Greek and Jewish Diaspora team up for Cyprus security

The Greek-American and American Jewish communities have joined forces to promote legislation in the United States that would bolster the security status of Cyprus and block the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.

The executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC), Endy Zemenides, spoke with Kathimerini newspaper ahead of a two-day conference organized by HALC and the American Jewish Community (AJC) in Washington, starting on Monday.

“HALC and AJC don’t simply have one conference per year or one overseas trip per year. We are interacting multiple times a week, we are updating and educating each other on our respective priorities, we constantly brainstorm about joint agenda items. We got to this point by constantly working together,” said Zemenides.

The lobby is promoting two pieces of legislation in the US and also mounting a campaign to restrict the F-35 jet sales to Turkey.

"We will keep pushing our campaign to restrict the F-35 jet sales to Turkey until Turkey starts behaving responsibly," Zemenides said.

The first is House Resolution 835, which supports and encourages robust and ever-expanding relations between nations around the world and Israel as it marks its 70th anniversary of statehood.

“This is an opportunity to highlight the relationship that Israel has with Greece and Cyprus as the example Congress would like to see followed by others,” Zemenides said.

Another one, House Resolution 5508, pushes for the removal of obstacles that keep Cyprus from becoming further established as a front line state for Western security.

Representatives from the joined group are touring Greece, Cyprus and Israel this year, in addition to putting pressure on Washington DC.