We are again at this point in the year, especially with Christmas toay, when we look back and remember the Greek people of Smyrna, and recall the sacrifices that they made. Those unfortunate people who never left their beloved homelands, leaving their final agonizing breaths in their Smyrna, and, those more fortunate who left with only the clothes on their back, largely never to return to their birthplace, a centre of Hellenism for many years.
The 92nd Year Commemoration of the Smyrna Greek Genocide, Great Fire of Smyrna, and the Asia Minor Catastrophe is always an occasion mixed with much pain, consternation, but, on the other hand, the belief that the human spirit can overcome insurmountable odds, and emerge victorious. I do believe that Turkey has indeed come a long way since Mustapha Kemal's armies arrived and turned Smyrna into an unspeakable heap of ash and untold human misery. Turkey still does have a long way to go in terms of human rights and the proper recognition of their past, in order to become a European country in the way that they believe they should be.
The current president of the country appears to be a man of more integrity, subtlety, and much more nous than many of his predecessors, and recognizes that the country has a deep Greek history. He does not seem to have the overwhelming hatred of Greek people that plagued Kemal, a man born in Greece, who, from what I comprehend, was never a person to negotiate, but just take, a universal problem everywhere, which only has negative repercussions, the Smyrna events of 1922 a prime example.
It is a shame that this event ever occurred, but, the past cannot be undone. It also, unfortunately, exposed the seedy, and uncompromising, underbelly of Europe, in the way that the whole situation played out with many European countries firstly on Greece's side, then defecting to the Turkish side, which is a pattern that plagues Europe whenever Greece is in trouble. It is representative of a lack of culture on their part, and that the decimation of Greek culture will only take attention away from their deficiencies. It is hoped that something can be learned from this situation so that it does not occur again, and that people can live together in peace, and harmony, which would have been the wish of the soulful, clever, and unique Greek citizens of Smyrna.
