Societé d’ Histoire Economique et Sociale de la Grece,

Includes in the series «HISTORICAL SOURCES»

The «WAR DIARY ASIA MINOR 1919 – 1922»

Author, Ioannis Mentzalis

Transcription, textual edition, prologue, Vicky Theodoropoulou.

Ellinika Grammata Publications

Athens 1994

Pages 78

Price  –

OUT OF STOCK

Ioannis Mentzalis, while serving in the 5/42 evzone regiment in Asia Minor, found an unused note-book «eis Kirez Oglou Daz eis kapion Tourko fonefthenta».  He recorded in it since the hardships of war, his journeys, the life in the regiment, the names of the dead and the wounded, the curing and hospital conditions, his thoughts about the war, his expectations for a few days’ furlough, his poems and his songs.  «Asmatakia» as he himself titled them, about the fallen, the absent and the pretty ones. 

Mentzalis returned to Neo Heraclio, Attica, Greece.  «Enthymion Polemou Ekstrateias Mikras Asias apo 1919 ews 1922» he wrote on the cover of his note-book and the memories became tales narrated to the children of the neighborhood.

The historian, Vicky Theodoropoulou, discovered in 1985 Ioannis Mentzalis’ note-book, after hearing the story from a neighborhood child.  It took a long time and a lot of perseverance to transcribe this document since the years had made the manuscript hardly legible.

Societé d’ Histoire Economique et Sociale de la Grece, considering that the  «Enthymion Polemou Ekstrateias Mikras Asias apo 1919 ews 1922», this document written in vivo in the idiom of the common man and misspelled, is a unique document and a valuable source of a dramatic moment in Modern Greek History, includes it in the series «HISTORICAL SOURCES» of Ellinika Grammata Publications.