July 21, 2008

Dear Mr. Gruevski,

Please know that our Federation is the largest Hellenic-American organization of its type in the United States and represents well over One-Hundred (100) Hellenic-American Organizations in the Greater New York area. Accordingly, following a thorough and detailed review of your recent open letter to Konstantinos Karamanlis, the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic and inasmuch as many of our member societies represent geographical areas of Greece that were either directly or indirectly impacted by the historical events you addressed in your referenced letter, we felt prompted, and appropriately so, to respond to you.

We are convinced that if you and your Government acknowledge the historical injustices that were committed against the Hellenic people during and after the Second World War and take redressive measures, then and only then can the relations between your former Yugoslav republic and the Hellenic Republic flourish. As you correctly state, we cannot now change history, but as the old saying goes, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes”.