1. Foundation and operation of the club

The "Greek Political Association of Cydoniae" was founded at Ayvalık (Cydoniae) in September 1908, thanks to the optimism for a political equality created by the Revolution of the Young Turks and the restoration of the Constitution. Its foundation regulation foresaw as an aim of the Club “the guidance of the Greek society towards a clear and precise knowledge of its rights”, thus following “the spirit of the constitutional form of government”, as well as “the cultivation and support of every will and action for the progress and elevation of our Nation”.¹

The national formation and the political independence of the Greek Orthodox in an environment of constitutional equality was amongst the main targets of the club, in which apparently many Greek subjects participated too, probably in concert with Athens. In one of the club’s documents it is mentioned that “it should be used in actions public and well-organized in order to maintain the always recognized independence of the Greek nation in Turkey, as well as the pursuit of Greeks who are Ottoman subjects for equality within the empire”.² The achievement of these targets was pursued with the organization of a series of lectures on history, society and ideology, and with the plan to found a night school “for the elementary education of the illiterate children of the people”.³ The first administrative board of the Club was voted in November of the same year and was comprised of the known scholar and teacher G. Sakkaris, I. Zervos (lawyer), I. Apostolakis (physician), D. Odysseos (agent), D. Kontis (merchant), M. Tsougas (physician), M. Kartsaklis (lawyer), A. Saltas (merchant), A. Pantagis and E. Gialandelis.

2. The “political oath”

Whoever wished to take part and promote the aims of the Club –in other words “whoever felt Greek blood running through his veins”⁴- was obliged to vow on their belief in the love for the progress of the motherland and for the defence of religion. For this reason it is documented that a special oath, the so-called “political oath”, had been established and was used.

The Club was short-lived: it was violently dissolved in the summer of 1909, after the imposition of the military law in Ayvalık.