The Silence of Asia Minor

Perhaps no other region in the world has seen so many alternations of culture, religion and policy, as much as the peninsula of Asia Minor, known as Anatolia to the Greeks and as Asia Minor to the Romans (although now called Turkey, this is a very recent name). In this way, Helen Konstantinidou begins her journey through History that is presented in this one hour documentary and entitled "The Silence of Asia Minor." This is a historical documentary which has as a starting point the period referring to the Argonaut Campaign that took place in the Black Sea coastline (around 15th century BC) and the first settlement of Greek tribes in M. Asia (the Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians), and reaches present times. According to history, this region was the cradle of science and laid the foundations for the birth of democracy in Athens, the emergence of Western Civilization, as well as the spread of Christianity under the guidance of Paul the Apostle. The documentary monitors and records the ethnological, cultural and sociological changes in the region over time. Traversing the classical period and travelling to the east side of the Aegean, it passes through the Hellenistic period and focuses on the writings of French Historian Paul Vein, who examines with articulacy the dynamic presence and continuity of Hellenism in Roman affairs. The documentary emphasises on the reasons of the rise and fall of one of the most glorious empires in the world, the Byzantine Empire and interprets deterministically the spread of the Ottoman Turks to the West. There, it examines four centuries of subjugation and Islamization of the empire nations before it enters World War I and a period of outbreak by the people, for autonomy. Finally, after presenting the painful consequences brought on by WWI's outcomes, it takes an in-depth look at the establishment and the course of the newly created state in the Asia Minor region, today's Turkey, gradually reaching the recent events in Taksim Gezi park. It sums up with the violation of the human rights by the State and ends this trip with the questions raised regarding Turkey's role in the combustible Middle East region, but also about the future of the country itself...