100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe: ‘We plant 100 flowers, light 100 lanterns’, Chania 29th May, plus background information on the Greek Genocide

This event of honor and memory as part of the commemorative activities and events for the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe takes place on Sunday, 29^th May, at 7.00 p.m.

One hundred children and young people from Chania will plant flowers and light lanterns for the unforgettable Homelands at the Monument of Asia Minor, Kalogeri 1, Chania
Participation of  Arodamos, the Music and Dance Club of Chania .

Source: www.politikakritis.gr

Background information on he Greek Genocide, which is one of the darkest chapters in all of Greece’s long history.

• The Greek Genocide (or Ottoman Greek Genocide) refers to the systematic extermination of the native Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire before, during and after World War I (1914-1923).
  The Greek Genocide  was perpetrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas and by the government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire.
  It included massacres, forced deportations and death marches, summary expulsions, boycotts, rape, forced conversion to Islam, conscription into labor battalions, arbitrary executions and destruction of Christian Orthodox cultural, historical and religious monuments. The victim toll of the Greek Genocide was somewhere in the vicinity of 1 – 1.5 million.
  By late 1922, most of the Greeks of Asia Minor had either fled or had been killed. Those remaining were transferred to Greece under the terms of the later 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, which formalized the exodus and barred the return of the refugees.

• A Brief History of the Ottoman Greek Genocide (1914 – 1923)

Also interesting:

• How Ernest Hemingway Witnessed the Greek Genocide: