The Pontic Greeks
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General Mahmut Şevket Paşa (1856-1913), the Ottoman Commander-in-Chief, tells Orthodox Patriarch Ioakeim III (1834-1912), Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, in June 1909: "We will cut off your heads, we will make you all disappear." |
This sonnet is composed of the ashes of my heart
It is about the genocide of a community torn apart.
Over a million Greeks were exterminated by Turks.
Pontic Greeks had been settled by the Black sea
For over 3000 years. Some Greeks fled from Pontus
And climbed the Pontic mountain to resist the genocide
With guns captured from the Turks. Women and Men
Worked and fought together to resist the Turks.
Captain Eleni was the last Greek guerrilla leader to fight
The Turks. She fought all the way to 1924, a whole year
After the few surviving Pontic Greeks were supposed
To leave for Greece. Her son had been murdered by Turks
In front of her eyes, she had refused to leave her homeland.
The last atrocities took place in Sanda, ‘the soul of Pontus’.
