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Happy Birthday PAOK


Ziaka

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Today PAOK celebrates the 80th birthday. It was on this day that PAOK was born. Here is a brief history on the birth of Panthessalonikios Athlitikos Omilos Konstantinoupoliton taken from the official PAOK web site:

The birth of PAOK

PAOK is the historical continuation of the ‘Hermes’ Athletic and Cultural Association from Constantinople established by Greek residents of the city in 1875 in the very heart of the city in the Pera area. The need of Constantinople’s Greek residents to express and support their Hellenism within Turkey was what led to the creation of this club. In 1923 following the Asia Minor Catastrophe when the Turks expelled countless Greeks from the coastal regions of Turkey, the Greeks of Constantinople renamed their club Peraclub in line with the new constitution adopted by Kemal Ataturk. Despite this blow to Hellenic culture in Turkey, which was forced to take the path of the refugee and to abandon its traditional home, Peraclub continued its sporting struggle, promising to continue to do so as long as there were Greeks left in Constantinople. The club won cup after cup proving that although the Greeks were a minority they continued to have a strong presence in the sporting sector. However, that situation did not last long and most players were forced to flee, leaving behind a team consisting of residents of Constantinople renamed Politakia. Those who fled settled in Thessaloniki and in 1926 established PAOK which translated means the Panthessalonikian Athletic Club of Constantinople, retaining the symbols of their ‘Greekness’, the twin-headed eagle of the Byzantine Empire combined with mourning black to symbolize the tragic history of the Greeks in Turkey and white, the colour of optimism, a window onto the future, symbolizing their struggle for tomorrow and the victories they intended to win. This club history stretching back to the 19th century in effect makes PAOK one of Greece’s oldest athletic clubs but also means that it shoulders a heavy historical burden.

The club’s first charter was approved on 20th April 1926 by means of decision of the Thessaloniki Court of First Instance (No. 822). However, PAOK had in effect been established a year earlier when it took part in the Thessaloniki Championship where it was unfortunately demoted to the 2nd Division, a demotion which forced the founders of the club to bolster it substantially.

PAOK’s first Board of Directors serving between 1926 and 1927 consisted of :

1) T. Triantafyllidis (Chairman),

2) P. Kalpaktsoglou (1st Vice-Chairman),

3) A. Athanassiadis (2nd Vice Chairman),

4) K. Kritikos (Hon. Secretary),

5) M. Tsoulkas (Secretary),

6) T. Ioakimopoulos (Treasurer),

7) A. Angelopoulos (Football Steward),

8) M. Konstantinidis (Director) and

9) S. Triantafyllidis (Director).

One major event in the history of PAOK was the merger with AEK Thessaloniki:

Merger with AEK Thessaloniki

The decision to merge with the club AEK Thessaloniki can also be considered to be of historic importance. Until 20th March 1929 the two clubs were rivals, competing against each other although both had been established by refugees from Constantinople. It was the Chairman of AEK, Dr. Karamaounas, who brokered the merger between Thessaloniki’s two refugee teams. The main figures behind the idea and its implementation were Fanourios Vyzantios and Pantelis Kalpaktsoglou who had defected from AEK Thessaloniki, which had been established in 1924-25 by the first wave of refugees who had come to Thessaloniki from Constantinople in 1922. Certain members of AEK Thessaloniki headed south to the capital upon the merger to found the modern-day team AEK.

Following the merger with AEK in 1929, PAOK changed its emblem. The new emblem became the Eagle, which it remains to this day, and symbolizes the arrival of the club and the return to the roots and heritage of the refugees (Byzantium and Constantinople).

The Eagle holds a sword and a crown with its two heads looking East and West. The difference between this emblem and that of AEK (which is also the symbol of the Eastern Orthodox Church) is that PAOK’s emblem has its wings folded signifying mourning for expulsion from the homeland.

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Happy Birthday PAOK!! Na zises polla ala xronia!!

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Today PAOK celebrates the 80th birthday. It was on this day that PAOK was born. Here is a brief history on the birth of Panthessalonikios Athlitikos Omilos Konstantinoupoliton taken from the official PAOK web site:

The birth of PAOK

PAOK is the historical continuation of the ‘Hermes’ Athletic and Cultural Association from Constantinople established by Greek residents of the city in 1875 in the very heart of the city in the Pera area. The need of Constantinople’s Greek residents to express and support their Hellenism within Turkey was what led to the creation of this club. In 1923 following the Asia Minor Catastrophe when the Turks expelled countless Greeks from the coastal regions of Turkey, the Greeks of Constantinople renamed their club Peraclub in line with the new constitution adopted by Kemal Ataturk. Despite this blow to Hellenic culture in Turkey, which was forced to take the path of the refugee and to abandon its traditional home, Peraclub continued its sporting struggle, promising to continue to do so as long as there were Greeks left in Constantinople. The club won cup after cup proving that although the Greeks were a minority they continued to have a strong presence in the sporting sector. However, that situation did not last long and most players were forced to flee, leaving behind a team consisting of residents of Constantinople renamed Politakia. Those who fled settled in Thessaloniki and in 1926 established PAOK which translated means the Panthessalonikian Athletic Club of Constantinople, retaining the symbols of their ‘Greekness’, the twin-headed eagle of the Byzantine Empire combined with mourning black to symbolize the tragic history of the Greeks in Turkey and white, the colour of optimism, a window onto the future, symbolizing their struggle for tomorrow and the victories they intended to win. This club history stretching back to the 19th century in effect makes PAOK one of Greece’s oldest athletic clubs but also means that it shoulders a heavy historical burden.

The club’s first charter was approved on 20th April 1926 by means of decision of the Thessaloniki Court of First Instance (No. 822). However, PAOK had in effect been established a year earlier when it took part in the Thessaloniki Championship where it was unfortunately demoted to the 2nd Division, a demotion which forced the founders of the club to bolster it substantially.

PAOK’s first Board of Directors serving between 1926 and 1927 consisted of :

1) T. Triantafyllidis (Chairman),

2) P. Kalpaktsoglou (1st Vice-Chairman),

3) A. Athanassiadis (2nd Vice Chairman),

4) K. Kritikos (Hon. Secretary),

5) M. Tsoulkas (Secretary),

6) T. Ioakimopoulos (Treasurer),

7) A. Angelopoulos (Football Steward),

8) M. Konstantinidis (Director) and

9) S. Triantafyllidis (Director).

One major event in the history of PAOK was the merger with AEK Thessaloniki:

Merger with AEK Thessaloniki

The decision to merge with the club AEK Thessaloniki can also be considered to be of historic importance. Until 20th March 1929 the two clubs were rivals, competing against each other although both had been established by refugees from Constantinople. It was the Chairman of AEK, Dr. Karamaounas, who brokered the merger between Thessaloniki’s two refugee teams. The main figures behind the idea and its implementation were Fanourios Vyzantios and Pantelis Kalpaktsoglou who had defected from AEK Thessaloniki, which had been established in 1924-25 by the first wave of refugees who had come to Thessaloniki from Constantinople in 1922. Certain members of AEK Thessaloniki headed south to the capital upon the merger to found the modern-day team AEK.

Following the merger with AEK in 1929, PAOK changed its emblem. The new emblem became the Eagle, which it remains to this day, and symbolizes the arrival of the club and the return to the roots and heritage of the refugees (Byzantium and Constantinople).

The Eagle holds a sword and a crown with its two heads looking East and West. The difference between this emblem and that of AEK (which is also the symbol of the Eastern Orthodox Church) is that PAOK’s emblem has its wings folded signifying mourning for expulsion from the homeland.

Ziaka eisai sigouros gia ayto pou grafeis gia tin Aek salonika?Einai mythos i alitheia?
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