Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's Support of THUS

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The purpose of this web site is to support THUS, a soon to be formed NGO, whose mission is to defuse tension, increase understanding and facilitate closer, friendlier relations between the Greek and Turkish governments.

Assuming that there is considerable, reciprocal good will between large numbers of Greeks and Turks, THUS will harness it, spread it and turn it into a force that the Greek and Turkish governments will find it difficult to ignore.

Moreover, THUS will engage the governments in a number of ways, so as to compel them to jointly communicate and take action in a number of ways.

Additionally, it will entice the governments to enact programs that will, in turn, include large numbers of their citizens in activities that build trust and mutual understanding.

My hope is that these concurrent bottom-up and top-down efforts will produce results that would be much more than the sum of their parts.

This web site is just beginning to hatch. I intend it to be very rich in content and breath of material, but, for the time being, a number of its pages are links to sites of those who have already produced much useful content, and for which I am grateful. I also used pages from my existing site at theodora.com.

My first big task is to find willing partners, who are concerned enough and altruistic enough to devote some of their energies to achieving THUS goals. The alternative could be too costly for too many people.

Photius Coutsoukis

21 July 1998