CANA CALLS FOR ASSERTIVE ADVOCACY AT PONTUS AND ASIA MINOR GENOCIDE CONFERENCE

For Immediate Release: May 17, 2008

Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, New York, Tel. 1-917-699-9935

“We must challenge the status quo with coalition building, media attention, and
bold public action to make the world aware of our suffering” –CANA Press
Officer, Nikolaos Taneris

NEW YORK—The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) stressed the need to focus
on gaining media attention, and on printing Pontian Genocide scholarship in the
English language with the overall goal of an all out effort to engage the
Diaspora in advocacy for worldwide recognition of the Genocide of Asia Minor and
Pontus, during the initial Catastrophe in Asia Minor and Pontus conference, held
in Chicago from May 9-10.

CANA Press Officer Nikolaos Taneris, in his remarks, to the opening session of
the conference, attended by the top scholars and community leaders on the
Pontian Question from throughout the Diaspora, emphasized “the need to mobilize
and inspire a new generation to work to gain influence in political spheres ,
to build an assertive identity that will challenge our opponents” , Taneris
added “We must challenge the status quo with coalition building, media
attention, and bold public action to make the world aware of our suffering”

In closing remarks Taneris achieved a consensus amongst some panelists for the
need for scholarship in English, in particular, the importance of releasing
Pontian Genocide scholarship in English, so Academics, and educators can
understand and carry our message, as can the non-Hellenic press, which are most
important in advancing our cause.

Participating in the conference, which featured remarks from a wide range of
Hellenic organizations, was Dr. Theofanis Stavrou the professor of history at
University of Minnesota and founding editor of Modern Greek Studies Yearbook. He
is also the general editor of Nostos, A series of monographs in modern Greek
history and culture. Dr. Stavrou was born in Dhiorios in Kyrenia, and emphasized
his own personal familiarity of displacement, from his tragic first-hand
experiences with the criminal Turkish military- invasion of our Cyprus homeland.
The experiences of Cyprus brought him to the scholarship on the Pontian
Genocide, which includes a soon to be released review of Pontian Genocide
scholar Fotiades’ work.

Other participants were Dr. Harry Psomiades the professor emeritus of political
science at Queens College, and founder and director of the Queens College center
for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies from 1974-2004, Dr. William H. Samonides
a Harvard University scholar and PHD who has devoted himself to the
reconstruction of the Pontian Hellenic community in his hometown of Canton,
Ohio. Professor Ellene S. Phufas of SUNY—Erie Community College, who is a
second-generation Arcadian Hellene, presented on the realities of Greek to
English translation, Prof. Phufas has completed the translation from Greek to
English of NOUMERO 31328: THE BOOK OF SLAVERY a memoir by Asia Minor Genocide
survivor Ilias Venezis.

Michalis Charalambidis, member of the executive Committee of the International
League for the Rights and Liberations of People, renowned Hellenic politician
and intellectual, was denied entry to the US at the airport in Chicago, on the
Tuesday before the conference. Reportedly, Charalambidis has a proper visa and
for , as yet, unexplained reasons was denied entry, some speculation was raised
that this may be the result of a Turkish smear campaign targeting Charalambidis
for his advocacy for Genocide awareness, which the Turkish government denies. If
these speculations prove to be true, they would symbolize a serious breach of
intellectual freedom, if the US did indeed bow to Turkey’s Genocide denial
campaign, by not allowing this conference participant into the US.

George Shirinian, the Executive Director of the International Institute for
Genocide and Human Rights Studies, a division of the Zoryan Institute, provided
expert advice and commentary on the practical needs and efforts of a serious
academic institute devoted to research, publication and education in the fields
of Genocide Studies and Diaspora Studies. A major overall goal of this initial
conference is the founding of serious academic institute devoted to Pontus and
Asia Minor Genocide, in the Diaspora.

The two-day conference was hosted by the United Hellenic American Congress, the
Federation of Hellenic American Organizations “Enosis”, the Pan-Pontian
Federation of USA and CANADA and the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago, and
sponsored as well by Mr. Chris P. Tomaras, Chairman of the Pan Hellenic
Scholarship Foundation.

CANA invites Hellenes, in the homeland and throughout the Diaspora, to share
their views regarding these remarks by writing to cana@cyprusactionnetwork.org

To view and download a picture of conference participants, visit this page,
available on our homepage titled “Photos of Participants at The Catastrophe in
Asia Minor and Pontus Conference”: http://cyprusactionnetwork.org/photos_of_participants_at_the_catastrophe_in_asia_minor_and_pontus_conference