[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 124 (Thursday, September 17, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1748-E1749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO AKTINA PRODUCTIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROBERT MENENDEZ

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 17, 1998

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to AKTINA 
Productions, a non-profit Greek-Cypriot-American radio program which 
offers stellar bilingual programming on

[[Page E1749]]

the airwaves of public station WYNE 91.5 FM in the New York 
Metropolitan area.
  AKTINA Productions is unique not only because it is the only 
bilingual Greek-American Radio Show presently airing in the United 
States, but also because it caters to all ethnic groups and ages. Its 
programming includes Greek songs and music, as well as hard news, 
special news reports and feature stories of wide public interest, 
including folk arts, sports, radio, theater and the latest Greek hits. 
Its informative newscasts and reports from Cyprus and Greece, inform 
listeners of the Greek and Cypriot national issues.
  Every year, AKTINA Productions organizes a cultural event to 
acknowledge the Greek and Cypriot heritage. This year's event will 
celebrate the unique customs and traditions of Asia Minor. The well-
known dance Group Terpshichore will present a Dance-Music Journey from 
the Waterfront of Smyrna to the Black Sea of Pontos and into the caves 
of Cappadocia.
  This event will also mark the tragic anniversary of the Greek 
expulsion from Asia Minor following the catastrophe at Smyrna in 1922. 
It was at Smyrna in 1914, that the Turkish Nationalists regime 
initiated a systematic campaign to eradicate the ethnic Greek 
population in Asia Minor, consigning and killing thousands of male 
conscripts into forced labor battalions and destroying Greek towns and 
villages and slaughtering hundreds of thousands of civilians in areas 
where Greeks composed a majority, including the Black Sea port of 
Pontos and the areas surrounding Smyrna.
  Through this production AKTINA will be paying tribute to many Greeks 
who lost their lives during the tragic events at Smyrna, including 
Metropolitan Chrysostomos, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox 
Christians in Smyrna who refused to abandon the city and was brutally 
murdered by Turkish mobs with the consent of the Turkish police forces.
  I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate AKTINA 
Productions both for the service they provide to listeners in the tri-
state area, for ensuring that we never forget the tragic events at 
Smyrna by staging this production, and to wish them well as they come 
together on September 20, 1998 to celebrate their Greek and Cypriot 
heritage.

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