Pontians go to “war” over Antonis Remos’ Turkish interview

Pontian Greeks have been outraged by an interview popular Greek singer Antonis Remos gave to Turkish newspaper Hurryiet for allegedly saying he was ‘’proud’’ that Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern republic of Turkey, was born in his town.

Antonis Remos responded with surprise, suggesting he was misquoted by the newspaper, but the Panhellenic Pontian Federation accused Remos of being historically illiterate and that he need to publicly retracts his statements and restore the truth about the period between 1914 and 1922.

In a sarcastic but stern tone, the Panhellenic Pontian Federation (ΠΑΣΠΕ) invited Antonis Remos to their offices to ‘educate’ him on the personality of Kemal Ataturk and lend him a few books to read per chance he studies them and eventually come to understand the grave error of this comments to the Turkish newspaper.

The Federation found the alleged comments an opportune moment to demand that the history of Asia Minor and Pontian culture be incorporated into the educational curriculum.

Remos on the other hand insisted that he was misquoted and responded on Facebook with the following post:

“I was recently in Bodrum at the invitation of a large company to perform two concerts. The Turkish mass media expressed great interest in the event and I gave some interviews. I am stunned from what I read in the media and either I have been misquoted or there was an error in translation from Turkish to Greek. I am a proud Greek. From there on beyond the political games and historical differences between our two peoples, ordinary Greek and Turks have respect and understanding for one another, I am sure of that. In so far as my comments about Kemal Ataturk are concerned, the truth is I simply said that I was proud to be from Thessaloniki, which coincidently happens to be where Kemal Ataturk was born. As such I do not feel that I need to apologise to anyone. Everyone is entitled to draw their own conclusions. I thank you and love you all’’.