This conference aims to view the 1912-1924 period through a new lens on the occasion of the centennial of the Smyrna fire and the near total elimination of the Greeks from Asia Minor. This conference also aims to review the current state of genocide research, highlighting both its successes and shortcomings.

Thursday, December 1, 2022 to Sunday, December 4, 2022

The conference's participants will explore and compare various perspectives on how different ethno-religious communities of Asia Minor experienced their near total elimination in the early 20th century, their intercommunal relations, and the end of a lengthy period of coexistence and the practices associated with it. While working to cast new eyes on the destruction of the past, the conference ultimately aims to build a new conversation regarding the future. The past is not simply history; it is also a potential prologue to a better future. For such a future it is critical that we first engage in new conversations about the past.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Opening Remarks (6:30am PT)

Keynote: Dirk Moses, Genocide: Insights and Blindness of a “Crime of Crimes” (7:30-8:30am PT)

Session 1: Human Rights and Mass Atrocities Studies Overview (9:00-10:20am)

Friday, December 2, 2022

Session 1: Balkan Wars and the Aftermath (11:00pm-12:40am PT)

Session 2: First World War Experiences (1:00-2:20am PT)

Session 3: First World War and Pontus (5:00-6:40am PT)

Session 4: First World War and Destruction (7:00-8:20am PT)

Keynote by Ioannis Bougas, the Stance of the Orthodox Church during the Ottoman Greeks Genocide (1922).

Saturday, December 3, 2022

Session 1: Wars and Displacements (11:00pm-12:20am PT)

Session 2: The Smyrna Catastrophe (12:40-2:20am PT)

Session 3: After the Catastrophe (2:40-4:00am PT)

Session 4: Toward New Perspectives (5:00-6:20am PT)

Keynote: Mark Levene, A Paradigm Shift? (6:40-7:40am PT)

Click here for the conference livestream

Webinar number: 2744 932 9814

Webinar password: minedu

See the full program for event details.

Download file: PROGRAM-za-nfp.pdf

Sponsor(s): Sponsored by the General Secretary for Religious Affairs of the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and the Holy Metropolis of Messinia, co-sponsored by the Armenian Genocide Research Program at the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute and the Chair of Pontic Studies, School of History and Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.