In his greeting at the beginning of the evening, the rector of AUTh, Nikos Papaioannou spoke with emotion about the black anniversary “which were the beginning of events that destroyed the beloved Smyrna”.
With an anniversary event – concert at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall entitled “Smyrna Days, 100 years” in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki celebrated their anniversary on Wednesday night 100 years old from the Asia Minor catastrophe.
In his greeting at the beginning of the evening, the rector of AUTh, Nikos Papaioannou spoke with emotion about the black anniversary “which were the beginning of events that destroyed the beloved Smyrna”.
The rector also referred to the birth processes of the university that began in Izmir in 1920 for the founding of the Ionian University which would be oriented to the positive sciences by Eleftherios Venizelos and with the practical help of Konstantinos Karatheodoris. But this dream was violently cut short. “It is the same dream that a few years later revived in Thessaloniki to the theoretical sciences. “It is no coincidence that for a while the same people, Venizelos and Karatheodoris, met again at the helm and we are here a century later to honor them,” said Mr. Papaioannou.
In his speech, the Professor of Diplomatic History of the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ioannis Stefanidis, after referring to the family history of his grandmother’s uprooting from Smyrna and his father a few months ago, referred extensively to the historical events that preceded the Asia Minor catastrophe.
The event ended with a concert in which Costas Makedonias, Georgia Ntagaki, the vocal ensembles “Agios Ioannis Chrysostomou” as well as a 13-member folk orchestra participated, while the narrator was the actor Andreas Konstantinou.
Everyone received a warm applause, especially the Dean of the Theological School of Chrysostomos Stamoulis, who conducted the orchestra.
