Conference at AUTH on the Asia Minor Catastrophe
The search for the effects exerted by the settlement of refugee populations on politics, society, economy, culture.
“I experienced this drama, not as a mere spectator, but as someone charged with the responsibility of organizing, caring for and settling refugees. In Macedonia, in Thrace, in old Greece or on the islands, I had to examine on the spot the numerous problems created by this tragedy.”
Excerpts from the memoirs of Alexander Anastasios Pallis, politician and writer, son of the writer Alexandros Pallis, in which the refugee drama as a consequence of the Asia Minor Disaster is described, were quoted by Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith, former British ambassador in Athens and visiting professor at Kings College, London . and of St. Antony College, Oxford as a keynote speaker at a scientific conference organized by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Historical Archive of Alpha Bank in Thessaloniki on the topic “The Refugees of 1922: A Critical Consciousness of Modern Greek History in the 20th Century”.
We point out that Alexander Pallis was a figure who was involved in the management of refugee issues and wrote about them in his memoirs and in academic articles, Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith emphasized that the Indian-born diplomat served in Greece during a period of successive wars . and refugee movements.
The list of positions to which he was appointed shows that he was in a rare position to follow the refugee journeys as they began, Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith pointed out, pointing out that Alexandros Pallis ordered, among others, secretary-general of the Refugee Care and Settlement Committee, secretary-general of . of the General Administration of Macedonia and member of the Joint Commission for the Exchange of Populations of the Treaty of Lausanne.
Sir Michael Llewellyn Smith, author of the work “The Vision of Ionia” and the monograph on Venizelos “Venizelos: The Making of a Greek Statesman 1864-1914” recommended the memoirs of Alexander Pallis “Explored Greeks” a rare, wonderful book, as he characterized it, which is not available, to be republished and translated.
The search for the effects exerted by the settlement of the refugee populations on the politics, society, economy, culture and ideology of the Greek state, as well as the international dimension of the exchange of populations after the First World War, are the topics examined . at the scientific conference “The Refugees of 1922: A Critical Consciousness of the Modern Greek History of the 20th Century” organized from today to Saturday, December 10 at the Telologos Foundation of the Arts of AUTH, with speakers and speakers historians, scientists and anthropologists.
“This year could not be missing from the AUTH calendar, a Conference on the Asia Minor Disaster and the refugee wave. It is a section of the new Greek history, its deep trauma that we are called to manage until today. The Asia Minor Catastrophe homogenized the country’s population composition to a great extent,” underlined the rector of AUTH, Nikos Papaioannou.
“It was a violent process that uprooted populations and cultures, whose relocation and survival in Greece caused extremely complex issues at every level, diplomatic, political, social, economic and ideological,” said Mr. Papaioannou, adding that the choices made and the solutions that were given then, redefined the Greek state.
“It was and has been an intersection of our history, a bloody intersection, but also a starting point for developments that continue to this day. One of them concerns the Aristotle University, its foundation which is inextricably and tragically linked with the name of the Ionian University in Smyrna. The relevant consultations had started since 1920, with the initiative of Venizelos and the active participation of Constantinos Karatheodoris. It was an institution with a clear orientation to the positive sciences, which was to happen a little to Greek scientists throughout the Near East. The vision had a violent end, according to that of the city of Smyrna. But a few years later, the appeal was revived in Thessaloniki, with a clear shift to the theoretical sciences. In a way, he is also the Aristotelian child of the refugee, and carries the memory of his ancestors” he pointed out.
The chairman of the Board of Directors of Alpha Bank, Vassilis Rapanos, emphasized that a lot has been written on the subject of the conference – excellent scientific papers, but also wonderful novels and poems, which even today move us, since they remind us of the great tragedy of the uprooting of a Greece that flourished for centuries in Asia Minor and the Pontus. A more characteristic image is the one that Manos Eleftheriou captures with his lyrics in the song “in Smyrni and in Ayvali” he said. It was self-evident for Alpha Bank, within the context of the various cultural activities that develop every year, not to overlook the leading event in the history of modern Greece, the arrival of the refugees which is the beginning of the attempt to establish a modern state.
“He also could not fail to recognize that Thessaloniki received a very large number of refugees, which the late Giorgos Ioannou rightly called the ‘capital of refugees’ in the Greek area. It is the most suitable city to host an event that marks the anniversary of the arrival of the refugees in Greece” said Mr. Rapanos and all of Alpha Bank’s political activities will be put under the organization of its Cultural Foundation, which is ready To work.