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, 30.10.2020.
ΛΕΞΕΙΣ: Καστελλοριζο, Καστελλοριζιοι