In his book “Thessaloniki 1912-2012. The Overwhelming Century”, the journalist Fedon Giagkiozis vividly describes the multicultural background of Thessaloniki before and after its liberation, that lead to a totally new chapter in the city’s history.
This year Thessaloniki is commemorating 100 years since its liberation from the Ottomans. This century was marked by significant events that defined today’s “identity” of the great Greek city.
During the past century, Thessaloniki – a city where Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities peacefully co-existed under Ottoman rule – presented a basic feature: the arrival of emigrants and the administrative pressure applied by the authoritative Athens, that considered itself “the centre of the world” as the author implies .
Reminding the readers that during the last century the so called “Great Powers” of Europe tried to “bargain” the city – often to Balkan leaders – the author points out that nowadays Thessaloniki has an increased population and has thus become stronger.
It took him ten years of historical research and study of archives or reports regarding every period, so as to create this vast, unique book, that is accompanied by 800 photographs of the city, its people and its important events.
Fedon Giagkiozis writes about every unpredictable fascinating event that occurred across the decades of that century after the liberation, concluding that none of them succeeded in altering the Balkan mentality features of the city and that no city can ever lose its “memory”.
With this commemorative volume, Giagkiozis is trying to give some answers to a plethora of questions, such as what happened after the city’s liberation, what influence did the emigrants from Asia Minor, the Black Sea, the Eastern Rumelia and the rest of the Hellenic communities exert on the ‘identity’ of Thessaloniki and what is the city’s “European” role in today’s financial crisis?
Giagkiozis’ book will be officially presented this afternoon in the lecture hall of the Society of Macedonian Studies.
(Source: ana-mpa)
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