their is no listed authorComplain to the Greek Site Kathimerini, which published the article.
To see the real article, click on the link at the start of the page.
Posted on 12/22/2001 9:13:32 AM PST by a_Turk
The United States has rejected a request by Greece for technical assistance from the US military to raise a German bomber that crashed into the sea off Leros during World War II, with the argument that the Dodecanese island chain in the eastern Aegean should be demilitarized in accordance with the Treaty of Paris of 1947. This is a position with which Greece disagrees and Turkey agrees.
The request was made by the Greek authorities to the US Embassy in May when a specialized US Navy ship was docked in Volos. The salvage operation was scheduled for June but was canceled after the refusal by the United States. The issue emerged yesterday.
A Capt. Paul Lantry of the US Embassy wrote to a Greek brigadier and captain on May 14 and told them that the United States could not help. The Dodecanese were under Italian occupation during World War II, until 1947 when they came under the control of Greece.
"The Department of Defense considers the location, where the salvage operation is to take place, a violation of the Treaty of Paris with regard to the part where it refers to Italy and it considers the islands demilitarized," the letter said. "The Department of Defense does not wish to find itself in violation of this treaty. Consequently, the operation in the region of the island of Leros is not regular and is canceled."
The letter says at the start that the "US Navy cannot take part because serious obstacles cannot be overcome." It refers to "two issues which obstruct the operation." The first is whether Germany has granted its approval for the salvaging of the plane and the second, which Lantry describes as the more difficult for his government, is the demilitarization issue.
Greece argues Turkey is not a party to the Treaty of Paris. It says also that in accordance with the Vienna Convention of 1969, third countries do not have the right to tell parties what their responsibilities are with regard to the treaty. It also says that under international law every country has the right to defend its territory.
The US rejection of Greece's appeal came days after Ankara, on May 7, rejected the flight plan of the Greek chief of the navy who was to attend a NATO ceremony in Turkey because his helicopter was scheduled to refuel on Rhodes, another island Ankara believes should be demilitarized.
what, you turks cannot understand plain english!
awww, too bad that your nation acts like a child when it comes to international affairs!
that is why the cyprus dispute cannot get resolved, because turkey is a big baby and does not know what diplomacy is!
your credibility sinks like the turkish economy everyday!
what, you turks cannot understand plain english!This article explains, in plain English, the US position, which is that Greece is in violation of the Paris treaty.
their is no listed authorComplain to the Greek Site Kathimerini, which published the article.
you are guilty of fabrication, your credibility is next to nothing!
the u.s. was in complete control of nato's dirty little kosovo war THAT VIOLATED THE NATO TREATY AND THE UN CHARTER not to mention the declaration of human rights and the geneva convention in some incidents!
you are speaking trash as usual!
If you two countries don't stop fighting right now, you are going to be grounded for a week! I've a good mind to give those islands to your sister.
-ccm
I am not a lawyer, much less one that practices on the peculiar pitch of admiralty law, but I do know a leetle bit about salvage. Normally property on the bottom of the sea is judged to be abandoned -- it may belong to the land on whose territory it rests, or it may belong to the salvors exclusively, especially if it rests on the sea floor in international waters.
The US Navy has a unique interpretation, that its ships and planes belong in perpetuity to the Navy and cannot be salvaged by anyone, ever. In the past they have seized salvaged aircraft at gunpoint and rammed this bizarre view of salvage law through complaisant American courts, although it has failed everywhere else, including international courts.
The Navy can't even keep half the hangar-deck elevators on the USS John F Kennedy working, but it has hundreds of millions to spend on these court cases... someone in the Navy has been watching way too much "JAG." (For my overseas friends, that is a very bad television show in which the hero is a daring Navy lawyer. Hey, what can we do? Hollywood...).
The Navy is on record that it wants all World War II aircraft under the waters of lakes or seas anywhere to rot, unless it can have them for the Naval Air Museum.
Anyway, that's why the US Navy says the approval of the Germans is required. It is a letter drafted by the lawyers that apparently run the Navy, and stands with this peculiar legal interpretation that is recognised by the Navy and some American courts (but not by Germany, or Greece, or Turkey, or any other civilised nation).
Thanks for the post, Turk. And Oxi -- play nice with your NATO buddy.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
This week before Christmas marks the anniversary of the zenith of the successful counteroffensive by the out manned and out gunned Greek army against the forces of Fascist Italy. The need for Hitler to save Mussolini from the Greeks diverted Hitler from his timetable for the Russian offensive, thus freezing the Germans just short of Moscow in the following year. Churchill remarked that "Greeks do not fight like heroes; heroes fight like Greeks"
WW2 Anniversary Of the Greatest Extent of the Greek Counter-Offensive Against Italy into Albania
Italian Invasion of Greece
Jealous of Hitler's triumphs over France and Britain and humiliated by his own army's failure to dent the French defense of their common frontier in June 1940, Mussolini decided in August to attack Greece which he regarded as falling within his Mediterranean sphere of interest. He had already occupied Albania in April 1939 and from positions there launched his attack on 28 October without warning Hitler. His local army numbered six divisions against four Greek, and had complete air superiority. The Greeks, however, had 18 mobilizable divisions in all, were hardy and patriotic and were defending familiar home territory - the high harsh mountains of the Epirus.
Despite the engagement of an eventual total of 25 divisions, the Italians were unable to make headway and in November the Greeks, under the command of Metaxas, the country's military dictator, counter-attacked. The Italians were caught in snow in the mountain passes, by-passed and many were forced to surrender. By the end of December the Greeks had occupied a quarter of Albania. On 9 March Mussolini personally supervised the opening of his spring offensive but a week later it had to be abandoned for lack of success. It was this long drawn-out humiliation of his ally which obliged Hitler, whose anger at Mussolini's presumption in declaring war unilaterally had only slowly abated, to undertake his Balkan operation, 'Margarita', in the following April.
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