[ALBSA-Info] Greek anti-americanism

[e_dusha at hotmail.com]

Ne pergjigje te artikullit te djeshem te Kathimerini dhe te kesaj levizje 
sllavo-helenike per te lidhur ceshtjen shqiptare me bin Ladenin dhe 
terrorrizmin.....


This was posted on BBC today.....
By Helena Smith in Athens
The assault on America, and the prospect of US military reprisals, is 
tormenting Greece in a way that, once more, highlights the country's uneasy 
relationship with the West.
As the Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou makes an official visit to 
the US - reassuring Washington of Athens' unstinting support in the fight 
against terrorism, and touring the smouldering ruins of the World Trade 
Center - his compatriots are expressing their own views by holding rowdy 
"anti-war" rallies across Greece.
>From the northern port city of Salonika to the southern island of Crete, 
protestors are participating in demonstrations that have increasingly turned 
into fervent displays of anti-Americanism.
Not long after the September 11th attack, some 30,000 Greek soccer fans, 
attending a Uefa match against Scotland in Athens, jeered through the 
moment's silence held in honour of the terror victims.
The Scots looked on aghast as they then tried to burn the Stars and Stripes 
in the stands.
Fervent protest
Organized by the powerful Greek Communist Party (KKE), the protests come 
less than two years after Greeks expressed similar opposition to Nato's 
bombing campaign against their co-religionists in Serbia.
With the demonstrators frequently shouting "down with Bush, the killer", 
analysts say the protests are even more strident than they were in 1999.
"America will use the excuse of a military reaction to settle all its old 
scores with poor, third world countries. We must try and stop it", said 
Kostas Kazakos Greece's leading stage actor addressing one such rally in 
Athens.
Successive opinion polls have showed the Greeks to be, by far, the least 
sympathetic of all Euro-Alliance nations to post-attack America.
They have also been the least willing to take action against countries 
harbouring terrorists.
A poll published in Wednesday's authoritative Athenian newspaper Ta Nea 
noted that as many as 75% of those Greeks voting for centrist or leftist 
parties were "anti-American" and opposed to the superpower retaliating 
against the attack, fearing the quest for justice could turn into one of 
revenge.
Around 58.3% of those who supported right-wing parties were also 
"anti-American."
Echoing a view first expressed by Archbishop Christodoulos, the country's 
spiritual leader, most said Uncle Sam was now paying the price for 
Washington's misguided policies, and other sins of the past.
In trying to explain the opposition, analysts point to the Greeks' delicate 
geo-political position as citizens of a Christian buffer state, at the 
crossroads of the east and west.
Historical roots
But the Greeks also cite America's support for the ruthless military regime 
that ruled them between 1967 and 1974 as the root cause of their reaction.
In addition, they say, Washington is guilty of "double-standards". The 
Greeks believe the US has failed to pressure NATO ally Turkey to remove some 
35,000 Turkish troops from Cyprus, 27 years after Ankara invaded and seized 
the island's northern third in response to an Athens engineered coup.
The demonstrations, and intense media criticism of US policies in the wake 
of the suicide bombings, has outraged classics buffs, dyed-in-the wool 
philhellenes and Greeks living abroad.
"What have we done to the Greeks to deserve such antipathy?" Professor 
Stephen Miller, one of America's most eminent classical archaeologists, 
railed in a letter published in the the Greek daily Kathimerini.
Greek-Americans, who lobby tirelessly on Athens' behalf in Washington, have 
also been unable to contain their rage.
Some have even said they will be canceling plans to attend the 2004 Olympics 
in the Greek capital.
"We condemn and reject the shameless and baseless insults and blatant 
slander of fellow Greeks in the motherland," snapped the Federation of Greek 
Associations of Greater New York in a blistering statement.



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