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Obituary: Sano Themia Halo (1909-2014) Latest Popular Recent Comments

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 May 4, 2014  Guest Contributor  Obituaries  14 Armenians of Abkhazia”
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  Eastern Festival | Tigran
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Sano Themia Halo, (1909-2014) one of the last survivors of the Pontic Greek Genocide in Ottoman Turkey,
died peacefully at home in her sleep on April 28, 2014, just two weeks shy of her 105th birthday.

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Although Ms. Halo came from a place in the world that was too small to be depicted on a map, as the subject held in New Jersey
of the memoir, Not Even My Name, she became known to Pontic Greeks worldwide, as the Yia Yia  October 27, 2022  0
(grandmother) of all Pontians. To her family and friends she was a warm, sensitive, often humorous, and
caring mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. 

Sano Themia Halo (1909-2014)

The only known survivor of her family, Ms. Halo’s extraordinary memory brought to life the details of how the
Pontic Greeks lived in mountain villages of the Black Sea region of Turkey in the early 20th Century, and her
community’s devastating death march to exile in 1920. To help her survive, her mother left 10-year-old
Themia, with a woman who promised to care for her, in a small hamlet in southern Turkey. After her mother’s
death, young Themia was treated as a slave. With the loss of her family, community, and nally her name,
changed to Sano by her cruel keeper, Sano ran away to Diyarbakir at age 12. There an Armenian family took
her in. When they ed to Aleppo, Syria to avoid further massacres, they took young Sano with them as their
daughter.

Sano’s future husband, Abraham, an Assyrian who had also ed Turkey and emigrated to the U.S. in 1905, had
returned to Aleppo in 1925 to visit exiled cousins and to nd a bride. To give Sano a chance at a free life in
America, at just 15 years old, her Armenian family arranged Sano’s marriage to 45-year-old Abraham. On their
marriage and arrival in New York City, Sano became mother to Farage, Abraham’s 10-year-old son from a
previous marriage. Sano and Abraham raised 10 children of their own.

When asked if she wanted restitution from the Turkish government for the loss of her family and her home,
Ms. Halo responded that she wanted an apology from the Turkish government. “We had everything to live for
and they sent us to die on the roads,” she said.

In 2002, Ms. Halo was given the New York Governor’s Award for Excellence in Honor of Women’s History
Month, Honoring Women of Courage and Vision, for making known to the American public for the rst time,
the history and tragic fate of the Pontic Greeks, a people who had made Asia Minor their home for almost
3,000 years, until their massacre, death marches to exile, and nally the Exchange of Populations in 1923
pursuant to the Treaty of Lausanne.
NEWSLETTER
Although a resident of New York City since her arrival in 1925, neither Ms. Halo, nor most of the country, was
aware that over 40,000 Pontic Greeks made their homes in Astoria, L.I., with further Pontian communities in Email address: Your email address
Connecticut, Chicago, Canada and elsewhere.
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In 2009, for her 100th Birthday, Greece awarded Ms. Halo and her daughter, Thea, honorary Greek citizenship.
“Now everyone will know I am Greek,” Ms. Halo said, referring to a U.S. passport that depicted her place of
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origin as Turkey, without identifying her as a Greek.

In 1989, she made a pilgrimage with her daughter, Thea, back to Turkey to nd her home. “Everyone treated NAASR to host lecture on “The Armenians of
me like family,” she said of the Turks they met along the way.” Although Ms. Halo’s story of loss of family, Abkhazia”
home, country, and nally even her language and her name was so tragic, she never held any animosity
14th annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival | Tigran
towards the Turkish people. She said they had lived side by side in peace. “They are people like any other
Hamasyan Trio Meets Pletenitsa
people. They want to raise their families and prosper. You must place the blame where blame belongs,” she
said, “with the Turkish government. Ataturk. He was the one. Not the only one. But he was the one.” AEWC 2022 biennial meeting held in New Jersey

AMAA holds 103rd annual meeting, elects new

The Ottoman genocide of over three million of their Christian citizens: Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians
board members
under the Young Turk and Kemalist regimes from 1913-1923 took the lives of 353,000 of the 700,000 Pontic
Greeks, and a further 700,000 Greeks of Ottoman Turkey. It also took the lives of 275,000 Assyrians, more Ani Marderosian to play title role in “Warrior Queen:
than half their population, and 1.5 million Armenians. Anahit the Brave”

Ms. Halo had long opined, “If I could only write, I’d tell the world what happened.” Although her daughter Thea
had made her career as a painter, after their trip to Turkey, Thea decided to be her mother’s voice. Not Even
My Name was published by Picador, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, in 2000.

Sano Halo is also featured in a number of documentaries, and has received numerous other honors and
awards in the U.S., Canada, and in Greece. The Sano Themia Halo Pontian Heritage Foundation was
established by her daughter Thea with the intention of building a living museum in Greece to help future
generations know how the Pontic Greeks lived in the Pontic Mountains along the Black Sea.

In 1976 Ms. Halo moved to Monroe, N.Y. where she spent the last 37 years of her life. Above all, Ms. Halo was
devoted to her family. She often said, “My family is my life.” She is survived by seven of her ten children, plus
her many grand- and great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.

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Guest Contributor
Guest contributions to the Armenian Weekly are informative articles or press releases
written and submitted by members of the community.

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14 COMMENTS

Ani Maybalian Chatmajian says:

MAY 4, 2014 AT 11:12 AM

Sano was taken in and supported by my great uncle Hagop Maybalian and his family in Dikranagerd. She
moved to Aleppo with them and lived with the family until her marriage and immigration to the US.

May she rest in peace.

 REPLY

Lori Halo-Celio says:

AUGUST 25, 2018 AT 11:26 AM

Hello Ani,

If you get this message, please email me. I am Sano Halo’s granddaughter, and would love to get any
information of pictures you may have from when your great uncle and his family took in my grandmother
in Turkey.

Vahe says:
MAY 5, 2014 AT 10:41 AM

I wish Greek Americans had the same motivation to recover their homeland as Armenians do, but they do not.
That is why they are not politically very active in the U.S. They have Greece, and Greece is weak and friendly
with Turkey, and so they are not motivated. It’s a shame. We could be strong allies. They care only about
Cyprus, but barely.

 REPLY

Toli says:
APRIL 26, 2020 AT 7:20 PM

The Greeks have always wanted to recover their homelands. It is the megali idea. The Greeks fought hard
to take back what is rightfully theirs in the wake of the rst world war. The English promised assistance to
Greece to entice it to join the allies in the war, which Greece did. But then, along with the French, the
English abandoned Greece when its campaign reached deep into Anatolia with a foothold in Ankara.
Greece was a small country, it could not win the campaign on its own, but the great powers abandoned
their cradle of western civilisation. Likewise, in 1974, when Turkey invaded Cyprus and violated
international law by populating the occupied land, England stood by when it had a right under treaty to
intervene to protect Cyprus from the invaders.

The end result of the allies abandoning Greece in 1922 and following is that Turkey is founded on a stolen
inheritance: Constantinople (among the holiest cities in orthodox christendom), Smyrna, Nicaea,
Cappadocia, Amisos, Ankita, Trapezounta, Hierapolis, all are Greek cities; the Hagia So a (the greatest
church of christendom) has been desecrated and de led by the in dels; the ecumenical patriarch suffers
in silence under the oppressive rule of muslims who interfere in the affairs of the Orthodox Church in a
way that the Catholics could never imagine.

Surely Turkey, which persists in its denial of the Greek, Armenian and Assyrian genocides, has a lot of
karma owing to it; it has in icted unfathomable destruction and suffering on innocent christians with
impunity for centuries.

Aida Gharibian says:

MAY 6, 2014 AT 8:57 AM

Although Themia/Sano Halo endured much pain during persecution, she didn’t hate anyone. Very kind
hearted woman. Very hospitable. She loved everyone in life.

 REPLY

george omartian says:

MAY 6, 2014 AT 5:14 PM

May she rest in peace…..I had the pleasure of meeting her and her daughter when they visited our Parish…St
Gregory in White Plains….she was a sweet and lovely woman.

 REPLY

Jda says:
MAY 6, 2014 AT 7:37 PM

Her daughter and biographer was understandably upset that we don’t support their cause for Genocide
recognition. She hot into an argument w Dadtian about this.

 REPLY

AustralianCitizensCommitteeForCivilConcerns says:
MAY 8, 2014 AT 2:46 AM

As much as the Nazi dreadfully inhuman holocaust against millions of Hebrew victims was universally and
historically recognised even by Germany itself, equally the Turkish genocide against millions of Hellenes,
Armenians, Assyrians, and non-turkic populations, likewise constitutes inhuman holocaust. Actually that was
a prelude to the nazi holocaust. Turkey does not stop there; it continued with further barbarities of the: –
burning of Smyrna; – murderous pogrom in Constantinople (Sep 1955); – subsequent persecutions against
its indigenous Hellenes; – murderous aggression on Cyprus; – ongoing murderous connivance against Syria.
As with Germany the nations should demand that Turkey too apologise for its crimes and stop pursuing
belligerent hegemony over other peoples, when also seeking accession in the EU

 REPLY

Z says:
MAY 8, 2014 AT 12:33 PM

Thank you all for your kind words for the passing of my Grandmother.

Grandma would say “I love all people..people are people, they just want to live, like you and I, and raise their
families wheather they live in America or on the other side(across Atlantic)…” “but it’s the governments…or a
few rotten apples..”

God Bless here, may she rest in peace.

Ani, hello! I would enjoy speaking with you.

 REPLY

Dawn Carr says:

FEBRUARY 2, 2015 AT 11:26 PM

I am part Greek, and and have Greek ans Armenian friends. My dear friend who is all Greek gave me your
book to read. I can’t tell you how much I cried and I’m crying as I write this. Your mother is and was beautiful.
Thank you for the gift of sharing her story with us. I feel absolutely the world should know and acknowledge
these terrible times and all the nationalities that were murdered. Thank you again. May your beautiful mother
rest in peace.

 REPLY

PANAGIOTIS STEFANIDES says:

AUGUST 15, 2016 AT 7:15 AM

My Sincere Condolences.

 REPLY

wJohn Vasilakos says:

OCTOBER 25, 2018 AT 10:49 PM

Have her book about her incredible life. What an unique special woman who survived so much hardships. She
had no ill feelings for the Turks;and others for her tragic upbringing. One of the few Chosen in God’s Heart for
Humanity

 REPLY

Unknown says:
NOVEMBER 25, 2018 AT 8:52 PM

My friend is actually Sano Halo’s great-grandson and got to meet her. RIP Sano Halo, and God bless.

 REPLY

Laura Tyor says:

JANUARY 26, 2021 AT 4:37 PM

I just nished the book about this amazing and courageous human being. Thank you to her daughter for
sharing her mother’s story of such anguish but, yet, Sano was somehow able to still have so much love in her
heart.

 REPLY

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