SAE U.S.A - World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE)

National Issues are always a priority in organized Omogeneia. At a time when we face challenges on many fronts, it is necessary to marshal our forces and to coordinate our efforts for the successful outcome. Remembering history, protecting the truth and laying a claim on our rights as expressed in our positions on national issues remain the goals of Hellenism in America. Paramount among those issues is the cruel genocide perpetrated upon the Hellenes of Pontos and Asia Minor.

            The USA Region of SAE continues its work to achieve international recognition of the genocide in which more than 353,000 Pontian Hellenes were exterminated and more than 1,500,000 Hellenes were uprooted from the communities they created over many centuries.

            SAE / USA supports every initiative of the PanPontian Federation of America and of every other entity that aims to inform the world about the morally just and historically correct struggles of the Pontians.

            Within this framework and in order to inform and sensitize the new generations of the international community, the Hellenic American National Council published again the book “The Blight of Asia” by George Horton, American Consul General in Smyrna at the time of the Genocide. The book has been dedicated “To the Eternal memory of Pontians, Armenians and the City of Smyrna,” and carries the notation that “We may forgive but we will never forget.”

            As our struggle continues we now support the initiative of “The Center for Macedonian Studies” and we proceed with the publication of the book “Before the Silence” by researcher Sofia Kostas.

            Mrs. Kostas researched the book for many years and collected published information and the dispatches of American and European press from 1867 to 1924 which provide an account of the tremendous crimes against Hellenism in Pontos and Asia Minor, and against the Assyrians and the Armenians.  In these dispatches, journalists from various countries issue appeals to governments of all nations to stop the butchering of innocent civilians.

Congresswoman Carolyn Malony – along with distinguished American professors and in cooperation with SAE / USA, the Pan-Pontian Federation, the Pan Macedonian Association and Armenian organizations in the U.S. – will distribute this significant historical work to all members of the U.S. Congress.

            History should be taught not with the aim of cultivating hate and revenge, but for the purpose of providing knowledge and sensitizing the world so that it may be ready for the future.

Theodore G. Spyropoulos

Coordinator SAE / USA