Jean Marie Le Pen in Athens
translation by Ionios Dorikos
Jean Marie Le Pen arrives at the interview hall and is greeted with rounds of applause.
On Saturday 22nd January 2005 the president of the French Front National and member of the European parliament Jean Marie Le Pen visited Athens and appeared on a panel discussion hosted by the Hellenic Front. This was part of the campaign against Turkish membership in the European Union (EU) organized by the Hellenic Front. The French politician gave a press interview at 11:15 a.m. with Christos Charitos, communications director of the Hellenic Front. Also present at the interview was Karl Lang, vice-president of the Front National and member of the European parliament.
Lepen was accepted with an enduring ovation and acclaim. The enthusiastic support for the French politician, who has always supported Hellas in the European parliament, was apparent. In the conference room where the interview was held, the wall was lined with the posters of Hellenic Front and Front National against Turkish accessionin the EU. Phaedon Dimopoulos translated for the large gathering of major newspaper, television, and electronic journalists who were covering the event.
Charitos introduced Le Pen, saluting him with the following words: “We are uniting our forces with the force of Front National. We are honored to have with us Jean Marie Le Pen, who was chosen by 6,000,000 French patriots to represent them as their President. This was achieved in an environment where fear and an unimaginable amount of political pressure dominated the campaign against him. We are with him because we believe, as he does, that Turkey should not be admitted into the European Union”.
Jean Marie Le Pen having behind him the posters of the Hellenic Front and the French Front National against the accession of Turkey in the European Union.
Immediately afterwards, as the applause died down, Lepen took the stage. “I have a special bond with Hellas: social, political, and emotional. My wife is a Hellene, and this makes me a philhellene. I am feeling anguished, as a self respecting human would be if saw a person drowning, and above all, the drowning person belonged to his family. An ancient dictum says that when Zeus wanted to destroy someone, he would first drive him mad. Only in this context can someone scrutinize the decisions of the support the Hellenic government gives Turkey for its membership in the European Union. The ancient gods of Hellas blinked their eye on a republic in order to show them the mistakes it made, and to help the leaders see reason. That is my role. I have come here to Hellas to blink the eye to the Hellenic Republic and point out its mistake.
The stance of the Hellenic government and all traditional political parties who envision Turkey in the EU is inconceivable and inapprehensible. A YES in favor of Turkey’s accession into the EU is a direct threat to the security and integrity of Hellas, and essentially its national existence. If the Hellenic government and the established political parties do not say NO to Turkey, Cyprus, Dodekanisa, and all the Hellenic regions bordering Turkey will be occupied within a few years by the Turks. This will occur without a war having been fought.
Turkey should not be allowed to enter the E.U. because it is not a European country. Neither geographically, historically nor culturally. By analogy, if we were to develop a soccer team, then we would not invite basketball and volleyball players to the try outs. We would invite soccer players to apply. Similarly, if we want to create a European Union, we should invite European countries and not Asiatic ones like Turkey.
The communications director of the Hellenic Front Christos Charitos stressed the importance of the common campaign of Greek and French patriots against the accession of Turkey in the EU.
I still remember what my father used to tell me when I was young. He had been on a French frigate during the destruction of Smyrna in 1922. The frigate was not able to approach the waterfront because the sea was filled with corpses of slaughtered Greeks. A French landing team found 1,000 patients butchered in Smyrna’s hospital. That is Turkey. Perhaps you will respond that a lot of time has passed and that such incidents have been blown away by the wind. However, the wind only changes the picture temporarily, the substrate remains the same and sooner or later the same picture surfaces once again.
Allow me to tell you one parable from the Dark Ages. When Joan D' Arc was asked by her judges why as a Christian she did not love the British, she answered that she did love them, but she loved British in their country. In the same way, we do not hate the Turks, we love them, but in their country.
As a friend I have the following advice to offer Hellenes. REGAIN YOURSELFS. At this moment you can avoid the worst. If you do not wake up, then in a few years it will be too late. In Hellas today, there exists a patriotic party, which can offer solutions to the problems Hellas has. This is the Hellenic Front, and Makis Voridis and I tell you to support them with all of your power.
MD12
