Pontian Greek Society of Chicago

Please join Please join us for the annual The Pontian Greek Society Academic Conference on the Asia Minor Catastrophe of Chicago“Xeniteas” on November 7, 2009 from 8 AM to 5 PM on November 14, 2009 Click here for: Invitation Letter For its 32nd annual Dinner Dance Registration Form Click Here for more information Program

Welcome to the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago. The Pontian Greek Society of Chicago's mission is to promote our culture and preserve our history, with an emphasis on the tragic events that claimed the lives of an estimated 353,000 Pontian Greeks between 1914-1923. Society Goals FEATURED ITEM OF THE MONTH The following is an expert from an article titled "Greek Labor - Battalions Asia Minor" by Dr. Speros Vryonis Jr. It is one of several articles from the book "The Armenian Genocide" Cultural and Ethical Legacies, Edited by Dr. Richard Hovvanisian, Published/Copyright by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Permission has been granted by Dr. Hovannisian and Dr. Vryonis to allow the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago to post this article on its website. The final collapse of the Greek armies in western Asia Minor at the battle of Anon Karahisar, August 13-15, 1922, constitutes the last and decisive phase of the reentry of the Kemalist armies into western and coastal Asia Minor. By early morning of Sunday, August 27, the Turkish irregulars entered Smyrna and by that evening the first detachments of Turkish regulars began their entry into the city. Killings, looting, and the final burning of the city (beginning August 31)were accompanied by comparable events and disasters/victories in the rest of western Asia Minor. Click here to read the complete article. The Pontian Greek Genocide Teaching Unit (Free Download) Click here for English version Click here for Greek version Created by The Pontian Greek Society of Chicago with the help of Ron Levitsky, a teacher at Sunset Ridge School in Northfield, Illinois, The Pontian Greek Genocide Teaching Unit introduces middle schooland high school students to the tragedy of the Pontian Greeks who were subjected to the first genocide of the 20th Century. Available to download in English and in Greek. From 1914 to 1923, Christian minorities were forcibly expelled from their homes to comply with Turkish nationalist visions of an ethnically pure homeland inhabited only by Turks. Villages, cities, and farmlands across Pontus were emptied and the inhabitants subjected to atrocities under carefullyconcealed orders by government and party officials until the population exchange of 1923. Read more... The Great Betrayal The Pontian Greek Society of Chicago with the support of the Pan-Pontian Federation of USA and Canada has reissued The Great Betrayal , which was originally published in 1924. Contact us to receive a copy of the book with your US$35 donation to our organization or order online at Amazon.com. First published in 1924, author Edward Hale Bierstadt exposes the rivalries and competing economic interests of the Allied Powers in the aftermath of World War I, how the Allied Powers failed to demand from Turkey the protection of her Christian minorities, and how they chose, instead, to negotiate economic treaties with her rather than hold her accountable for the premeditated destruction of her own citizens. Bierstadt's account of these events is drawn from his experience as the Executive Secretary of the US Emergency Committee that provided humanitarian aid to Christian refugees deported by the Turkish nationalist regime. Quotes from the Book