West Coast Hellenic Book Club: Diary of a Soldier in the Asia Minor Campaign, 1919-1921 by Pantelis C. Karatasakis
West Coast Hellenic Book Club
Diary of a Soldier in the Asia Minor Campaign, 1919-1921 by Pantelis C. Karatasakis
(Published by Alec P. Karys, 2023)
This discussion will feature book editors Alec P. Karys and Gregory Kontos.
The conversation will be facilitated by Professor Sharon Gerstel, Director of the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture, and Dr. Eirini Kotsovili, Senior Lecturer in Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University.
This discussion will be held in English.
Saturday, October 3, 2026
10 A.M. Los Angeles / 8 P.M. Greece
Via Zoom
Click here to RSVP for this book club
Foreword by Gonda Van Steen, Koraes Chair, King’s College London:
This short, poignant account of an ordinary soldier’s experiences at the front during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1921 is well worth reading. Pantelis Karatasakis manages to evoke both the valiant spirit of the Greek troops and the awful hardships they were forced to endure. Even though this lively account ends a year before Greece’s defeat, the conditions the author witnessed were an omen of what was to come: hunger and freezing cold, haphazard military operations, scorched earth tactics by both sides. The heroism of Pantelis Karatasakis and his comrades would not be enough for the Greeks to prevail, and the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922 ensued. Alexander Kitroeff When empires dissolve and new nation-states emerge, it is easy for the voices of ordinary people to get lost in the turmoil. This publication of the diary of Pantelis C. Karatasakis brings not only the voice, but also the tears, sweat, and blood, of the foot soldiers of history back to the forefront. Pantelis moves us with Xenophon-like descriptions of places and distances, which he interspersed with lyrical notes and the markers of a growing awareness of the sufferings of war -any war. He leaves a record of facts, emotions, hardships, but ultimately survival and wisdom gained. Kudos to his son and to Gregory Kontos of Greek Ancestry to realize the value of this unique testimony.
This program is made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).