Vlasis Agtzidis

Vlasis Agtzidis holds a Ph.D. in Modern History from the Department of History and Archaeology at the Faculty of Philosophy of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with a background in mathematics and computer science. His dissertation focused on the Greek press in the Soviet Union during the interwar period. He has collaborated with Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Panteion University, the University of the Aegean, and Bordeaux III University (France) to explore the phenomenon of Black Sea Hellenism. He has published several books, including: "Pontic Hellenism: From Genocide and Stalinism to Perestroika" in 1990, "The Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Consequences for Hellenism" in 1992, "The Unknown Greeks of Pontus" (editor) in 1995, "Pontus: An Open Issue" in 1996, "Black Sea Diaspora: Greek Settlements in the Northeastern Regions of the Black Sea" in 1997, "The Niotis Family of Crete: A Family in the Cretan Revolutions" in 2000, among others. He has been awarded the Academy of Athens Prize for his book "History of the Greek Diaspora on the Northeastern Shores of the Black Sea" in 1995, and twice received Honorable Mentions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his efforts in evacuating Greeks from the conflict zone in Abkhazia (1993) and for establishing the World Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE) in 1996. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals as well as in daily and periodical press. His articles, exceeding 200 in number, have been published in outlets such as Eleftherotypia, Ethnos, Oikonomikos Tachydromos, Ardin, Historika, Ereisma, Ellopia, Epikaira (Cyprus), Ethnikos Kyrix (New York), Yper (Los Angeles), Hellenic Diaspora (Tbilisi), Akropoli (Moscow), Journal of Refugee Studies (Oxford), and Pogrom (Germany). He served as a special advisor at the Deputy Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for the Greek diaspora, and as a consultant at the Hellenic Foundation for Culture. He has taught at Panteion University and Democritus University of Thrace, and also taught a course on collective trauma and memory management at the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Since 2009, he has been organizing the History Seminar at the Open University of the Municipality of Kifisia. His main research interests include the Soviet interwar period and the history of Soviet Hellenism, the Greek Diaspora, the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the era of nation-states, and the historical experience of Hellenism in Asia Minor.