The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center is pleased to announce the publication of “SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES of the GREEK GENOCIDE 1913-1923.” The source of selected survivor testimonies is the five volumes printed in Greek by The Center for Asia Minor Studies, Athens, Greece that was a major undertaking starting in 1930 and lasting about 30 years.
This publication is a limited selection of 200 survivor testimonies from over 1000 from the five volumes.
Survivors from various areas of Asia Minor and Pontos tell their story with emotions and details that are only possible by one who experienced it. Each survivor tells his/her own story with the emotions and details that are only possible by one who experienced it. Each account has been carefully selected to illustrate the aspect being highlighted, and to tell a very human story with dignity and respect for all sides involved in highly emotional and traumatic events. Additionally, the testimonies and their categories relate to each other in such a way to illustrate the totality and comprehensiveness of the Turkish authorities’ efforts to successfully implement a genocide that would erase the very existence of the Greek presence and culture from Asia Minor.
Significant conclusions can be drawn from the testimonies. In the region of Pontos, the Greeks experienced harsh treatments, destruction and expulsions to the interior starting in 1915 at the same time the Armenians are going through the same. Several survivors talk about their fellow Armenian in their community that are going through the same treatment. In 1919, the Turkish Nationalist government continues an all-out effort to destroy and uproot the Pontian Greeks through the irregular army and local leaders. While some Turks in the villages and towns are committing atrocities there are others who try to protect and help their Greek neighbors with whom they lived together for generations.
We believe it is vitally important that the actual accounts of what happened from the genocide survivors themselves, who were eyewitnesses, be shared with a wider audience, especially English-speaking audiences in the United States and around the world. Preventing future such atrocities, in large part, upon raising awareness about the horrors of the past.
The book is available at Amazon and our website www.hellenicresearchcenter.org
