As a representative organisation of the Kastellorizian diaspora and all those who love the island, Friends of Kastellorizo remains very concerned by the recent East Mediterranean crisis. The support expressed for Greece and Cyprus by the European Union, many of its member states such as France and Germany, NATO and others beyond Europe at this critical time, is deeply appreciated.
Our island of Kastellorizo is the lynchpin of the dispute over maritime rights. The recent threats of armed aggression on the sovereign territory of an EU Member State are the first in the history of the European Union, the defence of which is a fundamental tenet under Article 42.7 of the Treaty of European Union.
Kastellorizo’s population has always been ethnically Greek, and though reduced by the privations of war, its diaspora number in the tens of thousands from Australia to Brazil to France to the United States of America and we remain strongly connected to the island and to Greece. We hold dear our Kastellorizian Greek heritage and identity.
Kastellorizo is much more than a small remote island - it is a critical outpost of Europe and the enduring Sentinel at the Gate, the ceding or toleration of annexation of which would undermine the foundations of the European Project and give encouragement to the EU’s enemies.
The sovereignty of Kastellorizo is never to be proposed as a bargaining chip, as it was in 1946 and in 1968, and we must remain ever vigilant to ensure the continuing Greek sovereignty of our island.
Kastellorizo is Europe… and Europe starts here.
SOURCE: Friends of Kastellorizo, 29.9.2020. ΑΡΧΕΙΟΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ
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