Starting in 1914 the Young Turks began a systematic campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing of the Greeks of Eastern Thrace and western Asia Minor. This campaign continued until 1922 with deportations and massacres of the Greeks in other areas of Asia Minor. The defeat of the Greek Army and the destruction of Smyrna in 1922 ended the 2,700-year presence of Greeks in Anatolia.
The lecture will be based on the book of the same title which is a collection of previously unpublished documents of the US Navy.
Savvas “Sam” Koktzoglou is a retired Mechanical Engineer. He received his engineering degrees from Villanova University and the University of Pennsylvania. During his career he worked in senior level engineering positions in both the private and public sectors in Greece and the United States. Prior to his engineering career he served as a second lieutenant in the Greek Army Reserve special forces. Sam is on the Board of Directors of a number of nonprofit organizations in the Chicago area. He is an avid reader of Greek history with special interest in the history of Asia Minor. Sam is the co-author of The Greek Genocide in American Naval War Diaries. Sam’s parents were refugees from Asia Minor who settled in Greece in 1922.