Δευτέρα 4 Μαΐου 2015

HONOURING VISSARION



HONOURING VISSARION


MICHALIS CHARALABIDIS
(Extract from the speech at the event on "Pontian Humanism and Jews" organized by the Attica's Sourmena Pontian Union)

  HONOURING VISSARION
IF I WERE A DEPUTY OF THE ISRAELI PARLIAMENT I WOULD SUGGEST THE RECOGNITION OF THE PONTIAN GENOCIDE 

 











Vissarion from Trapezounta was unjust by both Catholics and Orthodox. Nonetheless, he is much more unrecognised in the political and intellectual Greece and Europe. Despite all aphorisms he returns as a political value-apropos. It is not a coincidence that my introduction in a book of mine* for growth and development referred to his actuality.
He defended the Israelites in Nuremberg for first time and in Venice three years later (1463), in conditions of political, ethnic andregional conflicts, major religious fanaticism and intense anti-Semitism. A class of German conflicting groups in Nuremberg against him was that he was blessing with his left hand. The other that defended the Jews of the city. Vissarion is the father of Europeanhumanism. Being a priest, in conditions of barbarism, he defended religious tolerance.


I am sure that the Israeli communities of Europe and Mediterranean were informed, knew that there was in Europe a spiritualpersonality from Trapezounta that was defending them. They did not have telephones, televisions, internet but had othercommunication networks. Vissarion was the first to defend the Jews.

For this reason alone, if I were a Debuty of the Israeli Parliament, of Knesset, I would suggest the recognition of the genocide of the Pontian Greeks as an expression of honour, gratitude to this great humanitarian personality whose compatriots began to know anideology of death which invaded, settled in Pontos the same period. I would request to cover a large historical, moral and political vacuum.

What was Sophia and Yiannis Grigoriades who saved centuries later in Veroia, the little Jewish girl, Sterina Taboh which was threatened by another ideology of death. They were the successors of Vissarion's humanism. Continuing a long humanitarianinheritance, the focus of which was Pontos, Asia Minor, Hellas as Cicero and the Cappadocian Fathers were saying.




* Hellenic quality and development - The new alliance, Michalis Charalabidis, Athens, 2007 - Press here for more information.
Full text available in English in "The Pontian Question in the United Nations", 2nd edition, 2009, Michalis Charalabidis, International League For The Rights and Liberations Of Peoples, Stravon Publications - "The actuality of Vissarion"