VISA card offer upsets Greeks

SPECIAL REPORT: VISA card offer upsets Greeks
For Immediate Release: December 10, 2008

Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, New York, Tel. 1-917-699-9935,
Ioannis Fidanakis, New Jersey, Tel. 1-973-464-0211

The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) and Hellenic League of America in coalition with the STOP THE ANTI-HELLENIC LOBBY (www.stoptheantihelleniclobby.wordpress.com) was informed through its grass-roots Hellenic activists that Card Partner Inc. and that the VISA card affinity program has reportedly "pulled" and/or "temperorarily removed " the offensive VISA card that it designed with a "Star of Vergina" in collaboration with the Washington DC-based lobby "United Macedonian Diaspora UMD" Thus far, the phone conversations are not enough of a commitment to make sure that such offensive cards are never issued again by VISA, we demand a written statement and commitment from VISA.

We have yet to receive a written statement from Card Partner Inc. about the offensive "Macedonian" VISA card, and we have yet to see a commitment to cancel the card in writing. We ask that our grass-roots activists continue to ask VISA President Mr. William M. Sheedy to call on the CardPartner Visa affinity credit card program so it can be canceled at:
https://corporate.visa.com/ut/contactus.jsp

Our action alert about the "Macedonian" VISA Card, has managed to get considerable press coverage, the Serb media outlet SERBIANNA issued a news article on the dispute titled "VISA Card offer upsets Greeks", December 10, 2008) , which IS reproduced below following STOP THE ANTI-HELLENIC LOBBY activist Ioannis Fidanakis' follow up request today for a written statement from Card Partner Inc. on the Star of Vergina.

Please continue to visit our campaign blog for updates, action alerts , links and reports www.stoptheantihelleniclobby.wordpress.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: oarchangelos@aol.com
To: mark.levitt@cardpartner.com
Sent: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:03 pm
Subject: UMD Violation of Copyrighted National Greek Symbol
Dear Mark Levitt

Card Partner Inc
37 West 20th Street
Suite 810
New York, NY 10011
Tele. (646)-652-7012
Fax. (212) 627-2019

I am contacting you today on the behalf of, Stop The Anti-Hellenic Lobby, (www.stopt heantihelleniclobby.wordpress.com) which is a growing grass-roots coalition organized by Hellenic-American activist organizations such as Hellenic League of America and Cyprus Action Network of America.

We recently spoke several days ago about a VISA affiliate credit card that your company helped create for the 'United Macedonian Diaspora" - the UMD. In our conversation, I informed you that one of their card designs was in violation of copyright infringement, as the Vergina Sun aka Star of Vergina was copyrighted by the Greek government. I followed up our phone conversation with an email, in which, you affirmed information on the copyrighted symbol.

Hellenic-American activists have told us that in conversations with you, that you indicated to them that Visa has pulled this card design from the original rotation of designs offered by the program. Is this true?

We would appreciate written clarification from you that CardPartner Inc. did or did not "pull" the "Star of Vergina" symbol designed in collaboration with "United Macedonian Diaspora UMD"

Respectfully,

Ioannis Fidanakis
(973) 464-0211

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(ARTICLE BELOW IS REPRODUCED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AND FAIR USE)

SERBIANNA.com
URL: http://www.serbianna.com/blogs/newspost/?p=1132

VISA card offer upsets Greeks
December 10, 2008 - 8:14 pm

A VISA affinity card promoted by a group called United Macedonian Diaspora Fund (UMD) is deeply offending ethnic Greeks because the card uses the Star of Vergina, a Hellenic symbol from the ancient Greece.

"The United Macedonian Diaspora UMD a Washington DC-based lobby [is] promoting false historical revisionism," says a statement of the Cyprus Action Network of America or CANA.

United Macedonian Diaspora UMD promoter, Denis Manevski, has failed to respond to our inquiries. Mr. Manevski declined to answer us after he replied twice to serbianna.com inquiries with questions of his own.

"Star of Vergina symbol that is copyrighted exclusively in all its forms by the Hellenic Republic, in violation of Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of State Emblems, and Names, Abbreviations and Emblems of International Intergovernmental Organizations under the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)," says CANA.

A Star of Vergina as promoted by the United Macedonian Diaspora Fund was originally used on the flag of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia but it was subsequently modified because it is a Greek symbol.

Nikolaos Taneris, of the Cyprus Action Network of America, says that the star used on FYROM flag is the "1995 diplomatic compromise with the Greek state which holds the trademark to the Star of Vergina".

In 1945, communists, led by Croatian Tito and in cooperation with the Bulgarian-born adviser to Stalin, Georgi Dimitrov, decided to form a unique so-called "macedonian" church and a corresponding "macedonian" nationality out of the Byzantine recognized Serbian church parishes in today's Macedonia, only in order to use that creation as a pretext to attack Greece and conquer parts of it.

Dimitrov advised Stalin and had influence on the international communist policy making body called Cominform. Cominform said that the Serbs are chauvinists and that Kosovo should eventually be given to Albania. Bulgaria and Macedonia have both recently recognized Kosovo as an independent state.

No Ecumenical Church has recognized the self-proclaimed "macedonian" church.

Bishop from Ohrid, Jovan, has been imprisoned by the Skopje authorities several times because he has suggested that the renegade "macedonian" church should unite back with its holy apostolic sea.

Bulgaria has recently marked it's independence in Macedonia's capital of Skopje while the opposition party in Bulgaria has demanded more land from Serbia and Greece.

Many in today's Macedonia, despite that they are Slavs, believe that they are descendants of the Hellenic leader Alexander the Great to whom the Star of Vergina is attributed to.

Greece is worried that such beliefs are deliberately fostered by the government in Skopje in order to seek Greek territory and has vowed to block Skopje's entry into NATO and other EU institutions unless it compromises on the matter.

"Using the United Macedonian Diaspora Affinity Credit Card for everyday purchases is an easy way for supporters to help further the Macedonian cause," said Denis Manevski, UMD Treasurer, on the web site.

With offices boasting to be in Washington DC, Brussels, Canberra, London, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Stuttgart, Sydney, and Toronto, one of the United Macedonian Diaspora Fund missions is to "Defend the Macedonian ethnic identity".

One can support VISA Macedonia card at:
http://umdiaspora.org/content/view/373/1/

The Cyprus Action Network of America urges to "Ask VISA President Mr. William M. Sheedy to call on the CardPartner Visa affinity credit card program" so it can be canceled at:
https://corporate.visa.com/ut/contactus.jsp

December 10, 2008
SERBIANNA
OI
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Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA)

2578 Broadway #132

New York, NY 10025

New York: Tel. 917-699-9935

Email: cana@cyprusactionnetwork.org

www.cyprusactionnetwork.org

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