Sunday, November 30, 2008

Greeks thracians from Πέχτσεβο-(Pehčevo, Пехчево) ,FYROM

Where have all the patriots gone: Frequent Excuses used

By Ioannis Fidanakis

Part of my on going collection of entries entitled ‘Where have all the patriots gone’. This most recent entry is centered on the many frequent excuses people use inside our community for not helping out with our National Issues.

In my short time on this earth, I have seen patriotism drained from the very blood of Hellas, only to be replaced by materialistic needs and selfish motivates. It is no wonder that the Diaspora is battling for survival in the United States, with its lack of young active members inside the many different Hellenic-American organizations. What we have today is a lack of enthusiasm, interest and commitment to our National Issues and the struggle that goes hand in hand with them. We as a community have lost the concept that the only through this struggle do we truly understand our place within Hellenism, that the struggle defines and shapes us, that we are the struggle.

We have all heard and used excuses to explain our lack of commitment to the National Issues, and valid as some of them may, they are at heart still only excuses. One of the most often used excuses as to why one is unable to get involved with our National Issues, falls on the work place. Many of us use the crutch of work, to prevent us from partaking in the struggle. May it be a valid reason or not, do you think Hellenic peasants used the excuse of tending to their fields, rather then grabbing a rifle and join the cause of Independence? Each and every one of us can afford to use a sick day or two a year for our National Issues. Our ancestors gave their lives so we may continue to exist as Hellenes; the least we can sacrifice is a day’s wages so that our descendants may have the same privilege.

Even our youth has been poisoned by the mindset of our defeatist elders, using excuses ranging from their age to the wonderful institution known as school. For younger Hellenes this does present itself as a problem, because their role in our struggle falls completely on the shoulders of their parents. Seeing that this is the reality, I wonder why their parents are so quick to pull their children from school for something as simple as Good Friday services, yet don’t even think to do the same for any kind of event for our National Issues. Why wouldn’t you give your child the opportunity to bond with you and learn more about their roots? Older students, at the level of High School and College, do not have this same problem preventing them from being part of the struggle for Hellenism. Rather their problem comes from the fact that they are more willing to skip school to hang out at the mall or skip a class because of a frat party, then to sacrifice one day or a few hours for your own ethnic struggle. In the end frat parties and trips to the mall win out, and another generation is stereotyped and willing forfeits their own right to their own unique political and ethnic identity. We can all honestly afford to take a day or two off from school to secure the continued survival of our ethnic identity.
It seems that even as we age life becomes a tool for staying away from our National Issues. We find excuses through life, the most popular tossed around being, I have children. Yet when one thinks about it, this isn’t even an excuse, your children aren’t a reason to stay way from the struggle, they are the reason for the struggle. How many of us are willing to drag our children to dinner dances, keeping them up far be on their own bed time so we can socialize to the late hours of the night, but we can’t bring our children with us for issues concerning Hellenism?

Sometimes life does provide us with obstacles that are much harder to work around like economic hardships that prevent us from being able to give our all to the struggle, as we ourselves struggle through life. Be it as it may, this perhaps is the only valid reason in the entire deck that I shall not argue against. I would never wish to see a fellow Hellene loose their job, house, or be unable to pay their basic bills for survival because of our National Issues. However, I ponder, is their not another way one may be able to aid the cause other then physically being present at an event? If you are unable to afford to be active, why not help behind the scenes? Why not set sometime aside to make phone calls, write letters, or do whatever is in your means. The counter argument that one would if they knew how just goes to show us the failure of our current leadership, when it comes to outreach within our community. This excuse falls not on the masses, but rather on the self appointed elite within our own community. An excuse that I can only response to by saying, shame on our leadership, although this shouldn’t and must not disappoint the average patriot, rather let it empower you to take our struggle into your own hands. Search out other patriots and you shall find kindred spirits, with whom you can move mountains.

As I mentioned earlier, it is the struggle that defines us, it is through it that we truly forge our identity as a Hellene. We as a people are fiercely individualistic, millions of self appointed Achilles, living to our own rules, to rebellious to ever unite. Always hoping another Alexander will appear to save us, rather then donning the armor ourselves. So our very identity is founded on a strong sense of individualism, with a tradition of hero worship. Hero’s who found themselves and forged their very historical identities, through the very struggle which we now excuse ourselves from. Why do we remember such men, yet look down on those who follow in their footsteps today? Our loyalty mustn’t be to a physical nation state or its legitimate or illegitimate political system and regime, but rather with the idea that is Ellada.

An idea that unfortunately some within our community may not care about, a choice, which always brings a tear to my eye when it is uttered by another. How could one not care about their own identity? It seems impossible, but in the modern age globalization and multiculturalism, where ethnic identity is no longer celebrated, it makes perfect sense that today’s youth would forget that their ethnicity plays a role in just who they really are. Yet in the end if that’s someone’s attitude towards the National Issues, no words from anyone will change their mind. Instead when they are ready to listen, patriots will be waiting to speak.
The only real excuses that hold true merit, at least at first glance, seem to be the last two I’ve decided to touch on. The first being, ‘I don’t speak Greek’. Although to many inside the community, this seems like a legitimate reason for people to stay out of Hellenic politics and our National issues completely, however, I beg to differ. The vast majority of Hellenic-Americans are unable to speak fluent Greek. Are we to silence more then half of our own blood because of their inability to speak our mother tongue fluently? To do such, would be to leave our National Issues in the hands of the dwindling number of aging Hellenes that are responsible for the current state of affairs. It is not what language you speak that gives you your ‘Hellenic pass’, rather it is the common belief in the idea that is Ellada, which unites us. What is actually needed is for those who have lost their mother tongue and whose blood boils twice as hot for the struggle to grab the reins of control and raise the National issues from the ashes, like the phoenix reborn.
The final and most interesting excuse or should I say belief, as to why one shouldn’t get involved in our National issues has to be the idea, which has been implanted within our mind by the older generation that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with the national issues and rather should focus on ourselves and having a good life. That we should worry about material goods and getting that dream job, then and only then, if there’s time, should we offer ourselves to aid Hellenism. Well to this I boldly ask, do you think the parents of Rigas Feraios were pleased with his choice to travel and spread the seeds of revolution through martyrdom? Do you think the mother of Kolokotronis was pleased with her son’s choice to be a klepht and bleed for our freedom? I think not, I would believe that they were told the very same things our generation are told, that they should worry about themselves and raise a good family. And yet if they had listened, we still would be under the bonds of slavery.

In the end we are all guilty of using excuses for not being more engaged with the National Issues. Some of us using them more then others, but the time for excuses are over. What is needed now is a transfusion of patriotism back in to the veins of Hellenism. With out such our very identity will remain on life support, as we as a people fade deeper into a national comma.

The Pontian Question as of 2008 By Theoharis Kekis

For Immediate Release: November 30, 2008

Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, New York, Tel. 1-917-699-9935

NEW YORK—The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) continues the distribution of articles and opinions by our grass roots activists, reflecting the movement of young Hellenic-Americans that are inspired in building a new dawn of enlightened and assertive Hellenism that will challenge the institutional revisionism of our opponents in all spheres of political life for all lands that belong to Hellenes—Cyprus, Macedonia, Pontos and Thrace.

Theoharis Kekis is a Boston-based CANA activist who has participated in CANA public actions, he provides us a Pontian perspective based on his own original research and activism, and largely from theories and analysis provided by Hellenic intellectual Michalis Charalambidis, in the rare landmark book “The Pontian Question In The United Nations”, available for purchase exclusively from Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) www.cyprusactionnetwork.org

Read Full Press Release Here

Georgia cuts ties to Nicaragua

Georgia cuts diplomatic ties after Nicaragua's recognition of breakaway regions

Staff
AP News

Nov 29, 2008 05:24 EST

Georgia says it is cutting diplomatic relations with Nicaragua after the Central American nation recognized the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

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A Chance to Join the World

Neal Ascherson

On the way to the frontier, we stopped the car for a last look at Abkhazia. A new monument stood by the road, the effigy of a scowling, whiskered Abkhaz chieftain with sword and shield. The statue commemorates the war of 1992-93 which routed the Georgian army, cost ten thousand dead on both sides, and established an ‘independent’ Abkhazian state.

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Assyrian Genocide Awareness lecture in Toronto, Canada

by Frederick Aprim

Posted: Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 07:44 AM CT

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Because of the 1991 Gulf War, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees found their way to the neighboring countries of Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iran. I visited Jordan in 1992 and met with some Assyrian refugees and my life was never the same. In the aftermath of the 2003 Gulf War, Syria, Jordan and many European countries witnessed the flooding of 2,000,000 Iraqi refugees. An additional 2,000,000 are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). In 2004, Iraq went into chaos that continues to linger today and in the midst of that, a jihad or holy war was declared against the Christians. The Islamists did not discriminate; they murdered infants and elderly, males and females, clergymen and laypersons, they bombed 40 churches. The mass exodus from Iraq resumed, again. For Assyrians, being a refugee is a repeated theme; it has continued in one shape or another since WWI in Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

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Saturday, November 29, 2008

Friday, November 28, 2008

The Savagery of American Materialism

Black Friday, a traditional day of shopping and savings, the day after Thanksgiving in America, has taken its name literally. Instead of a day of long lines and savings, this Black Friday has become a day of mourning as a 34 year old Wal-mart employee was trampled to death opening up the New York store to a crowd of savage shoppers willing to stamp out a mans life just to save a buck on a gadget they don’t really need in the first place. It is this shining example of American culture that is being forced upon the rest of the world through the glorious means of globalization. Have Americans lost any sign of humanity being fully replaced by a nation of shop-oholic zombies that will literary kill to have the next great technological eye-sore?



Read CBS News Article Here

Read Daily Record Article Here

Gettysburg and the unification of ancient Greece by Philip II of Macedonia

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council

November 28, 2008

Gettysburg and the unification of ancient Greece

The battle of Gettysburg was a turning point during the American Civil war. It marked the beginning of the end – and also the beginning of the United States of America that the world now knows today.

The same can be said of the Greek battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE.In ancient times Greece was not a single nation – but a group of nations and individual city states – such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Molossia,Corinth,Argos and Macedonia – linked by a common language, culture, and religion.Similar to the early United States where states individualy made alliances on who's side they will fight during the US Civil War.So in Greece we had a similiar outlook where Philip II of Macedon made alliances against the imminent threat of a unison between Thebes and Athens.We want to show you here contrary to Fyrom propaganda(Stefov,Gandeto,Donski etc etc) that it wasn't just Philip against the whole of Greece but a collection of states that joined him,against him or just stayed neutral.Chaeronea was the attempt of the philo-Philippic Greek party (Macedonians , Thessalians , Epeirotans , anti-Demosthenean Athenean party etc) to create a "common peace" situation (κοινή ειρήνη) among the Greek city States and Kingdoms (the Isocratic "Panhellenic Cause") against the "secessionist" philo-Demosthenean party (Atheneans , Thebans ,Eubeans etc) that prefered "autonomy" and "liberty of war" among Greek city states.

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The Kurds and AKP: the end of an affair?

The election of Obama to the US presidency may well mean a shift of USpolicy in Iraq in the near future. This will inevitably involve Iraqi Kurdsand Turkey. Finding common ground with Iraqi Kurds in the framework of apost-conflict Iraq solution will be a golden opportunity for Turkey toundercut the lifeline of the PKK. To achieve this, though, the AKP governmentneeds to deliver on its promised and forgotten political reform agenda and,thus, contribute to the isolation of the PKK from the bulk of Turkey's Kurdish population

IOANNIS N GRIGORIADIS*

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Google 'censoring' anti-Obama bloggers?

Writer claims Internet giant banning stories that expose president-elect

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Is Google censoring anti-Obama stories?

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs claims the search engine giant has banned her groundbreaking articles about Obama – a technique many people refer to as "sandboxing."

"There was no warning, no notice, nothing," Geller told WND. "They have basically sandboxed me."

"Sandboxing" happens when Google strips a website's rankings from its search engine results. According to some theories, this happens to new websites when Google puts them into a holding area known as a "sandbox" until the site gains credibility.

Read Full Article Here

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thankgiving

Cystic fibrosis too 'white' for Ottawa fundraiser

Carleton University students drop support for debilitating disease

Joanne Laucius, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, November 25, 2008

OTTAWA - The Carleton University Students' Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued the disease is not "inclusive" enough.

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A letter to the U.S. from Saddam Hussein

Malaysia Sun
Tuesday 25th November, 2008

Two years ago this month Saddam Hussein was convicted of charges related to the executions of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites suspected of planning an assassination attempt against him, and was sentenced to death by hanging.

Read Full Article and Letter Here

UN to assume political role in Kosovo

New York - The United Nations said Wednesday Kosovo's independence has propelled the body into assuming a political role to try to solve the sovereignty dispute between Kosovo and Serbia.

Serbia still claims Kosovo as its territory after Pristina declared independence in February, adopted a constitution in June and was recognized by a total of 52 governments, including the United States and many European nations.

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Ex-ambassador blames Georgia for war with Russia

Former diplomat from Georgia blames his country for sparking war with Russia

MATT SIEGEL
AP News

Nov 26, 2008 15:04 EST

Before this summer's Georgia-Russia war, President Mikhail Saakashvili was itching to do battle and authorities mistook messages from the United States as encouragement to use force, Georgia's former ambassador to Russia said Wednesday.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Universities disappoint exchange students

Foreign students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki say the EU'sErasmus programme leaves much to be desired

STEPHEN BROTHWELL
IN THESSALONIKI

"EUROPE creates opportunities," reads the glossy brochure of the European Union's Erasmus programme, "and we've created a common university space for Europe."

The scheme enables European citizens in higher education to experience another culture by enrolling in a foreign university for five or ten months.

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History in the making?

How do the questions on history and culture, a component of the Greek examfor longterm EU resident status, compare to others in Europe?

DAMIAN MAC CON ULADH

WHO was the goddess defender of Athens? This is one of the 120 Greek history and culture test questions that must be answered by non-EU citizens in Greece hoping to acquire the coveted European Union-wide longterm resident status.

As reported by the Athens News on October 10, the first 890 candidates sat the language and history examination, which is a prerequisite for obtaining the longterm residence permit. Permit holders no longer have to go through the bureaucratic process of renewing their papers every couple of years, and they are also entitled to live and work in another EU state.

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Roma hip hop's tough message

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Kosovo premier reject's UN chief's plan for revised EU mission

Europe News

Nov 25, 2008, 12:01 GMT

Pristina - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's plan for a revised European Union mission in Kosovo was unacceptable and irrelevant for Pristina, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Tuesday.

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Armenian-Turkish thaw 'would help both peoples'

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

YEREVAN: Resolving the dispute between Armenia and Turkey is in the interests of both countries, Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said Tuesday after a rare meeting with his Turkish counterpart. "The full-scale settlement of Armenian-Turkish relations is in the interests of the two countries and the two peoples," said Nalbandian after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting Monday with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. "Dialogue ... is aimed particularly at establishing diplomatic relations and at opening borders. This must not be considered as a favor to be given to Armenia because this is of no less interest to Turkey."

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Colossus of Rhodes to be rebuilt as giant light sculpture

Helena Smith in Athens
guardian.co.uk, Monday November 17 2008 00.01 GMT

It may not straddle the port as its predecessor once did, but in terms of sheer luminosity and eye-catching height the new Colossus of Rhodes will not disappoint. Nor will it fall short of the symbolism that once imbued the ancient monument.

Twenty-three centuries after craftsmen carved the legendary statue that has inspired legions of painters, poets, playwrights and politicians, a new world wonder, built in the spirit of the original Colossus, is about to be born on the Aegean island.

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Small Blast in Kosovo Chafes Bond With Germany

By NICHOLAS KULISH and SOUAD MEKHENNET
Published: November 24, 2008

BERLIN — What started as a small explosion in Kosovo has grown into an uproar that has pitted the fledgling country against Germany, one of the biggest advocates of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia.

Read Full Article Here

CANA IS TAKING BACK THRACE FOR HELLENISM

For Immediate Release: November 24, 2008

NEW YORK—The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) is distributing articles and opinions by our grass roots activists, reflecting the movement of young Hellenic-Americans that are inspired in building a new dawn of enlightened and assertive Hellenism that will challenge the institutional revisionism of our opponents in all spheres of political life for all lands that belong to Hellenes—Cyprus, Macedonia, Pontos and Thrace.

The issues of false historical revisionism and the methodical attempts to diminish the Hellenic identity have been addressed by CANA in press releases, action alerts and public actions over the past year of our activism across America. Today, we bring attention to the issue of Thrace; this issue is particularly timely, with reports that ancient Thracian cultural relics are presently being unearthed in the Balkans, testifying to the epic history of the Hellenes. Ioannis Fidanakis has presented an analytical paper titled “The Quest for Orpheus” which encapsulates the current state of Thracian historical inquiry, and proposes a solution of peace for the Thracian Hellenic people in regards to claims by Bulgaria.

Ioannis Fidanakis is the current President of Panthracian Union of America “Orpheus”. He holds the honor of being the youngest elected official for any Hellenic Organization in the tri-state area and most possibility the whole country. Ioannis has a BA in Political Science; with a concentration in International Politics and a minor in History. He is currently pursuing his Masters in Public Policy. Ioannis' father's family comes from the small village of Sofiko, Evros. His mother's family, from Bloomfield, New Jersey.



The article “In Search of Orpheus” By Ioannis Fidanakis follows below, directly followed by a news report on the subject titled “1,800 Year Old Chariot Unearthed in Bulgaria” carried by major world news wires on November, 21, 2008.

Read Full Press Release Here

Monday, November 24, 2008

In Search of Orpheus

By Ioannis Fidanakis

The Slavization of Hellenic history, mythology, and identity is no longer a phenomenon that only threatens Alexander the Great and Macedonia. It has now materialized to threaten the legacy of Thracian Hellenism. A silent and seemingly unanswered push for the Slavization of ancient Thracian history is taking place today. This revisionist assault on the Hellenic identity has oddly enough gone ‘overlooked’ by the Hellenic establishment. Are Thrace and its rich legacy that easily disguarded? Where anyone looks, whether it is American television like the History Channel or the Internet with You Tube, Bulgarian claims on Thrace go unanswered by Hellenism. Their most recent claim, that the Thracian Orpheus is not Hellenic makes one wonder how far they are willing to go to disassociate Thrace from the ancient Hellenic world.

Who was Orpheus

Historically speaking, Orpheus was a prophet, religious reformer, and martyr. Legend claims he was born in the Rhodope Mountains of Thrace, and was the King of the Cicones tribe. He was the son of King Oeagrus and the muse Calliope. Orpheus was known to have learned to play the lyre from the God Apollo and his skill was known to be able to charm man and beast. He took part in the quest for the Golden Fleece, traveling with Jason and the Argonauts, and even saved them from Sirens with his lyre.

Orpheus was the ancient world’s Romeo, and his Juliet was the nymph Eurydice. While fleeing the son of Apollo, Eurydice ran across a nest of snakes, which fatally wounded her on her heel. Heartbroken and distraught by the lost of his love, Orpheus began to play the saddest songs, which caused all the nymphs and gods to wept. Unable to live without his wife, Orpheus bravely traveled to the underworld and with the aid of his lyre he persuaded Hades to allow Eurydice to return to earth on one condition. A condition that was so simple that Orpheus failed to heed Hades’ words. Unable to keep his eyes off his love, Eurydice, he did the one thing he was forbidden to do until they reached the surface. He turned around to look upon his wife, only to see her fade away from him forever.

Orphism

Orphism, a religious movement which bears Orpheus’ name is a reformed practice of Dionysianism. It appears to be more intellectual and controlled, compared to Dionysianism, while still seeking immortality through divinity. In Orphic theology, the body was seen as an evil thing, while the soul was divine and immortal. “In its first analysis, therefore, the Orphic process of salvation was a process of purification from bodily taint. The problem, however, was not such a simple one as these words would indicate. It was not merely from the evils of a single existence that the Orphic sought deliverance, but from the evils of a long series of bodily existences. The Orphic first, and the Pythagorean later, believed in the transmigration of souls from body to body. On leaving the corpse at death, the soul was normally doomed to inhabit the bodies of other men or of animals even, passing on through a chain of physical existences until finally purified. (1)” A known example of ones devotion to Orphism was the Orphic way of life. This entailed followers practicing vegetarianism, abstention from sex, and refraining from eating eggs and beans.
Bulgarian Propaganda

In recent years, Bulgaria has begun to open its eyes and hearts to the ancient civilization that is Thrace. We have witnesses a growing support within the Bulgarian establishment to learn more about this ancient culture and people that once flourished within the Balkans. However, as this wonderful thirst for knowledge is beginning, there are those within the Bulgarian establishment, which hope to twist history to help their country’s current status. What we are witnessesing is the Slavization of the ancient Thracian civilization to help benefit the current Slavo-Turkic nation of Bulgaria.

In 2005, Bulgaria for the first time began to show outrage, that Hellas was using an ancient Hellenic hero in one of its newest advertising campaigns. Until recently Bulgarian knew nothing of the ancient kingdom that its modern nation now rests upon. However, with recent archaeological finds, Bulgaria has begun to claim the entire ancient Thracian civilization was there own. "Orpheus lived in Bulgaria," Prof Nikolay Ovcharov, a Bulgarian archaeologist, said. "Greeks say he was Greek, but it's not true, that is simply Greek nationalism. (2)” At the time, Alexandra Christopoulou of Athens’s National Archaeological Museum, answered this attack on the Hellenic national identity saying, "Nations claim Greek heroes all the time…It happened with Alexander the Great and now with Orpheus. Bulgaria did not even exist at the time.(3)”

In 2007, Bulgaria introduced its new tourist promotion in Switzerland, and could anyone be surprised who the face of this new promotion was? Orpheus, the Hellenic hero, who only two years earlier Bulgaria had shown so much outraged for Hellas’s attempt to use him in the same manner. Now Bulgaria has used his memory into their new tourism ad, using the motto, "Bulgaria - the sacred land of Orpheus (4)”

Conclusion

Hellenism now finds itself at a very historical cross-road. We have before us three paths. The first being the most unpatriotic, leading us to revisionist injustice towards our ancestors. The second, a path which will only lead us to a new “Thracian Question”, which would mirror our current struggle with Skopje. The last path before us is one of a higher choice. A choice that some may even claim revolutionary. Rather then fighting to prevent the Bulgarianization of Thracian heritage, we should be working to use Bulgaria’s Thracian past to de-Bulgarianize its people. There should be cooperation between professors and archaeologist, with Hellenic teachers and archaeologist going to Bulgaria to teach of the Hellenic character of Thrace. All in hopes of setting free the enslaved Thracian identity within Bulgaria. This eye opening path could lead to the Re-Hellenization of Northern Thrace. The disappearance of Slavic linguistical domination and perhaps even the end of the continued Bulgar identity. Whichever path the Hellenic establishment will decide to travel, we can only sit back and watch. However, does the current elitist leadership have the right to choose this path or does the collective will of Hellenism hold the right to such a decision?

Citations
1. CHAPTER IV, ORPHIC REFORM


2. Quetteville, Harry de, “Bulgarians rage over ‘Orpheus and liars’, Athens, 07/03/2005


3. Quetteville, Harry de, “Bulgarians rage over ‘Orpheus and liars’, Athens, 07/03/2005


4. Orpheus Promotes Bulgaria in Switzerland, 25 October 2007

Sunday, November 23, 2008

"Άδειασμα" στα Σκόπια

Ο μόνιμος αντιπρόσωπος της Τσεχίας στο ΝΑΤΟ, πρέσβης Στέφαν Φούλε, δήλωσε την Παρασκευή από τα Σκόπια, ότι η μη επίδοση πρόσκλησης στην ΠΓΔΜ για ένταξη στο ΝΑΤΟ, στη Σύνοδο του Βουκουρεστίου, δεν ήταν αποτέλεσμα εμποδίων από κάποια συγκεκριμένη χώρα.

Πρόσθεσε δε, ότι στα Σκόπια δεν θα πρέπει να περιμένουν καμία πρόοδο όσον αφορά το θέμα της συμμετοχής στο ΝΑΤΟ έως ότου λυθεί το θέμα της ονομασίας.

Read Full Article Here

No comment from Germany on Kosovo spy report

REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service

Nov 22, 2008 10:36 EST

PRISTINA, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Germany declined to comment on on Saturday on reports that three Germans arrested on suspicion of throwing explosives at an EU office in Kosovo were intelligence officers.

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Some in Arab World Wary of Clinton

One Issue: Whether Probable Secretary of State Would Be More Hawk Than Dove

By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 23, 2008; A03

There is possibly no person President-elect Barack Obama considered for secretary of state who is more reliably pro-Israel than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the woman to whom he appears likely to give the job sometime after Thanksgiving.

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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Ancient bronze chariot unearthed in Bulgaria

SOFIA (AFP) – A bronze chariot dating back to the second century AD has been unearthed in a Thracian burial mound in southeastern Bulgaria, archaeologists said Friday.

Over 10,000 Thracian burial mounds are scattered across central and southeastern Bulgaria, considered home to the ancient Thracians, who inhabited the region between 4000 BC and 300 AD.

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UN adopts Russian proposed anti-Nazi resolution

UN, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - The UN General Assembly on social and humanitarian issues has adopted a draft resolution proposed by Russia on tackling a rise in the glorification of Nazism and the desecration of WWII monuments.

The draft resolution on "combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," is aimed at tackling the practice in the former Soviet republics of Latvia and Estonia of honoring SS veterans who fought for Nazi Germany during WWII.

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Slav-Macedonian Political Separatists (Macedonia dispute)

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
November 21, 2008

FYROM´s (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) irredentist policy towards Greece from 1944 to the present, is a policy that is in flagrant breach of the Interim Agreement signed by the two parties in 1995, calls on FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) to put an end to any expressions of irredentism. The FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) pseudo-irredentist propaganda, by which it essentially disputes Greece´s sovereignty over the northern part of the country, is promoted with a barrage of advertisements in American media, and with the publication of Parliament resolutions and State law suits by so called "Aegean Macedonians" against the Greek state. [1]

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Turkish soldier dies in PKK clashes

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
19:32 Mecca time, 16:32 GMT

A Turkish soldier has been killed and at least four others wounded in clashes with Kurdish fighters in eastern Turkey, according to media reports.

The fighting occurred between soldiers on patrol and separatist fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in a rural area of Agri province, the Anatolia news agency quoted a local governor as saying on Wednesday.

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Violent nationalism blights Turkey

Turkey is fiercely patriotic and proud of it. But the country's bid to join the European Union has sparked a nationalist backlash that has turned murderous, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul.

Writer Hrant Dink was the first victim, killed last year because some in Turkey could not tolerate what he stood for. To nationalists, he was a traitor.

In a country where every citizen is defined as a Turk, Hrant Dink defined himself as ethnic Armenian. That was already subversive to some. But Mr Dink went further.

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Three Germans arrested over bomb attack in Pristina

Pristina - Kosovo police arrested Thursday three German citizens suspected of throwing an explosive device last week at the Pristina office of the international community's representative.

The suspects were in Kosovo 'in private capacity' and have no immunity from prosecution, police spokesman Veton Elshani told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

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Uranium at Syria site come from Israeli missiles

DAMASCUS (AFP) — Traces of uranium on a site in northern Syria were residue from Israeli missiles used to bomb the area in September 2007, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday.

"The traces of uranium found on the site come from Israeli missiles launched during the destruction of the building. It is the only plausible explanation," Muallem said.

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

United Europe celebrates ethnic diversity

By Rick Steves
Tribune Media Services

(Tribune Media Services) -- One of the things that charms me about traveling through Europe is its ethnic variety. Hop on a train and two hours later you step into a different culture, different language and different heritage.

As Europe united, I feared its ethnic diversity would be threatened. But I find just the opposite is happening. In Europe there are three loyalties: to your region, to your nation and to Europe.

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Iraq discovers remains of 150 Kurds in south Iraq

REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service

Nov 19, 2008 08:53 EST

NAJAF, Iraq, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Iraqi officials flew the remains of 150 Kurds found in a mass grave home to Kurdistan on Wednesday, after a moving ceremony that paid tribute to victims of repression under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

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Kosovo Albanians protest new EU deployment plan

19 Nov 2008 17:15:49 GMT
Source: Reuters

PRISTINA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - About 10,000 ethnic Albanians gathered in Kosovo's capital Pristina on Wednesday to protest against changes to the deployment of the European Union police and justice mission.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Republic of Cyprus Condemns UDI

President Christofias: Turkey not working towards a federal solution

Nicosia.- (CNA) --- Students across the free areas of the Republic of Cyprus condemned the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) of the puppet regime in the Turkish occupied areas of the island, on 15 November 1983. In demonstrations to deplore the 25th anniversary since the UDI by the Turkish Cypriots, held in central areas of all major towns, the students held banners and chanted slogans, demanding independence, liberty and democracy, and stressing that no one could prevent peace in Cyprus and that Cyprus belonged to its people.

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U.S. Almost Ready to Extend Visa Waiver Status to Greece

Bush administrationʼs silent acknowledgment of its failure to blackmail Athens over NATO veto

Athens.- With the U.S. election over and the Republican administration almost out of the White House, to keep Greece out of the visa waiver program doesnʼt serve any purpose for the Bush Administration. A wire service story on Friday quoting a top US official in Brussels as saying Washington wants to include more countries in the US visa waiver program before the upcoming Jan. 20 administration changeover generated increased scrutiny in Athens, given that Greece was prominently left out of the recent batch of inductees.

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UN condemns Israel for Gaza closure

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
09:41 Mecca time, 06:41 GMT

The United Nations has criticised Israel's closure of the Gaza crossings as a "direct contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law".

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Chios Massacre

Greece Pans FYROM Over World Court Bid

18 November 2008

Skopje _ FYROM’s bid to take Greece to the World Court over its blockade on FYROM’s NATO membership shows Skopje is not committed to the UN talks, Greek officials say.

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Προσφυγή της ΠΓΔΜ κατά της Ελλάδας στο Διεθνές Δικαστήριο της Χάγης

Η κυβέρνηση της ΠΓΔΜ κίνησε διαδικασία στο Διεθνές Δικαστήριο της Χάγης κατά της Ελλάδας, κατηγορώντας την για παραβίαση του άρθρου 11 της Ενδιάμεσης Συμφωνίας μεταξύ Ελλάδας και ΠΓΔΜ, που υπεγράφη, στη Νέα Υόρκη, τον Σεπτέμβριο του 1995, εξαιτίας του βέτο της Ελλάδας στη Σύνοδο Κορυφής του ΝΑΤΟ, στο Βουκουρέστι.

Σε σχετική ανακοίνωση αναφέρεται ακόμη ότι η ΠΓΔΜ κατέθεσε τη σχετική αίτηση στο Διεθνές Δικαστήριο της Χάγης, με σκοπό να «υποχρεωθεί η Ελλάδα να σεβαστεί τις νομικές της υποχρεώσεις, οι οποίες προκύπτουν από την Ενδιάμεση Συμφωνία της 13ης Σεπτεμβρίου 1995, που είναι υποχρεωτική για τις δύο χώρες».

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McCain Supporter Claims She Suffered Racial Taunts in Class

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - A Prince George's Community College student says she was driven from class because of her political beliefs.

Gloria Alfonzo says she endured racial taunts and slurs because she supported John McCain's presidential campaign.

Her problems, she said, began with an assignment to write about the merits of Barack Obama. When she announced she differed with Obama, Alfonzo says her African-American classmates subjected her to an onslaught of racial hatred.

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Monday, November 17, 2008

Slow Cyprus talks dampen euphoria

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS,
Associated Press Writer Menelaos Hadjicostis,
Associated Press Writer – Sun Nov 16, 4:15 am ET

NICOSIA, Cyprus – Initial hopes that one of the world's most intractable disputes might finally be solved have dissipated in Cyprus as peace talks enter their third month.

The now-weekly discussions between Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have yielded the sobering realization that a tough slog still lies ahead of any breakthrough, despite the exuberance that greeted the resumption of negotiations in September after a four-year stalemate.

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Nov. 2, 2008 - Greek Americans offer tribute to Greek Victims of Communism

Victims of Communism Web Site
Article on Tribute
Hellenic Tribute Photos

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Greens in Germany pick son of Turks as leader

By Judy Dempsey
Published: November 16, 2008

BERLIN: The Green party, one of Germany's main political parties, has elected the son of Turkish immigrants to its top political post, the first time any party here has chosen a leader with an immigrant background.

The election Saturday of Cem Ozdemir, 42, born in southern Germany of parents who had come from Turkey to work as "Gastarbeiter," or guest workers, during the 1960s, marks a major turning point not only for the opposition Greens, but also for the country as a whole.

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Serb church allows controversial moderates to stay

Adam Tanner
Reuters North American News Service

Nov 15, 2008 15:38 EST

BELGRADE, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The Serbian Orthodox Church decided on Saturday not to replace the leadership at its largest monastery at the centre of a controversy over their more moderate line towards newly independent Kosovo.

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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Hate Crime? Marines Suspected in Sergeant's Slaying

Sgt. Jan Pietrzak and Wife Quiana Were Gagged, Bound and Executed

By LEE FERRAN
Nov. 7, 2008

When Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak was killed by a shot to the back of the head Oct. 15, he was nowhere near a desert battlefield and the killer was not an enemy combatant.

Pietrzak, 24, was murdered execution-style alongside his young new bride, Quiana Jenkins-Pietrzak, in their California home near Camp Pendleton and police believe the killer was a fellow Marine.

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Greece protests oil exploration near its island

November 15, 2008

ATHENS, Greece—The Greek Foreign Ministry said Saturday it has protested to Turkey over oil exploration activities close to Greece's easternmost island.

Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos said a Norwegian research ship accompanied by a Turkish frigate began geophysical research work on Friday close to the island of Kastelorizo.

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Macedonian 'Makedonomachoi' in the struggle against the Bulgarian (VMRO/IMRO) komitadjis and the Ottoman Empire

Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
November 15, 2008

This article is posted in reference to FYROM(ian) propagandists who claim no Greeks lived in the region of Macedonia before 1912. If no Greeks lived there, then how is it that these indigenous Macedonian fighters fought for unification with 'Mother Greece'?We have heroes who fought for Greece from Strumica & Bitola. The propagandists have managed to confuse some naive western writers, like psychologist & occasional sex therapist Dr. John Shea from Newcastle, Australia (they lie by referring to him as a historian??); who's book 'Macedonia and Greece' is totally flawed and riddled with FYROM(ian)propaganda.

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Explosive charge thrown at EU mission in Kosovo

REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service

Nov 14, 2008 18:23 EST

PRISTINA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - An explosive charge was thrown at the building housing the office of the European Union's special representative in Kosovo on Friday, shattering windows and damaging some cars nearby, police said.

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Russia: US media finally got Georgia story right

Louis Charbonneau
Reuters North American News Service

Nov 13, 2008 12:14 EST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Moscow's U.N. envoy praised The New York Times Thursday for challenging Georgia on assertions that Russia started their brief war in August, saying U.S. media had finally got the story right.

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Greek government plans to ban smoking by 2010

Athens - Greece, Europe's biggest smoking nation, will be running out of places to light up by 2010 as the government will finally enforce European Union guidelines banning smoking in many public places. The Health Ministry said Wednesday it would gradually ban smoking in public places, such as cafes and restaurants by 2010 after previous partial bans were ignored.

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Black Students Go On Racial Tirade Against White Student

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Anatomy of a Big Lie: Nationalistic Ideology and FYROM

Vasko Gligorijevic
November 09, 2008

During times of crisis, from times immemorial, humans have sought to activate the traditionalistic qualities in form of "mythos" that serves as a building material for the new "ethos", the least being contemporary to action in crisis.

In order to investigate the patterns of the Pseudomacedonian ideology, it is important to study the FYROMian economical and sociological background.

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Enough is enough!

Augsburg student says she was attacked because of her Palin pin

An Augsburg College student says she was attacked and punched on election night, because of her support for Sarah Palin.

18-year-old Annie Grossmann tells KARE 11 she was assaulted after attending an election night party.

"They saw the pin and they started calling me racist, and I've never seen these girls before," said Grossmann.

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Obama's plan for Iraq about to meet reality

By Charles Levinson, USA TODAY

BAGHDAD — Saad Eskander, the director of Iraq's National Library and Archive, will never forget Nov. 20, 2006. That was the day Barack Obama declared Iraq was "descending into chaos" and called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, in a speech that would define the war policy Obama carried into his historic run for president.

Eskander remembers it for a different reason: "That was the saddest day of my life."

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Greek Americans offer tribute to Greek Victims of Communism

Greek Americans offer tribute to Greek Victims of Communism
Nov 2, 2008

Greek Americans gathered to offer tribute to Greek victims of Communism on November 2, 2008 in front of the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington DC.

Those who came had family who were killed by communists in Greece in the 1940?s.
“I came to offer tribute to Greek victims of communism,” said Alex Aliferis. He said,
“My great grandfather, his two sons, a total of over 10 in my family were killed in a well in Meligalas, Greece in 1944.” Aliferis? grandfather escaped execution by running into the Taygetos mountains.

Ed Priola, Director of Public Affairs, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation attended the tribute. He hopes to work with the Greek American community to document and insert the Greek experience in the Foundation?s future museum. Talks are still in the works to build an actual museum dedicated to victims of communism somewhere near the Memorial.

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DAM, "Born Here", Hebrew/Arabic with English subtitles

Palestinian rhythms of resistance

By Ahmed Habib in Toronto

Jackie Reem Salloum, a film director and activist, has been one of the key players in the movement to increase global interest in Palestinian art.

Born to Palestinian and Syrian parents in Dearborn, Michigan, her artwork was influenced by her experiences as a young woman in the Arab Diaspora.

During her late teens, she studied at the renowned Steinhardt art school at New York University, where she learned to reinterpret traditional American cultural symbols like gum ball machines to include references to revolutionary figures like Musa Kazim Pasha al-Husseini, a mayor of Jerusalem who was ousted in the 1920s for his opposition to British pro-Jewish policies.

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Rahm Emanuel Expects 'A Lot' From Civil Defense Corps

In a 2006 interview with Ben Smith of the NY Daily News, Rahm Emanuel, who will be Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, laughed at Smith's concerns about how far-reaching a mandatory civil-service plan would be.

Watch the Video Here

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

U.N.'s Ban urges Kosovo to reconsider EU mission plan

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Kosovo on Tuesday to reconsider an amended United Nations plan for deployment of the European Union police and justice mission (EULEX) in Kosovo.

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Israeli police evict Palestinian couple from home of 52 years

Nov 11, 2008

Israeli police have evicted a disabled Palestinian man and his wife from the home where they had lived for 52 years, in a Palestinian district of east Jerusalem which is now surrounded by hardline Jewish settlers. The eviction came after years of litigation which culminated in an Israeli supreme court ruling in July ordering them out of the house.

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Kurdish expansion moves threaten stability in northern Iraq

By Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers

BASHIQA, Iraq — Kurdish forces have detained Murad Kashtu al Asi three times in the isolated district of Sinjar in Nineveh province. First, they beat him and accused him of being a terrorist and a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a mostly Sunni Arab political party. The second time, they detained him for several hours, he said.

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Greek Government "won't dignify Clarkson with a response."

10 November, 2008 17:20 (GMT +00:00)

A Greek Government official has told thelondondailynews.com that they will not dignify Jeremy Clarkson's "Greece is a toilet" article with a response.

They said his stupid and irresponsible comments did not merit a rebuke.

Greek Londoner's were incensed at a recent article by Clarkson in The Sun in which he describes Greece as a toilet.

By John Kaponi

The BBC Top Gear and Sun columnist Jeremy Clarkson angered the Greek population of the United Kingdom with racist and insensitive comments made in his weekly newspaper column in the Saturday edition of The Sun, were describes Greece as a "toilet".

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Republican Compares Obama to Hitler

By BEN EVANS, AP

WASHINGTON (Nov. 11) - A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship.

"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

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EU concerned about nationalism in Bosnia

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
BRUSSELS: The European Union expressed concern Monday about a rise in nationalist rhetoric in Bosnia and urged Sarajevo to do more to implement EU-oriented reforms.

EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, said they were “very concerned about the recent evolution of the political situation in Bosnia, notably the use of nationalist rhetoric.” They called on Bosnian authorities to “assume their responsibilities and renew their efforts to make progress on reforms needed for Bosnia to advance on its European Union track,” in a French-language statement.

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Turkish military shells northern Iraq

REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service

Nov 10, 2008 13:27 EST

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The Turkish military struck the border area of northern Iraq on Monday, Iraqi officials said, in the latest apparent attack on Kurdish separatist PKK fighters.

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Georgia Congressman Calls Obama Marxist, Warns Of Dictatorship

Monday, November 10, 2008

WASHINGTON -- A Republican congressman from Georgia is calling President-elect Obama a Marxist and warning that he might be planning to form a Gestapo-like security force so he can rule as a dictator.

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Number of Greek Americans in Congress Increased

New York.- The number of Greek-Americans in Congress increased to six, after the victory of Dina Titus in Nevada, has a “Greek majority” (two out of three) in the Stateʼs representation at the US House of Representatives. The other five held Greek Americas held comfortable victories. The US Representatives re-elected are: in Maryland John Sarbanes (D), Gus Bilirakis (R) in Florida, Shelley Berkley (D) in Nevada, Zack Space (D) in Ohio and Niki Tsongas (D) in Massachusetts. Two Greek-American candidates in Ohio failed to be elected, Jane Mitakides (D) and Jim Trakas (R).

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Warning of new bin Laden attack

Paola Totaro, London
November 10, 2008

OSAMA bin Laden is planning an attack against the United States that will "outdo by far" September 11, an Arab newspaper in London has reported.

- bin Laden 'planning US attack'
- Goal to 'outdo' September 11
- al-Qaeda reinforces training camps

And according to a former senior Yemeni al-Qaeda operative, the terrorist organisation has entered a "positive phase", reinforcing specific training camps around the world that will lead the next "wave of action" against the West.

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Warnings from world leaders all within 72 hours

"Australian PM Kevin Rudd - “Nuke strike would make 9/11 insignificant” and other weird warnings"

"Over the last 72 hours there has been a strange melange of cryptic messages leaked from world political leaders about what could be in store for America over the next few months.

These predictions of impending doom come from England, France, Australia and the United States.

Biden told the top Democratic donors that a “generated crisis” will develop within six months and Barak Obama will need the help of community leaders to control the population as unpopular decisions are made and Americans resist.

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Sunday, November 9, 2008

Obama to use executive orders for immediate impact

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher,
Associated Press Writer – 54 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

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Georgia fired first shot, say UK monitors

From The Sunday Times
November 9, 2008
Jon Swain

Two former British military officers are expected to give crucial evidence against Georgia when an international inquiry is convened to establish who started the country’s bloody five-day war with Russia in August.

Ryan Grist, a former British Army captain, and Stephen Young, a former RAF wing commander, are said to have concluded that, before the Russian bombardment began, Georgian rockets and artillery were hitting civilian areas in the breakaway region of South Ossetia every 15 or 20 seconds.

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MAN ARRESTED FOR WEARING MCCAIN PALIN T SHIRT! Where did freedom of speech go?

Ashville N.C. School teacher browbeats student over being a McCain supporter

Newsweek’s Thomas: ‘Slightly Creepy Cult of Personality’ Around Obama

By Matthew Balan
November 6, 2008 - 19:21 ET

Newsweek’s Evan Thomas and Jon Meacham shared a bizarre Obama love-fest session with Charlie Rose on the PBS host’s program on Wednesday. Meacham stated that he was "very struck watching the stagecraft" of Obama and pointed out how Obama gave his victory speech by himself: "...[H]ave you ever seen a victory speech where there was no one else on stage? No adoring wife, no cute kid -- he is the message." Thomas went one step further in this vein: "There is a slightly creepy cult of personality about all of this." Rose confronted him on his use of this phrase, and he explained that it made him "a little uneasy that he's so singular. He's clearly managing his own spectacle. He knows how to do it. He's a -- I think, a deeply manipulative guy..." Later, all three marveled about how it was "amazing" that Obama "watches us watching him."

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Saturday, November 8, 2008

Real and imagined: the Hellenes of the Middle East

While the traditional communities of Greeks are dying across the Asiancontinent, highly mobile and enterprising individuals are rejuvenating theGreek presence

IASON ATHANASIADIS

WHEN I moved to Iran, hearing there were Greeks in the Islamic Republic of Iran was bizarre enough. Finding out that it boasted a splendid Greek Orthodox church, just metres away from the infamous US embassy that dominated the international media throughout the 444 days of the American diplomats' hostage crisis in 1979-80 was even stranger.

But Iran's Greek community has been in irreversible decline since the early 1980s when many fled a socially restrictive Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. Today, two monuments in Tehran stand testament to the crumbling Greek community: a church and a cemetery.

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Friday, November 7, 2008

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Iran leader offers Obama landmark congratulations

TEHRAN, Iran, Thu Nov 06, 05:42 PM

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday congratulated Barack Obama on his election win — the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

An analyst said Ahmadinejad's message was a gesture from the hard-line president that he is open to some sort of reconciliation with the U.S.

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ANCA: Obama-Biden victory powerful opportunity for U.S. recognition of Armenian Genocide

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) welcomed President-elect Barack Obama and Vice-President-elect Joe Biden’s historic win as a new and powerful opportunity for American recognition of the Armenian Genocide, stronger U.S.-Armenia relations, and U.S. support for a settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict that respects its citizens’ right to self-determination, the ANCA told PanARMENIAN.Net.

The ANCA also welcomed the election yesterday of 94% of the Congressional candidates it had endorsed in House and Senate races.

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Obama wins U.S. election

Racial barriers fall; Bush era rejected

By Adam Nagourney
Published: November 5, 2008

NEW YORK: Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.

Obama's election amounted to a national catharsis — a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Obama's call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation's fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.

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Obama Wins

Posted November 4, 2008

As of 11 PM EST tonight, Democratic Party Presidential nominee Barack Hussein Obama has been declared by all major networks to be the victor of the 2008 campaign, and the junior Senator from Illinois will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America.

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President-Elect Obama Likely to Chart More Afghan-Centric Foreign Policy

Posted November 4, 2008

Today’s presidential election has been decided, and Democratic Senator Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America. And though President-elect Obama is unlikely to make any wholesale changes to America’s foreign policy when he takes office next year, he is likely to change the overall focus of America’s assorted overseas military operations.

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Indian Govt Dismisses Obama “Rhetoric” on Kashmir

Posted November 3, 2008

In a move that has riled up some members of India’s opposition parties, Barack Obama linked the tensions in Indian Kashmir with Pakistan’s clashes with militants along its border with Afghanistan, and suggested that “we should probably try to facilitate a better understanding between Pakistan and India and try to resolve the Kashmir crisis.”

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European Union to Be Led by Former Soviet Satellite

By DAN BILEFSKY
Published: November 3, 2008

PRAGUE — It ought to be a seminal moment: As a new president takes office in Washington, the Czech Republic assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union, the first former Soviet bloc country to lead the group of 470 million Europeans, and during one of the worst economic conflagrations in a century.

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Medvedev raises hopes on Nagorno-Karabakh

By Denis Dyomkin, Reuters
Monday, 3 November 2008

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to intensify talks to end a 20-year conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev also agreed after talks outside Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to develop confidence building measures as they search for a way to resolve the conflict.

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Kurds protest Turkish PM’s visit

Monday, November 03, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey: Turkish police clashed for a second day on Sunday with thousands of Kurds protesting a visit by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the country’s restive Kurdish-majority southeast.

Fighting erupted when some 3,000 demonstrators — mostly supporters of the country’s main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) — attempted to stage a march in the town of Yuksekova, ignoring police orders to disperse.

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Temple of Artemis to revived once more in Selçuk

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Temple of Artemis was built in the seventh century BC. But according to myth a madman set it on fire 400 years later. But as Christianity began to spread throughout Anatolia, a Christian ecclesiast outlawed the cult of Artemis in the fifth century. The temple was destroyed during the early period of Christianity in Anatolia. Artemis, one of the original Seven Wonders of the World, will be rebuilt in Selçuk in present day Turkey

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Balancing Hearts and Heads

Turkish Americans typically vote Republican. This time, they are divided over which White House candidate should get their ballot.

By Bahar Kader and Melis Özpinar | NEWSWEEK
Published Nov 1, 2008

...Not all Turkish Americans are as certain as Holmstrom. For the first time, the community—which has typically tended to vote Republican—is divided over which candidate to choose. On the one hand, they feel closer to the Republicans because they feel the GOP has a more balanced approach to Turkish arguments on issues such as the Armenian genocide allegations and the dispute over Cyprus. On the other, they believe a Democratic leader will be better placed to solve the financial crisis and work toward achieving a more peaceful world. Call it a case of heads for McCain, hearts for Obama. "Economic improvement can only be achieved with Obama," says Suduman Curbuz, president of the North Texas Turkish American Association. Nonetheless, he says, his group eventually decided to back McCain because of the candidate's support for Turkey...

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Petition to free Harry Nicolaides

Read more Here

Monday, November 3, 2008

Thousands of Kurds protest Turkish PM's visit

by Mahmut Bozarslan Mahmut Bozarslan
– Sun Nov 2, 12:14 pm ET


DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AFP) – Turkish police clashed for a second day Sunday with thousands of Kurds protesting a visit by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the country's restive Kurdish-majority southeast.

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Armenia, Azerbaijan to intensify Karabakh talks

Denis Dyomkin
Reuters North American News Service

Nov 02, 2008 14:10 EST

MEIENDORF CASTLE, Russia, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on Sunday to intensify efforts to resolve their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Members of Israeli spy ring 'related to 9/11 hijacker'

Lebanon is an open theater for espionage'
By Andrew Wander
Daily Star staff
Monday, November 03, 2008

BEIRUT: Two men arrested for running an Israeli spy ring in the Bekaa Valley are relatives of a suicide hijacker who piloted a plane in the September 11, 2001, attacks, a security source told The Daily Star on Sunday. The Lebanese Army announced on Saturday that it had arrested two people suspected of involvement with a spy network that gathered information for Israel's intelligence services.

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Saturday, November 1, 2008

Swiss court: 2 Kosovo men guilty of drug smuggling

By GABRIELLA BROGGI, Associated Press Writer Gabriella Broggi, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 30, 2:39 pm ET

BELLINZONA, Switzerland – Two brothers from Kosovo were convicted Thursday of running a massive drug smuggling ring that prosecutors said supplied Western Europe with up to half of its heroin.

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EU condemns settler 'acts of brutality' against Palestinians

By Haaretz Service

The European Union on Friday issued a harsh condemnation of settler violence against Palestinians after a recent upsurge in clashes in the West Bank.

"The European Union once again condemns in the strongest possible terms the acts of violence and brutality committed against Palestinian civilians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank," the EU presidency said.

The censure came after a series of violent clashes between settlers, Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces during the current olive harvest.

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Lebanon: 12 IAF war jets violated our airspace

By The Associated Press

Lebanon said 12 Israel Air Force warplanes violated its airspace on Friday by flying reconnaissance missions over the country's North and South.

The Lebanese army said in a statement carried by Lebanon's official news agency that six IAF jets flew over the border village of Alma al-Shaab and other southern towns and villages for about 30 minutes Friday.

The statement said six other IAF warplanes flew over the Mediterranean off the coastal city of Batroun and over other northern towns for about an hour.

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