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  Date: Saturday, March 27, 1999 12:54 PM

   Hellenic Orthodox Traditionalist Church of America
   Holy Metropolis of the Greek Orthodox
   Old Calendar Church of America
   Cathedral of Saint Markella
   22-68 26th Street Astoria, NY 11105
   Tel: 718-274-2875
   E-mail: Smyrna1922@AOL.COM

   From:
   Metropolitan Archbishop PAVLOS
   Of the Greek Orthodox Old Calendar Church
   Of North and South America
   Member of the Holy Synod of the Old Calendar Church of Greece
   Under the Presidency of Archbishop CHRYSOSTOMOS II of Athens and All Greece

   To:
   William Jefferson Clinton
   President of the United States of America
   1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
   Washington, D.C.

   March 23, 1999

   Dear Mr. President,

   Again I write to you as a Christian and as an American. Sir, we are poised on the brink of disaster, a disaster that is manifold in its dimensions and character.

     As I expressed to you in my previous letter this imminent and unprovoked attack against Yugoslavia is immoral. Even the trepidation alone that we have instilled in the people of Yugoslavia is a horror. The fact that this is exactly one of our intentions is offensive.
     Legally speaking our country is heading toward the perpetration of a crime of international proportions.
     We are acting without a UN mandate.
     We are violating the very charter of the NATO Pact.
     NATO is acting without a UN mandate.
     We are violating every international law governing respect for the sovereignty of nations.
     We are acting without the mandate of the American people. Do the American people truly believe our national interests are at stake? A recent CBS Radio broadcast quoted a poll that said 50% of Americans cannot find Kosovo on a map! Is this the well-informed constituency that gives us a mandate to attack Yugoslavia? I ask again by what authority do we act? Is it the authority of the law of God, the law of our country, or international law?

     We are about to send our sons into an open-ended quagmire that will bring only death and destruction for all involved. We claim we want to end the killing in Kosovo. Let's remember that it has been the terrorist gangs known as the KLA that have been the first to violate every cease-fire since the Serbs agreed to a cease-fire. Almost every time violence has erupted
since the beginning of this conflict it was the KLA that was the first to commit such violence.

     American boys are being asked to prepare to kill and die because Serbia is defending her Christian heartland against Muslim fundamentalists, secessionists, and terrorists. Has this been taken into consideration?  I presume your advisors have decided to bring peace by bombing one of Europe's oldest Christian civilisations into oblivion.

   Throughout history it is this very civilisation that has always been a bulwark against the hordes that came from the east to threaten Europe. It is the Serbians that are known to history as "the People of the Gate" because they guarded the door to Europe in the Krajina. The Krajina Serbs are now no more thanks to a previous NATO strike in 1995. Do we want to
eliminate one more Orthodox Christian Civilisation before the end of our century?

   Not so long ago the southern states of our country attempted to secede from this great Union. President Lincoln acted to crush this rebellion and many Americans died willingly to keep our country whole. How do you suppose your great predecessor would have reacted if a NATO type force had threatened him?

   Are you sure the people of Yugoslavia are not as willing to keep their country whole as were our brave America ancestors?

     As I write this letter I am listening to your speech on CNN. You are claiming Turkey is a "moderate Muslim state". Is that because they are attempting to eliminate the Kurdish culture and identity from the face of our planet?

  Is it because they are consistently claiming the Aegean islands of Greece as their own and keep up a posture of threat against Greece? The modern and "moderate" Turkish State was founded by Mustapha Kemal, the man who in 1922 burnt the cosmopolitan city of Smyrna to the ground and roasted alive her two-hundred thousand Christian occupants. Smyrna was once the jewel of the Mediterranean.

   The American Consul Mr. George Horton, who witnessed the carnage, said at     the    time that not since the Romans razed Carthage had the world seen such    destruction. Smyrna had had a Christian presence since the time the Book of the Revelation was given to Saint John where the great city is mentioned.

    In 1922, the moderate State of Turkey put an end to that. The modern and "moderate" State of Turkey also killed millions of Greek Orthodox Christians in Anatolia and Pontus earlier this century. In 1955, a year in which you and I both lived, the "moderate" State of Turkey aided and abetted a pogrom against the Greek Orthodox population of Constantinople. In that year the Greek Orthodox of Constantinople numbered over 500,000. Today there a less than 2,000 there.

   Is this the type of moderate Muslim future state that the KLA envisions for Kosovo? History shows those centuries ago Turkey's Sultan was killed in Kosovo in his attempt to defeat the Serbs. During World War One the Serbs lost a third of their young men defending freedom. Not so many years ago Hitler's Wermacht broke its teeth in Yugoslavia. Mr. President, do not be so naïve as to believe that the young men of America's armed forces will not pay a heavy price in blood if we continue on this road.

    In 1940 when the Serbs broke their pact with the Axis they paid a heavy price for their decision to join the side of Freedom. Belgrade was reduced to rubble and thousands were laughtered; yet the Serbs stood fast. Winston Churchill commented at the time that "the Serbs had found their soul."

    I am praying, Mr. President, that you find your soul and the vision to see the death that will be wrought in committing this folly. I pray you find the courage to face the American people and tell them we made a mistake and that we must call off a NATO strike.

   "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."
     St. Matthew 4:9

   In Christ, I am,

   Metropolitan Archbishop PAVLOS
   Of the Greek Orthodox Old Calendar
   Church of North and South America

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