A Forgotten Armenian History on a Small Greek Island

Very interesting article. It reinforces my pride in be Armenian. My mother and her family were expelled from Izmir and ended up in the city Piraeus. I want to express my gratitude to the Greek people for the help they have to so many Armenians in that very dark period in Armenian history.

To the Turkish guy. It’s rather tragic and disgusting that the Turkish people deny the genocide Armenians Greeks and Assyrians. I as a very young boy actually spoke to a man who saw his whole family slaughtered by the Turks.
We have seen in 1821 the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church dragged out of the church and hung for several days.
We have seen the Turkish government initiated podgroms and forced deportations of Greeks in the 1950’s and 1965 . In 1950 10% of the population of Instanbul was Greek. Why not now. We are not talking about ancient history we are talking about recent events. Why is the Turkish army occupying Cyprus since 1974. You gloss over. The crimes of your government and people but your skate is stained by blood. Because your people do not acknowledge what they have done and until they do there will be no reconciliation.

Very interesting story of the Armenians in Corfu and the resiliency of the Armenian refugees. Finding a safe haven was fortunate and now we are seeing the same happening in Syria. When will it end and why is it even happening?
With respect to a respondent and the request for what happened to the Armenians and Greeks and Jews to be forgotten without recognition is for most hard to do. The commemoration of the genocide has had the Forget Me Not flower as a symbol of remembrance for the lives lost . Such an event is not easily forgotten. Can folks move on? Yes, but under the circumstances it would be asking much for them to forget. The loss of so many lives unnecessarily is unacceptable under any circumstances and using war as an excuse does not work either. One party is the aggressor and in this situation it was the army following the orders of the Pasha Brothers to annihilate millions of the non-Islamic populations of Turkey who had cohabited with the Islamic population in Turkey for so many years. It is sort of like someone moving into your house and taking it over and not letting you get it back nor return. When such an event occurs it would be difficult for those people to return under any circumstances. Do you think the Syrians who fled Syria from Assad’s attacks would return, not possible why would they? I am sure many survivors have family that remained, like some in my Mon’s family, due to being in big cities like Istanbul where there were foreign populations. Those in the interior took the brunt as the Turkish military refrain from attacking those in the larger cities.
There are among the Turkish population those who expect survivors and their families to forgive and forget and deny/ignore the truth. Not possible, although many survivors choose to not discuss what happened, who wants to recall such an event. My father never did and never voiced said much. Genocide and war are political events and do have solutions.
My father was an Armenian orphan on Corfu in 1918 immigrating to the US. in the mid twenties having lost his family in the genocide. I have been to Istanbul its a nice city and the islands are peaceful. When we arrived and they looked at my Dad’s passport and saw where he was born he was asked why it took him so long to return. It is unfortunate that the Turkish government does not acknowledge history considering that so many of these people had inhabited Anatolia for centuries. My father’s village in Sepastia had been a Catholic enclave for centuries even though the Armenians were orthodox. Wars are caused due to religion, ethnicity and whatever else. Governments create problems and who suffers, the average citizen who just wants to work and enjoy life. War has never solved a problem and hopefully the likes of those who have incited wars should not be celebrated. No one celebrates Hitler. If some in Turkey prefer Armenians and others to deny the events of the genocide then one could say they were lucky to have survived, yet the weight of losing family was difficult. My mother was born in Gesaria while my grandfather had immigrated to the US sensing concerns I guess after the Hamidian massacre. My grandmother and my Mom, who was an infant, were able to get to Aleppo safely. The plus for those who survived was they were allowed to build a new life, succeed with hard work contributing to their new homeland, These survivors were able to gather together sing , dance, dine and enjoy life even though they had witnessed horrific events.
A BIT OF HISTORY—
“The House of Seljuk was a branch of the Kınık Oğuz Turks who resided on the periphery of the Muslim world, in the Yabgu Khaganate of the Oğuz confederacy, to the north of the Caspian and Aral Seas, in the 9th century. In the 10th century, the Seljuks began migrating from THEIR ancestral homeland into Persia, which became the administrative core of the Great Seljuk Empire, after its foundation by Tughril.

In the latter half of the 11th century, the Seljuk Turks began penetrating into medieval Armenia and the eastern regions of Anatolia. In 1071, the Seljuks defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, starting the Turkification of the area; the Turkish language and Islam were introduced to Armenia and Anatolia, gradually spreading throughout the region. The slow transition from a predominantly Christian and Greek-speaking Anatolia to a predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking one was underway. The Mevlevi Order of dervishes, was established in Konya during the 13th century by Sufi poet Celaleddin Rumi, playing a significant role in the Islamization of the diverse people of Anatolia who had previously been Hellenized. So with the Turkification of the territory, the culturally Persianized Seljuks set the basis for a Turko-Persian principal culture in Anatolia, establishing Ottomans succession.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

This famous statement has produced many paraphrases and variants:
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them.
Those who do not know history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
There is a similar quote by Edmund Burke (in Revolution in France) that often leads to misattribution: “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”

Mr. Erdogan wanted to attack the Kurds in Syria, Trump pulled American forces back, Turkish forces moved into Syria displacing thousands resulting in the American Congress acknowledging the genocide. The American Congress displeased with Trump’s and Erdogan’s actions sent a message. Turkey chose insincere aggression when Erdogan also confers with Russia, a non-NATO nation.
It is sad to see so much strife in the Middle East, the Bush administration made a serious mistake in its aggression into Iraq unnecessarily all because of oil. Aggression by any nation is unacceptable.