"rick murphy" wrote
>
> http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/5399000.asp?gid=74
>
> Washington-Athens tension over "Turks in northern Thrace" statement
>
> Diplomatic feathers have been ruffled in Greece this week following a
> reference by US Embassy Charge D'Affaires Thoman Countryman to the
> minority population living in Greece's northeastern Thracian provinces
> as "Turkish." Following Countryman's statement, US Ambassador to Greece
> Charles Ries was called to the Greek Foreign Ministry, where he was
> told of Greek discomfort over Countryman's words, which had been issued
> in an interview with the Greek newspaper Elefterotipia.
>
> Speaking after Ambassador Ries' meeting at the Foreign Ministry, Greek
> government spokesperson Teodoros Rusupulos said "Declarations by
> diplomats cannot change facts. Greece has nothing to fear in the way of
> being criticized for its stance." Countryman's statement to the Greek
> newspaper included the following: "In our analysis, most of the Muslim
> Greek citizens living in northern Greece are Turks. They come from
> Turkish families, they speak Turkish. We count them as Turks."
These dumb Greeks should read what they sign!
They should read the Lausanne Agreement their they co-signed in 1922;
their Venizelos was one of the signees (!), s.b.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lausanne
"
Overview
After the expulsion of the Greek forces by the Turkish army
under the command of Mustafa Kemal (later Kemal Atatürk),
the newly-founded Turkish government rejected the recently
signed Treaty of Sèvres. On October 20, 1922 the peace
conference was reopened, and after strenuous debates,
it was once again interrupted by Turkish protest on February 4, 1923.
After reopening on April 23, and more protest by Kemal's
government, the treaty was signed on July 24 after eight months
of arduous negotiation by allies such as US Admiral Mark L. Bristol,
who served as United States High Commissioner and championed
Turkish efforts.
Negotiations
Ismet Inönü was the lead negotiator for Turkey and Eleftherios Venizelos
was his Greek counterpart. The treaty provided for the independence
of the Republic of Turkey but also for the protection of the ethnic
Greek minority in Turkey and the mainly ethnically Turkish Muslim
minority in Greece. Much of the Greek population of Turkey was
exchanged with the Turkish population of Greece. The Greeks
of Istanbul, Imbros and Tenedos were excluded (about 270,000
in Istanbul alone at that time [1]), and so were the Muslim population
of Western Thrace (about 86,000 [2] in 1922).
....
The republic of Turkey also accepted the loss of Cyprus to the British Empire.
The fate of the province of Mosul was left to be determined through the League of Nations.
....
"
See also:
http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918p/lausanne.html