Not Even My Name

Not Even My Name: A True Story by Thea Halo, Picador, 2001. 

Biography and Memoir

This is a biography of Sano Halo, written by her daughter, Thea Halo. When Sano Halo was a girl, she lived in northern Turkey, in the area south of the Black Sea. Pontic Greeks have been living in this region since classical times, the days of Ancient Greece. Many Greeks have also been living in Ionia, the part of Turkey (Anatolia) bordering the Mediterranean, and in Cappadocia, a region in southern Anatolia. 

Ethnic Cleansing 

After the Greco-Turkish War of 1922, Mustafa Kemal, also known as Ataturk, had his army expel Greeks, Armenians and Assyrian Christins from Turkey. This is called “ethnic cleansing”. The Kurds were allowed to stay, since they were Muslims. The Turkish army forced thousands of Pontic Greeks to march south to Syria. Many died along the way. Sano Halo endured a forced march down to Aleppo in Syria. Sano Halo, was able to survive, because she was given to an Assyrian Christian family to be a housemaid. Most of the rest of Sano’s family died during the expulsion. 

Marriage and America 

Sano married an Assyrian Christian man named Abraham when she was fifteen. Abraham took her with him to New York City, where they raised a large family, including a daughter, Thea Halo, the author of this book.