If youοΏ½ve ever wanted to help secure justice for Cyprus, here is an opportunity to do so that calls for your urgent attention:

CYPRUS: U.S. State Dept. adds insult to injury
After flaunting U.S. and international law by encouraging members of Congress and their staffs to illegally fly directly into Turkish-Occupied Northern Cyprus this past summer, the U.S. State Department has now added insult to that injury by extending an official invitation and formally meeting with the so-called οΏ½PresidentοΏ½ of the self-declared οΏ½Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,οΏ½ which only Turkey in all the world recognizes.   

U.S. Representatives Mike Bilirakis and Carolyn Maloney, founders and Co-Chairs of the 128-member U.S. Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues, have written and are now circulating a letter to all members of Congress, asking them to add their signatures.  Here is an excerpt:

Dear Secretary Rice:
 
            We were disappointed to learn that last month you extended a formal meeting invitation to Mehmet Ali Talat, the so-called president of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a government that the United States does not recognize.  Although Secretaries of State Baker and Powell have met with leaders of the TRNC in the past, neither extended a formal invitation because of concerns for the consequences of such an invitation to an entity the United States does not recognizeοΏ½ Your unprecedented invitation and meeting with Mr. Talat provided ammunition needed by the TRNC leadership and the Turkish government to incite and promote separatist tendencies, rather than promote your intended goal of reunification.  In fact, on the day of your meeting, an editorial in the Turkish Daily News said of the meeting:  [The United States is acknowledging the fact that there is not one, but two, Cypriot peoples living on the island . . . the United States is declaring that the Turkish Cypriot people on the island have some sort of sovereignty and the right to elect their leader.  Likewise, Prime Minister Erdogan said recently:  One state in the north, one state in the south and a confederation . . . this is what [Cyprus President] Papadopoulos should accept, otherwise we cannot reach an agreement.
 
The N. & S. America Region of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad (οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½) asks you, your friends and neighbors to PLEASE CALL, FAX or E-MAIL your Congressperson, urging them to sign the Bilirakis-Maloney letter.  DO NOT SEND LETTERS BY MAIL.                                 

BUT PLEASE CALL, FAX or E-MAIL THEM NOW!

For information on how to contact your Representative in Congress, please visit: http://www.house.gov/writerep/   Also, please forward this message to your own e-mail list, and ask your local Greek newspapers, radio, TV, and churches to do the sameοΏ½ we need to get the word out quickly! 

Thank you, οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½οΏ½, for your faithfulness to History, for your respect of Truth and our American Democracy, and for your love of Hellas.