Τρίτη 4 Φεβρουαρίου 2014

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.


Note: the current post contains some pictures that they may disturb. 



Hello you beautiful souls. 

I know, it seems like i am neglecting my blog. 
The truth is i had a very weird January. 
Although winter is my favourite time of the year, 
i had this unexplained - yet beautiful - melancholy that kept me away from here 
and very close to my books and documentaries.


But since i don't like feeling down for a long period of time,
i always try to cheer myself up with goodies i can afford. :P
Glasses (finally) and hair, all new! 2014 found me very hipster-ish!


There is a beautiful, warm place 2 minutes away from my home,
called "sanatorium" (cool huh?) with those lovely vintage / antique-ish decorations.
A great place to house my i-want-to-read-my-book-outside-with-a-cup-of-hot-coffee days
(a mysterious girl behind a book and very far from her home
oh yes yes! She lives in the edge!).
The good thing is that it's quite and it satisfies my purpose completely. 


So, recently i got this beauty, The Bloody Soil by Dido Sotiriou

(i have mentioned the book before in this post if you are interested to check)
because i had only the chance to read it from the public library.
I have read it, five to six times till now. I always end up with many tissues around me.
Now i proudly own a copy! (also i will not have to deal again with this awful feeling
when you have to return a book to the library).


And some weeks back my grandma got me those four books 
(or one book in four parts) about the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22), the Asia Minor Catastrophe
and the Greek genocide. I am very sensitive about this subject but i try not to be judgemental. 
So always my main goal is to read about, ask and understand more about those days.


The bottom line is that many souls died during those years, from both sides.
Violence, hunger, killing, rape, diseases, torture, exploitation...
War, power, governments, politicians.
Those are the four evil's of our world and it seems that we close our senses
not to feel or see or learn what history has to teach us.


H i s t o r y

The Greek genocide, part of which is known as the Pontic genocide, was the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population from its historic homeland in Asia Minor, central Anatolia, Pontus, and the former Russian Caucasus province of Kars Oblast during World War I and its aftermath (1914–23). 


It was instigated by the government of the Ottoman Empire against the Greek population of the Empire and it included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, summary expulsions, arbitrary executions, and destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical and religious monuments. 
According to various sources, several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period. 

Smyrna massacre, 1922. Elder and infants were massacred together

Some of the survivors and refugees, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire. After the end of the 1919–22 Greco-Turkish War, most of the Greeks remaining in the Ottoman Empire were transferred to Greece under the terms of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Armenians, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination.

Photo taken after the Smyrna fire. The text inside indicates that the photo had been taken by representatives of the Red Cross in Smyrna


The Allies of World War I condemned the Ottoman government-sponsored massacres as crimes against humanity. More recently, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution in 2007 affirming that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire, including the Greeks, was genocide. Some other organisations have also passed resolutions recognising the campaign as a genocide, as have the parliaments of Greece, Cyprus and Sweden.

Smyrna citizens trying to reach the Allied ships during the Smyrna fire, 1922. The photo had been taken from the launch boat of a US battleship.

Greek civilians mourn their dead relatives, Smyrna massacre, 1922


Between the years of 1919 and 1924 the great Greek population of Pontos and all of Asia Minor was forced to leave their homes. The official count stands at 380,000+ pontian lives lost in the , so called exchange of population. [x]

"Take only what you can carry".... in many cases not even themselves. 
Made to walk for hundreds of Kilometres on end.This was known as the Light Death.

The slave labour trains, where thousands will spend their last moments of life.

Kerasounta

Massacre in the area of Kerasounta 1921

At the end of the 1920s in Pontos.

Pontian Greek family of Kakoulidis.

Pontic Greek family of Theofylaktou in Geneva. Kostis, his wife Helen, left their son Adam, the niece Athena and their nephew.

Pontian Greek ladies and children of Trabzon, Athena Fyllizi-Kartasi, Lefkothea Theofylaktou, Julia Theofylaktou (painter), Sophia-Velissaridis Kallivazi


May our days be peaceful people, and my only wish is never in our lives to deal with this monster we call war. My greetings to everyone :)

12 σχόλια:

  1. You look fabulous, as always! The history is horrid but fascinating, and the pictures are quite interesting. Oh! I began reading "In Ghostly Japan" By Patrick Lafcadio Hearn, and I love it very much thus far!

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    1. Heey, thank you! <3
      Really?? :D I am so so glad you enjoy him, let me know what you think when you finish it!!

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  2. Realisation, that our whole world nowadays is built upon blood spilled by thousands of innocent people of the past, always saddens me. It's hard to read about genocides that happened not so long ago in our countries, I myself prefer not to and don't like the whole II World War history. It's good to know about such events ("Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", don't you think so?), but I can't bring myself to read about it more out of my free will, it leaves me with a too huge feeling of helplessness and unfairness. I'm impressed you actually can do it.

    On the lighter note - you look so cute with such fluffy and thick bangs :) And the coffeehouse looks lovely, I'd go to places like these alone just to read books, if only they weren't so crowded usually, haha :D Not to mention I'd gladly move there and make it my own living space :D

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    1. Very very accurate realisation!! :/ Unfortunately this world is based on those things, war, innocent souls (as always!) lost in the table of some hungry for power and money people. My country suffered till the very recent years from those people and many people lost their lives for this.. cause! Of course, many countries suffered - some of them still do - because some other countries (governments) think that everything is about money, power and territory. After reading history, it all comes to that. No for the people to be happy - maybe they offer that as the big cause - but the main and most important cause is the power. How they can rule over and how they can gain power :/ Humans are so cruel when they taste power and they want more and more without thinking forward. I feel this pain in my stomach every time i open this "box" - especially this one about Greek genocide but it is my family's history and i feel very connected to it. Pretty much a masochist :$ because there is nothing i can do about it. Just to learn from it - as you quote very correctly! - and not repeat it in the future! Thank you so much for the comment dear, always glad to read from you <3 On the bright side - because the post turn out very morbid - so glad you like my hair and i wish you can find a place like this. Most of them are loud indeed and here in greece 99% of the coffee houses play music very loud. It was a wonder i found it, and it was under my nose the whole time :P Take care beautiful <3<3 Hope you are doing great!

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  3. Awesome pictures! I keep loving to read your blog! :D

    x Dawn
    www.wickedlypleasant.wordpress.com

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  4. You look awesome with new hairstyle (well, you looked awesome with the old one too :D)!!! Short bangs suit you :D Did you cut you hair in length too? (It seems so, on the photos)
    I envy you the café (tavern? not sure about the word:D), it looks so cozy :) We have a similarly styled one, in my hometown, made in old wine cellar (2 floors underground, and one floor above it is a bookshop:D) but it's always full of loud hipster teens -.- they ruin the atmosphere, so I don't go there often :/ And in city where I study they closed the only café I liked :D

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    1. Heey sweety <3 Yes i cut the length too! I was going for rapunzel :P Oh yes yes, you wrote it correct! The morning is a coffee house and then after 2-3 pm they turn it into a tavern. Two in one actually! :) OMG for real? That sounds amazing, except the loud teens - believe they are everywhere - but if you ever go there i would love to see some pictures! Wait they closed this coffee house? There is no other around?

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    2. Everone hates loud teens :D
      Ok I might try to sneak some pictures when I come home :D But if you want to see it now, http://www.christiania.eu.sk/index.php?page=kaviaren here is their web and they have some pics :D
      Well, there are plenty of cafes, but not with that awesome warm and cozy vintage atmosphere like that one had (they had Mucha prints on walls and played 20's music :D And a bartender had long hair! :D)..so it's a pity..I personally don't like the modern, Starbucks-like coffeeshops...they lack a soul :D

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    3. Loud people in general haha i grow old and i dont like them haha :P If you do that would be great but i visit the site and i was imaging something like this! It would be a wonderful place to hang out indeed! :) Those teens, they will grow up eventually! Hmm yes yes, is rather difficult to find something that suits you that is why i asked (the question was general as i wrote it but i meant if you found any other coffee to like). Maybe you will, but you will go through some of the - coffee-houses-with-no-personality. Gosh, why they are so many of them :/

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A special thank you to those who take the time to write me.
The reaction button is anon so feel free to "check" your honest opinion!. Take care :)