new proposal that

the United States and Great Bri-tain - because of what he considerstheir pro-Turkish bias - should nolonger be primarily involved in thesolution of the Cypriot problem,and that the other three perma-nent members of the SecurityCouncil - Russia, France and Chi-na - should also be directly in-volved.

Annan's term as Secretary-General will come to an end at theend of this year. It is doubtful thathe will take any meaningful stepsto restart the process for a politicalsolution of the Cypriot problembefore he leaves office.

Since the Greek Cypriot leader-ship continues to look to the Unit-ed Nations for a solution to thelong-festering problem, one cannot see how or how soon the cur-rent stalemate will be broken.

At this point, the key question iswhether time is on the GreekCypriot side.

Apparently, President Pa-padopoulos is confident that a de-lay will not harm, but rather bene-fit, the Greek Cypriots. He repeatsthat he is in favor of the island's re-unification in the form of a federalrepublic with two “constituent”states, one Greek Cypriot and oneTurkish Cypriot, but his actions donot seem to support such a politicalsolution. He seems to favor a uni-fied Cyprus under Greek Cypriotcontrol, with the Turkish Cypriotsassigned certain rights in the reli-gious and cultural area.

Such an objective may be heart-warming for the Greek side, but itis no longer feasible. Ever since1977, when then President Arch-

bishop Makarios andthen leader of the Turk-ish Cypriots, RaufDenktash, agreed on abi-zonal, bi-communalfederation, the solutionof unifying the island asa federal republic hasbeen the course of ac-tion sought by theGreek Cypriots. In1983, Denktash unilat-erally set up a “state”entity in the part of theisland occupied by theTurkish troops since1974 and, in the yearswhich followed, sought not a feder-ation, but a confederation of twovirtually independent States - im-plying partition.

The Annan Plan rejected Denk-tash's demand and opted for a fed-eration. Although, the majority ofthe Greek Cypriots voted the An-nan Plan down, the federal solu-tion remains alive and - at this mo-ment, at least - appears to be thesolution accepted by the TurkishCypriots, as well, under the leader-ship of Mehmet Ali Talat. Yet thestalemate continues.

Again, is the time on the GreekCypriot side?

President Papadopoulos appar-ently feels that, since the Republicof Cyprus as a whole became amember of the European Union inMay 2004, he has a powerful cardto play, especially since Turkeywants to become a member of theEU. Legally, as an EU member,the Republic of Cyprus has vetopower over the process of Turkey'sentry into the EU. In reality, it is a

weapon which may notbe as effective as Presi-dent Papadopoulosthinks. The fate of theTurkish application willbe determined by themajor European coun-tries, not by the Repub-lic of Cyprus.

In fact, when theEuropeans agreed toadmit the Republic ofCyprus into the EU,they had been assuredby then PresidentGlafkos Clerides that asolution was close under

the then-forthcoming Annan Plan,and that the admission itself wouldencourage the Turkish Cypriots tovote for the Plan and bring aboutunification of the island as a newfederal republic. Now, the Euro-peans are not very happy with hav-ing the Cypriot problem dumpedon them unsolved.

In the past, many proposed so-lutions, which the Greek Cypriotsrejected as unacceptable, were lat-er sought by them as favorable totheir interests only to find out thatit was too late to go back to whatthey had previously rejected. Thismay happen again. The next “solu-tion” may be much worse than anyfaults the Greek Cypriots found inthe Annan Plan they rejected.

One should not dismiss the pos-sibility that the EU may - if thestalemate persists - decide to admitthe Turkish Cypriot entity in thenorth as a separate member of theEU. With both north and south be-ing part of the European Union, acompletely different situation will

emerge since, as members, the twostates in Cyprus would have toabide by the rules of the Union.Needless to say, if this were to hap-pen, the partition of the island willno longer be de facto, but will be-come de jure, possibly withouteven the territorial adjustmentsprovided in the Annan Plan.

Is it possible to reach thatpoint? It can not be ruled out. Lastweek, EU Enlargement Commis-sioner Olli Rehn, speaking inAthens, said that although Kosovolegally belongs to Serbia. Becauseof the ethnic differences there - themajority in Kosovo are Muslim Al-banians - the new round of talksmay end up recognizing the inde-pendence of Kosovo. This meantthat, if Serbia were to become amember of the EU, Kosovo mightalso be admitted as a separatestate.

At this point, it seems a ratherremote possibility that the samelogic may be applied to Cyprus, butit would be unwise not to take it in-to account if the stalemate inCyprus were to continue for an ex-tended period time.

With the current UN Secretary-General virtually keeping his dis-tance, how can real progress beachieved? Is it realistic to expectthat the new Secretary-Generalwill take up the solution to theCyprus problem as his top prioritywhen he takes over in 2007?

There is another path, closeduntil now: The Turkish Cypriotleader Mehmet Ali Talat has re-peatedly asked for direct talks withPapadopoulos. He has been re-buffed. Papadopoulos claims that

if he were to engage in direct talks,he would be indirectly recognizing,or at least upgrading, the status ofthe Turk Cypriot entity.

This argument does not standup to serious scrutiny.

If a federal republic is to beformed by two constituent states,the two parts will have to be legallyequal, no less equal than the Stateof New York and the State ofRhode Island are equal within thefederal republic of the UnitedStates. When the thirteen statesconvened to form the federal re-public of the United States in 1787,they sent their representatives toPhiladelphia for direct talks asequals.

There is nothing improperabout having direct talks betweenthe two parts which will eventuallyform the new federal republic ofCyprus. In fact, it is the only properway. By refusing to negotiate di-rectly with the Turkish Cypriots,Papadopoulos simply perpetuatesthe stalemate.

If time was on the Greek Cypri-ot side, Papadopoulos' tacticsmight have been wise and wel-come. But the time is not on theGreek Cypriot side, and because ithas happened before, past experi-ence should provide ample guid-ance.

Dr. Kousoulas is ProfessorEmeritus of Political Science atHoward University in Washing-ton, DC. He is the author of sever-al books, notably “The Life andTimes of Constantine the Great(1999),” and numerous scholarlyarticles.

The Stalemate Continues for Cyprus: Is There a Way Out?

Slobodan Milosevic died in hiscell last Saturday, March 11, in theUnited Nations War Crimes Tri-bunal's detention center in theScheveningen section of TheHague. Even before the autopsywas finished, a host of conspiracytheories sprouted in Serbia withthe thundering news that Milose-vic was poisoned. He was mur-dered, they argue, because he wasgoing to produce evidence whichwould have indicted the leaders ofthe 1999 coalition with the chargeof conducting and aggressive waragainst Serbia and Kosovo.

Technically, the NATO attackagainst the Serbs was illegal be-cause it was not authorized by theUN. The UN and the UN charterwere created to rein in all coun-tries waging war, and thus preventthe carnage of the Second WorldWar. Only in the most extremecases, such as genocide, has theUN provided a mechanism for asingle power or coalition to inter-vene with military force against asovereign state.

In 1999, the Clinton Adminis-tration invoked the charge ofgenocide against the Milosevicregime, accusing the SerbianGovernment of the mass and pre-meditated killing of Albanians inKosovo. United States Secretaryof Defense William Cohen, in apress conference, stated that “theappalling accounts of mass killingin Kosovo, and the pictures ofrefugees fleeing Serb oppressionfor their lives, makes it clear thatthis is a fight for justice over geno-cide.” On CBS' “Face the Nation”Cohen claimed, “We've now seenabout 100,000 military-aged menmissing… They may have beenmurdered.”

Clinton also used the samenumber, and said “at least 100,000(Kosovar Albanians) are missing.”

Later, in the same pressconference, Clintonboasted, “NATOstopped deliberate, sys-tematic efforts at ethniccleansing and geno-cide.” Clinton com-pared the events ofKosovo to the Holo-caust. CNN reported,“Accusing Serbia of'ethnic cleansing' inKosovo similar to thegenocide of Jews inWorld War II, an im-passioned PresidentClinton sought to rallypublic support for his decision tosend U.S. forces into combatagainst Yugoslavia.” The StateDepartment soon joined the band-wagon and also claimed that Ser-bian troops had committed geno-cide. The New York Times report-ed “the Administration said evi-dence of 'genocide' by Serbianforces was growing to include 'ab-horrent and criminal action' on avast scale… the State Departmentsaid that up to 500,000 KosovarAlbanians were missing andfeared dead.”

Neither the accusation of geno-cide (as defined by internationallaw) nor the case of military inter-vention brought to the SecurityCouncil of the United Nationswere proven. This does not meanthat the Milosevic government didnot discriminate against ethnic Al-banians. And the Serb military, se-curity and paramilitary forces didkill Albanians in Kosovo on manyoccasions. But genocide is some-thing on a much greater scale. It iscertainly not a matter of mere se-mantics.

Genocide is something on scalewith the Holocaust in World WarII or the more recent death on anindustrial scale in Rwanda. Ironi-cally, the same Clinton Adminis-tration dragged its feet and re-fused to declare genocide untilclose to one million Rwandanswere butchered. Perhaps Milose-vic had a case, or could have madea case, against NATO's leadershad he lived long enough, and hadhe been given the full exercise ofhis rights by the internationalcourt to conduct his defense as hethought necessary.

The fact that the war againstSerbia was illegal, and that there isno conclusive forensic evidence toprove genocide, will only add fuelto the lethal Balkan stew of partialtruth, mixed with nationalism andlaced with mythology. In practicalterms, the actual foundations ofMilosevic's legacy will be based onthe historical record of the seismicevents unleashed in the formerYugoslavia by the collapse of theSoviet Union and communism.

Milosevic emerged as a force inSerbian politics in April 1987.That year, while addressing a Serb

crowd in Kosovo, whoassembled to protestthe brutality of local po-lice, he claimed that,“No one has the right tobeat you. No one willever beat you again.”This simple statement,harking back to Serbia'sdefeat at the Battle ofKosovo in 1389 and sub-sequent centuries of Ot-toman domination, cat-apulted Milosevic topower in Yugoslavia.One year later, in Fe-bruary 1988, he became

the President of Serbia.On 28 March 1989, the Nation-

al Assembly of Serbia, under Milo-sevic's leadership, amended theSerbian constitution and reducedthe autonomy of its two provinces.The decision was hugely contro-versial, especially in Kosovo,where many Albanians had neveraccepted the legitimacy of Serbia'sannexation of the territory in 1912.Milosevic imposed a tough regimewhich attracted widespread criti-cism from international humanrights organizations, the EuropeanUnion and other foreign govern-ments. This caused even greateralarm in the other republics of Yu-goslavia, however, which fearedthat their own autonomous statuswould be jeopardized.

In the first free parliamentaryelections of December 1990, afterthe collapse of Yugoslavia's com-munist system, Milosevic's Social-ist Party won 80.5 percent of thevote. Milosevic himself won thepresidential election with an evenhigher percentage of the vote.

Milosevic's rise to power tookplace amidst the growth of nation-alism in all the former Yugoslavrepublics following the collapse ofcommunist governments through-out Eastern Europe. In 1990, theSlovenians elected a nationalistgovernment under Milan Kuãan,and the Croatians did the samewith Franjo Tudjman. Communistsingle-party rule in Bosnia &Herzegovina was replaced by anunstable coalition of Serb, Croatand Muslim-based parties.

In June 1991, Slovenia andCroatia seceded from Yugoslavia,followed by the republics ofFYROM (September 1991) andBosnia & Herzegovina (March1992). The Yugoslav People'sArmy (JNA) tried to preventSlovenia's secession by use offorce. The ensuing ten-day warended in a disastrous defeat forthe federal forces. Anticipatingthe disintegration of Yugoslavia,Milosevic implemented the policyof locating all Serbs in one state.Milosevic and his supporters, ofwhom there were many, arguedthat the large Serbian populationsin Croatia (580,000) and Bosnia(1.36 million) should have the

right to stay in Yugoslavia, point-ing out that the Yugoslav Consti-tution gave the right of self-deter-mination to nations (Serbs,Croats, etc., as a whole), not re-publics (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia,etc).

In 1992, Bosnia & Herzegovinadegenerated into war even beforeits formal declaration of indepen-dence. Bosnian Serb forces sooncaptured as much as 70 percent ofthe territory, expelling hundredsof thousands of non-Serbs andkilling thousands, often in mas-sacres such as the Srebrenica. By1995, however, the ongoing wars inCroatia and Bosnia had becomean unsupportable burden for Ser-bia. The country had experiencedhyperinflation and a drastic wors-ening of living standards, due to aneconomic collapse and the impactof international sanctions.

Milosevic sought to force theCroatian and Bosnian Serbs to thenegotiating table, but was rebuffedby their nationalist leaderships. In

response, despite his earlier sup-port for their rebellions, he let itbe known that they were on theirown.

The Croatian War ended inAugust 1995, when Croatia'sOperation Storm rapidly overranthe Republic of Serbian Krajina.Almost the entire Croatian Serbpopulation was expelled fromCroatia in the process, fleeing intoBosnia and Serbia.

Only a month later, the Bosni-an Serbs were brought to the brinkof military collapse by a combina-tion of NATO air strikes and ajoint Croatian/Bosnian ground of-fensive. Again, many hundreds ofthousands of Serbs were forced in-to exile.

Milosevic subsequently negoti-ated the Dayton Agreement in thename of the Bosnian Serbs, thusending the conflict. As the agree-ment finally brought an end to thewar in Bosnia, Milosevic was cred-ited in the West with being one ofthe pillars of Balkan peace.

Prophetically, the Dayton Agree-ment did not grant amnesty for thewar crimes committed during theconflict - an omission on Milose-vic's part which paved the way forhis eventual prosecution.

That same year, an armed re-bellion broke out in Kosovoagainst Serbian rule. The sepa-ratist Kosovo Liberation Army(KLA) began to launch attacksagainst Serbian and Yugoslav se-curity forces, as well as on Serbianofficials and those Albanians,Serbs and others whom the KLAregarded as “collaborators.” In hebeginning, the Serbian responsewas restrained, but by 1998, hun-dreds had died in escalating retali-ations, and 100,000 Kosovar Alba-nians, according to some sources,were rendered homeless.

The conflict culminated in theKosovo War of 1999, during whichmore than half of the province'sAlbanian population fled and sev-eral thousand - not hundreds ofthousands - people died. NATO'sseven-weeks-long air strikesforced Milosevic to back down.The price for the Serbs was thesubsequent Kumanovo Agree-ment which handed Kosovo to aUN protectorate, along with thetotal withdrawal of Yugoslavforces. Yet following the war, themajority of Kosovo's Serb and Ro-ma population fled persecutionfrom the Albanian majority intoSerbia proper, adding to the coun-try's already large refugee popula-tion.

On 27 May 1999, the Interna-tional Criminal Tribunal for theFormer Yugoslavia (ICTFY) in-dicted Milosevic for war crimesand crimes against humanity al-legedly committed in Kosovo.Shortly afterwards, the “Serbstrongman” was toppled frompower by mass demonstrationsand the reluctance of the militaryto intervene on his behalf. OnJune 28 of the same year, Milose-vic was handed over to the ICTFY.

His popularity among the Serbsagain rose sharply after the begin-ning of the trail, because manySerbs saw it as a travesty of justiceand violation of nationalsovereignty. Undoubtedly, hisdeath last week will now convincehis supporters, both new and old,that Slobo, as he was fondly called,was sacrificed by unscrupulouspoliticians and murdered by UNofficials to spare the West of anypotential embarrassment. Thestrands of future Balkan myth arequickly forming the shape of thefuture.

Dr. Gerolymatos is Chair ofHellenic Studies at Simon FraserUniversity in Vancouver, BritishColumbia and the author of “RedAcropolis, Black Terror: TheGreek Civil War and the Originsof Soviet-American Rivalry.”

The Legacy of Milosevic and the Birth of a Balkan Icon

GUEST EDITORIALS

The National Herald welcomesmanuscripts representing avariety of views for publica-tion in its View Points page.They should include the writ-er’s name, address, and tele-phone number and be ad-dressed to the View Points Edi-tor, The National Herald, 37-1030th Street, Long Island City,NY 11101. They can also befaxed to (718) 472-0510 or,preferably, e-mailed to en-glish.edition@thenationalher-ald.com. Due to considera-tions of space we enforce astrict 1,400-word upper limit.We reserve the right to edit forrepetitiveness, diction andsyntax. We regret that we areunable to acknowledge or re-turn manuscripts, publishedor unpublished.

by DR. D.G.KOUSOULAS

Special to The National

Herald

by DR. ANDREGEROLYMATOS

Special to The National

Herald

An unidentified Socialist Party supporter watches the motorcade withthe coffin of ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic leave the Bel-grade airport this past Wednesday, March 15. Milosvic died lastSaturday, March 11, in his prison cell at The Hague and is beingburied in his hometown of Pozarevac today.

AP PHOTO/DARKO VOJINOVIC

12 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 18, 2006