Michalis Charalambidis

in Léo Matarasso, Seminario del 6 dicembre 2008, Cedetim, Parigi

Dear Piero,
I am sorry I cannot be in Paris with you at this moment of commemoration of two dear people, Léo Matarasso and Jean-Marie Gaubert.
I must confess that in the first meetings of the International Council of the League, in the early 1980s, the person with whom I felt most in tune, especially for the cause of the peoples of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, was Léo Matarasso. In a very human, paternal way, like a teacher, he gave me books. He was born here. His hometown was Thessaloniki and in the Council intervals we used to talk about the city.
It is his memory, his example, together with other memories that prompted me to promote the idea of a holocaust museum in Thessaloniki. The city is made up of people who experienced Kemalist first and Nazi later genocidal violence. Personally, I was very involved with Thessaloniki. The city was my fighting ground during the dictatorship period. It was from Thessaloniki that I escaped clandestinely to Italy. The League took me from Thessaloniki to Rome, to Paris, to Milan, to the cosmos.
But this was the League, these were our presidents Lelio and Leo. Love, passion for the liberation of peoples and human beings.
A hug to you and to all

Michalis

Charalambidis, Michalis

in:

<strong>Léo Matarasso,
Seminario del 6 dicembre 2008, Cedetim, Parigi
Milano, maggio 2009</strong>