Sofia Kontogeorge Kostos, author of “Before the Silence: Archival News Reports of the Christian Holocaust That Begs To Be Remembered” will give a lecture on the subject of her new book and answer to any questions from the audience. The book is a collection of newspaper reports documenting the massacres and genocides of Greeks, Armenians and Assyrian minorities who inhabited Asia Minor over many millennia by the Ottoman Turks and later by the New Turks and Kemalists. These reports emanating from English language sources show that there was a systematic and organized campaign by Turkish authorities to eliminate all traces of the memories of these minorities from the face of the earth thus creating the first ethnic cleansing in the history of man.Before the Silence” will serve as a permanent reminder that the many massacres starting from 1822, and the genocides carried out during the years 1914-23 are a crime against humanity and the memories of the victims should never be forgotten but respected and remembered.
After the lecture, Pan-Macedonian Studies Center will host the acclaimed documentary “In the Footsteps of the Argonauts” a powerful historical documentary that follows the fortunes of the GreΣύνδεσμοςeks living on the Black Sea, with particular emphasis on the City of Trebizond. Trebizond (Trabzon in modern Turkey) was not only the longest surviving of the Byzantine successor states, but also a symbol of the Greek communities which have lived and thrived on the shores of the Black Sea since the 8th century BC. Guided by renowned Greek actor Kostas Arzoglou, (himself a descendant of the area), as well as with the help of an international team of experts from Greece, Cyprus and the UK, In the Footsteps of the Argonauts is the first systematic effort to audio-visually record the memory, tradition and history of the Eastern Pontus.
May 23 at 7 p.m. at the Pan-Macedonian Study Center
149-14 14th Avenue, Whitestone, NY 11357–1730
Tel.: 718.747.0488
Fax: 718.747.0489