A Local Cretan man finds soil from Asia Minor inside his mother’s iconostasis
An incredible find was found in the iconostasis that his mother had in her house, Michalis Kokkinos, a resident of Nea Alikarnassos, which is one of the areas of Heraklion with a strong refugee element.
His mother, who passed away last September, kept in the iconostasis, along with what was most valuable, a bag of soil from Prousa, which shortly before her father fled in 1922, her father had decided to keep with him to remember the homeland he left behind.
Speaking to APE-MPE, Mr. Kokkinos explained that he could not believe what he had in his hands and that his emotion was very great.
“I wanted to clear up what my mother had, to see what things I could donate, what I could store and what might not be useful. I opened the iconostasis and found the bag with the soil. I did not understand what it was, but as I grabbed the bag I realised that something was inside. When I read that it was soil from Prousa, I really can not explain how I felt. I did not know that this keep-safe existed, my mother had never spoken to us. The truth is that I knew as a child how attached they were to the place left by our grandparents, but I could never believe that among what my mother considered sacred and had in this iconostasis was soil that her father had gathered before leaving his homeland “.
The note seems to have been written more recently, “a sign that someone who knew exactly what it was, wanted to let us know so that when we find it, what exactly it is,” said Mr. Kokkinos, who while trying to take care of storing his mother’s belongings, he is sure he will find other heirlooms.
“I felt and feel that I am immersed in history and that in some way I am connected with my parents, grandmother and grandfather, who I remember from a young child telling us stories about the homeland in which they were born. “Apart from the emotion, I also feel proud of these people who, through the catastrophe and the way of refuge, managed to stand on their own two feet again and create”, added Mr. Kokkinos.
However, in the area of Nea Alikarnassos, in many of the houses that have a reference to the refugee element, there are relics that have not emerged.
“It’s something we come across very often with objects from Asia Minor. From jewelry, pictures, utensils, fabrics, to anything else these people took with them, leaving in the catastrophe. I think that in addition to the need to have some things with them, they also needed to keep something that reminds them of their place. “I am sure that when they left, they may not have wanted it, but they felt that they might never be able to go back,” the president of the local community of Nea Alikarnassos, Antonis Sekeris, told APE-MPE.
In view of the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, Mr. Sekeris stressed that in addition to the events they are planning, they claim to hold a museum of the Culture of Asia Minor in Heraklion “where such exhibits, objects they had with them in the great trip from Asia Minor to Greece, they will be pieces of history that the new generations will be able to see”, added the president of the local community of Nea Alikarnassos.
Source: newsit.gr
