[ALBSA-Info] BBC on September 11 Reactions

[Agron Alibali]

BBC: Greek allegiances tested


Thursday, 4 October, 2001, 07:57 GMT 08:57 UK Greek allegiances testedhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1578000/1578090.stm By Helena Smith in Athens The assault on America, and the prospect of US military reprisals, istormenting Greece in a way that, once more, highlights the country's uneasyrelationship with the West. As the Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou makes an official visit tothe US - reassuring Washington of Athens' unstinting support in the fightagainst terrorism, and touring the smouldering ruins of the World TradeCenter - 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 increasinglyturned 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 themoment's silence held in honour of the terror victims. The Scots looked on aghast as they then tried to burn the Stars and Stripesin the stands. Fervent protest Organized by the powerful Greek Communist Party (KKE), the protests comeless than two years after Greeks expressed similar opposition to Nato'sbombing 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 oldscores with poor, third world countries. We must try and stop it", saidKostas Kazakos Greece's leading stage actor addressing one such rally inAthens. Successive opinion polls have showed the Greeks to be, by far, the leastsympathetic of all Euro-Alliance nations to post-attack America. They have also been the least willing to take action against countriesharbouring terrorists. A poll published in Wednesday's authoritative Athenian newspaper Ta Neanoted that as many as 75% of those Greeks voting for centrist or leftistparties were "anti-American" and opposed to the superpower retaliatingagainst the attack, fearing the quest for justice could turn into one ofrevenge. Around 58.3% of those who supported right-wing parties were also"anti-American." Echoing a view first expressed by Archbishop Christodoulos, the country'sspiritual leader, most said Uncle Sam was now paying the price forWashington's misguided policies, and other sins of the past. In trying to explain the opposition, analysts point to the Greeks' delicategeo-political position as citizens of a Christian buffer state, at thecrossroads of the east and west. Historical roots But the Greeks also cite America's support for the ruthless military regimethat ruled them between 1967 and 1974 as the root cause of their reaction. In addition, they say, Washington is guilty of "double-standards". TheGreeks believe the US has failed to pressure Nato ally Turkey to removesome 35,000 Turkish troops from Cyprus, 27 years after Ankara invaded andseized the island's northern third in response to an Athens engineered coup. The demonstrations, and intense media criticism of US policies in the wakeof the suicide bombings, has outraged classics buffs, dyed-in-the woolphilhellenes and Greeks living abroad. "What have we done to the Greeks to deserve such antipathy?" ProfessorStephen 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, havealso been unable to contain their rage. Some have even said they will be cancelling plans to attend the 2004Olympics in the Greek capital. "We condemn and reject the shameless and baseless insults and blatantslander of fellow Greeks in the motherland," snapped the Federation ofGreek Associations of Greater New York in a blistering statement. 



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