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The Kremlin’s tie-up with Lebanon’s Greek Orthodox community

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Russia is keen to widen its influence in the Middle East. In the second of a three-part exclusive for DW, Benas Gerdizunas examines why the Kremlin is allegedly supporting the Greek Orthodox community in Lebanon.

In the aftermath of Lebanon’s civil war, the Greek Orthodox community failed to secure a fixed political representation in post-Taif Lebanon [the Taif Accords that ended the country’s 1975-90 civil war — the ed.]. It found itself usurped by the Maronite political clergy, the dominant representatives of Christians in Lebanon.

This left many in the community feeling underrepresented and barred from career paths, and more open to overtures from other creeds.

The problem, it seemed, was that there was no one to represent a fledgling community that suffered from fragmentation and emigration.

That changed with the emergence of the Orthodox Gathering (Liqaa Orthodoxi) in 2011, on the fringes of Lebanon’s political crisis, when Hezbollah forced the collapse of the government.

Founded by Orthodox clerics, former and current politicians, and various fringe parties in 2011, the key members of the Gathering include Elie Ferzli, Lebanon’s former information minister and deputy speaker of parliament.

In one of the first recorded meetings of the Gathering in February 2011, Ferzli claimed that the Orthodox community in Lebanon felt “oppressed and alienated.”

Eager to exploit the vacuum, the Kremlin, in 2011, pivoted toward the Gathering and the Greek Orthodox community, following the so-called Orthodox Law proposal that was put forward in 2011.

The Gathering draft law would allow sects to elect their own representatives, enabling fixed presence of Greek Orthodox forces in the parliament, which until now had no political footing. It would also secure Christian representation in the long-run.

In February 2013, coinciding with parliamentary approval of the draft law, Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, reiterated his country’s “historical support for Greek Orthodox communities in the Middle East,” following a visit to Gathering headquarters in March.

The middlemen

In January 2014, Russia’s parliamentary delegation, allegedly including representatives from all parties, as well as Sergey Gavrilov, the head of the Duma’s committee for the “defense of Christian values,” stopped off in Lebanon en route to Syria, where they would meet President Bashar Assad and Patriarch John X of Antioch.

Smiar Nuaimi, the Orthodox Gathering’s secretary, brokered a meeting in Lebanon between the Russian delegation, Ambassador Zasypkin and Orthodox figures, including Elie Ferzli.

At that meeting, Gavrilov called for the “forming of a cooperative council to work on activating cooperation on all levels.”

“Lebanon differs from Syria. We cannot solve the problems of Christians by force using Russian fleets,” he said.

More recently, in February 2017, Lebanon’s president, Michel Aoun, received a Russian delegation at his residence, including Arseny Sokolov, the Moscow Patriarchate’s representative in the region, and Duma representatives, including Gavrilov. The nature of the conversation, according to the public statement released following the meeting, focused on Russia’s efforts to protect Christian minorities in Syria.

Sources close to the Greek Orthodox clergy have told DW that the Orthodox community is aware of Russia’s attempts to use “Christian protection” as a pretext for a more active role in Lebanon. The archbishop of Beirut, Metropolitan Elias Audi, allegedly told Russian ambassador Zasypkin that the Greek Orthodox had “never asked to be protected.”

Crucially, the conflict in Syria has prompted Audi to seek independence for his church, according to Ghassan Saoud, an independent Lebanese journalist.

“Audi is not with Russia politically, and at the beginning of the Orthodox Gathering he was not happy with it,” Ghassan told DW.

According to Ghassan, Patriarch John X of Antioch — the head of the Greek Orthodox church in Lebanon and Syria, based in Damascus — is using church funds to rebuild church properties in Syria, which is causing friction in Lebanon. “From the time he arrived in Beirut [in 1980], Metropolitan Audi has wanted to be independent; and now he has a reason to convince some people,” said Ghassan.

Audi’s secretariat declined interview requests, citing his refusal to discuss politics.

Closer cooperation

In October and November 2017, a spate of meetings between the stakeholders from Moscow and Lebanon resulted in calls for closer cooperation with Orthodox entities in Lebanon, including the Gathering.

What appears to be a particularly crucial meeting took place in October 2017 between Sokolov, the Moscow Patriarchate’s representative and Russian ambassador Zasypkin.

The statement released following their meeting emphasized the need for a “coordination of cooperation with different social and political associations of Lebanon, including the Orthodox Gathering.”

Elias Halabi, a high-ranking member of the General Secretariate of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and the director of the Inter-Church Network for development and Relief (ICNDR), told DW about the dangers posed by fringe parties that emerge to represent communities trapped in a political vacuum.

“The church in Lebanon confirms political principles, but never involves itself in the game,” said Halabi. He conceded, however, that a feeling of underrepresentation is prevalent within the Greek Orthodox community of Lebanon.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Halabi said. “A group with fiery statements can hijack the whole community, especially as the church [in Lebanon] does not represent [a position].”

As stocks deplete, Greek fishermen scrap boats and livelihoods

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Greek fishermen stocks deplete

Theodora Arvanitidou and Alexandros Avramidis,

ASPROVALTA, Greece, July 2 (Reuters) – Panagiotis Pagonis stands on the deck of his fishing boat off Asprovalta in northern Greece, grimacing at another empty catch. “It’s all gone to hell,” the 72-year-old mutters as the early glimmer of dawn lights up the waters.

Ten days later, he looks on as the mechanical arm of a bulldozer rips through his vessel, the Katerina, crushing a lifetime of memories. He has been at sea since he was a child. But the scrap yard takes just minutes.

Hundreds of fishermen like him are turning in their boats and their licenses, partly because catches are down, partly because the EU and the Greek government are offering them cash to leave the trade, under a scheme to protect fish stocks.

Tsipras marks agreement on Greek debt with red tie

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Donning a red tie, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday hailed the Eurogroup debt deal clinched on Thursday as “historic,” insisting that Greece is finally turning a page after eight years of bailouts.

Speaking at Zappeion Hall in Athens to SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks (ANEL) lawmakers of the ruling coalition, Tsipras said the deal was a ticket for Greece’s future and a very significant development for the country.

After the Eurogroup’s decision on Greece’s debt, the debt is finally becoming sustainable, he said.

Meanwhile, New Democracy decried the deal and its leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the conservatives will table a proposal on Monday for a debate on the economy in Parliament at the level of party leaders.

During his address on Friday evening, Tsipras said that wearing a tie – which he had promised to do only if Greece was granted debt relief – will be difficult but he will “get used to it” as promises must be honored. He went on to remove it.

Tsipras also touted the deal struck in Luxembourg with the country’s creditors as something that will ensure the smooth and stable refinancing of Greek debt, “minimizing or even eliminating the risks of potential turmoil.”

“Greece is again a normal country. It is regaining its political and economic sovereignty. It is back on the world map and is back on its feet again,” he said while stressing that “all this does not mean we are going to return to the Greece of the past.”

Referring to the hardships of the Greeks over the last decade, Tsipras said the “day belongs to those who were brutally struck by the crisis, who saw the efforts of a lifetime destroyed and who shouldered the country’s burden” and that the government has 15 more months until the elections to fulfill its second aim – to fight corruption.

For its part, New Democracy said earlier in the day that Greece did not get a reduction of its debt from the Eurogroup – instead it is getting increased surveillance while the markets have no confidence in the local economy.

It added that new pension cuts and tax hikes are due to come into effect six months from now, that Greece must achieve primary surpluses of 3.5 percent until 2022 and 2.2 percent from then until 2060, and that Athens would be subject to quarterly inspections by foreign auditors.

However, Tsipras, who also met with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, said the agreement exceeded the expectations of the markets.

“June 21, 2018 will go down in history as a significant day in the history of the eurozone,” he said.

“That does not mean we are abandoning the sensible course of the reforms which the country needs,” he said.

Pavlopoulos referred to the sacrifices made by the Greek people during eight years of austerity, noting that this was partly due to incorrect calculations by creditors who have since acknowledged their errors.

Tribute to memory of Pontian Greek Genocide victims held in Yerevan

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Armenian lawmakers, NGO representatives and members of national communities of Armenia visited today Tsitsernakaberd Memorial complex to honor the memory of the innocent victims of the genocide perpetrated against Pontian Greeks by Ottoman Turkey on the territory of Asia Minor in 1915-1923. As press service at Armenian parliament reports, on behalf of the legislative body of Armenia Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov laid a wreath to the monument of genocide victims.

Condemning the crime committed by Ottoman Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century, Eduard Sharmazanov noted: ”As long as Turkish denialism exists, there is a threat for repetition of genocides. Moreover, both Sumgait pogroms of 1988 and the Azerbaijani inhuman actions against civilian population and soldiers during the April war were the consequence of that Turkish denialism,” Sharmazanov said, stressing the need for struggle which is not against but rather for freedom and protection of human rights.

Sharmazanov also highlighted the need to combine efforts of Assyrian, Greek, and Armenian diasporas, the unity of the state to combat Turkish denialism.

To note, more than 350,000 Pontic Greeks and between 300,000-600,000 Assyrians, Syriacs and Chaldeans were exterminated by the Turkish troops and Kurdish militias during 1915-1923. Greek government selected May 19 to commemorate this dark period in history. Memorial services are taken place around the world.

The genocide of Pontian Greeks has been recognized by Armenia, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden and the Artsakh Republic.

Greek air force confirms identity of dead pilot as Captain Giorgos Baltadoros

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The Greek fighter jet pilot who was killed on Thursday when his plane crashed into the central Aegean, was identified by the Hellenic Air Force as Captain Giorgos Baltadoros.

The 34-year-old was flying a single-seated Mirage 2000-5 and preparing to land at the military airport in Skyros when his jet crashed into the sea, some nine miles northeast off the coast of the island, it said in a press release. No information was provided as to the possible cause of the crash.

Baltadoros was serving at the 331 Air Force Squadron in Tanagra.

Greek defense sources said earlier that the Mirage had been one of Greek two jets on a mission to intercept Turkish jets in the Aegean earlier in the day. The same sources said they did not believe any hostile activity was involved.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos tweeted a tribute to a “hero…who fell in the fight to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The Spectacular Greek Easter Pot Smashing in Corfu (video)

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Greek Easter Pot Smashing

Greek Easter Pot Smashing

Thousands of locals and visitors gathered in the centre of the town of Corfu on Saturday to witness the annual ritual of pot smashing.

This island tradition is that every Holy Saturday at noon Corfiots who have decorated their windows with red flowers and badges throw huge clay pots filled with red ribbons from their windows.

The symbolism is to create an “earthquake” that is like the one that occurred following Christ’s resurrection from his tomb.

As soon as the church bell sounds, it’s a signal for every man, woman and child to hurl their earthenware vessels from their windows and onto the streets.

While the tradition originated in Corfu, surrounding villages have joined in the fun.

The noisy custom derived from the Venetians, who on New Year’s Day, would throw their old things from the windows in the hopes of receiving new ones for the next year.

The Corfiots adopted the tradition, applying it to the most important day in their calendar: Greek Easter. Somewhere along the way, old goods have been replaced by pots and jugs of water, which make for an even louder noise upon impact.

It is even thought that the peculiar custom may have roots in the biblical passage “Thou, O Lord, raise me up, that I may crush them as a potter’s vessel.”

There might also be lineage to the beginning of plantation season, when newly harvested produce was stored in new pots, and the old ones were destroyed.

Source: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2018/04/07/the-spectacular-easter-pot-smashing-in-corfu-video/

Armenian, Greek ministers discuss bilateral cooperation

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Armenian, Greek ministers discuss bilateral cooperation

Armenian, Greek ministers discuss bilateral cooperation

Armenia and Greece are connected with one another with centuries-old historical and cultural ties, and Armenia attaches importance to further deepening and expanding the relations with friendly Greece, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian announced at today’s meeting with Greek Minister of National Defense Panos Kammenos, who is on a visit to Armenia.

The top Greek official, for his part, stressed that his country highly appreciates the Armenian-Greek interstate relations anchored on mutual trust, adding that they have the warmest feelings for Armenia and the Armenian people and want to develop the comprehensive cooperation to the extent possible.

FM Nalbandian expressed satisfaction with the expanding Armenian-Greek cooperation in defense sphere, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

The ministers next reflected on the Armenia-EU cooperation and a closer cooperation on multilateral platforms.

Minister Nalbandian briefed Panos Kammenos on the ongoing efforts by Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs towards settling the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict.

Hostage Taking new #Erdogan venture: Former #Greek Armed Forces Chief says officers’ arrest was a Turkish “set up”

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by Aggelos Skordas

Greece’s former Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff Manousos Paragioudakis expressed his belief that the two Greek army officers currently imprisoned in Edirne were ambushed rather than captured after crossing the borders with Turkey in the Evros region. As he said on Thursday during an interview with Skai TV, the arrest of the second lieutenant and the sergeant was a “set up”, orchestrated by the Turkish special forces.

Moreover, the honorary Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff underlined that such incidents are significantly frequent at the frontier, as patrols from both sides unintentionally cross the borders but the incidents are “resolved on the spot”, after direct communication between the local Greek and Turkish military commanders. As he said, there have never been arrests in the past after such incidents.

In addition, Paragioudakis questions the Turkish scenario that the two Greek army officers walked for 250 meters into Turkish soil. “From the moment the two officers did not return immediately, the case becomes complicated. Since the incident was not resolved within the first hours, we have become entangled… It is impossible they have been captured by simple Turkish soldiers. It must have been another force, trained to do this, special units which had been prepared to capture Greek military men. They were acting on orders”, Paragioudakis characteristically explained.

Comparing the incident with other “hot” encounters between the two countries’ forces at sea Paragioudakis pointed out that “at sea, it is easy to ram a ship, in Evros, it is not easy”. As he said, “there is an informal practice that you do not proceed with arrests”, thus, he concluded, “I believe the incident was set up”. Finally, he said that the fact that the servicemen were not returned within the first hours of their detention serious complications might occur.

The two Greek army officers arrested and imprisoned last Thursday after crossing borders with Turkey remain in custody in Edirne as the court rejected the appeal for their release submitted by their lawyers on Monday. The decision on the fate of the second lieutenant and the sergeant of the Greek army will be postponed the Turkish court announced.

Novartis case: Greek MPs to probe alleged bribery “biggest scandals in modern Greek history”

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Greek alleged bribery

Greek alleged bribery

The Greek parliament has voted to investigate 10 prominent politicians, including two ex-prime ministers, over allegations they allowed bribery by the Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis.

Under Greek law, only parliament can investigate its own members and lift their immunity.

The vote followed a 20-hour debate, in which PM Alexis Tsipras said: “We won’t help cover up… one of the biggest scandals in modern Greek history”.

The 10 politicians deny wrongdoing.

They have condemned what they called a political “witch-hunt”.

They are alleged to have let Novartis bribe doctors so they would prescribe its drugs at inflated prices.

Prosecutors believe the alleged price-fixing could have cost the state €3bn (£2.7bn; $3.7bn) during a financial crisis that imposed hardship on many families.

Some politicians are also suspected of accepting bribes and there are allegations of money-laundering.

They held office from 2006-2015. Novartis says it is co-operating with the investigation.

The Swiss medicines giant told the BBC it had not received any formal allegations or indictments from the authorities investigating the case, and that media coverage “included many sensational and unfounded claims, in a politicised debate of which Novartis should not be a part”.

But it said it would “take fast and decisive action and do everything possible to prevent future misconduct” if any wrongdoing was found.

It said: “While Novartis continues to co-operate fully with the Greek and US authorities, we have also been conducting our own comprehensive internal investigation.

“We are determined to fully understand the situation and accept responsibility for any actions that fell below our high standards of ethical business conduct.”

A Greek parliamentary committee will assume the role of an investigating judge.

Prosecutors referred the case to parliament this month, after spending more than a year investigating.

The EU rescue of Greece during its debt crisis involved big cuts in healthcare spending and other public services.

The leftist Syriza-led government is wrestling with a crisis that erupted under previous conservative New Democracy and socialist Pasok governments.

Those named in the allegations include ex-finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, current central bank governor Yannis Stournaras and ex-health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, who is now EU migration commissioner.

The Genocide of Armenian and Greek Christians Revisited: New Discoveries and Politically Correct Memory Loss

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By Mike Scruggs – The beginning of the Armenian Genocide is usually dated as April 24, 1915, now over 102 years ago. It was a planned operation of the Ottoman Empire that exterminated at least 1.5 million Armenian Christians in Eastern Turkey from 1915 through 1918. According to George Horton, a U.S. State Department Consul General in Turkey from 1917 to 1922, it was actually preceded by sixteen massacres of Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, and Maronite Christians from 1822 to 1909, killing a total of over 358,000 men, women, and children. He noted that this was only a partial list. This was under the Ottoman Caliphate, which was replaced by the Turkish Republic in 1923.

In 2016, I wrote a series of six articles for the Tribune Papers in North Carolina and the Times Examiner in South Carolina (June 22 to July 27) about the Greco-Turkish War and the genocide of Greek Christians by Turkish troops and auxiliaries from 1919 to 1922. According to Rutgers University research, 1.5 million Greek civilians died. Of these, between 260,000 and 360,000 perished by fire, drowning, systematic massacre, and related causes during the Great Smyrna Fire in 1922. This includes 160,000 men who were marched off for hard labor and never heard from again. The Turks systematically exterminated residents of the Armenian quarter of Smyrna, before they started the fire. In addition to the Smyrna deaths, Greek soldiers suffered 43,000 deaths from battle, wounds, and captivity. According to League of Nations reports, 50,000 Greek and Armenian girls were sold into sex slavery.

According to “Democide” scholar, Dr. Rudolph Rummel, various Turkish regimes killed from 3.5 million to 4.3 million Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Maronite, and other Christians from 1900 to 1923. The non-Muslin population of Turkey, which was probably over 20 percent in 1900 and was 19.1 percent in 1914, dropped to 2.5 percent by 1927 and is now less than 0.3 percent.

There have been some recent break-throughs in research on the Armenian Genocide bravely reported in a New York Times article by Tim Arango on April 22, 2017. These included a “smoking gun” original ciphered telegram proving official Ottoman/Turkish government planning and execution of the genocidal series of actions resulting in the death of 1.5 million Armenian Christians from 1915 through 1918. Dr.Taner Akcam, professor and researcher of Turkish history at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, unearthed the document among many others from the archives of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Akcam has studied the Armenian Genocide for decades, methodically putting the pieces of the murderous puzzle together in the analytical fashion of Sherlock Holmes.

The Ottoman official who sent this telegram was Behaeddin Shakir. He was convicted based on a deciphered copy, but the original and most of the records of his trial had mysteriously disappeared as the Ottoman and later Turkish governments began to deny any responsibility for the genocide and to downplay its numerical significance. Shakir escaped to Germany, where he was later assassinated by “swarthy foreign men” believed to be Armenians.

Dr. Akcam is a patriotic Turk who believes that only truth and not denials and propaganda are worthy of true patriotism. He made this statement in that regard:

“My firm belief as a Turk is that democracy and human rights in Turkey can only be established by facing history and acknowledging historic wrongdoings.”

Patriots everywhere should give this courageous brand of patriotism a hearty “Amen.” This has a Biblical precedent:

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”—Proverbs 28: 13 ESV.

Many of the photos recovered in the archive are grim and emotionally wrenching. There are piles of and shelves of decapitated heads, men being hung on Turkish tripod devices, and dead and starving children. There are railroad cattle cars filled with families probably heading toward death. The most memorable to me was a photo of eight Armenian Christian girls, probably in their teens, being crucified on traditional Christian crosses.

The Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas terrorist front in the United States, seems to have been successful in convincing WordPress to take down the webpage that had the photos mentioned above. CAIR makes constant use of the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya, which provides that Muslims may lie or deceive non-Muslims for the purpose of advancing or defending Islam. CAIR spokesmen on Network TV news shows spew tirades of falsehoods and half-truths that are incredibly and obviously disingenuous, yet many media pundits and politicians take them seriously.

Turkey continues to deny responsibility for the Armenian genocide. For many decades Turkish leaders moved the country to a more secular practice of Islam. Under President Erdogan that secularism is disappearing and being actively persecuted and replaced by the Jihadic Islam of the Koran and Muhammad. Erdogan may view himself as the new Caliph of a resurrected salafist (fundamentalst-revivalist) Ottoman Empire imposing Islam and Sharia Law on Europe first and then the world. He wants to send ten million more Muslim “immigrants” to Europe.

The Greek Genocide is less well known in the West, probably because the Italian, French, British, and U.S. governments attempted to minimize the number of deaths and atrocities reported in order to maintain favorable diplomatic relations and commercial opportunities with the nationalist government of Kemal Ataturk, which had taken effective control of the Turkish government and army in May 1919. In Smyrna in 1922, Allied naval vessels were ordered to observe strict neutrality in evacuating only their own nationals from the burning city, while tens of thousands of Greek refugees attempting to escape the wrath of the Turks perished by fire, slaughter, and drowning. Finally, British, American, French, and Italian naval commanders, acting against the orders of their own governments, began rescuing thousands of Greeks, eventually totaling 250,000. An American YMCA employee, Rev. Asa Jennings, negotiated the use of over 50 Greek Navy ships and their crews, which rescued over 250,000 people, bringing the total rescued from Smyrna to over 500,000. In 1927, the Greek government awarded Jennings its highest military and civilian medals. He never received any official recognition by the U.S. government.

Tragically, most of Western Europe is still deceived by the Big Lie that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Many American leaders are also ignorant of the true nature of fundamentalist Islam and suffer under the delusion that Islam can be accommodated or appeased without fatally undermining the foundations of Western civilization and Judeo-Christian survival and religious liberty.

Source: http://www.thetribunepapers.com/2017/05/10/the-genocide-of-armenian-and-greek-christians-revisited-new-discoveries-and-politically-correct-memory-loss/