By Nick Stamatakis
I was born in Kokkinia (Nikea) of Pireaus, a town wholly built after 1922, almost exclusively by refugees from Asia Minor, many of them from Smyrna… The main street of my neighborhood, one block away from my house, was called “Chrysostom of Smyrna Street”, after the martyred Metropolitan of Smyrna – now a Saint of the Orthodox Church… At the time of the “1922 Catastrophe”, the city was the true “Paris of the Eastern Mediterranean”, a cosmopolitan city dominated by Greeks and Greek Culture for about 3,000 years… Ancient Greek science and philosophy were not born in classical Athens, but they began in the geographical area around Smyrna… The city was destroyed by the barbarian Turks as the “civilized” western Navies were watching people die just a few hundred feet away from the Smyrna shores as the city was burning!! Smyrna at the time of the disaster, was as cosmopolitan as any European capital, with its own Opera House and even an American College!!
I got my first taste of Smyrna at age 4 or 5 when visiting the house of Dina, my mother’s best friend, a native “Smyrnia”, a beauty beyond description, where the regular dessert was “pergamonto”, a spoon sweet made of unique orange peels… Six decades later, I still have the taste of pergamonto in my mouth… Among so many other wonderful tastes… Smyrna’s cuisine was and is superior to any European cuisine and is incorporated today in Greek cuisine and even more in Turkish cuisine… Still today, in my native neighborhood, there are some remnants of houses the Smyrna refugees built, following the architectural style of Smyrna (see below): Diagonal external stairways leading to balconies – I remember them filled with jasmine and all kinds of flower pots… The refugees brought their culture with them and soon filled our neighborhood with cinemas and theaters, restaurants, and bookstores…
I will have a very emotional night this Thursday evening as the acclaimed historic drama “Smyrna My Beloved” will hit 700 theaters nationwide for one night only… Some of us are determined to continue the fight for the recognition of the Hellenic Genocides. Three years ago, we had an initial victory as we recognized the Hellenic Genocides in the first paragraph of the Congress Resolution of the Armenian Genocides (HR 296)… I am proud to say that my son Andreas, an intern at congressman Bilirakis’ office that year, had a role to play in this momentous event. But the words of the people I grew up with still ring in my ears, demanding justice…
YOU CAN SEE THE OFFICIAL TRAILER BELOW… For tickets or a list of participating theaters and screening times, visit Fathom Events* For group sales, click here
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This looks like an excellent movie. I have visited this city in the nineties. I remember very well the sweet orange peel dessert. It is delicious as all Greek food is.
The Smyrna movie is a powerful film that stirs the emotions and shows to the world the advanced society the Greeks had created in Anatolia and the crimes of humanity committed upon them by the Turks.
I credit the Greeks for their high production values in the treatment of this grave chapter in human history. It’s a story the Greeks must tell
I invite the readers of this website to visit the movie’s IMDB entry and downvote the misinformation campaign being waged in the comments section by those with an anti Greek agenda.