On 19 May, Greece and all the Greek communities throughout the world observe Pontian Greek Genocide Commemoration Day.
In view of this event the FSPs have published a novel entitled, La Ragazza del Mar Nero (Girl of the Black Sea), which is based on the true life story of a woman who survived that tragedy. Little is said about the Ottoman Empire’s persecution of its Greek Christian population in the early 1900’s–a tragedy in which about 350,000 Greek Christians were killed and another 700,000 were forced to flee for their lives.
In her book, Maria Tatsos recounts the story of her grandmother, Erato Espielidis, born in the little town of Kotyora on the Black Sea. The story of her family is typical of that of many other families of the Pontus region, who lost all their worldly possessions in the genocide and fled the country as refugees, counting themselves lucky to still be alive.