The Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Ottoman Greek Genocide

This book adds important new historical information
and theoretical analysis to our understanding
of both the specific fate of Greeks in the late
Ottoman Empire and the overarching genocide of
Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians from 1914 to
the 1920s..

Especially impressive is the mix of
established scholars whose work represents
decades of incisive and groundbreaking research
on various aspects of the Ottoman Turkish genocidal
process that is at the foundation of our current
understanding of that process with emerging
scholars whose innovative work is opening up
crucial new lines of inquiry.

This book fills a significant
gap in the literature and is likely to be a
central text in teaching on its topic, advance
awareness of the issue globally, and spur a major
expansion of research on the genocide of Greeks
and the broader genocide.

—Henry Theriault, Professor of Philosophy at
Worcester State College, and Co-editor of
Genocide Studies and Prevention: An
International Journal

The Promised Journey - Pontus - Kefalonia


THE PROMISED JOURNEY Pontus – Kefalonia, by Sophia Petrides-Kappatos, is a book based on her father’s, John Abraham Petrides, life story.


The narration begins with the birth of John on Christmas Day, 1910, in a small village named Palouklar, near Bafra in the Region of Pontus and ends 90 years later in the island of Kefalonia, Greece.

Living a happy and peaceful childhood among, Christians and Muslims, Greeks, Turks, Armenians and the various minorities which enriched the area of Pontus with their culture, little “Yiannis”, Greek for John, begins to experience, by the age of about six, an unexpected turn in his peaceful, until that time life.


By decision of the nationalists OttomanTurks, Turkey should be, by any means, cleared from all minorities of different religion other than the Muslim one, so that a new pure Turkish nation is
created.
....

This great book can be orderd at the following outlets:
1) www.fhw.gr  (Greek version)
2) By emailing the author directly at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
3) Through our site (click on the "Add to Cart" button below)

Fridrjof Nansen and
the Greek Refuge Crisis 1922-1924

This is an impeccably written and carefully researched study by a prominent political scientist. Harry Psomiades focuses on the most critical period (1921-23) that has left a permanent mark on the fortunes of 20th century Greece and Turkey.

Two powerful personalities dominate the narrative: Eleftherios Venizelos and Fridtjof Nansen. The former was a prominent statesman who modernized his country and managed through carefully crafted regional alliances and insightful decisions to double Greece's territory during the Balkan Wars and World War I.

The latter was a dashing Norwegian adventurer and explorer and Nobel Prize winner, who remains a central figure in international humanitarian work through his associations with the League of Nations and the International Red Cross.

Thea Halo - Not even my name

This month, we are pleased to introduce Thea Halo's book: Not Even My Name.

It is an unforgettable story of Sano Halo's survival of the death march, at age ten, that annihilated her family - as told to her daughter, Thea, and of their poignant mother-daughter pilgirmage to Turkey in search of Sano's home seventy years after her exile.

Take a look at the back-cover of this book
by clicking here ..

The Eastern Question:
The Last Phase

The Pontian Greek Society of Chicago is very pleased
to introduce Dr. Psomiadis' book: The Eastern Question: The Last Phase

Originally published in 1968 in Thessaloniki, Greece,
by the Institute for Balkan Studies, this work has been
republished and is now available to numerous scholars.

Check out some prominent reviews on this book
by clicking here.

Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftherios Venizelos, like all complex phenomena,
is not easily definable. It is impossible to compare him
to some model because he is unique.

Aristocratic and folksy, emotional and remote,
democratic and authoritarian— the elements of his personality
combined within him in such a way as to startle both friends
and enemies.

He was also a man of instantaneous choices and actions. In politics, what counts is timely intervention, even if some groups of people are ahead of their time or if large numbers of citizens fall behind.

Those who have studied Eleftherios Venizelos will agree that he proved an accomplished master in the art of the timely decision and the realization of the achievable.

The Great Betrayal

First published in 1924, author Edward Hale Bierstadt exposes the rivalries and competing economic interests of the Allied Powers in the aftermath of World War I, how the Allied Powers failed to demand from Turkey the protection of her Christian minorities, and how they chose to negotiate economic treaties rather than hold her accountable for the slaughter of her own citizens.

Bierstadt's book is drawn from his experiences as the executive of the US Emergency Committee that provided aid and assistance to refugees displaced by Turkish Kemalists.

American Accounts

American Accounts Documenting of the Destruction of Smyrna edited by Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou and published by Aristide D. Caratzas Melissa International, LTD, New York & Athens.

The author writes…..“Even today, among Greek speakers the term “the Catastrophe” is commonly used to refer to the eradication of the Greek presence in Asia Minor. By the time the so-called exchange of populations was “completed” in 1924, most of the Greek communities, that survived thousands of years of foreign invasions and the assimilationist pressures of Ottoman Islam, were eliminated by the nationalist fervor of Turkish Kemalism.

There is little doubt that this process resulted in the Genocide of Anatolian Hellenism. In fact, in several of the U.S. State Department documents reproduced in this volume it is acknowledged that the Kemalist authorities in Smyrna made it known to American representatives that the removal of the Christian population of the city was the “final decision of the National Government as a solution of the race problem.”

Twenty-Three

The Pontian Greek Society of Chicago with the support of the Pan-Pontian Federation of USA and Canada has re-printed Twenty-Three Years in Asia Minor (1899-1922), which was originally published in 1969.

Author Efthimios N. Couzinos, a member of Turkey's ill-fated Greek minority who later adopted the United States as his home, provides a vivid recollection of life in Turkey before, during, and after the First World War.

Couzinos tells the story of the halcyon days of his youth before depicting the terrible ordeal that he and other Ottoman Greeks and Armenians experienced at the hands of the Turks and their leader Mustafa Kemal.