Neoklis Sarris (Greek:Νεοκλής Σαρρής) was a Greek academic, jurist and politician. He was born in Istanbul on 5 May 1940, and died in Athens on 19 November 2011 from cancer.[6] His great-grandfather Alexandros as a grain merchant moved to Istanbul from Makrinitsa, thus Neoklis Sarris' origin was Greek.[5]
He was professor of Sociology of History at the Panteion University, specializing mainly in the Ottoman period. He was President of the Panteion University Sociology Department. He also taught Psychosociology at the University of Zurich, and for 30 years he was professor of Sociology of film at the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos (H.C.T.S.S.; Greek: Σχολή Κινηματογράφου και Τηλεόρασης του Λυκούργου Σταυράκου).
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He was a consultant of George Mavros and John Zigdis, who were Presidents of the Union Democratic Centre party (E.DI.K.), and after the death of the second, he was appointed the presidency of the party by the Union of the Democratic Centre, and thus became the fourth president after George Papandreou, George Mavros, and John Zigdis in successive order.[3]
In the late 70s, he was an (informal) mediator between Greece and Turkey, negotiating with all of the Turkish leadership and the Prime Minister Mustafa Bülent Ecevit and transferring their thoughts to the Greek Prime Minister through Georgios Mavros.[7]
In the early 90s, Sarris is responsible for the idea of establishing May 19 in Greece as Pontian Greek Genocide Remembrance Day, also, in the late 90s Sarris and his wife Flora had the idea of establishing a Pontian Univercity, but this idea was not implemented.[4]
In March 2012, few months after his death, succeeded from Stavros Karampelas at the 3rd Congress of the Union of the Democratic Centre.[8]
Works
He has published numerous articles in scientific journals and in the daily press. In 2010, he edited the book by academic and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoğluStrategic Depth. The International Position of Turkey. Yet, he has written the preface in many Greek books and Turkish scholar publications, while many of his works remain unpublished.
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