To the Editor:

In September 1922, there was a genocide in Asia Minor, bitter days for the Hellenism that lived there for thousands of years. Turkey’s usual tactic is to never admit its mistakes and crimes, as it did with the Pontian Genocide.

One can expect everything from the most provocative Turkey. It has not given the best examples of good neighborliness. It continues to provoke, to violate the airspace of Greece, to want Cyprus as its own, and to distort the facts. But one expects everything from the enemies. What one does not expect is the incredible fact that NATO congratulated the victory of the Turkish army against the Greek in 1922. NATO, of which Greece is a member, takes Turkey’s side. What conclusions should I, a simple citizen, draw when my ancestors became refugees after the burning of Smyrna?

Kostas Arfanis

New York, NY