Rating: 
Summary: Amazing, isn't it?
Review: that, after reading Halo's wonderful book, a few among us are moved to remark that her depiction of genocide is all a fantasy? What's even more amazing is that all these so-called pseudo claims of genocide are made against a single country. If you read Halo's book, and also click on the books below recommended by Amazon, you'll see a whole host of reviews denying that a genocide even happened. I wonder why only one country in the history of the world is so persistent in these claims? I don't see any other reviews on any other board repeatedly denying that genocide even happened.
Rating: 
Summary: An unfortunate book about a historical misconception
Review: It is quite amazing, and I can not stress this strongly enough, that whenever a person comes out of the blue and starts 'sharing' her memories, that becomes 'unbiased history' when there are many historians, political scientists, other academicians and ambassadors or business people, drawing a quite different picture, but their 'vision' is found biased, uncontributionary, and distorted. I do not understand the reason why people tend to give larger credence to emotions than simple facts.This book is the embodiment of the phenomenon described above. The author, in her frenzy to draw a tragedy of horrific proportions, can not find any substantial evidence for her claims, and instead of admitting that there might be some inconsistencies with the story, confides into claims that most of the evidence was destroyed or tries to paint the picture with emotional disteria. However, the same author in the same book fails to explain how come the same town her mother came from is still largely intact with most of the traces still not destroyed. The story is about the author's mother, who had to migrate or run for her life with her family during a time of uncertainty and war. The book ties all of the so-called ethnic cleansing or genocide to the decisions of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, by giving out imaginary decisions made in the first public parliament during the time in Ankara. In fact, all of these claims are easily refutable because all of the laws (kanun) and decisions (kararname) as well as all of the speaches of all members of the parliament, including those of Ataturk himself, are protected, and open to public. Unfortunately, the author did not take the time or the courage to base her claims on these credible resources and instead, she created her own reality. Well, what can i say? If you want to hate so much, go ahead and hate. Even in the face of the kindness of the Turkish people in their attempts to go out of their ways in order to help these visitors, she can only refer to her old mother's comment, "They were all led by Mustafa Kemal. He ordered the death warrant of all non-muslims." To me, that said enough about the book's tone and its 'objectivity.' I see that there is a large crowd out there, quite ready to swallow all that presented in this book without even putting the claims through a critical analytical point of view. However, the same people could validate the truth of the references mentioned in the book and more often than not, the lack thereof. Therefore, the book does a good job in creating a lie that even the mayor of New York seems to buy by calling it a great historical achievement. Well, would not that put a wonderful objectivity medallion tothe historical societies behind this award? Really well done, mayor. If the author is a Christian Greek Orthodox, willing to share a good word with the Greek lobby, why not stroke her tommy? Great advancement bribery for a political career! In short, this is quite a ridiculous book. None of the claims in the book are supported by any type of historical research. The author is trying to create the atmosphere in teh book that the migration was forced on the people, however; we do not learn anything except the 'retelling' of the old mother from her father that Turks are out there, ready to kill and therefore, they had to move at night. This claim is ridiculous because at the time when this so-called migration occured, the country was being invaded by teh Greek army, which was used by the British and the rest of the allies in their ambition to fractionize Turkish land. The Pontiac Greeks decided to change fronts as soon as the Greek Army started the invasion. And it is the inability of the Pontiac Greeks to mix with the larger community in a defense. This is clearly seen by the descriptions in the book. They never saw themselves as Turks or Anatolians, but decided to call themselves as Pontiac Greeks. Additionally, the claim that the towns were separate is quite preposterous because the drought and difficulties to raise crops and cattle forced most of these towns to operate together. More than 90% of the non-muslims were tradespeople, basically holding the best trades positions in the Turkish lands due to provisions forcefully given by the idiotic and incapable Ottoman government to the Western allies and Russia. In this regard, those Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrianic Anatolians, who chose to be with Turks were less in number not because Turks did not want them but clearly because they enjoyed their advantageous positions. Therefore, it is their inability to leave such posts and work together with the Turks under the norm of one nation of Anatolia in order to build up a new and prosperous country together. In this regard, I do not buy the idea that Turks lost a significant portion of their heritage when these people left the country. They never wanted to work together and never felt like contributing to the 'cause' of building a new democratic republic. For reasons beyond my imagination and comprehension, the whole world still wants to see Turkey as some form of low-minded, idiotic, barbaric nation that could not establish anything although the truth today is that Turks came together, under the leadership of another Turk, not Greek, not Armenian, not Assyrian, to build a democratic and modern nation. What does Turkey have to do to make people understand this? Clearly, writing about it, making speeches about it, or trying to broadcast the modernization efforts in place, do not seem to cut it. Once you want to hate stubbornly, you can hate forever, not realizing that the conditions set forth were different from your perception and the times have changed!
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST HISTORICAL BOOK I HAVE EVER READ !
Review: It is the first book that I have read three times.That book stirs me because it presents too realistic a terrible period of The Greek History.Apart from the historical value,it is for me an anthem to THE MOTHER!Themia praises the Virgin,Thea praises Themia.
Moreover,because I come from the Black Sea,I would like to emphasize the power of Themia that I impute to her descent from the Black Sea.
I thank them very much!! Elenitsa
Rating:
Summary: ÔÏ ÐÏÉÏ ÓÕÃÊËÏÍÉÓÔÉÊÏ ÂÉÂËÉÏ ÐÏÕ Å×Ù ÄÉÁÂÁÓÅÉ ÐÏÔÅ.
Review: ÃëõêéÝò ìïõ,Èõìßá êáé Ìáèåßá, óáò åõ÷áñéóôþ ãéá áõôü ðïõ ìïõ ÷áñßóáôå.Áíïßãåôáé íÝïò äñüìïò ãéá ôï ìåãÜëï èÝìá ôçò ÃÅÍÏÊÔÏÍÉÁÓ.Áò åßóôå ðÜíôá êáëÜ!Óáò ÁÃÁÐÙ ðïëý!! Åëåíßôóá
Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC FOR ALL TIME
Review: Not Even My Name is probably one of the most powerful testiments ot the human spirit I've ever read, and one of the most powerfully written memoirs. It rates among the great classics of all time in story telling, style, visual clarity, psychological study, emotional restraint, and the sheer poetry of its language and rythmn. It grabs you by the eyeballs, the heart, and the mind, and doesn't let go, even long after you've turned the last page. It's images stay with me, and I still find myself reciting its poetry inside my head without even knowing it until I'm half-way through my cerebral recitation of a scene. It has even created in me a new awareness of my surroundings in my everyday life, and gave me a new feeling of tenderness for all living things. The fact that it is a true story of a young Pontic Greek girl's survival of one of the most brutal and heartbreaking episodes in the 20th century, makes it even more valuable for the history it reveals to the world for the very first time. To think that a people can live in a land for 3,000 years, and then be slaughtered and driven out on long death marches in the span of a few short years, is mind boggling in itself. To be given such a first hand account of the tragedy as it unfolds, and witness the effects on the lives of victims and survivors, is a gift of great magnitude. We have been privileged here to, not only be made privy to the development of one brave survivor (the author's mother) as she leaves her ancestral lands in a remote part of the world, and finds her way to New York City where she raises 10 children, we also witness the eradiation of a culture and people from the minds of even the people of the courtry from which these historic Pontic Greeks lived for 3,000 years. The brief historical sections, are packed with things I never knew about the international intrigues of the allies, the US, Germany and Turkey, that made it possible for Turkey to carry out its genocide of 3 million of its historic Christian populations: Greek, Assyrian, and Armenian, first by the Young Turk regime, and then by the brutal and ruthless, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, later known as Ataturk. Turkey's denial of such a genocide and it's manipulation of American Universities, keeps the shame of its past alive. Bravo Thea Halo for your great contribution to the annuls of history, and bravo for your great gift to literature.
Rating:
Summary: This is the truth and nothing but the truth
Review: This is a book of survival, tragedy and triumph. It is the story of one young girl's survival of one of the most brutal episodes in 20th century history - the ethnic cleansing committed by the Turkish authorities during and after World War 1 which claimed the lives of about two million citizens of the Ottoman Empire because they were of Greek,Armenian or Assyrian stock. Yet, this book neither condemns, nor judges, nor impugns the Turkish people. Quite the contrary, the book is utterly devoid of bitterness. These awful things happened and they are not a judgment upon the Turkish people of today. Those times were those times:difficult and tragic for all.They were also tragic for the Turkish people who, as a result of these benighted policies, lost millions of its citizens - Greek, Armenian and Assyrian - who could and would have helped shape the future of Turkey in a more positive,productive manner. Instead, Turkey remained plunged in an isolated backwardness and darkness that it is just beginning to shed with difficulty. As an aside, I find it troubling that...[some]...point to the bias of the author and mention "other" books that "correctly" paint the picture of that terrible time without actually citing one, single, solitary title. Well, here are two titles from two Americans who witnessed these "fictional genocides" first hand: 1) Henry Morgenthau's.."Ambassador Morgenthau Remembers"; and 2) American Consul George Horton's...."The Blight of Asia"(Don't forget my Turkish brothers......these are the writings of Americans - your loyal friends ). To me, it seems high time that the Turkish people face the truth about their past as they move forward into a bright, open, progressive, just, honorable and peaceful future. If Germany can face the past directly and honestly...........so can Turkey. It is the young people of Turkey - the hope of Turkey's future - who should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Speaks to every first-generation Greek American.
Review: I couldn't put this book down. Throughout my childhood I had heard cryptic references from my grandparents--who came from Asia Minor in the early 1900s--about the Turkish oppression and persecutions of millions of Christians. Except I could never get a complete story. No one could ever speak about the atrocities without retreating into terrible, emotional silence. My grandparents' story died with them because we "children" could not gather the courage to press for facts. So many who witnessed it could not speak of it, and for those "adult children" like me, Themia's (Sano's) story fills in some of the blanks about the tragedy that befell so many of my ancestors. Not a particularly intellectual read (not meant to be) but certainly a poignant and poetic one. This is a remarkable book that gives identity to the Greek American people, and credence to the stories we've heard in our homes and our church communities--but not anywhere else--throughout our lives.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing !!
Review: just amazing !! A true story from a pontiac Greek. A race that traces its origin back in the old centuries. A story that is so similar to the stories of so many Greek pontiacs, that were forced to leave their homeland, and so many that didnt make it. A must for all Greek pontiacs, in order to remind to everybody, that we suffered a genocide back there, since 700,000 pontiacs vanished, inside the turkish mainland.
Rating: 
Summary: Old World Stories and Prejudices
Review: It is a tragic story, but bad writing and heavy anti-Turkish propaganda have made this book unworthy of the shelf of any serious library. The only worthwile aspect of the book was the fact that Thea actually embarked on a journey with her mom to trace her roots back to that mysterious land, Asia Minor. Still, she struggles even with the most basic expressions and names, even her mother's Turkish nickname. Having a very limited knowledge of the land of her ancestors and its peoples, and most of it acquired during her trip and from traditional propagande sources, she still feels qualified to set the reader staright about key historical facts. It is quite remarkable that her mother's little corner of heaven among the Black Sea Mountains was intact and untouched through 1920. Note that the period between 1911 to 1922 was the time of the greatest disaster that ever fell upon the Turkish nation, meaning the people who made up the core of the Ottoman Empire, including non-muslims. The writer, it seems quite purposefully ignores this simple fact. Read Andrew Mango's Ataturk for a real good account of all this. Note that Turks were fighting Greeks at the time and their country was destroyed by the ethnic cousins of Thea while they lived in peace in the heartland of Turkey. Then, once the invading Greek armies were driven to sea by Ataturk, there were forced population exchanges which finally brought an end to the wonderful patch of paradise her mom was born in. The fact that Pontus had the audacity to declare an independent state in the middle of Turkey and in the middle of their war of independence did not help matters much. All this is presented as a genocide, a loaded word that many use rather loosely and freely nowadays. The story itself does not mention concentration camps, firing squads, mass killings, or killings at all oddly enough. It is also not clear why would the impoverished Turkish governement go throgh the expense of moving all these people in the middle of a war if it only intended to "eliminate" them at the end as she claims? The contradiction comes alive during the trip where she only meets "nice" people and wonders how they could have been so "evil" then. The identity crisis is also much evident as she describes many customs, dishes, clothing that has more Turkish and Asian origin than Greek. The Nasreddin Hoca story (ye kurkum ye) transforming into an old Pontus folk tale is priceless and makes the point well. The tea and hazelnut sets, the games she describes, the flowers, harvesting and the seasons all familiar to me as I have tasted those in the same area decades later. Turkey lost a large chunk of its heritage when masses of Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians left it for better life somewhere else, sometimes forcibly. It took away from Turkish identity and culture in ways not many appreciate even today. Of course, the departed left a homeland behind and took mostly the worst memories with them. Thea somehow never mentions the ethnic cleansing of Turks and other muslims from Balkans and Aegean Islands and Crete, leaving all their posessions, young and infirm behind, just around the same time. It is a shame that Thea felt the need to lace this wondeful story with such hateful propaganda, dishonering her mothers tragic experiences. The book will mean little for those who are not very familiar with the region or its history. Otherwise, a very interesting and turbulent time period has been captured through a child's eyes. Such time capsules of daily life and ordinary people of rural Turkey of the time are extremely rare and it is likely the author has not appreciated this. It is written poorly, sometimes trying too hard to exploit the emotions, and the historical tid-bits sprinkled gave away the real aim of this project.
Rating:
Summary: Story that Spans a Tragic Lifetime!
Review: An amazing book that spans an entire lifetime and several continents! From the "Death March" that began in Northern Turkey to her family struggles in New York City's Upper West Side, Sano Halo reflects on her bitter spiritual battles and losses. She's the Heroine of the novel that experiences what most of us do not see...family oblieration and identity upheavel. This novel works on different levels. For one, the Turkish government continues to suppress its brutal heritage spawned in the early 20th century. Blame aside, this history has not been adequately told to the world, and a book such as "Not Even My Name" shouts it loudly and from a tragically personal level. Another level is the author's progression towards realizing what her mother (and the family) went through and how it bears on the descendants.
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