By Stavros H. Papagermanos
NEW YORK –Philip Christopher, a successful businessman, is highly regarded in our Community for his long and tireless advocacy on behalf of Greece and Cyprus. He is president of the International Coordinating Committee-Justice for Cyprus and the Panchyprian Association of America. Mr. Christopher spoke to Greek News USA on the crucial 2022 midterm elections, the challenges ahead and how they could affect our national issues.
- From the perspective of the Greek-American community, what is your overall assessment of the upcoming midterm elections?
Next Tuesday’s elections are really about protecting Greece and Cyprus’ friends in the US Congress. I know a lot of people see this from the Republican side, or the Democratic side, progressive, liberal, conservative. As far as I’m concerned, I only see the elections from one point of view: Who are the members of the United States Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate who support our issues regarding Greece, Cyprus and the Patriarchate?
- Who are the Greek-American candidates running for office and what are our concerns?
As you know, Charlie Crist is running for governor of Florida. I would have preferred to see him stay in the United States Congress because he was effective and he helped us. Compared to other members of Congress, John Sarbanes seems to be doing well, he is very strong. Gus Bilirakis is also doing well in Florida. The ones that worry me are Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, Nicole Malliotakis of course in New York and Dina Titus in Nevada. These three face very difficult elections.
Nicole Malliotakis is facing the same opponent as last time, the polls have her in the lead and we think she will win. Chris Pappas, on the other hand, is a Democrat, he faces a very difficult election from a young woman on the Republican side supported by Donald Trump, but Chris is ahead by a few points, and we hope that there will stay. . As for Dina Titus, in Nevada, she is in serious danger. There, this race is really too close to call.
- How can this election affect our Greek-American issues and what should we focus on?
Our job last year was essentially to reach out to Democrats and Republicans who sit on key committees. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee is a key committee for us, and we are all familiar with Senator Menendez’s role as Chairman. The good news is that Menendez won’t be up for re-election until 2024.
I fear that if the Republicans take the Senate, he will no longer be chairman of the committee. He will be the minority member of the committee and that will be a big blow for us. Yes, it will still be effective, but less so. That’s why we’re working so hard in Pennsylvania to defeat Dr. Oz, to stop him from winning the Senate seat, because for us, that could be a double whammy. If he wins, it could give the Republicans a majority in the Senate and, more importantly, have a Turkish citizen in the Senate, who served in the Turkish military, who feels the same way about Turkey and ‘Erdogan… really if he is elected. , he will be a thorn in our side.
- How can one senator make such a big difference?
Yes, a senator can make a difference. We have seen time and time again how one person, Senator Menendez, can make a huge difference. Oz has celebrity status and being in the Senate won’t be a good thing. We help Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman defeat Oz. Fetterman started with a 15-point lead and now the race is neck and neck.
- What about the House of Representatives?
On the House side, we work very closely with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX-10th Congressional District), who is currently the Republican leader on the Foreign Affairs Committee. If the Republicans take power in the House, he will be the chairman of this committee. Nicole Malliotakis has a good relationship with him. A big fundraiser was held in Houston, Texas last week, and many of us contributed and tried to make sure McCaul would be remembered if he became chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. bedroom.
Plus, we fortunately have good friends in Congress who we continue to support who are powerful, friends like Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and there’s no problem there. Likewise, we support friends like Rep. Frank Pallone and Chris Smith of New Jersey, who are doing well. Of course, we lost Rep. Carolyn Maloney, co-chair of the Hellenic Caucus. After the elections, it will be necessary to decide who will be the co-chair of the Hellenic caucus alongside Representative Gus Billirakis. We owe a lot of gratitude to Carolyn Maloney because during her 30 years in office she has done fantastic work for the Hellenic cause. We will look at this and see who will be the best person to take on this role. We need a member of the Democratic Party as co-chair. Some people say Chris Pappas, who has been so effective on our issues, could be the one. It’s a possibility. Some say it might be better not to have a Greek-American philhellene, but rather a non-Greek-American philhellene. We’re talking about Frank Pallone, who is also the chairman of the Armenian caucus. Congressman John Sarbanes’ contribution will be very important in this decision, since he is the elder statesman and because John has been great on Greek issues.
- How do we plan to address the challenges that arise from change in the political scene as we face urgent problems in Greece and Cyprus?
As I started to explain that we have an alternative plan, it’s really quite simple. Most importantly, if Republicans want to take power in the House, we must be able to work effectively with members of key committees. The main committees of concern for Greece and Cyprus are Foreign Affairs, the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee; these are the ones. The major issue at present is to continue our efforts to stop the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. We need to. We have successfully lifted the embargo on Cyprus, relations between the United States, Greece and Cyprus are at an unprecedented level. We are in a good position.
Of course, we understand what is happening in Turkey with the elections. Erdogan continues to be very aggressive and arrogant in his positions. Our biggest concern right now is that November 15 marks the anniversary of the unilateral declaration of independence of the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. I fear that Erdogan will follow Putin’s path and example in Ukraine when he annexed Crimea or when he holds these so-called referendums and annexes new regions of Ukraine. We are very concerned that Erdogan announces the annexation of the occupied zone. And if not, even the total annexation of the Famagusta region. After 48 years, this is going to be a big blow for us; for the occupied area of Cyprus to be annexed to Turkey.
We are working on these developments and we will hold a conference after the elections in Washington to meet the new members of the US Congress. There could be around thirty new members out of the 435 members of Congress. We need to continually educate the new members coming in, members who really don’t know anything about the Cyprus issue or the problems Greece faces in the Aegean Sea.
In summary, the objective of these elections is protect all our friends in the US Congress and ensure that all Greek-Americans are re-elected. As I said earlier, we are losing gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, so we will have one less Greek-American in Congress. I hope in Oregon we can win another one, Alek Skarlatos, running for Congress in 4th Congressional district there. He came to prominence in 2015, after he and five others stopped an attempted terrorist attack on a train heading to Paris, France.
What I would like to emphasize to all Greek-Americans and I always say this: you can be Republican, you can be Democrat, you can be liberal or conservative and that’s fine; but when it comes to elections, when we have to protect someone who is good for Greece and Cyprus, we must remember that we are Greek-Americans first and foremost.