One hundred years after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the revolutionary character of the period 1909-1922, until the continuation of '21, is often overlooked. And yet, the Great Idea of Rigas, Filiki and Venizelos - the meeting of the Greeks in a unified state - was the goal of the 19th and 20th centuries, the stake of the "great decade".

During the period 1909-1922, the decomposition of Ottomanism "met" with the strengthening of Hellenism, which had the historical opportunity to complete 1821, while Turkism would be limited to a small power in the borders of the Seljuk state. Moreover, for the first time, the "Powers" had abandoned the "great Patient".

The renewing dynamic came from liberated Hellenism, the diaspora, the Ionian Islands, Macedonia, Crete; on the contrary, the oligarchy, with the Palace as its focal point, saw the inclusion of liberated Greeks in the state as a threat. Only the Revolution of 1909 - the lower-ranking officers with the support of the people and the connecting link of the iconic figure of Eleftherios Venizelos - would express the meeting of liberated Hellenism with the Greek state. This would lead to the victorious Balkan Wars, to Eastern Thrace, Smyrna.

Unfortunately, the delays of the revolutionary leadership, in 1909-1910, 1915 and 1920, allowed for the recovery of the "micro-Hellenic" oligarchy, resulting in Hellenism definitively losing its Anatolian lung, the Bosphorus, and its historical capital. The obstacle to the realization of "this great idea" was the National Division - the culmination of the conflict between Hellenism and Hellenism that has continued since 1821; the Catastrophe was not a fatum, an inevitable development.

Today, neo-Ottomanism claims the "completion of 1922" (sic) - "we threw you into the sea" it is time to "take it back". And only if we transform the lost breadth of Hellenism into depth, creatively responding to the great loss of 1922 - as envisioned by the Generation of the '30s - perhaps we can overcome decline.