Other Cities and Regions of Asia Minor





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.
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.
A Pilgrimage to Asia Minor in October 2010--by Fr. Alexander G. Leondis During the first two weeks of October, I traveled to Asia Minor, modern day Turkey and the second Holy Land of Christianity, and visited my schoolmate and friend Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. This trip was and still is a reminder of the glorious past of our Orthodox Church and its promise of the magnificent future. . . . Our first experience was visiting the remarkable city of Cappadocia, appropriately considered a Wonder of the World. We had an earlier glimpse of it in Bob Simon’s “Sixty Minutes” which toured the area with Patriarch Bartholomew. (The video is available on the Archdiocese or Archons’ webpage.) Cappadocia in Caesarea is a fairy tale setting fashioned by the volcanic erosions, which formed chimney rocks for over ten thousand years. Within these formations are carved caves that are still decorated with fine Byzantine icons. Read entire article.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mikrasia Revisited: A Glimpse of Peristasi of Eastern Thrace By James L. Marketos, Esq. Marketos recounts a visit with his parents to the ancestral village of his maternal great-grandmother. A Greek of Thracian origin, his grandmother was a refugee in 1924 during the exchange of populations. Now inhabited by 4500 Turks, Peristasi has lost its Greek character, but kind villagers assist the author and his family in trying to locate the home. Along the way, they meet an elderly Greek who remembers Mr. Marketos's grandfather and the homes of his relatives. Read full article.
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.
*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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Defending the Faith--Battle over a Christian Monastery Tests Turkey's Tolerance of Minorities Christians have lived in these parts since the dawn of their faith. But they have had a rough couple of millennia, preyed on by Persian, Arab, Mongol, Kurdish and Turkish armies. Each group tramped through the rocky highlands that now comprise Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq and Syria. The current menace is less bellicose but is deemed a threat nonetheless. A group of state land surveyors and Muslim villagers are intent on shrinking the boundaries of an ancient monastery by more than half. The monastery, called Mor Gabriel, is revered by the Syriac Orthodox Church. Battling to hang on to the monastic lands, Bishop Timotheus Samuel Aktas is fortifying his defenses. He's hired two Turkish lawyers -- one Muslim, one Christian -- and mobilized support from foreign diplomats, clergy and politicians. . . .Founded in 397, Mor Gabriel is one of the world's oldest functioning monasteries. Viewed by Syriacs as a "second Jerusalem," it sits atop a hill overlooking now solidly Muslim lands. It has just three monks and 14 nuns. It also has 12,000 ancient corpses buried in a basement crypt. The bishop's local flock numbers only 3,000. Mor Gabriel's influence, however, reaches far beyond its fortress-like walls, inspiring and binding a community of Christians scattered by persecution and emigration. There are hundreds of thousands more Syriac Christians across the frontier in Iraq and Syria and in Europe. They speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ. Read entire article.
The Flag of Thyatira--A Piece of Anatolia History Has Come Home to "Anatolia" Where It Had Never Been Seen Before It is an American flag bearing fourteen stars on a blue field, attached to six white and seven red strips of light wool cloth. The flag is the gift of Dr. Constance Cryer Ecklund, Professor of French at Southern Connecticut State University, and the granddaughter of Christo Theologos Papadopoulos, an Anatolia graduate of the class of 1893. Orphaned at the age of 11 at Smyrna in 1875, Christo attended Robert College in Constantinople and Anatolia College in Merzifon, studying theology and liberal arts. After graduation, Papadopoulos married and became an ordained evangelical minister. It was at his ministry in Ak Hissar (Biblical Thyatira) where he preached the Gospel and established a school that the flag saved many innocent lives. Read full story.
So That Fr. Andrea Not Be Killed a Second Time--February 2006 The death of Fr Andrea Santoro, the priest from the Diocese of Rome, killed in cold blood, while praying in his church in Trabzon, could almost have been predicted. Just as the violence against the Saint Maron Church in Beirut and the attacks against churches in Iraq had been almost a certainty. Each time tension mounts between the Islamic world and the West, the ones who pay the price are always Christians. Despite belonging to a community that is older than Islam, they are always depicted as the West’s implicit emissaries. Furthermore, they offer an important feature to those who wish to strike them: they are defenceless, unarmed, even loving towards their persecutors. They are the right victim. Click here for entire article.
Apostolic Nuncio in Turkey [Anatolia] Convinced Assassination of Fr. Santoro is Work of Mastermind--February 2006 The assassination of Fr. Andrea Santoro came about in the light of the climate provoked by the publication of the Muhammad cartoon strips, but "there is a mastermind behind it all". Speaking to AsiaNews via telephone, Msgr. Antonio Lucibello, apostolic nuncio in Turkey says he is also convinced of this, commenting that “in the tense and overheated climate created in the aftermath of the publication of these cartoons, it obvious that people can also be killed. But still, I am convinced that there is a mastermind behind all of it ” Read entire article.
AsiaNews Interview with Catholic Bishop Padovese About Assassination of Fr. Andrea Santoro [in Trapezounta]--February 2006 It appears increasingly probable that Fr Andrea Santoro’s assassination was related to Islamic fundamentalism: Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia is convinced of this. Contacted ". . .the fact that Fr. Santoro was killed while the entire Islamic world is being rocked by protests over the Mohammad caricatures 'does not seem incidental." “This morning,” he related, “I went to the morgue. Fr Andrea was killed with two shots: after the first, he was able to shout out to a young many who was in the Church with him to take cover, the second shot killed him.” Click here to read entire article.
Petros Tatanis: Concern for the "Patrida" Petros P. Tatanis, the publisher of the Greek American newspaper National Herald (Ethnikos Kyrix), sent an interesting telegram to US President Warren Harding on October 7, 1922 regarding the plight of the Christian population in Eastern Thrace. This telegram is best understood within the context of the Mudania conference taking place in early October 1922 between Allied Generals and Kemalists establishing armistice terms between the Greek and Turkish armies. The Mudania convention eventually paved the way for the Lausanne peace conference held in late November 1922 – February 1923 and resuming again in April – July 1923 Click here for entire article.
Andreades' "Mission" to America: Political Questions 1919--Part One A correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor interviewed Professor A.Andreades in early May 1919 in New York. The interview was published in four instalments on May 2, 3, 6 and 7, respectively. The first two articles dealing with Greek diplomacy and the others discussing financial and economic matters. The information provided by Andreades is placed within the context of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Click here to read full article.
The Geography of Kotyora (Ordou) in 1921 Along the Southern Shore of the Black Sea By Pantelis M. Kontogianni English translation by Mary Papoutsy "The Geography of Kotyora (Ordou) in 1921 Along the Southern Shore of the Black Sea" is one small translated section of a larger Greek work, The Geography of Asia Minor. Written by Pantelis M. Kontogianni originally in 1921, this monumental and valuable work was reprinted in 2000 by the Syllogos Pros Diadosin Ophelimon Biblion (The Society for the Dissemination of Useful Information) in Athens. Kontogianni succeeds in describing richly and in detail the topography, demography, and economy of Koryora in this one section of his voluminous text on the Greek cities of Asia Minor. Few texts manage to offer such an overview of these cities and villages prior to the Catastrophe and exchange of populations. The vibrant productivity of the lands and all of her peoples, whom the author depicts, underscores the terrible tragedy which would befall the Mikrasiates in a few months. Each chapter breaks down the statistics of local ethnic groups, describes the land itself, the natural resources of the area, the infrastructure and buildings of the city or town, as well as its history and the bases for its local economy. Click here to read full article about Kotyora (Ordou).
HCS maintains a permanent, extensive archives of articles which readers are invited to browse. For more information about Smyrna or Asia Minor Greeks, see the webpage located at the URL http://www.helleniccomserve.com/contents.html#Smyrna.

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