The hall of the Metro station, at Syntagma Square
First of all, I would like to congratulate the Federation of Cypriot Organizations of Greece (Okoe) for organizing the event, and the Municipality of Neapolis-Sykeon, the World Council of Pontian Hellenism and the Foundation "I do not despair-Georgios Karamanos" for their cooperation.
The theme of the Exhibition of Remembrance and Honour for the 100 years of the Asia Minor Catastrophe with the theme "From "I do not despair" to "I do not forget".
A period of which, I must stress, the current Turkish leadership draws its horrific memory with the genocides, the violent raids and the inhumane treatment of human lives, in order to expand its ambitions and threats against Hellenism with its revisionism and neo-Ottoman approach and tactics, in order to exploit the Aegean Sea and seek complete destabilization.
The Turkish narrative of the "Blue Homeland", the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum which seeks to encroach on Greece's rights in its maritime area, as well as Turkey's other actions in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Armenia, and of course in our Cyprus, demonstrate, precisely, that the same instincts of inhuman violence and systematic aggression and terrorism that the Turkish state has inherited since then, unfortunately survive today with all the insolence that characterizes the Turkish leadership and the entire state apparatus of Ankara.
Greeks, Greeks,
It is with unquenchable memory and deep emotion that we honour with this event the Hellenism of Asia Minor that was violently uprooted from its homes, the world that for millennia was full of life and radiated the glow of peaceful creation, the world of Asia Minor that was betrayed and finally surrendered to the destructive fury, arson and murder of the Young Turks.
Primitive instincts of violent predation prevailed over a civilization of three millennia.
Asia Minor has always been the homeland of the Greeks, a place with a special contribution to letters, arts, sciences, trade and culture in general. A land that was sung about, praised. A special world that inspired. From antiquity, through the years and with the work of Homer, it marked world history, thought and education for many centuries. With the great Ionian pre-Socratic philosophers, a Thales, an Anaximander, a Heraclitus, still remembered in science and letters today. But also a land of great patristic tradition, a place of the "three Great Luminaries of the Triseian Godhead", the three Hierarchs and fathers of letters, with their decisive contribution to the reconciliation and continuity between the ancient Greek and Christian spirit. A world which, even in modern times, had active and important businessmen, merchants, pioneers of modern development, but also a flourishing educational and cultural activity. Next to all this and a peaceful and active rural population of Greeks, hundreds of thousands of them scattered also in the Asia Minor hinterland. All this was lost, all these people, if not killed, persecuted, uprooted.
It is with feelings of deepest emotion that we pay tribute to the innocent victims of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. We recall all those people who fled in terror, with horror in their eyes and unhealed wounds in their souls, leaving behind their home, their entire livelihood and their land.
We recall the massacres, the rapes and the inhuman atrocities. We mentally recall the glory of Smyrna, which was then a true metropolis and was then reduced to ashes. The first Greek city in population at that time. In 1998, the Greek Parliament unanimously voted to declare "September 14 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor by the Turkish State."
In 1998, the Greek Parliament unanimously voted to declare "September 14 as the Day of National Remembrance of the Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor by the Turkish State". In 2002, the Cypriot State established by law the 14th of September as an official Day of Remembrance and Honour for the Hellenism of Asia Minor and the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
This year, one hundred years later, the year 2022 was officially proclaimed in Cyprus as the year of remembrance for the Catastrophe of 1922, as well as the year of appreciation of the contribution of the Asia Minor Hellenes.
Cyprus, which, like other places of Greeks everywhere, welcomed and gave a second homeland to refugees from Asia Minor, united with the rest of Hellenism in an effort of remembrance, historical consciousness and reflection.
Undoubtedly, the Asia Minor Catastrophe was a very big blow for Hellenism. It followed the genocides of the Pontians and Armenians. It was the geographical uprooting from Greek and sanctified lands for two and a half thousand years, the dissolution of the national dreams of the Great Idea.
Instead of things of perennial hope after Greece's victorious participation in World War I and the Balkan wars, we experienced the great mourning of destruction and uprooting. On the one hand, the conversion of the Allied powers towards Greece and their ruthless interests, on the other hand, the terrible mistakes and omissions on our side.
The first victories that resulted in the joyful liberation of Ionia and the advance of the Greek army to the outskirts of Ankara were followed by the tragic end of the Asia Minor adventure with the horror and orgy of Turkish atrocities, massacres, kidnappings, rapes, rapes and torture, the despair and desperation of the Greek population.
After the collapse of the front on the mainland, the destruction and abandonment of Smyrna was the last act of the drama that led to military defeat and crushing. The uprooting of an entire world followed. One and a half million Greeks were driven from their native land. The massacres, looting and exile that followed came as the culmination of a systematic effort to exterminate the Greek element from the sacred soil of Asia Minor.
Thus the three thousand years of Greek presence in that place, which had been the epicentre of Greek civilisation, came to a violent end. There is talk of 700,000 dead.
The ties between Cyprus and Greek Asia Minor were close and long. Commercial and intellectual, educational. Many Cypriots participated in the Greek campaign, while the mobilization of the Cypriots to welcome the 2,400 or so Greeks from Asia Minor is described as unprecedented in the publications of the time, including the pressure on the colonial government to abolish the restrictions imposed by it.
With a bundle of memories, refugees from Asia Minor were also found on the coast of Cyprus at that time. Despite obstacles from the English conqueror, the Greeks of Cyprus embraced them fraternally and fervently responded to their call for help. The support of the refugees from Asia Minor was an example of the national solidarity that repeatedly manifested itself between the Greeks of Cyprus and the wider Greek community. Dispersed in various regions of Greece, but also in Cyprus and the world at large, they continued and found rhythm in their lives again, inoculating modern Hellenism with the tradition, virtues and heritage they carried within them.
The Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 was of course preceded by the implementation of the nationalist plan for the final extermination of the Greeks of Pontus: 353,000 Greek Christians of Pontus were exterminated, 815 villages were excavated, 1,134 churches were destroyed, 960 schools were demolished and 400.000 other Greeks were forced to leave their land and arrive in persecution in various regions of Greece, leaving behind a civilization of almost three millennia with their memories and the pain in their hearts as their only baggage.
The Young Turks deprived them of their lives, their land, their property. But not their souls. Despite the hardships, the Greeks of Pontus demonstrated an indomitable spirit and managed not only to survive, but also to flourish in the new homes they settled in.
The roots and origins of the current aggressive hysteria of the Erdoganist Turkish-Islamist state are the murderous fury that wiped out hundreds of thousands of innocent Greeks of Asia Minor.
With the same brutality and savagery the Turks turned against Cyprus in 1974, wreaking havoc and destruction. Thousands of dead and missing persons, prisoners, trapped, refugees and other victims of Turkish brutality. Our sanctuaries and sacred places were trampled upon and much of our land continues to be occupied by Turkish troops, with the obvious aim of its complete Turkification.
The bitter morning of July 20, 1974, marked our lives and vowed future generations to a continuous struggle against injustice. Against the criminal usurpation of the sacred, of property, of cultural heritage, but most of all of our dignity, which has been tested daily ever since. In its path, it has carried away the lives of innocent people, destroyed, plundered and spread pain and devastation. Black mothers everywhere. Orphans in every corner of our minds. Widows mourning the amoral lads reaped by the ravages of treachery and selfishness. And all of us, bowed down, remembering our dead again and again.
But we never forget our occupied land with its more than three thousand years of Greek history. And we will always fight to overturn the facts of the occupation.
Promising that we will not settle for little heaven. That we will not get used to the slaughter of our rights, that we will not reconcile ourselves to the violation of human rights, that we will not accept the facts of the invasion. That the sight of the enslaved Pentadaktylus will always provoke our national reflexes.
That is why Hellenism as a whole must be, and is, constantly vigilant, fully aware of reality, but also fully aware of history. We must all together stand united and strong against the exacerbation of Turkish provocativeness, as it has been developing recently with the rise of Turkey's intransigence on the Cyprus issue and its threats and blackmail with regard to our sovereign rights in our maritime areas and the Aegean islands, rights that are based on international law and non-negotiable.
We are particularly concerned about the revisionist attitude of the Turkish leadership and the escalation of its hostile rhetoric at a time when the international community is watching with deep concern the developments with Russia's military invasion of the territory of Ukraine.
What we emphasize at every opportunity is that international law cannot be applied differently in one case and differently in another. Both Russia and Turkey have militarily invaded the territories of other countries and continue to illegally occupy parts of their territories. In both cases it is a question of invasion, illegal occupation and violation of fundamental principles of international law, such as the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states. It cannot be allowed to walk down the path of absurdity encouraged by the tolerance of some, but at the same time ignoring strong signals it is receiving about its unacceptable claims and aspirations.
International law must finally prevail.
Hellenes,
Learning from the messages emanating from the timeless struggles of Hellenism for freedom and vindication, and listening to the debt to the homeland, let us hold on to those values that made the Greeks' Asia Minor shine and move forward with wisdom, strength and unity. We owe it to all the heroes of our struggles, we owe it to tomorrow's and future generations.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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