By Stavros Stavridis M.A and Constantine G. Hatzidimitriou, Ph.D.
We were saddened to learn of the death of George Mavropoulos last week in Chicago. George was a treasure, a visionary, a true Greek patriot, a great family man who did so much to make the Hellenic Genocide known within the US and internationally.
He was the Founder and President of The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Centre (AMPHRC) which organised international conferences, published scholarly books, and produced study guides about the Greek Genocide. George was very proud of his Pontian heritage and did so much to advance the knowledge of the Hellenic Genocide.
We knew George since the early 2000s where we collaborated on several projects which came into fruition. We discussed our projects through Zoom and Skype over the years, which bridged the tyranny of distance between Melbourne, Australia and Chicago, Illinois. He was available whenever we wanted to speak to him and was very generous with his time. George added our name to the Centre’s advisory board, which we considered a great honour.
We participated in two international conferences in 2012 and 2015. In the former one, we presented our paper through Skype on a cold Melbourne winter’s morning at 1.30 am. Momentarily we lost connection but still managed to deliver most of our paper. At the second conference held in New York, we were treated like royalty. The organisation of the 2015 conference was first class. It was in New York that we met George for the first time. He was so happy to meet us and we have never forgotten his radiant smile. He made us feel welcome.
We are honoured to have contributed several book chapters to some of the Centre’s first-class publications. These books have contributed and advanced the knowledge of the Hellenic Genocide. George always invited the best scholars in Genocide studies. We were honoured to meet some of them in New York.
We are executive members of the Australian Institute of Macedonian Studies where our centre in Melbourne collaborated with AMPHRC in screening the documentary Lethal Nationalism in Australia. The documentary had its premier screening in May of this year to a large audience. We introduced the documentary as a representative of our Chicago Centre.
George has left an incredible legacy for us to follow and continue the work on our Greek Genocide. We hope the young generation will be inspired to follow George’s example by researching and expanding our knowledge in this little-known issue.
George, we will miss our conversations which at times had their funny moments and we are inspired to continue your legacy. Thank you for being our friend and your absence has left a big hole in our life. May your memory be eternal.
As Stavro has noted above, last week Hellenism lost one of its greatest proponents and precious assets. George Mavropoulos was unique within Greek America because unlike most of our community-based organisations, his Centre’s efforts to promote the recognition of the Genocide was highly collaborative and broad based. From the beginning he realised that in order to be effective, the Centre should include and collaborate with Armenian and Jewish scholars and organisations, as well as with Turkish scholars who shared common goals and experiences. The result was an outstanding relationship over many years with Jewish scholars such as Dr. Paul Bartrop, Turkish scholars like Taner Akcam, and Armenian scholars such as George Shirinian, among others.
George was also a passionate Pontian, who loved his homeland’s language, history and culture, yet he realised that the Pontian genocide was part of Hellenism’s Asia Minor and Thrace’s genocidal Ottoman history and so he included them in a wholistic approach to the subject. This approach is not only reflected in the Centre’s title, but in the publications, conferences and lectures that he organised.
For example, his 100-year commemoration of the destruction of Smyrna event was held at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and included lectures by Dr. Bartrop who flew in from Australia, Dr. Shirinian who came in from the Armenian Zoryan Institute in Canada and me (Dr. Hatzidimitriou) from New York. He also actively involved as many sectors of the community as possible. For example, we were privileged to be included in his outreach to the public and private school teachers of Chicago through our collaboration on workshops and teaching guides designed to make Pontian, Asia Minor history and the genocide better known.
George was always tireless and devoted to our national issues despite his lengthy health challenges, and not only expended a great deal of time and effort to these causes but also contributed generously of his own financial resources.
We are thankful that he lived to see the recent completion of two of his long-term projects, a documentary film named Lethal Nationalism that includes a virtual “who’s who” of international authorities on the Hellenic genocide, as well as the publication of a selection of eyewitness testimonies from the Asia Minor Center in Athens, that appear in English for the first time.
George continued to work on documenting and making the genocide better known up until the last moment of his life by collaborating with professor Akcam of UCLA who will be publishing documents from the Ottoman archives under the auspicious of the Centre.
His body of work, adherence to the highest academic standards, and uncompromising devotion to truth and a balanced perspective, is a legacy unmatched by any other individual or Greek American organisation.
Our dear friend knew that his time was short, and as we discussed I know that he made arrangements that the work that he devoted his life to would be continued. His example is not only a model for those who will now lead the Centre, but for every other organisation that aspire to contribute to the history of Hellenism and our national issues. Going forward with the integrity and vision that he pioneered is the best way to honour his memory.
