The Hellenic Lyceum of Sydney held the official launch of Costa Vertzayias’ new book, 1922- Dispossessed and Uprooted, on Sunday, May 29 at the Greek Community Club in Lakemba.
The book launch, which was under the auspices of the Greek Festival of Sydney, was held to mark the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe this year.
On the night, formalities commenced with a welcome by the President of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW (GOCNSW), Harry Danalis. This was followed by two short videos depicting Smyrna before and after its destruction.
Guest speaker, Associate Professor Nicholas Doumanis from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), then reviewed the book saying: “it was a wonderful source of information that he wished he could have been able to reference when researching for his books.”
Mr Doumanis then introduced the author, Costa Vertzayias, who spoke about the causes of the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
Mr Vertzayias enthralled the audience with details about little-known topics such as the secret agreements to partition the Ottoman Empire, the effects of the Russian Revolution, the duplicitous role of Greece’s allies, the betrayal on the Smyrna waterfront and western complicity in the denial of the Christian Genocides – at which time a further video was shown.
The author then stressed the importance of applying pressure on the Australian Government to recognise the Genocides.
The book launch concluded with a Q&A session with Mr Vertzayias and audience members, moderated by Hellen Dimas. Lyceum President, Liana Vertzayias, then gave a vote of thanks, before attendees enjoyed rembetika songs and refreshments.
