wp_enqueue_script("ScrollToPlugin", QODE_ROOT . "/js/plugins/ScrollToPlugin.min.js", array(), false, false); $title = esc_html__('Archive','bridge'); } $current_style = bridge_qode_dynamic_css( $container_selector, $container_class ); wp_enqueue_script("ScrollToPlugin", QODE_ROOT . "/js/plugins/ScrollToPlugin.min.js", array(), false, false); $title = esc_html__('Archive','bridge'); } $current_style = bridge_qode_dynamic_css( $container_selector, $container_class ); The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center (AMPHRC) | Smyrna Commemoration 2025

THE ASIA MINOR AND PONTOS HELLENIC RESEARCH CENTER

Preserving the Hellenic Heritage and History of Asia Minor and Pontos

Sunday September 21, 2025

Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center 

memorial service commemorating 

the victims of the 1922 Smyrna Catastrophe

St. John the Baptist 

Greek Orthodox Church

2350 East Dempster St. Des Plains, IL

Matins/Orthros       8:30am

Divine Liturgy         9:45am

The Great Fire of Smyrna started on September 13, 1922 after the Turkish armed forces entered Smyrna to destroy and expel Greeks and all other Christian populations. 

The entire Greek and Armenian quarters of the city were destroyed, forcing the population to flee. Historians believe the number of victims was in the tens of thousands, while the number of refugees was over a million. Thousands of Greek and Armenian men were deported into the interior of Anatolia, where many died in brutal conditions.

After the Smyrna Catastrophe, the Hellenic city, founded over 3,000 years before, a jewel of the Eastern Mediterranean, ceased to have a Hellenic community.