Mavi Boncuk |
A group of friends mostly migrants from Edremit[1] after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, who all lived around Kyriakou Square - nowadays known as Victoria Square - decided to create a football team for the love of the game, for their love and passion for football. It was a difficult era but their efforts and willing more than enough; Kolomvounis, Petas, Glykofridis, Stathopoulos, Synodinos, Rigopoulos, Stamatopoulos have been the leading persons that realized the project and officially founded Atromitos in the month of May, 1923.
Vaggelis Stamatis, a math teacher and a former official of the Greek Football Federation has been the person named responsible for Atromitos administration. With his knowledges and experience, Vaggelis Stamatis, who had been involved in the past as a football official in the Board of Directors of Panathinaikos, he helped the Victoria square group of friends to make their dream come true.
The new team was named "Atromitos" (which means "fearless" if translated in english). Atromitos FC possesses the 14th number of Registration in the Greek Football Federation catalogs. The first team ever to be registered in the Greek Football Federation logs had been Panathinaikos, followed by AEK, Apollon, Dafni, Athinaikos, Astir Zografou, Goudi, Olympiada (Orfeas Egaleo), Aris Petroupolis, AO Pagkratiou, Ellinorossikos, Arion Pagkratiou, Attikos and Atromitos.
A well known doctor, originating from Asia Minor, Iosif Chouroukchoglou was named first President of Atromitos; the new team's home was the football pitch of Panellinios at the Pedion tou Areos and later on the Panathinaikos home pitch.
In 1932, Nikolaos Epioglou and Iosif Chouroukchoglou, took a big decision; Atromitos was moving to another home and find its own fans. In 1933, Atromitos moved to Peristeri[3], a city that was full of pigeon houses and thousand of refugees who had reached Athens after the Catastrophe of Smyrna.
The merge of Atromitos Athinon and Asteras was realized without any problems; Asteras, an independent club, offered its symbol, the star, as well as its colors, blue and white; on the other hand, Atromitos kept its name. So, in 1932-1933 season, the new team of Atromitos Athinon (Atromitos Athens) appeared featuring the star as a symbol, blue and white as its shirt colors and Peristeri as home pitch.
[1] Edremit (Ottoman Turkish: ادرمد) is a district in Balıkesir Province, Turkey, as well as the central city of that district, on the west coast of Turkey, not far from the Greek island Lesbos.
[2] The Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, known as the Western Front (Turkish: Batı Cephesi) of the Turkish War of Independence in Turkey and the Asia Minor Campaign (Greek: Μικρασιατική Εκστρατεία) or the Asia Minor Catastrophe (Greek: Μικρασιατική Καταστροφή) in Greece, was fought between Greece and the Turkish National Movement during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I between May 1919 and October 1922. The Greek campaign was launched primarily as the western Allies, particularly British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, had promised Greece territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. The armed conflict started with the Greek occupation of Smyrna, which is contemporary Izmir, on 15 May 1919, and Greek forces occupied several other cities in Anatolia during the war, including Manisa, Balıkesir, Aydin, Kütahya, Bursa, and Eskişehir, but their advance was checked at the Battle of Sakarya in 1921. The Greek front collapsed with the Turkish counter-attack on August 1922 and the war effectively ended with the re-capture of Smyrna by the Turkish forces. As a result, the Greek government accepted the demands of the Turkish national movement and returned to its pre-war borders, thus leaving East Thrace and Western Anatolia to Turkey. The Turkish victory also brought an end to the Occupation of Constantinople by the British forces. Greek and Turkish governments agreed to engage in a population exchange.
[3]Peristeri (Greek: Περιστέρι, standing for "pigeon/dove" in Greek) is a suburban municipality in the northwestern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. With 139,981 inhabitants (2011 census), it is the seventh-largest municipality of Greece by population.
Population Increase in Refugee Settlements in Athens and Piraeus: Peristeri 1920 (7,268) | 1928 (123)
Source: The Creation of Community: Well-Being without Wealth in an Urban Greek Refugee Locality by Renée Hirschon
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