Ottoman Greeks of the United States Digital History Project

The Pontos Society of Watervliet, NY - “O Pontos”

According to scholarship, 149 social organizations were established in the US in the early 20th century by Ottoman Greek migrants (Papadopoulos 2021). Their goal was to preserve and promote the culture and traditions of their homelands in their US-based communities. While visiting Albany, the descendants of such an organization shared evidence with our project that has not been documented in scholarship. The Mutual Aid Society “O Pontos” of Watervliet, NY, was incorporated by migrants from Pontos in 1929. In 1941, it merged with another Pontic organization in Albany, NY. At its height (1952 and 1957), the society had 27 dues-paying members, organized picnics and other community get-togethers.

Citations

Papadopoulos, Y. G. S. (2021). Ottoman, Anatolian, Greek, yet above All American: Evolving Identifications and Cultural Appropriations. Immigrants & Minorities, 39(2–3), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619288.2021.2014326

Share, like, and follow our page to learn more about the migration and settlement of Ottoman Greeks in New York State.

The Amanatides and the Pakatarides

According to the Ellis Island Foundation's passenger list archive, two Ottoman Greek families that settled in Albany were the Amanatides and the Pakatarides. During their FlagSHIP program, Chris and Jack conducted univariate (nationality, race, city of birth, country of birth) and bivariate (nationality-race X city of birth-country of birth = “place of birth”) frequency analyses of the passenger lists that included members of these two families. The students found that a slight majority of their sample (n = 53) were documented as Turkish nationals (n = 28). The second largest documented nationality was Greek (n = 20). The remainder (n = 5) were neither. For the race variable, the majority were documented as Greek (n = 34). Hebrew was the second largest category (n = 7). The remainder were documented on the passenger lists as follows: NA (n = 5), American (n = 4), Turkish (n = 1), Armenian (n = 1), Ottoman (n = 1). For “place of birth,” the majority were listed as born in Turkey (n = 40). The second largest reported category was Greece (n = 10). The remainder was illegible. The Amanatides and Pakatarides were listed as born in “Turkey,” and categorized as “Turkish” nationals of “Greek” race.

After Chris and Jack completed their univariate analysis, we conducted a bivariate analysis (nationality-race X city of birth-country of birth = “place of birth”) and discussed the implications of their results. We found that at least 20 migrants were dual citizens of Greece and the Ottoman Empire (listed as Greek nationals, born in the Ottoman Empire), and 28 were Ottoman (Turkish) citizens of Greek “race.” To understand the implications of these findings, we discussed the origins and meanings of the “nationality” and “race” variables in the passenger lists (Benton-Cohen 2018, Perlmann 2018, Topalidis 2022).

Citations

Benton-Cohen, Katherine. (2018). Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and Its Legacy. Harvard University Press.

Perlmann, Joel. (2018). America Classifies the Immigrants: From Ellis Island to the 2020 Census. Harvard University Press.

Topalidis, Y. (2022). Forging an Anti-Racist Praxis: Housing Discrimination against Ottoman Greek Immigrants in Early-Twentieth-Century Portland and Seattle. Journal of Urban History, 50(4), 858–881. https://doi.org/10.1177/00961442221101042

Share, like, and follow our page to learn more about the migration and settlement of Ottoman Greeks in New York State.

The Boreki Pan

By Jack Bellars
Third Year Undergraduate Student
Performing Arts - Theater Arts
Flagler College

One artifact that stood out from the rest in today’s interviews was the boreki pan. Although it served an everyday purpose compared to the other artifacts we digitized, its distinct design holds sentimental and historical value. The pan is a mystery to the family. According to one of “Anna’s” grandchildren, “Ari”, it has Greek letters written on its side, perhaps indicating the maker or distributor. It is likely made of hand-hammered copper by an early-20th-century Ottoman housewares artisan. Ari asserts this because of the “heavy gauge copper, the hand-worked rim, and the minimalist struck mark.” After the interview, the interviewees expressed that they felt unable to contribute much to our research. But this artifact, combined with their memories of Anna and their community, is invaluable.

“Remembering the Genocide of Ottoman Greeks in Pontos”

Between 1913 and 1923, the Ottoman Empire engaged in what genocide scholars have categorized as genocide of its Christian citizens (Ottoman Armenians, Ottoman Greeks, and Ottoman Assyrians). Ottoman soldiers and partisans also targeted dual citizens of Greece and the Ottoman Empire who lived in Anatolia, Eastern Thrace, Imbros, Tenedos, and the Islands in the Sea of Marmara. Today, we commemorate the portion of the genocide that occurred in Pontos (Trk. Karadeniz) through the voices of the survivors’ descendants. May their memory be eternal.

https://youtu.be/BeNVb0DxduQ?si=PA6uNrT4xZGzpJi5

Share, like, and follow our page to learn more about the causes for the migration of Ottoman Greeks to the United States.

Remembering the Genocide of Ottoman Greeks in Pontos Between 1913 and 1923, the Ottoman Empire engaged in massacres and ...

“The Seagull”

In Florida, we often think of the seagull as a pest, complicating our beach visits by petitioning us for food and lingering in our space mid-flight, but those behaviors have imbued them with a different meaning in literature and poetry (Rogers 2023). Seagulls are the symbol of the migrant. They are there to prepare us for the journey ahead. Their calls reassure us that “all will be okay.” They even fly alongside our vessels, wishing us well and showing the path as we set forth. And they are there when we arrive, warmly receiving us, “How was your journey? See! We told you everything would be okay!” When Chris and Jack arrived at JFK, seagulls were there to greet them, and on our last day in Buffalo, they were there to wish them a safe return. Στο επανιδείν!

Share, like, and follow our page to learn more about the migration and settlement of Ottoman Greeks in New York State.

We would like to express our gratitude to the community of the Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Buffalo, New York, for hosting us yesterday. Our students interviewed descendants of Ottoman Greek migrants while immersed in the physical space where many of their ancestors accustomed themselves to their new lives. We look forward to future visits and learning more from community members.

“Cold, Foreign, Buffalo”

By Chris Kloosterman
Third-Year Undergraduate Student
Anthropology - Public Archaeology
Flagler College

Oral history does something special by connecting historical events directly to real human lives and emotions. Watching the interview of “Matt,” who left Greece as a kid alongside his mother, “Stella,” showed me a very clear, powerful takeaway about the immigrant experience. It proved that moving to an entirely new country is not just a single moment in time, but a long and difficult team effort between a parent and a child. While the young child grows up quickly, adapting to a brand-new culture, the mother is the one who carries the heavy memories and daily sacrifices required to make that massive life change possible.

Matt’s early memories of moving across the world were just small, blurry pieces of a puzzle. Later in life, he relied completely on Stella’s detailed stories to understand where he came from and what the journey across the ocean actually felt like. Stella’s paternal grandfather had escaped the destruction of Smyrna in 1922. They were initially settled in Florina before being transferred to Nea Potidia. Stella had to handle all the stressful, hard work of leaving Nea Potidia, in Chalkidike, behind and settling in cold, foreign Buffalo, New York. She bore the constant, quiet pressure of keeping her family safe and housed while trying her best to hold onto their proud Greek traditions in a completely foreign environment. “I did not feel welcome, and I wanted to return home. Greeks here made me feel inferior because I could not speak English,” she stated more than once.

Stella and Matt’s interview showed how family heritage manages to survive over the decades through two very different, yet deeply connected, viewpoints. The mother worked tirelessly to keep their Greek identity, language, and cultural traditions alive inside the home, while her young son grew up learning how to balance being both fully Greek and fully American outside. The old photo of the little boy in his neat coat reminds us that every single immigration statistic we read about in history textbooks represents a deeply personal human life. Their shared memories show that local communities are built entirely on these brave family journeys, where a mother's hard work directly creates a successful new future for her child.

"The Power of Prayer"

By Chris Kloosterman
Third Year Undergraduate Student
Anthropology - Public Archaeology
Flagler College

The artifact from today’s interviews, an icon of Jesus and Mary, was a powerful reminder of how objects carry history. While the front of the piece showed a familiar religious scene, the back of the icon contained significant details. It featured a portrait of a man and a long passage of Russian text explaining the origins of the image and identifying it as the icon of the Mother of God.

The text on the back, in Russian, describes a miracle involving a monk and a mysterious stranger on Mount Athos. I am not a native speaker, so as we learned in Dr. Topalidis’s class, I used Google Lens to translate the text and deciphered the following to the best of my ability. According to the story, a guest who was actually an archangel appeared in a remote cell and sang a new hymn that had never been heard before. The monk had no paper or ink, and the angel miraculously engraved the words into stone. This story transforms the icon from a work of art into a record of a supernatural event. Seeing this text on the back of the artifact made it clear that for the owner, the object is a physical connection to a moment of divine intervention.

The addition of a (unknown) man’s photograph on the back suggests a personal history layered on top of the religious one. As her children indicated during the interview, the icon was “Anna’s (standing left)” cherished possession because it connected her to her past life in Pontos. The icon also represents a link between the legend of the angel, the power of prayer, which Anna strongly believed in, and the history of her family. Finally, the icon shows that people do not just keep these objects for their religious value, but because such objects represent the experiences of their ancestors.

“Muhabeti in Albany”

The word muhabeti (also parakathi), like so many other words, has found its way into the Pontic Rümca language via Arabic and Ottoman (muhabbet). It is defined as “the practice of dialogical singing of the Pontic Greeks or Pontians” (Tsekouras 2024: 21). In practice, a muhabeti is a social gathering where (mostly) men sing to the sounds of a kemence over dinner. The songs often venerate love or memorialize the trauma of refugeedom. “Anna’s” four children recalled that their mother survived such trauma. Ottoman soldiers forced her, her mother, and grandmother from their village, Karakevezit. They were led on a death march that only Anna survived. “Her mother would beg and scavenge for food, which she then gave to her children. She died of starvation.” Her grandmother also succumbed to the burdens of the march. One of the few objects that she carried with her was an icon of the Virgin Mary, which the family has preserved.

Our two FlagSHIP students, Chris Kloosterman and Jack Bellars, digitized and curated the icon, along with many other photographs, documents, and objects, during our muhabeti at St. Basil’s Greek Orthodox Church in Troy, New York.

Share, like, and follow our page to learn more about the migration and settlement of Ottoman Greeks in New York State.

“No Gold-Paved Streets Here”

The City that promised stability and prosperity did not deliver it for everyone. For some, it did not provide a fair wage for a fair day’s work. Others could not bear another day within the steel cogs that made New York City run. So, like many Ottoman Greek migrants, our time in New York City was short-lived. On day five, our journey took us north to the capital of the Empire State. We made a brief stop on the shores of Newburgh, like many migrants who traveled on foot, in carriages, by boat, by train, and eventually by bus, each according to what their financial means allowed. Upon arrival, we were greeted by friends from the same village, town, and city in the Ottoman Empire who had earlier traveled to Albany and settled there. We visited St. Basil’s Greek Orthodox Church and joined the community in fellowship. Father Emannuel, Art, Stephanie, and Despina welcomed us with a warm embrace that we last felt in the arms of our loved ones in the Ottoman Empire. What will tomorrow bring? We will learn from their stories and decide our next steps.

Share, like, and follow our page to learn more about the migration and settlement of Ottoman Greeks in New York State.