Hellenic Electronic Center

"The following posting by Dr. Christos D. Katsetos was excerpted from the Modern Greek Studies Association List (MGSA-L)..."
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2009-January/010213.html


In November 2004, I received from The Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo, Norway a photocopy of the original letter of nomination by Eleftherios K. Venizelos for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to be bestowed upon the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Ataturk).


It should be noted that this benchmark nomination is hardly mentioned in Greek historiographic sources and the existence of such letter is unknown even among respected Greek scholars let alone the Greek public at large. Moreover, the exact content of the letter in question is, to my knowledge,
hitherto unknown.


Appended below are the English and Greek translations of the original letter (written in French).


I am profoundly grateful to Ms. Stella Colston and Ms. Penny Pouliou, both interpreters with expertise in political and diplomatic affairs, for rendering the English and Greek translations of this historic document.


N.B. The original 3-page, double-spaced letter bearing Eleftherios Venizelos' signature (and on the first page his handwritten date, "Athenes le 12 Janvier 1934") will be reproduced by permission of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in a manuscript which is currently in preparation.

PS. I suggest that reference to the said nomination letter be made under the subheading "Eleftherios Venizelos and his era - Chronology (1928 - 1936)" in the official website of the National Research Foundation "Eleftherios
K. Venizelos" http://www.venizelos-foundation.gr/endocs/xronologio4.jsp


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Christos D. Katsetos, MD, PhD, FRCPath
http://www.drexelmed.edu/DepartmentsCentersandInstitutes/ClinicalDept...
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