AHEPA Talks Latest on Cyprus, Greece at State Dept., Capitol Hill Meetings

State Dept., Capitol Hill Meetings

Chairman of the Board Nicholas Karacostas, PSP, and Executive Director Basil Mossaidis held meetings at the State Department and on Capitol Hill, July 23, mostly on the topic of developments with Cyprus.  At the Department of State, they met with Deputy Assistant Secretary Amanda Sloat, Nicole Lima Nucelli, Greece desk officer; and Larina Helm Konold,

AHEPA with DAS Sloat (center) and her colleagues at the Department of State.

Cyprus desk officer. There, they discussed the current state of the Cyprus settlement talks and reviewed AHEPA’s spring leadership excursion that included a visit to Cyprus, where the delegation surveyed restoration efforts for Apostolos Andreas monastery and met with representatives from the UN Development Programme Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage who are working on the project. Also, USAID is one of the financial contributors to the project.  AHEPA first visited Apostolos Andreas on a historic goodwill mission in May 2001. Karacostas and Mossaidis also discussed Greece’s debt crisis with DAS Sloat and her colleagues.

With Senate Armed Services Chairman McCain.

On Capitol Hill, they met with: U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, co-chair, Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues; the Office of Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, member, House Committee on Armed Services; and the Senate Committee on Armed Services professional staff of U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), who is the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.  Chairman Karacostas and Executive Director Mossaidis also had a shared a moment with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman JohnMcCain (R-AZ).

The purpose of these meetings was to convey AHEPA’s support for a provision in the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that requests an assessment of the security relationship between the United States and the Republic of Cyprus.  The bill is in conference committee as the House and Senate work out their differences. All of the congressional offices with which AHEPA met are conferees of the bill.  Also, Supreme President John W. Galanis sent a letterto conferees that conveyed AHEPA’s position in support of the provision.