Two Philhellenes to be honored

Two  Philhellenes to be honored.

1.Henry Morgenthau

Henry Morgenthau has been born in Germany and immigrated to America in 1866. He studied law. He worked as a lawyer and then dealt with real estate operations.

From 1913 until 1916 he served as U.S. ambassador in Istanbul - where after the eruption of A World War - he represented the interests of the countries belonging to the Entente. As an ambassador he tried to save Christian peoples from the genocide.  In 1923 he was appointed by the League of Nations as a Chairman of the Committee of Rehabilitation of Refugees in Athens, Greece and worked on the improvement of their living conditions.

Morgenthau wrote a number of books. Some of the most important books are “History of the Ambassador Morgenthau”, “Secrets of Bosporus”, “My Mission in Athens”.

2.Felix Sartieau

Felix Sartieau (1876-1944), French engineer and archaeologist, was the first who organized archaeological excavations in Fokea, Asia Minor in 1912. He is not only unknown to the general Greek public but also in the society, I am afraid, to those are scholars on historical studies. Being one of the greatest lovers of Ionia, his scientific and humanitarian work had the support of the Archibishop of Smyrna Chrysostomos. During the 1914’s persecution in Fokea, its local population found its protector and defender. That was the French archaeologist. Under the flag of the French Republic raised in his house in Fokea, people from the city found a hiding place before they abandoned their homeland. In 1919-1920 Felix Sartieau returned to Fokea and alongside the continuation of his scientific project, he started gathering evidence and witnesses for the persecution’s events during which local people had suffered.

This material ( photographs and written documents) have been identified in Paris in a leather suitcase by Mr. Haris Giakoumis, Researcher. Part   of this material e.g.  120 photos, Greek and French texts of the era, books and other documents have been presented in the Exhibition Center of Rizarios Foundation (Monodendri Ioannina).

Rizarios Foundation, chaired by the Smyrnean Professor of the University of Athens Mr. Nicholas Choulis, and in co-production with the publishing Co Kallimages, Paris France and the Community of Palaia Fokea Attica, Greece have published a luxurious 320-page volume. The book includes 200 photos and a number of texts of Felix Sartieau as well as texts written by Haris Giakoumis, Antoine Hermaty, French archaeologist and Manolis Tsalikidis.

ET / 16 October 2008