The Foreign Minister notes that the Asia Minor Disaster “remains 100 years after a traumatic event for our collective memory and our modern history
“The transformation of the anniversary of the Asia Minor Disaster into a celebration of hatred and war crimes from the other side of the Aegean, only causes sadness” underlines the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, in his article in the newspaper Demokratia on the dedication to the 100th anniversary of Asia Minor Disaster.
As Mr. Dendias emphasizes, “Greece, with all its failures from time to time, managed to turn the Asia Minor disaster into a factor of national creation. And gradually, over the years, it managed to become a member of a strong European group of states, the current European Union”.
“Greece developed in a society of values ​​and principles, with full respect for Law, including of course International Law” he points out and adds: “But today’s Turkey, as it unfortunately turns out, has learned nothing from the destruction of the Ottoman Empire, which was completely territorial he misses. And it uses it as an occasion to revive a nationalist spirit, which is a clear challenge, but also proof that it has its eyes fixed on the Ottoman past and not on a European future, which, fortunately, a significant part of its society still envisions. .
The Minister of Foreign Affairs notes that the Asia Minor Disaster “remains 100 years later a traumatic event for our collective memory and our modern history, but also an occasion for drawing conclusions, at the level of national self-awareness”, while characterizing the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Greeks from their ancestral lands , for millennia, their foci “wound” that has not healed in our national consciousness and is not going to heal in the foreseeable future.
“The forgotten homelands, the persecution, the hundreds of victims’ graves, the human suffering, the refugees, the families that were separated and lost, but also the integration into a tarnished Greek society, are experiences that are still ‘alive’ today. Experiences that are components of the current identity of the country. After 1922, nothing about Hellenism is the same” he characteristically emphasizes.
At the same time, however, he adds “it became a starting point for the enrichment of Greek society from the rich and special cultural elements that the survivors of the Asia Minor Catastrophe brought with them from the other side of the Aegean. Smyrna, Ephesus, Philadelphia, Aghialos, Nicaea, ‘Adana, Vourla, Phokaia and so many other toponyms are not just memories or names of current areas and streets. It is the geographical context of the experiences, which connects the past with the present. The refugee populations that took root in many parts of the country became the occasion for a real regeneration of these areas”.
“Their integration into the society of metropolitan Greece was ultimately a feat, for a country that was trying to regroup from years of war involvement. Their dynamism and inventiveness allowed them to distinguish themselves in all fields within a few decades”, he points out and mentions the poetry of the diplomat Giorgos Seferis, the literature of Ilias Venezis and Didos Sotiriou, the entrepreneurship of Aristotle Onassis and the directorial vision of Karolos Koun.
“The Asia Minor Catastrophe is, however, at the same time a trigger to reflect on the consequences of the National Division that preceded it and of which it is essentially the result in one way or another. In a debate, which remains even a century later politically and ideologically charged regarding the causes, I would not wish to take a position regarding “them’s fault”, nor do I claim laurels as a historian”, says Mr. Dendias characteristically.
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