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Jennings Honored in New York for Aid in Smyrna Holocaust, Descendants Give Testimony Jennings, an Upstate Methodist minister now buried in Oswego County, in 1922 helped organize ships that saved more than 300,000 people —mostly Greeks — who likely would have perished at the hands of theTurkish government. Among those saved were Arvantides’s and Bantuvanis’s mother and grandfather. “He helped all those people during the extermination and genocide in Turkey — he helped get the ships to Smyrna,” said Arvantides, who lives in Lysander and has a dental practice in Baldwinsville. His story was told during a special program on September 14th at his gravesite in Cleveland Village Cemetery, followed by a program and display at Cleveland United Methodist Church, with a speech by Jennings' grandson, Roger Jennings, of Queensbury, New York. Read full article. |
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| Turkish Scholar Discusses Assyrian, Greek, and Armenian Genocide The following interview was conducted by Linda Abraham for the Assyrian Genocide Research Center. Altug Taner Akcam is one of the first Turkish scholars to openly acknowledge and discuss the reality of the Armenian Genocide. Professor Akcam's initial research topic was the history of political violence and torture in late Ottoman and early Republican Turkey. Since 1990, however, he has focused his attention on Turkish nationalism and the Armenian Genocide, with eleven books and numerous articles to his credit. Read entire interview with this scholar and his candid remarks on the violence out of which the modern Turkish republic was born. |
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Australian Women's Labor Conference Adopts Hellenic, Armenian and Assyrian Genocide Resolution in Landmark Action 15 May 2011 (Return to Anatolia Committee)--In a landmark resolution adopted by the National Women’s Labor Conference in Brisbane, Queensland last weekend, delegates resolved to ‘recognise the genocides of the Armenians, Hellenes and Assyrians from 1915 to 1923 is one of the greatest crimes against humanity’. In line with the conference theme - ‘Labor Women: Lead, Challenge, Inspire’ – delegates from Australian Labor Party branches all over the country also recognised the fact that the genocides of the Armenians, Hellenes and Assyrians are an integral part of the Australian story, where Australian women led, challenged and inspired others to follow. Read entire release. |
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The Assyrian Genocide: a Product of Ottoman Jihad The Assyrian Genocide "was carried out in a true jihadist strategy, ethnically annihilating all the non-Muslim citizens living under the Ottoman occupation, with the objective of homogenizing Turkey with a notion of creating 'one-Nation' and 'one-Religion.' History provides us . . . with pure facts about when or where specific events have occurred. . . . Past genocides have to be known and condemned in order to prevent future genocides. It is a big mistake to think that a genocide lies in the past and should be forgotten. History is not about oblivion. It is about knowledge. It is about education. It is about the future. . . . . We Assyrians lost two thirds of our population in 1915. We were uprooted from our motherland. . . .Today we are struggling with our sheer existence. . . . How can we forget about all this?" Read entire speech by Sabri Atman and reproduced with permission from Assyrian International News Agency. |
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Hellenic League of America Announces 3rd Annual Greek Genocide Commemoration in NYC Hellenic League of America extends an invitation to the public to pay tribute to the victims of the Greek, Armenian and Assyrian Genocides outside the United Nations in Ralph Bunche Park in New York. This year’s commemoration is organized and hosted by Panthracian Union of America ‘Orpheus’ and supported by the Hellenic League of America, HLA, and will feature well-known keynote speakers. Read more. |
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Sweden Recognizes Assyrian, Greek, and Armenian Genocides Stockholm (AINA) --- In a resolution adopted today, the Swedish parliament (the Riksdagen) referered to the World War I-era killings of 2.75 million Armenians, Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) and Pontic Greeks by the Ottomans as a genocide. Turkey is regarded legally and politically as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire but vehemently rejects calling the killing genocide according to the U.N. definition adopted in 1948, insisting that those killed were victims of war and uprising. The Left Party's foreign policy spokesperson Hans Linde told The Local newspaper on Thursday that the time had come for Sweden to take a stand on the issue. "First, to learn from history and stop it from repeating and second, to encourage the development of democracy in Turkey, which includes dealing with its own history. The third reason," added Linde, "is to redress the wrongs committed against the victims and their relatives." Read entire article. |
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Armenian Genocide Resolution Passes US Congress Committee A resolution calling the World War I -era killing of Armenians genocide has narrowly passed a key committee of the U.S. Congress. Turkey has responded by recalling its ambassador from Washington for consultations. Over the objections of the Obama administration, the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee (4 March 2010) passed the nonbinding resolution by a vote of 23 to 22. The legislation declares that the killing of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire was genocide. Read entire article. |
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Mining Interests in Asia Minor 1920-1921 [PDF] By Stavros Stavridis This brief article lists four US Department of State documents showing the importance of the Arghana copper mine in Asia Minor. 1 Other mining areas mentioned were Tireboli on the BlackSea, Fatza and Ordou. These documents highlight French interests seeking economicconcessions in their sphere of influence in South East Anatolia. Read full article. |
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Book Review for The Greek-Turkish War of 1919-23: An Australian Press Perspective by Stavros Stavridis This book describes different facets of the Greek-Turkish conflict through the eyes of two Melbourne newspapers: The Age and Argus. Australian forces had played a major part in the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East in the 1914-18 War. Although Australia had no direct involvement in the actual conflict between the Greeks and Turks from 1919-1923, the Colonial Office did provide the Australian government with some information on the events unfolding in Asia Minor. Throughout the period, Australia was trying to chart an ‘independent’ foreign policy within the framework of the British Empire. Australian Prime Minister W. M. Hughes wanted the Dominions to have some input into the foreign policy formulation of the British Empire. The Chanak crisis of September 1922 nearly brought Australia into direct conflict with the Kemalists following the defeat of the Greek army. Read more. |
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Assyrian Genocide Center Issues Statement on Sweden's Genocide Recognition (Assyrian International News Agency, 13 March 2010) Just 10 days ago that the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs have voted on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The decision was upheld by just one vote majority. Yesterday, the Swedish Parliament had debated the motion to recognize the Assyrian, Armenian and, Greek genocide for long hours. Once again, the resolution was passed by one vote. The Turkish Government did not delay to take the expected stand. Soon after the decision became known, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Turkey Mr. Davutoglu, upon his direction recalled its Swedish Ambassador back to Turkey. Read more. |
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Documentary Filmmaker Apo Torosyan Produces "The Morgenthau Story" U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. From 1913 to 1916, Henry Morgenthau served as U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey). During the Armenian Genocide, which started in April 1915, he appealed to the Turkish Ottoman leaders to stop the killings, without success. He quit his post in 1916, and returned to the United States. From the reports he received and forwarded to the U.S. Government, there are over 30,000 documents still existing in the Library of Congress. He was also the Chair of the Greek Resettlement Commission under the League of Nations in 1923. He ended up with great success with this post, resettling 1,250,000 displaced immigrants in Greece. Read more about film or how to purchase--click here. |
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Sweden Recognizes Assyrian, Greek, and Armenian Genocides In a resolution adopted today (11 March 2010), the Swedish parliament (the Riksdagen) referered to the World War I-era killings of 2.75 million Armenians, Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) and Pontic Greeks by the Ottomans as a genocide. Turkey is regarded legally and politically as the successor state of the Ottoman Empire but vehemently rejects calling the killing genocide according to the U.N. definition adopted in 1948, insisting that those killed were victims of war and uprising. Read more. |
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New York Life Donates $1,000,000 for the Study of Hellenism in Asia Minor New York Life Insurance Company presented Archbishop Demetrios with a one million dollars donation, last Friday Jan. 9, for the establishment of the New York Life Center for the Study of Hellenism in Pontus and Asia Minor at Hellenic College/Holy Cross School of Theology, the Archdiocesan institution of higher learning and scholarship in Brookline, Mass. This donation is part of New York Life’s outreach program to the heirs of Greek policyholders in the Ottoman Empire. Read entire press release. |
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Obama Prostitutes Freedom and Truth in Turkey By Ioannis Fidanakis, Hellenic League of America, April 2009 It was in the course of one his first forays through the Levant and Iraq that Mr. Obama found himself in Angora. . . and Constantinople. . . to address a crowd of Turkish leaders with his venal lectures and actions on April 6, 2009. . . .President Barack Obama, before the entire world, demonstrated the ideological side his administration would ally itself with. Mr. Obama chose Kemalism, his actions and words that day, reeked of anti-Hellenic symbolism. Symbolically choosing the date of the Pan-Hellenic and international day of remembrance for the Genocide of Thracian Hellenism, Mr. Obama first embarked on an official visit to the tomb of Mustafa Kemal, the butcher of Anatolia, a man who ruthlessly organized and executed a government policy of extermination towards millions of indigenous Hellenes, Armenians, and Assyrians. An act, which had it been the tomb of “Adolf Hitler”, would have caused huge backlash in the West. Read entire article. |
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History Through Song: The Impact of Rembetika on Greek Music by Stephen Brothwell, Athens News Following the Asia Minor Catastrophe, Greece was forced to accept the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne. The consequences of the new peace terms were considerable. Through its lyrics and musical style, rembetika - which has its own tradition of metre and linguistic style typical to the Near East and Smyrna - served to reflect the changing status of the dispossessed. In imposing itself upon Greece, it impacted everyone. Just two decades on, it was able to symbolize the spirit of Greek resistance during the Second World War. Read entire article [original title "History Through Song"]. |
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CANA Announces the Distribution of "The Pontian Question as of 2008"--by author Theoharis Kekis The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) continues the distribution of articles and opinions by our grass roots activists, reflecting the movement of young Hellenic-Americans that are inspired in building a new dawn of enlightened and assertive Hellenism that will challenge the institutional revisionism of our opponents in all spheres of political life for all lands that belong to Hellenes - Cyprus, Macedonia, Pontos and Thrace. Theoharis Kekis is a Boston-based CANA activist who has participated in CANA public actions, and provides a Pontian perspective based on his own original research and activism. CANA is distributing "The Pontian Question as of 2008--by Theoharis Kekis," along with a related work, "The Orthodox Church Calendar," also by Theoharis Kekis, available with original photos and documents for PDF download exclusively on the following CANA site: http://cyprusactionnetwork.org/the_pontian_question_as_of_2008_by_theoharis_kekis Click here to read entire press release. |
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The Extermination of the Greeks of Pontus By Dr. Jordan Tsolakides By the end of 1913 the committee of Union and Progress headed by Enver now a Pasha was in complete control over the empire. Jewal Pasha and Talaad Pasha were the other two members of the triumvirate. This is the group that planned and carried to execution a horrendous program of complete elimination of Christian population, especially the prosperous Hellenic population. They are called internationally "Young Turks" and are responsible for the genocide of more than 300,000 Pontians and numerous other Greeks, the "Giaours" in Asia Minor. The resistance of Pontians is legendary, fighting against an empire. Read entire article. |
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Battle Royal Over History Book When the education ministry issued a new sixth-grade textbook on modern Greek history (1453 to the present) in September, few expected that an unprecedented intellectual and ideological war would break loose.Asia Minor Greeks charge that the burning of Smyrna and the killing and expulsion of the Greek population is silenced for the sake of political correctness. And Pontic Greeks complain that the massacre of their forebears by the Turks is omitted. Read more. |
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Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Marks Pontian Greek Genocide Remembrance Day The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) joins with Pontian Greeks - and all Hellenes around the world - in commemorating May 19th, the international day of remembrance for the genocide initiated by the Ottoman Empire and continued by Kemalist Turkey against the historic Greek population of Pontus along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea. Read more. |
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| Hellene-Australians ask for Pontian Genocide Recognition An expatriate Hellene delegation has submitted a request to Victoria Prime Minister Steve Bracks asking from his government to recognize the Pontian Genocide. The delegation consisted of the President of the Federation of Pontian Associations in Australia Panagiotis Iassonidis; SAE Oceania Coordinator Costas Vertzayias; the President of the Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne & Victoria Dimitris Minas; representatives of the Hellenic Community in Melbourne &Victoria; and the President of the Victoria Coordinating Committee of Cypriot Struggle Costas Prokopiou. Read more |
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Victoria Parliament of Australia Raises the Genocide of the Greeks by Stavros Stavridis On May 5, 2006, the Parliament of Victoria in Australia raised the issue of the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks. Senator Jenny Mikakos was the first to raise this issue in the Parliament ever on the occasion of 87th anniversary of the genocide and due to the relevant commemorative events that were scheduled to be held in Australia. Read more. |
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HANC Commemorates the Genocide of Pontian Greeks in Asia Minor [in Greek] ήνυμα του Ελληνο-Αμερικανικού Εθνικού Συμβουλίου ια την Ημέρα Μνήμης της Γενοκτονίας τωνΕλλήνων τον Μικρασιατικό Πόντο- 19 Μαϊου
ία από τις έντονες αισθήσεις που διατηρώ από τη Σμύρνη είναιντροπή
ιατί ανήκω στο ανθρώπινο γένος»
--George Horton, Consul General of the United States in the Near East.
Η γενοκτονία των Ποντίων, αποτελεί μία από τις μεγαλύτερες γενοκτονίες του 20ου αιώνα, κατά την οποία πάνω από 353.000 Πόντιοι εξοντώθηκαν με απεχθείς μεθόδους από την Τουρκία. Ο αγώνας για τη διεθνοποίηση και τη διεθνή αναγνώριση της γενοκτονίας αυτής αποτελεί ιστορική και εθνική υποχρέωση των απανταχού Ελλήνων. Το Ελληνο-Αμερικανικό Εθνικό Συμβούλιο έμπρακτα στηρίζει κάθε προσπάθεια της Παν-Ποντιακής Ομοσπονδίας Αμερικής και Καναδά προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση. Read more. |
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A Trip to Faraway Pontus: Pilgrimage to Panagia Soumela Monastery By Christos An. Stavrakoglou. Translation by Joanna Michalakelli Attempting a trip to Pontus, which is almost 3500 kilometres away, and with limited tourist infrastructure, definitely requires determination. However, our desire to become familiar with another piece of the land of Asia Minor, where Hellenism flourished for many centuries, led us to overcome every reservation. And in this enchanting place, the Greek visitor’s historical consciousness starts its own journey to the distant past. The legends and tales, the works and days of this shrewd race, the glorious states from one end to the other of the coast of the inhospitable Black Sea. Sinopi, Amisos, Thermiskyra, Oinoi, Polemonion, Kotyora, Kerasous, Tripolis, Ermonassa, Trapezous, Ofis, Kallisti, Rizous, Athina, and Vathys Limin--all a string of precious stones on the seagod’s chest. In this really secluded spot, you feel that you are at the centre of history, at the centre of a Greek world which left its traces alive. Click here to read more. |
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Black Book: The Tragedy of Pontus, 1914-1922 [Reproduced with permission from Princeton University. Please note that this is a large PDF file, 16199 Kb, containing the entire pamphlet, and that Adobe Reader is required to view it.] The Black Book: The Tragedy of Pontus is invaluable for its historical and genealogical information. This pamphlet details the numbers of Pontic Greeks killed in each village by the Turks, with some lists of actual names, and eyewitness accounts of massacres and genocide. Compiled in Athens in 1922, it serves as valuable testimony to the crimes committed. Although copies of this pamphlet are rare, there are about a dozen in the U.S. and Europe. Printed bilingually (English and French) in Athens in 1922 for the Central Council of Pontus, the aim of the pamphlet was to disseminate publicly the details of an irreparable loss of culture, history, and human life. Click here to view the pamphlet [large pdf file--16.2 Mb--Adobe Acrobat needed to view]. 2000 © Hellenic Communication Service, L.L.C. All Rights Reserved.
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