NEW YORK – Greek News USA
Top policymakers from the United States involved in formulating policies towards Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece are scheduled to participate in the 38th Annual PSEKA Cyprus Conference that starts tomorrow, May 9th, in Washington, DC.
Organized by PSEKA (The International Coordinating Committee – Justice for Cyprus), the conference that will be held from May 9-11, aims to engage congressional leaders and raise awareness about the situation in Cyprus.
Several Greek American organizations, including AHEPA, AHI, HALC, FCAO, HNC, and the Cyprus-US Chamber of Commerce, are jointly supporting the Conference.
PSEKA President Philip M. Christopher emphasized the significance of addressing Turkey’s violations in Cyprus and called upon leaders to take action. “Such access to so many top leaders give us the invaluable opportunity to make them aware of important facts about Cyprus. We look forward to making them aware that Vladimir Putin’s brutal violations of law, humanity, and civilization that these leaders are so admirably opposing are precisely the violations Turkey is imposing on America’s ally Cyprus, and that we encourage them to give it appropriate attention”, Christopher said.
“We realize how difficult it is to move these leaders to focus on our Cyprus conference instead of one of the interests who together spend $4.1 billion a year to secure such Congressional participation. The extraordinarily high degree of competition for such leaders’ attention and participation is reflected in the average number of written communications they receive each week – 25,000 for Senators and 5,000 for Members of the House. And we realize that this would not be possible without the extraordinary professional work of Manatos & Manatos and their network of successful Hellenes across the country with whom they coordinate. We thank them as well for their essential role in their annual White House meeting with every president every year for over 30 years, at which Cyprus is frequently discussed”, he continued.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez and Ranking Minority Member Jim Risch, Congress Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and new Ranking Minority Member Gregory Meeks, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as well as Deputy Leaders, Senator Dick Durbin, and Congressman Steve Scalise, as well as, all five Greek – American Representatives (by seniority) Gus Bilirakis, John Sarbanes, Dina Titus, Chris Pappas, and Nicole Malliotakis will be in attendance.
This year the meeting will also feature two former Republican Chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who will participate in a panel discussion about Cyprus.
Attending the Conference will be Cyprus’ Government Spokesman, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, who will also meet with US administration officials and members of Congress.
“Although we are frustrated and disappointed with the lack of progress on Cyprus, we remain strong and united to the struggle of the Cypriot people for freedom and justice”, Christopher said.
Respectfully to the admirable work for so many years by the organizers, one aspect that seems to be missing in formulating the strategic approach is the following:
Although Turkey’s misbehavior is unquestionable and there is the need to continue to hammer on it, the other aspect to move US policy, is to enhance and by a significant margin, the relations between Cyprus and the United States and to remove the Russian influence and meddling in Cyprus. A state visit by President Christodoulides would help a great deal.