The Pontian Federation of Australia was established in 1989 with the intent of bringing all Pontian Associations throughout Australia, whose purpose is to promote and preserve the Pontian culture, together.
The Federation boasts a vast youth network whose determination and achievements exemplify the purpose of its existence and further add value to the already rich culture we have been able to preserve in Australia.
PRESIDENT WELCOME ADDRESS:
The Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia is the peak representative and co-ordinating body of the organised Hellenic Pontian organisations in Australia. As President, I am proud to lead this synergy of Pontian Hellenes who, collectively and individually, are determined to maintain and promote our (most ancient of Hellenic) Pontian cultures in the antipodes as well as in the diaspora. With our history, comes an obligation to our ancestral heroes, especially those who were "negated", slaughtered, initially by the ottomans and subsequently (and/or consequently) by the neo-turks just after the turn of the previous century. These victims were one patria of Hellenes, along with the Hellenes of Asia Minor, including Assyrians and Armenians, whose only "anathema" was that they were Christians, and thus outside the homogenised religious aspirations of the newly created Turkic nation in Anatolia.
My late father, Theophilos Efkarpidis, was the Founding President of the Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia. I am honoured, twenty years on, to take on the challenges of this office; and I do so with proud disposition, ethical passion and a vision that my late father shared with me throughout his life.
I dedicate this term of the Presidency, to his memory, and to the memory of all those who have served our Pontian heritage. I further pledge that I will try and lead the team of colleagues, my Executive Committee, towards (what we believe is) the (inevitable) recognition of the Christian Genocide of Anatolia.
Finally, I vow to do everything I can, to connect with and empower our second, third and fourth generations of Australians of Hellenic Pontian background, attracting their participation to our most beautiful Pontian culture
John Theophilos Efkarpidis
President of the Federation of Pontian Associations of Australia