Thanos Fotiadis’ Post

Romeyka (roman)= Ellinika (greek) The remnants of a byzantine world A greek dialect fading out in the remote villages in the black sea shores of Turkey. Still, I bet there are tens of thousands of people who are muslim, speak turkish at school but their mother calls them "Pulim" (my bird, my child in romeyka). Greece never played minority games since 1922, unlike Turkey, yet it should revisit its cultural policy as the main state entity of greek culture in the near east. From the romeyka speakers in Turkey, the melkites and orthodox people in Lebanon & Palestine to the greek ukrainians in Mariupol and Odessa, the once important greek communities have been withering. Time for Greece to remember it did not just pop up in 1821 in vacuum. To understand that not everything revolves around Athens and the ruins of Pericles. To actively engage in a cultural network safeguarding wider hellenism and support programs such as this one preserving romeyka.