Tο ΚAΛAMI | Διχαστικές, αντι-ελληνικές θέσεις σε βιβλίο καθηγητή
«'Eλληνες ενωθείτε εναντίον του κοινού εχθρού, εναντίον του μίσους, της διχόνοιας και της διαίρεσης, που είναι ό ίδιος μας ο εαυτός» - Θ. ΚΟΛΟΚΟΤΡΩΝΗΣ-
Στο κάτω κάτω η Εκκλησία δεν είναι λέσχη αγίων, είναι νοσοκομείο αμαρτωλών
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Γιά "να λέγονται τα πράγματα με τ' όνομά τους"		 Ο Χριστός έδιωξε του έμπορους από τον ναό. Οι έμποροι έγιναν πιο έξυπνοι και φόρεσαν ράσα
Χ. Σαφρίν
"They (the Nazis) wiped out Salonica's Jews while the Greek city fathers looked the other way, more worried about keeping out the Bulgarians than saving their fellow citizens"... "The Nazis may have run the gas chambers, but it was the city government which paved over the Jewish cemetery to build a university".
Θεσσαλονίκη: Φιλοϊσραηλινές, διχαστικές, αντι-ελληνικές θέσεις σε βιβλίο καθηγητή
H μυωπία (ή ηθελημένη διαστρέβλωση των γεγονότων;) των ελληνικών ΜΜΕ, με την φανερή  τους άγνοια γιά το περιεχόμενο του βιβλίου... Εκδήλωση παρουσίασής του στην συμπρωτεύουσα και προβολή του από 'Ελληνες επιχειρηματίες (Κόκκαλης), πολιτικούς (Ψωμιάδης)... Τα κύρια σημεία του βιβλίου, ένα άρθρο σε αμερικάνικη εφημερίδα και μερικές παρατηρήσεις.

'Οχι μόνο δίχασε το ακροατήριό του στην Θεσσαλονίκη στις 15 Ιουνίου, στην κατάμεστη αίθουσα του κινηματογράφου «Ολύμπιον», ο καθηγητής Ιστορίας του Πανεπιστημίου «Columbia» της Νέας Υόρκης Μαρκ Μαζόουερ, με αφορμή την έκδοση του βιβλίου του με τίτλο «Θεσσαλονίκη, η πόλη των φαντασμάτων: Χριστιανοί, Μουσουλμάνοι και Εβραίοι, 1430-1950», αλλά διατυπώνει και φιλοεβραϊκές, αντι-ελληνικές απόψεις (στο βιβλίο του). Η ομιλία του αναφερόταν στην πολυπολιτισμικότητα της πόλης, την εποχή που ήταν τμήμα της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας.

«Το επιστημολογικό πλαίσιο που χρησιμοποιεί ο Μ. Μαζάουερ είναι πλήρως εσφαλμένο», είπε στην παρέμβασή του ο κοινωνιολόγος Κώστας Ζουράρις κι ενδεικτικό του κλίματος στο ακροατήριο ήταν το γεγονός ότι άλλοι τον χειροκρότησαν και άλλοι έκφρασαν δυσαρέσκεια. Επεσήμανε ότι δεν υπήρξε πολυπολιτισμικότητα στην οθωμανική Θεσσαλονίκη, γιατί απλούστατα επρόκειτο για μια στρατιωτική κυριαρχία των οθωμανών σε βάρος των Ελλήνων χριστιανών.

Παράπονα έφρασε και ο πρόεδρος της αρμενικής Κοινότητας, επειδή ο Μαζόουερ δεν αναφέρθηκε στους Αρμένιους της Θεσσαλονίκης. Ο καθηγητής αναγνώρισε την παράλειψή του και, με αφορμή το βιβλίο του με τίτλο «Θεσσαλονίκη, η πόλη των φαντασμάτων: Χριστιανοί, Μουσουλμάνοι και Εβραίοι, 1430-1950», χαρακτήρισε τη Θεσσαλονίκη «πόλη-καλειδοσκόπιο διαφορετικών θρησκειών και χρωμάτων». Είπε ότι μ' εξαίρεση το 1821, που σφαγιάστηκαν 5.000 Ελληνες, δεν υπήρχαν στεγανά μεταξύ των τριών βασικών κοινοτήτων, ενώ είχε αναπτυχθεί και διάλογος μεταξύ παπάδων, ραβίνων και ιμάμηδων.

Η εκδήλωση έγινε με πρωτοβουλία του «Ιδρύματος Κόκκαλη» και του Αμερικανικού Κολεγίου. Χαιρετισμό στην εκδήλωση απηύθυναν ο νομάρχης Θεσσαλονίκης, Παναγιώτης Ψωμιάδης και ο αντιπρόεδρος του Ιδρύματος Κόκκαλη, Πέτρος Κόκκαλης, μιλώντας κολακευτικά γιά τον συγγραφέα και το βιβλίο, ενώ παρέστη και ο δήμαρχος Τιράνων, Εντι Ράμα.

Επισημαίνουμε το γεγονός ότι τουλάχιστον οι δύο μεγαλύτερες σε κυκλοφορία εφημερίδες, στα σχετικά δημοσιεύματά τους (ΤΑ ΝΕΑ) και η (Ελευθεροτυπία), αλλά και  "Η Καθημερινή", όπως, επίσης και τα κρατικά Πρακτορεία, "Αθηναϊκό" και "Μακεδονικό", δεν κάνουν οποιαδήποτε αναφορά στις φιλοεβραϊκές, αντι-ελληνικές αναφορές του καθηγητή στο βιβλίο του.

Να σημειώσουμε ότι οι παρευρεθέντες στην εκδήλωση ή οι γράφοντες στα παραπάνω και άλλα ΜΜΕ, φαίνεται ότι δεν έχουν διαβάσει το βιβλίο ή αγνοούν τα βασικά σημεία του. Μερικά από αυτά ακολουθούν:

Το βιβλίο και οι αναφορές του
Η εφημερίδα "Miami Herald" στις 8 Μαίου 2005, έγραψε:
«History- THE RISE AND DECLINE OF A HAUNTED CITY; A port on the Aegean Sea was a model of successful diversity until nationalist passions wiped out its multi-ethnic atmosphere.
by Anne Bartlett
Oh, sure, the Ottoman Empire's government was often corrupt, and it lurched between violent aggression and lassitude. But compared to the nationalist and religious excesses of its successor states in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, its centuries of relatively peaceful ethnic co-existence have a certain appeal.

A case in point: Salonica, now known as Thessaloniki, the ancient city on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea, today in Greece, but for much of its history a significant Ottoman port. Salonica was at its best, economically and culturally, when it was part of a multi-ethnic empire. Yet for decades during the 20th century, city leaders tried to stamp out that legacy under the pretense that it had never been anything but Greek. Its rise, flowering and ugly decline are ably described by historian Mark Mazower in his new book , "Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430 - 1950 (Alfred A. Knopf, 474 pages, $35.00)."

Mazower, a Columbia University professor and author of previous history on the Balkans, is a champion of the cosmopolitan. He tells his history with sweep, but doesn't neglect the human side. The book's sympathies lie with the ordinary people of all communities, uprooted by forces beyond their control.

The Salonica described by Mazower was both made and unmade by massive population displacements: the ouster of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and the expulsion of the Greeks from Turkey in the 1920s. Both groups migrated to Salonica and changed everything when they did.

The city flourished during the centuries when the Jews were the largest part of the population, ruled by Muslims, living on reasonable terms with smaller Greek and Bulgarian Christian communities. South Florida's Cuban exiles will be among those touched by Mazower's evocation of the disposed Sephardim holding on for generations to their medieval Spanish, naming their streets and synagogues after their lost homes.

While city life was marked by the usual odd Ottoman mixture of tolerance and hostility, the blend was successful more often than not. "As late as the First World War", writes Mazower, "Salonican boot-blacks commanded a working knowledge of six or seven languages".

But the nationalist fervor of the late 19th century led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century. Greece took Salonica and pushed out the Muslims. Turkey pushed out its Greeks, and thousands of refugees moved into Salonica. The erasure of the city's polyglot past began.

What the Greek - Turkish conflict began, the Nazis finished. They wiped out Salonica's Jews while the Greek city fathers looked the other way, more worried about keeping out the Bulgarians than saving their fellow citizens. The Nazis may have run the gas chambers, but it was the city government which paved over the Jewish cemetery to build a university.

Mazower knows modern Salonica well, and throughout the book, he deplores the disappearance of the old city's physical fabric, as anonymous apartment blocks replaced historic mosques and synagogues which no longer fit its Greek "history".

As the port's loss of imperial trading partners and turn inward towards Greece damaged its economy, a new generation has started to figure out that a more international outlook is the smarter strategy. A new "history" may be in the offing. Mazower is hopeful: "Other futures may require other pasts"...».

'Aλλες κριτικές
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Situated on the Aegean where two mountain ranges meet, Salonica has a unique geographical location, which promoted the rich confluence of cultures that once characterized the city. Part travelogue, part history and part cultural study, this is a splendid tour of the fortunes and misfortunes of this Balkan city. Drawing on a wealth of archival documents, Mazower (The Balkans; Dark Continent) weaves a lavish tapestry illustrating the tangled history of Salonica, which began as a Hellenistic urban center in 315 B.C. and flourished through the Middle Ages as a Greek Orthodox city. In 1430, the Ottoman Empire commenced a rule that lasted until 1912. By the end of the 15th century, Salonica had a large influx of Jews who had fled persecution in Spain. Mazower eloquently points out that these "peoples of the Book" largely tolerated and learned from one another, even though rivalry sometimes erupted into street fights, civil wars and power struggles. A series of civil wars in the 19th century returned the city to the Greeks, and the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI turned Salonica into a European city. In addition, the impact of the work of 19th-century Christian missionaries, along with the Nazis' removal of Jews, left Salonica bereft of its rich religious pluralism and multiethnic heritage. Mazower's graceful, evocative prose, his deft attention to details and his empathetic presentation of all sides of the story add up to a magnificent tale of this unique city. 32 pages of illus., eight in color; 10 maps.

Booklist
The city of Thessaloniki, or Salonica, is a port city in northern Greece that apparently emerged as a polity under the reign of Phillip of Macadon in the fourth century B.C.E. In the Hellenistic and Roman eras, the city became a vibrant, cosmopolitan commercial center sitting astride the trade routes to Africa and Asia. Under the Byzantine Empire, the city was a center of humanistic learning and theological debate, coming under Ottoman control in 1430. Mazower's illuminating and surprising account focuses on the city from the commencement of Ottoman rule to the Nazi occupation. Despite the claims of Greek nationalists, Ottoman rule was relatively benign, as Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived, worked, and often prospered together. When the city reverted to Greek control in 1912, the consensus started to dissolve. Muslims left or were expelled, and resentment against Jews increased. Under the Nazis, Jews, perhaps, 20 percent of the population, were deported en masse to concentration camps. A vivid but ultimately tragic light shed on a vanished urban civilization. (Jay Freeman)

Απαραίτητες παρατηρήσεις γιά το περιεχόμενο του βιβλίου:
"Salonica, now known as Thessaloniki..."
a. The city was built in 316 BC by Kassandros, son of Antipatros who was Alexander the Great's general. He had married Thessaloniki, half sister of Alexander the Great, and named the city after her. So the city is NOT only "now" known as Thessaloniki.
b. It was the Jewish wonderer, Benjamin Toudela who during the 12th century AD "mentions" the city as "Salouski". Then the Arab geographer Entrize mentions it as "Saloniki". Later the Bulgarians call it "Saloun" or "Seloun", the Vlachs call it "Siruna", and the Turks as "Selanik". The name was changed by the peoples above according to their linguistic form.

"Salonica was at its best, economically and culturally, when it was part of a multi-ethnic empire".
Fact: Thessaloniki has always been a multi-ethnic city and it still is. By "best" he means "we were dominant".

"They (the Nazis) wiped out Salonica's Jews while the Greek city fathers looked the other way, more worried about keeping out the Bulgarians than saving their fellow citizens".
Fact: The legitimate Greek city fathers were up on the mountains fighting the Nazis. The ruling "city fathers" at the time were Bulgarians; the author here simply shows his anti-Hellenic sentiments.
Fact: When the Germans started rounding up Jews, the standing orders by all resistance groups were that if people could flee to the Middle East, priority was to be given to Jews. Violation of this order was punishable by death.
Fact: Since Jews were also Greek "fellow citizens", they, too, could join the resistance, but their leaders advised them against it.
In three cities with the greatest number of Jews, Thessaloniki, Ioannina and Monastiri (Pitola), only two Jews from Ioannina, one from Monastiri and eight or nine from Thessaloniki joint the resistance against the Nazis.
Fact: It is conveniently not being mentioned that Greece, with a population of 6,500 million at the time, lost 580,000 people during the German occupation (8.9% of the total population), and had 1,000.000 wounded.
Fact: A great number of Greek families hid Jews knowing that they were endangering their own lives. It is also being ignored that the then Archbishop of Greece Damaskenos, together with Angelos Evert (Miltiades Evert's father) who was the Chief of Police, issued 27,000 fake IDs and gave them to Jews to escape. It was common knowledge, and living members of the Greek resistance would confirm, that Jews were not only given fake IDs, but also police uniforms and were placed to guard churches so as not to raise German suspicions.

"The Nazis may have run the gas chambers, but it was the city government which paved over the Jewish cemetery to build a university".
Fact: The city government bought the land, paid for it, the Jewish leaders signed the contract, and after their signature added obscurely the words "with reservation". Based on those words the Jews have taken Greece to European Court for that land that the university is built on.
Fact: The Jews who returned to Greece from the concentration camps where the Bulgarians and the Germans had sent them, got their properties back. For the properties of  the people that did not return, the Greek government paid the state of Israel in the early 1950s and settled all claims. This was done by the Plastiras-Venizelos government.

"While city life was marked by the usual odd Ottoman mixture of tolerance and hostility, the blend was successful more often than not".
Remark: One wonders if the author mentions the fact that Jews of Thessaloniki were the primary financiers of Kemal Ataturk's armies or that Leo Trotsky who was hosted by the Jewish community of Thessaloniki during the Balkan wars, was praising the Ataturk victories while working as a journalist for a Kiev newspaper.

Conclusion:
It seems that the central theme of the book promotes a coherent objective:
"Thessaloniki was our city, the Greeks unfairly stole it, they are complicit in the fate of Jews, they (the Greeks) ought to be made to feel guilty, they need to be embarrassed, and finally they must show in practical terms that they are really sorry. Practical terms means restoration of the city to its pre-1912 ethnic composition when the Jews were the plurality of the population".
 
Despina Skenderis - Fourniades
Washington, DC- June 15, 2005
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