All posts by Endy Zemenides
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THESSALONIKI AND THE 21ST CENTURY VIA EGNATIADuring the Roman Empire, one of the most important routes linking Italy and Byzantium – serving as a key communications artery, military route, and key trade and commerce highway – was the Via Egnatia. Connecting to the...
- Posted October 23, 2024
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But What Solution?
As the mandate of the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus – Maria Ángela Holguin Cuéllar, former Foreign Minister of Colombia – comes to an end, there will be much anticipation over how she will evaluate...
- Posted July 10, 2024
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A Tale of Two Anniversaries
In two months, we will be marking 50 years since Turkey launched its invasion of Cyprus and the beginning of a violent division that has proven over and over again to be the exception to the rule...
- Posted May 10, 2024
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A Reading List for 2024
“Read More.” Two words that almost always find themselves on the list of “top New Year’s resolutions.” In fact, over the last decade only in August – during back-to-school shopping – do book retailers sell more books...
- Posted December 28, 2023
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Don’t be Indifferent
Having marked yet another “dark anniversary” of Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, we begin the march towards a grim milestone – a half century of illegal Turkish occupation of Cyprus. Over the last decade, there have been positive...
- Posted July 30, 2023
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Don’t be the Farmer
A Farmer walked through his field one cold winter morning. On the ground lay a snake, stiff and frozen with the cold. The Farmer knew how deadly the snake could be, and yet he picked it up...
- Posted April 14, 2023
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Reimagining Relations with the Diaspora
The upcoming elections in Greece will for the first time allow the country’s diaspora to vote from Greek consulates abroad. When adopted, this move was heralded as a major step forward in the relations between the Hellenic...
- Posted March 21, 2023
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The Lessons and Spirit of “OXI” are Needed more than ever Today
Last December The Atlantic featured a cover story entitled “The Bad Guys Are Winning”. Just two months later, much of the world seemed resigned to Russia quickly occupying and dismembering Ukraine. But against all odds, Ukrainians resisted,...
- Posted October 30, 2022
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The Sky is Not FallingAt the recent national conference of a major Greek organization, a guest speaker expressed what has become an all-too-common refrain: The community is in crisis; we are in irreversible decline, there is nothing but “bad news”; we...
- Posted July 12, 2022
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The Next Phase
For the last two years, both the Mitsotakis government and the Biden Administration have worked on a White House visit for the Prime Minister to mark the new highs the bilateral relationship has reached. This meeting was...
- Posted April 25, 2022
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Democracy’s Fueling Station
On December 29, 1940, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appealed to Americans listening on radio: “If Great Britain goes down,” he warned, “the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the high seas....
- Posted March 22, 2022
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Coal for Christmas
This past April, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report documenting developments during 2020. Among its many recommendations to the State Department, USCIRF pushed for Turkey to be placed on the...
- Posted December 24, 2021
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TURKEY’S DISINGENUOUS CHARM OFFENSIVE
The Republic of Turkey’s new Ambassador to the United States, Hasan Murat Mercan, is treating his U.S. hosts to a charm offensive. Travels around the country, pleasant encounters, Iftar dinners, constantly posting pictures on social media –...
- Posted July 3, 2021
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THE HARD WORK STARTS NOW
“The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.” With these words President Biden ended decades of appeasing Turkey over the issue of genocide recognition. Although this move...
- Posted April 30, 2021
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Greek Americans Must Lead The Charge Against Xenophobia
Since the outbreak of COVID, about 3,800 hate crimes have been perpetrated against Asian-Americans. Reports have detailed how attackers often blamed their victims for the pandemic. The effect of “China virus” and “Kung Flu” being used in...
- Posted March 23, 2021
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Fool Me Once…
Almost like clockwork, the Erdogan regime and its enablers in the United States switched from rhetorically assaulting candidate Joe Biden (in August, Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin accused Biden of “ignorance, arrogance and hypocrisy” and told him “You...
- Posted December 24, 2020
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Malarkey on Eastern Mediterranean Tensions
There is a saying attributed to Mark Twain that holds: “A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” This saying represents one of the major problems Greece and Cyprus face...
- Posted October 10, 2020
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Five Questions Trump and Biden Should Have to Answer
As the 2020 Presidential election approaches, both campaigns have tried to establish outreach mechanisms to the Greek American community. The Trump campaign has rolled out “Greek Voices for Trump” and the DNC has a “Greek Americans for...
- Posted July 12, 2020
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What Thermopylae and Salamis Can Teach Us Today
When the Hellenic Republic established a special commission to celebrate the 2500th anniversaries of the Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis, no one could have foreseen the disruption caused by the Corona virus, an enemy fiercer than Xerxes’...
- Posted April 29, 2020
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The Day After
The Coronavirus crisis has pushed discussion of several other topics to the background, and this column will follow suit. As Prime Minister Mitsotakis announced the lockdown of Greece, he declared that “the greatest weapon against the virus...
- Posted March 24, 2020
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Turkey’s Libya Gamble
On November 27, 2019, Turkey closed out a year during which it moved significantly towards “rogue state” status by signing an agreement with Libya purporting to declare new maritime boundaries, despite the fact there can be no...
- Posted January 13, 2020
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Running Out of Excuses
When asked about sanctioning Turkey over its S-400 missile purchase during the recent NATO Summit, President Trump once again used his typical excuse for leniency on Turkey: “As you know, Turkey wanted to buy our Patriot system...
- Posted December 12, 2019
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What If Greece Did Not Say “OXI”?
Most of us are at least one generation removed from World War II, but generations of Greek Americans have lived OXI Day over and over and over again. This cycle continues this year through programs in Greek...
- Posted October 26, 2019
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Turkey’s False Promises on Halki
During a recent press conference on international religious freedom, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the “immediate reopening” of the Halki Seminary, a seminary Turkey ordered closed in 1971. Some may consider this call in...
- Posted July 12, 2019
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A Paradigm Shift
In its review of John Julius Norwich’s “The Middles Sea: A History of the Mediterranean” the Los Angeles Times lauded the historian’s book as “A sweeping saga of human turmoil. . .” Turmoil. There is perhaps no...
- Posted April 25, 2019
