“Eisaste atyme ratsa!” (Eng. You are a dishonorable race!).
We have noted cases in our previous presentations (e.g., Remembering 1922 Video Series) that intermixed marriages between Greeks from Greece and Ottoman Greeks were often rejected by family members on one or both sides. A descendant interviewed today reminded us of the extreme ends that such wedlock could reach. The daughter of refugees who arrived in Greece from Northeastern Asia Minor (aka. Pontos), she was betrothed to a Greek from central Greece. As his quote indicates above, her husband spent the next sixteen years of their marriage engaging in domestic violence over her racial background. What was the spark for this racially motivated physical abuse? His brother died six months after their marriage, and he believed that her racial background was to blame.