Former President of the Republic and Honorary Professor of the Law Faculty of the National University of Kapodistrias in Athens, Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos he spoke at a National Historical Museum event titled “My Smyrna, Unforgettable Homeland”, on the theme “Spiritual “libation” in Unforgettable Smyrna” and emphasized, among other things, the following:

“It would be in vain to try to bring together in a few – and, unfortunately, poor – words and, therefore, in the few minutes that I have the events and memories of the inexpressible tragedy of the Genocide of Asia Minor Hellenism, and over there from the Destruction of Smyrna. Smyrna, which, together with the once “reigning” Constantinople, was a radiant “pearl”, spiritual and economic, of the shores of Asia Minor, the cradle and cradle of the ancient Greek Spirit and, therefore, the ancient Greek Civilization, as I will explain later. Therefore, avoiding such a futile undertaking, I will focus on just a few thoughts that, I believe, help to understand what we must remember in those “destructive” and “dystopian” years in order to learn “es aei”. “and thus pass on these “black” memories to future generations. Not, of course, in order to take revenge one day – this feeling is unknown to us Greeks – but in order to put into practice “never again”. Much more likely that “again” would be, strictly speaking, even more destructive, even more tragic.

I. Memoirs by Giorgos Seferis

I take “Vourliotis” as my “guide” – Vourla was in those years a famous suburb of the prosperous Smyrna – our great poet, later Giorgos Seferis. Who, perhaps, did not live long in his homeland, could then return there for a short time, but his poetry left us “in relief” traces of how he “jumped” in the descents of his soul, and as the end of his life, “pain” and, before of everything, “nosto”.
A. Allow me, not without some arbitrariness, to take as a “compass” verses from only two of his poems.
1. The first, iconic “Kichli”, and in particular the “House by the Sea”:
a) “The houses I had were taken from me. It is happened
long years can be divided, wars, trophies, strangers
………………………………………….
I don’t know much about houses
I know they have their own tribe, nothing else.”
b) “At first new, like babies
who play in the sun-drenched pavilions,
they embroider colored shutters and doors
shines during the day
when the architect is finished they change,
they frown or smile or even stubborn
with those who stayed with those who left
with others who would return if they could
or that were lost, now that it’s done
the world is a huge hotel.”

2. And second, “The Return of the Stranger,” from which I “borrow” the following three stanzas:

“My old friend, what are you doing?
You came after long years of separation
with the images you cherished
under a foreign sky
away from your place.
– turning over my old garden;
trees reach my waist
and the hills look like terraces
and yet as if I were a child
i played on the grass
under big shadows
and I ran down the slopes
long out of breath.
……………………………………
– My old friend, think about it.
you will slowly get used to it
nostalgia overwhelmed you
country without laws
from the earth and from the people.

B. As I said, these verses by Giorgos Seferis, which also refer to his homeland, Vurla of Smyrna, – as can be easily discerned in his so thick allegorical speech – “elevate”, by the way:

1. First of all, the pain caused by the horror of Genocide and Destruction to people and homes. Houses in which people grew up who were torn down and no longer exist, innocent victims of “spoilage” and “hospitality”. Houses that, when built, looked like “babies” who “play in the pergolas with the fringe of the sun.” And the houses that come to “the stubborn, with those who stayed, with those who left.”

2. And together “nosto”, like “delicious imar” for the lost, but not forgotten – this should never be – Motherland. And it is this nostalgia that “pushes” the “Kichli” houses to “stubborn” sometimes “with others who would return if they could.” Nostalgia, giving its answer to the question about the lyrics from the stanza “The Return of the Stranger”:

“My old friend, what are you doing?
You came after long years of separation
with the images you cherished
under a foreign sky
away from where you are.”

C. “Pain” and “nostros” “Kihli” and “return of the stranger” make Smyrna, I believe, similar to Giorgos Seferis’s “Sterna”, since his poem ends with the stanza:

“But the night does not believe in the dawn
and love lives to weave death
like a free soul
a cistern that teaches silence
in a blazing state.”

II. Lessons learned

Memories of the catastrophe in Asia Minor and the catastrophe in Smyrna are at the same time “multiple-prism” lessons, as mentioned above. Lessons of duty and life orientation for all Hellenism, and especially forever.

A. And the first lesson, which is also included in the context of our national issues and our national rights, is that at that time a terrible crime was committed in Asia Minor, a real “blot” on our History and Culture. , which had all the signs of the Genocide, with merciless rapists barbarian Turkish hordes. No one in the context of Hellenism has the right to ignore or even question this historical truth, which, in addition to irrefutable evidence, was “sealed” by the Greek Parliament by Law 2645/1998. A law by whose provisions the Genocide of the Hellenistic Asia Minor was officially recognized, at least as far as the Greek state was concerned, and September 14 of each year was established as the day of his remembrance.

B. The first lesson mentioned above is supplemented and extended by the second, which concerns the debt of Hellenism as a whole to the refugees who escaped the cruelty of the Genocide and settled in conditions that still inspire awe in the Motherland. A duty that must unceasingly respect the invaluable contribution of the strength of their soul and its creation during the Greek state from 1922 to the present day, as well as in the future.

1. If we want to be fair to our history, we must remember and reflect on the fact that centuries ago, between the VI and V centuries BC. not only – of course Greece. Because at that time some of the main representatives of the Pre-Socratics “crossed” the Aegean and came mainly to Athens, laying the foundations for the “flourishing” of the Greek Spirit. About the Free Greek Spirit, who, questioning all established information and knowledge, and therefore all “teachings”, began to search for the truth about the world around us and laid the foundations for the transition from information to Knowledge and from Knowledge to Wisdom, which refers to science. And indeed in Science, which, according to modern terminology, concerns both the positive and the humanities. And even this: It was that “glorious” path of the Greek Spirit, which decisively influenced the entire development of the Ancient Greek Civilization, so that today, without the slightest doubt, it is the first and main “pillar” of our pan-European Culture. , but also, more generally, Western civilization, as it “grows” from the institutional and political “root” of representative democracy, indispensable for basic human rights.

2. Returning to our time, I repeat the great historical truth that the refugees from Asia Minor who escaped the “fire and knife” of the Genocide:

a) First, having as a resource their brilliant creative past in the field of economics, they have made a significant and diverse contribution to the economic progress of Greece. Indeed, at a time when the economic situation of our country was in a dangerous stagnation, which touched or even went beyond the limits of decay. Even today, the “business” space in our Motherland is decorated with the names of many descendants of the Refugees during the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

b) And, secondly, they gave – just like our Ancestors in the 6th-5th centuries BC, as I said – a “life-giving” impetus to the Spiritual life of Greece, both at the scientific level and predominantly in the space of literature. It will suffice for me to mention here, in alphabetical order, the supreme literary contributions of some of these intellectual “kings” whose works have always fertilized our literary tradition: Tassos Athanasiadis, Elias Venezis, Stratis Doukas, Giorgos Theotokas, Maria Jordanidou, Fotis Kontoglou, George Sarantaris. , George Seferis, Dido Sotiriou. And so many others…

As an epilogue, and reminding us of the cost of the tragedy of Asia Minor and the catastrophe of Smyrna to the national division that preceded it, I must also note the following: all Greeks, inside and outside our borders, have an obligation to protect our national subjects and our national laws – therefore , our Motherland – in conditions of unity and full awareness of our history and our culture and with exclusive reference to international law and European law in their entirety. In addition, we must fight consistently and resolutely to put an end to the barbaric Turkish occupation of Martyr Cyprus as soon as possible and to resolve the Cyprus issue, as required by the status of the Republic of Cyprus as a full member state of the International Community and the European Union.”