Hellenic
Orthodox Traditionalist Church of America
Holy
Metropolis of the Greek Orthodox
Old
Calendar Church of America
Cathedral
of Saint Markella
22-68
26th Street Astoria, NY 11105
Tel:
718-274-2875
E-mail:
Smyrna1922@AOL.COM
From:
Metropolitan Archbishop PAVLOS
Of the Greek Orthodox Old Calendar Church Of North and South America
Member of the Holy Synod of the Old Calendar Church of Greece
Under the Presidency of Archbishop CHRYSOSTOMOS II of Athens and All Greece
To:
William Jefferson Clinton
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.
March 23, 1999
Dear Mr. President,
Again I write to you as a Christian and as an American.
Sir, we are poised on the brink of disaster, a disaster that is
manifold in its dimensions and character.
As I expressed to you in my previous letter this imminent
and unprovoked attack against Yugoslavia is immoral. Even
the trepidation alone that we have instilled in the people of
Yugoslavia is a horror. The fact that this is exactly one of
our intentions is offensive.
Legally speaking our country is heading toward the perpetration of
a crime of international proportions.
We are acting without a UN mandate.
We are violating the very charter of the NATO Pact.
NATO is acting without a UN mandate.
We are violating every international law governing
respect for the sovereignty of nations.
We are acting without the mandate of the
American people. Do the American people truly believe
our national interests are at stake? A recent CBS
Radio broadcast quoted a poll that said 50% of
Americans cannot find Kosovo on a map!
Is this
the well-informed constituency that gives us a
mandate
to attack Yugoslavia?
I ask
again by what authority do we act? Is it the authority of
the
law of God, the law of our country, or international
law?
We
are about to send our sons into an open-ended quagmire
that
will bring only death and destruction for all involved. We
claim
we want to end the killing in Kosovo. Let's remember
that
it has been the terrorist gangs known as the KLA
that
have been the first to violate every cease-fire since the
Serbs
agreed to a cease-fire. Almost every time violence has
erupted
since the beginning of this conflict it was the KLA
that
was the first to commit such violence.
American
boys are being asked to prepare to kill and die
because
Serbia is defending her Christian heartland against
Muslim
fundamentalists, secessionists, and terrorists.
Has
this been taken into consideration?
I presume
your advisors have decided to bring
peace
by bombing one of Europe's oldest Christian
civilizations
into oblivion.
Throughout
history it is this very civilization
that
has always been a bulwark against the hordes
that
came from the east to threaten Europe.
It is the
Serbians that are known to history as "the
People of
the Gate" because they guarded the door to
Europe in
the Krajina. The Krajina Serbs are now
no more thanks
to a previous NATO strike in 1995. Do we
want to eliminate
one more Orthodox Christian Civilization
before the
end of our century?
Not so long
ago the southern states of our
country attempted
to secede from this great Union.
President
Lincoln acted to crush this rebellion
and many
Americans died willingly to keep our country
whole. How
do you suppose your great predecessor would
have reacted
if a NATO type force had threatened him?
Are you sure
the people of Yugoslavia are not as willing to
keep their
country whole as were our brave America
ancestors?
As I write
this letter I am listening to your speech on CNN.
You are claiming
Turkey is a "moderate Muslim state".
Is that because
they are attempting to eliminate the Kurdish
culture and
identity from the face of our planet? Is
it because
they are consistently claiming the Aegean islands of
Greece as
their own and keep up a posture of threat against Greece?
The modern
and "moderate" Turkish State was founded
by Mustapha
Kemal, the man who in 1922 burnt the cosmopolitan
city of Smyrna
to the ground and roasted alive her two-hundred
thousand
Christian occupants. Smyrna was once the jewel of the
Mediterranean.
The American Consul Mr. George Horton, who
witnessed
the carnage, said at the time that not since the
Romans razed
Carthage had the world seen such destruction.
Smyrna had
had a Christian presence since the time the
Book of the
Revelation was given to Saint John where the great city is
mentioned.
In 1922, the moderate State of Turkey put an end to that.
The modern
and "moderate" State of Turkey also killed
millions
of Greek Orthodox Christians in Anatolia and Pontus
earlier this
century. In 1955, a year in which you and I both lived,
the "moderate"
State of Turkey aided and abetted a pogrom against
the Greek
Orthodox population of Constantinople. In that year the
Greek Orthodox
of Constantinople numbered over 500,000.
Today there
a less than 2,000 there.
Is this the
type of moderate Muslim future state that the KLA
envisions
for Kosovo? Hovo in his attempt to defeat the Serbs.
During World
War One the Serbs lost a third of their young men
defending
freedom. Not so many years ago Hitler's
Wermacht
broke its teeth in Yugoslavia. Mr. President, do not
be
so naïve as to believe that the young men of America's armed
forces
will not pay a heavy price in blood if we continue on this road.
In 1940 when the Serbs broke their pact with the Axis they paid a
heavy price for their decision to join the side of Freedom. Belgrade
was reduced to rubble and thousands were slaughtered; yet the
Serbs stood fast. Winston Churchill commented at the time that
"the Serbs had found their soul."
I am praying, Mr. President, that you find your soul and the
vision to see the death that will be wrought in committing this
folly. I pray you find the courage to face the American people and
tell them we made a mistake and that we must call off a NATO strike.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
St. Matthew 4:9
In Christ, I am,
Metropolitan Archbishop PAVLOS
Of the Greek Orthodox Old Calendar
Church of North and South America