AHEPA’s choice to hold its first ever convention in Cyprus last month, on the fiftieth dark anniversary of Turkey’s invasion is proof of its ongoing concern with the future of the divided island. At that convention, Cyprus-born Savas Tsivicos was re-elected Supreme President. Past Supreme Presidents born in Cyprus include the late Gus J. James and Nicholas Karacostas, who has played a leading role in the organization over the past two decades.

As admirable as AHEPA’s engagement has been, it needs to do more. Commentators in Athens have noted that with the passing of time since division of the island and gridlocked negotiations for the fifty years that have elapsed, the Greek public is losing interest. The same could be said for Greek-Americans.

AHEPA has a very good record on Cyprus. Its close engagement began in earnest in the wake of the events that that culminated in Turkey’s occupation of 37% of the island’s territory. AHEPA supported the Greek-American lobby’s successful effort to persuade the U.S. Congress to impose an arms embargo on Turkey. AHEPA also worked to alleviate the humanitarian crisis on the island, where over 200,000 Cypriots had fled to the south as a result of the invasion and were living in tents. As AHEPA Supreme President William Chirgotis put it after a visit September 1974, “we saw doctors examining children in tents that would make M.A.S.H.’s medical tents look like modern hospital facilities.”

In the wake of the lifting of the arms embargo in 1978, AHEPA continued its efforts to help achieve a just solution to the Cyprus crisis. In the 1980s rather than seek a compromise, Turkey hardened its attitude over Cyprus. AHEPA redoubled its efforts and also managed to establish a cordial relationship with Greece’s newly elected socialist prime minister Andreas Papandreou, whom AHEPA had ignored when Greece was ruled by a dictatorship and Papandreou was one of its most outspoken critics. The Cyprus issue featured prominently at AHEPA’s conventions in the 1980s. In 1986 President Ronald Reagan’s administration was considering a reduction of U.S. to Cyprus and AHEPA’s Supreme President John Ploumidis was especially active in the collective Greek American effort that averted that development. There was another burst of activity in the mid-1990s under Supreme President Spiro Macris, who masterfully shepherded the Order out of a difficult situation caused by an internal financial scandal and turned AHEPA toward addressing Hellenic issues. However, as much as all diplomats and lobbyists tried to resolve the impasse on Cyprus, nothing changed, due to Turkey’s intransigence. Noting the stalemate the late Christopher Hitchens, a Washington, DC journalist and author of several books, including one on Cyprus, published a searing critique of the Greek-American lobby in 1995. He described it as a group of “supposed public relations pros” whose earlier successes were limited and whose failures deprived Greece of its influence in Washington. The article elicited furious responses. Lobbyists and other Greek-American leaders pointed out that while they could not point to big victories such as the imposition of an arms embargo, their work nonetheless had served to keep U.S. foreign policy on the side of the cause for justice for Cyprus.

Clearly, Hitchens had touched a nerve. His critique was valid but also unfair. It was unfair in the sense that the diplomatic negotiations over Cyprus were both unproductive but also complicated, pitting the Turkish side’s insistence on dividing the island against the Greek side’s array of plans designed to preserve Cyprus’ integrity albeit as a federation of sorts. Neither side would budge, and the negotiations dragged on. There seemed little that AHEPA or the lobbying organizations could do other than keep up the pressure. But Hitchens’ critique did have a point because the Greek-American leadership was not acknowledging the difficulties in influencing U.S. policy or the situation in Cyprus and instead was trumpeting its small achievements as being very important. Hitchens’ broadside resonated and is still relevant now when there is creeping acceptance of the illegal status quo. The leaders of-Greek American organizations are often too involved in their top-level visits and neglect to acknowledge that they are making little progress.

If Hitchens had focused on AHEPA he may have acknowledged it was doing all it could. Cyprus is only one item on AHEPA’s agenda, albeit an important one, next to broad range of both domestic and international activities. Therefore, all AHEPA can do is to keep the Cyprus issue alive in the minds of the public and policymakers and support Greek Cypriots morally and materially.

Yet it needs to do more if it is going to keep its membership, and the rest of Greek America focused on Cyprus. A half-century status quo can create a sense of resignation. AHEPA’s delegations always receive warm official welcomes in Greece and Cyprus. But it is now time to worry about how many Ahepans and Greek-Americans still really care about Cyprus.

Postscript: In between the publication of this 2-part article, AHEPA’s Past Supreme President Phillip T. Frangos passed away. He was an extremely engaging, friendly, insightful, and thoughtful interlocutor who helped me understand a great deal about the Order. During his term as Supreme President, he awarded the late Congressman John Lewis AHEPA’s Periclean Award on the fiftieth anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March. It was very fitting that he should be the Ahepan to perform that honor.