The National Herald Greek- Americans N C V a Weekly Greek-American Publication VOL
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S O C V ΓΡΑΦΕΙ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ Bringing the news W ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ to generations of E ΑΠΟ ΤΟ 1915 The National Herald Greek- Americans N c v A wEEkly GREEk-AmERICAN PuBlICATION www.thenationalherald.com VOL. 16, ISSUE 816 June 1-7, 2013 $1.50 Son Fears Amendment for Greek, Release of Cypriot Nationals to Jailed Mom Work in U.S. Advances After 20 Yrs By Constantine S. Sirigos for joining the conference and TNH Staff Writer because he also played a role “in getting this done.” Rossakis No Longer WASHINGTON, DC – Arch - Schumer said that several bishop Demetrios of America months ago the Archbishop and Believes Her Claim and United States Senator leaders of the Greek community Charles Schumer of New York contacted him and said with the About Self-Defense hosted a conference call to an - immigration bill coming up and nounce that an amendment to with all the hardship in Greece, John Rossakis was heartbro - the immigration reform law that “Can we come up with a provi - ken when his mother was sent will allow Greek and Cypriot na - sion that would allow Greeks to to prison – but now, two tionals to apply for a visa to come to America, particularly decades later, he’s scared she work in the United States has where there was a need for might be coming home. He was passed the Senate Judiciary Greek speaking people, in cor - just four when his mother took Committee. porations or schools in the her husband’s .38-caliber re - Schumer said that the churches of the Greek commu - volver from a bedside table and amendment, which he offered nity.” shot her spouse in the head. and still has to be voted on by He said the provision was It was self-defense, Niki the Congress, will help preserve drafted, and he told the confer - Rossakis told her son. His father, Hellenic language and culture ence participants – in Greek – Gary, was an abusive savage in America by allowing appli - that he had “kala nea, good who regularly beat and sexually cants to provide Greek language news.” During the call, Schumer assaulted her in their Astoria instruction and assistance to made an impassioned appeal: home, she added. communities, educational insti - “We would like all Greek-Amer - In a two-part report in the tutions, and businesses. It will icans and Americans who love New York Daily News, reporter be included in the Senate’s com - the Hellenic culture to call their Pete Donohue told the sad saga TNH/COSTAS BEJ prehensive immigration bill. congressmen and Senators and of a family torn apart and how Candidate Catsimatidis Meets and Greets at Rally in Brooklyn The conference participants tell them two things: one, to a mother’s son turned against consisted of Greek and Cypriot- support this provision, and sec - her after he said he learned the An ebullient John Catsimatidis, who is running for Mayor of New York, waves to supporters American leaders and TNH rep - ond to make sure we pass com - truth about why she killed his after being introduced by former New York State Assemblyman Matthew Mirones (far right) at resentatives. father. the Rex Manor in Brooklyn, where he shared his vision for the city he loves. Schumer thanked Demetrios Continued on page 5 Her case became a cause celebre for advocates of battered women nationwide, and John’s faith in his mother was unwa - vering, even after she was found Who Knows Who Owns Greece Land? guilty of murder. “I grew up believing that my father was a monster,” said By Suzanne Daley in by last names. No lot num - Mr. Hamodrakas is far from John, now a 24-year-old law The New York Times bers. No clarity on boundaries resolving the dispute with his student. “I looked up to my or zoning. No obvious way to tell neighbors. The courts in Greece mother as a sort of hero who ATHENS – Not long ago whether two people, or 10, have are flooded with such cases. made this big sacrifice for me Leonidas Hamodrakas, a lawyer registered ownership of the same “These things take years,” he and my brother to be safe, and in Athens, decided to pay closer property. said, “maybe a decade to settle.” that one day she would get out attention to his family’s land As Greece tries to claw its This state of affairs is partic - and we’d be together again.” holdings — some fields, a scat - way out of an economic crisis of ularly galling because Greece has But that dream has been tering of buildings and a massive historic proportions, one that has thrown hundreds of millions of completely shattered, and the stone tower — in Mani, a rural left 60 percent of young people dollars at the problem over the old hope she would someday be region in southern Greece. without jobs, many experts cite past two decades, but has little free has morphed into fear and But property ownership in the lack of a proper land registry to show for it. At one point, in dread as his mother prepares for Greece is often less than clear as one of the biggest impedi - the early 1990s, Greece took a July parole hearing. “I’m cut. So Mr. Hamodrakas put a ments to progress. It scares off more than $100 million from the afraid,” John said. “I won’t feel padlock on his gate and waited foreign investors; makes it hard European Union to build a reg - safe if she gets out.” to see what would happen. Soon for the state to privatize its as - istry. But after seeing what was His dramatic change of heart enough, he heard from neigh - sets, as it has promised to do in accomplished, the European came about after he decided to bors. Three of them claimed that exchange for bailout money; and Union demanded its money TNH ARCHIVES take an in-depth look into the they, too, had title to parts of the makes it virtually impossible to back. Gov’t Drops Charges Against Papanicolaou case file from the January 1993 property. collect property taxes. Since then, Greece has tried, murder of his father, an auto In this age of satellite im - Greece has resorted to tag - and tried again. But still, less Panicos (Peter) Papanicolaou, Greek Cypriot-American devel - mechanic who owned a gas sta - agery, digital records and the in - ging tax dues on to electricity than 7 percent of the country has oper, businessman, and philanthropist was informed by Loretta tion. stantaneous exchange of infor - bills as a way to flush out own - been properly mapped, officials Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, that John had told The News ex - mation, most of Greece’s land ers. Of course, that means that say. Experts say that even the the government has dropped all charges against him and that clusively that he grew up believ - transaction records are still empty property and farmland Judge Nina Gershon, United States District Judge, has dis - ing his mother shot his father in handwritten in ledgers, logged has yet to be taxed. Continued on page 10 missed the case against him. Story on page 5. self-defense in the family’s As - toria house in 1993 – even though a jury didn’t buy her de - fense and convicted her of mur - der. Study Reveals Skouras’ Impact on Am. Culture In DC, AHEPA For four days last summer, John pored over trial transcripts and watched videotapes of an By Kelsey Geiser sochoidis has spent countless assembling a library of Skouras technical innovation in film and Makes Greeks’ NYPD detective interviewing his The Humanities at Stanford hours sifting through the con - footage and hopes to secure TV,” as well as ample evidence mother. Then he went to see her tents of each box. funding to digitize the Skouras of “Skouras’ close ties to the in person at the Bayview Cor - Spyros Panagiotis Skouras es - A Greek immigrant himself, papers and to write a large-scale White House under different ad - Issues Known rectional Facility on W. 20th St. caped childhood poverty in Chrissochoidis developed a deep monograph based on them. ministrations.” in Manhattan – their first con - Greece to become a top Holly - admiration for Skouras that is During the course of his in - HELP FOR HIS HOMELAND TNH Staff tact in about five years. wood executive and organizer compelling him to publicize Sk - vestigation, Chrissochoidis, who As he began reading through He hadn’t visited and never of a successful World War II for - ouras’ impact on post-war received a doctorate in musicol - reams of production files, pa - WASHINGTON, DC – The Or - eign aid campaign, making him American culture. ogy from Stanford, found un - perwork and correspondence, der of AHEPA made the pres - Continued on page 6 one of the most noteworthy In addition to publishing published transcripts of Skouras’ Chrissochoidis began to realize ence, and issues of concern, of Greek American immigrants of Spyros P. Skouras, Memoirs autobiographical recordings. the scope of Skouras’ “immense Greek- and Cypriot-Americans the 20th Century. (1893–1953), the first re - “One of the folders contained contributions to philanthropic known in Washington, DC last And yet, 86 boxes of docu - searched account on Skouras, the transcripts of tape dictations causes and his leadership in the week during its annual Capitol ments chronicling Skouras’ re - Chrissochoidis has launched a from 1953 and 1965,” Chrisso - Greek War Relief Association.” Hill Day and at its Congressional Film, Before markable achievements sat vir - campaign to celebrate his 120th choidis said.