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Kallithea

8 bytes removed, 15:22, January 11, 2006
The Growth of the City
Between the first (1896) and the recent (2004) modern Olympic Games in Athens the city of Kallithea grew significantly. First the tramway depot and workshop were built there (1910) followed by the Harokopios Graduate School (1925) and the Panteios Graduate Scholl of Political Sciences (1928).
In the 1920s the town was flooded by the thousands of refugees after the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]], the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922) and the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] (1923). These refugees arrived in Kallithea mainly from the south Black Sea ([[Pontus]], from [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] cities such as [[Sinope]] (now Sinop, [[Turkey]]), Sampsus (now Samsun, Turkey), Kerasus (now Giresun, Turkey), [[Trapezous]]-[[Trebizond]] (now Trabzon, Turkey), Tripolis (now Tirebolu, Turkey), Argyroupolis (now Gümüshane, Turkey) and other remnants of the late [[Byzantine Empire]].
A few had arrived earlier (1919) from the north and east (russian) coasts of the Black Sea, from places such as Odessos (Odessa), Marioupolis (Mariupol', Sea of Azov) and other, after the failed attempt of the western allies (Greece included) against the young Bolshevik state during the Russian Civil War.
Black Sea immigrants of Greek origin also settled in Kallithea in the 1930s, as a result of the change of soviet policy towards [[ethnic groups]]. Their origins were mainly in the east coast of the Black Sea (Batumi, Sokhumi, Novorossiysk, Anapa etc.)
The first refugees settled originally in the site of the Olympic Shoting Range (1896) until they were gradually transferred to new dwellings. After its evacuation the building of the Shooting Range served as a scholl until the [[Nazi]] Occupation (1941) when it was converted to prison. The prison of Kallithea was demolished in 1966. Among other, fighters of the Greek Resistance and victims of the [[Greek Civil War]] had been jailed there (e.g. [[Nikos BeloyannisBeloyiannis]]).
In the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a new wave of Greek immigrants arrived in Kallithea from the east coast of the Black Sea, from the Caucasus highlands in Georgia as well as from distant settlements in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan where their Black Sea Greek ancestors were expelled during Stalin's regime in the 1930s.
Until 2004 south Kallithea (Tzitzifies) housed the only horse track in Greece (Ippodromos - Hippodrome) which moved to Markopoulon near the [[Eleftherios Venizelos Airport]]. The same area of the city (Tzitzifies) is associated with the development of greek folk music ([[Rebetiko]] and later [[Laiko]]). Popular composers and singers used to perform there ([[Markos Vamvakaris]], [[Vassilis Tsitsanis]], Yannis [[Yiannis Papaioannou(rebetiko)|Yiannis Papaioannou]], [[Marika Ninou]], [[Sotiria Bellou]], [[Manolis Chiotis]], [[Mary Linda]], Yorgos [[Giorgos Zambetas]], [[Stelios Kazantzidis]], [[Marinella]], [[Poly Panou]], [[Viki Moscholiou ]], etc.)
Kallithea houses two universities (Harokopion and Panteion), numerous cultural associations and several sport clubs, the most well known among which are [[Kallithea FC]] (soccer) and [[Esperos]] (basketball, volleyball, handball, tabletennis as well as soccer in the past).

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