“..Το ίδρυμα σας είναι βρίσκετε σε κίνδυνο, επιτρέποντας μια τέτοια διάσκεψη που διαδίδει αναθεωρητισμό, την προπαγάνδα και την ομιλία μίσους. ..”October 25, 2009
October 25, 2009 :
Protocol- 2284
University of Utah Michael K. Young,
President 201 South Presidents Circle, Room 203
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Dear President Young,
It has recently come to our attention that your University, the oldest institution of higher education west of the Mississippi, will be holding the “7th ‘Macedonian’- North American Conference” on November 5th. Based on historically verifiable facts, we contend that your institution’s academic creditability is jeopardized by permitting such a conference that propagates revisionism, propaganda and hate speech. Upon our review of the conference’s program, as noted on your web site, beyond any academic discourse regarding a Slavic linguistic idiom, there will be presentations by apologists of communist human rights abuses, including but not limited to, the abduction of 28,000 Greek children during and after the Second World War.
To date, over 332 academic scholars have co-signed a letter to President Barack Obama in opposition to such historical revisionism your institution is now facilitating. As a former Professor and Director at Columbia University, you might be interested in noting that two current Columbia faculty members, Professors Mylonopoulos and Lougovaya, are signatories of this letter.
At the conference, a scheduled presentation will apparently question recognized human rights abuses directed against defenseless Greek children by communist guerillas.
The recognized facts of these events have been recorded by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies, and has been condemned by the United Nations General Assembly with resolutions recorded in 1948 (193), 1949 (288), 1950 (382), 1951 (517), and 1952 (618).
As adopted by the UN General Assembly, the truth is that “the Greek children have not as yet been returned to their homes in accordance with the resolution of the General Assembly” and that all “States harbouring the Greek children to make all necessary arrangements… for the early return to their homes.”
More that 28,000 Greek children were forcibly torn from their families and abducted by communists and thereafter brainwashed to reject their national identity and homeland.
Where would be the academic responsibility of your institution if it permitted blatant historical revisionism that seeks to dispute these facts?
The human tragedy of these contemptuous acts affected thousands of Hellenic families for many years and decades. While only some 4,000 children were returned by 1963, the vast majority were confined to camps in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, East Germany, and Albania until the collapse of the Communist Bloc.
As UN General Assembly resolution 618 (1952) clearly states, it “Condemns the failure of the harbouring States other than Yugoslavia to co-operate in efforts to enable the Greek children to return to their homes.”
This statement is absolute with regard to the identity and fate of these Greek victims of communism. The vast majority of the children were sent to camps outside of Yugoslavia, and most of the few thousand that were in Yugoslavia were repatriated following the reproach of Tito with the West.
We therefore condemn any effort by a Slavic fringe group to usurp the identity of these Greek victims of communist aggression. We furthermore urge you to cancel the upcoming revisionism conference, as it reflects poorly on your prestigious learning institution.
This is the time to stand up against hate speech and apologists for totalitarian regimes. Respectfully, Demetrius Kalamaras, Esq.
President Cc:
President Barack Obama
Senator Robert Menendez
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney,
Hellenic Caucus Co-Chair Congressman
Gus Bilirakis, Hellenic Caucus Co-Chair
Dr. Jane Hacking
Dr. Fernando Rubio
Dr. Christine Jones
