Editing Aristotle Onassis (section)

== Early life ==

===Ottoman Empire===
Aristotle Socrates Onassis was born in 1906 in [[Karataş, Izmir|Karataş]], a suburb of the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] port city of [[Smyrna]] (now [[İzmir]], Turkey) in [[Anatolia]] to [[Greeks|Greek]] parents Socrates Onassis and Penelope Dologlou. Aristotle had one sister, Artemis, and two half-sisters, Kalliroi and Merope, by his father's second marriage following Penelope's death (1912). Socrates Onassis became a successful shipping entrepreneur and sent his children to prestigious schools. When Aristotle graduated from the local [[Evangelical School of Smyrna|Evangelical Greek School]] at the age of 16, he spoke four languages: Greek (his native language), Turkish, Spanish, and English.<ref name="CAFARAKIS">{{cite book |last=Cafarakis |first= Christian |title= Ari: O Fabuloso Onassis |publisher= Editora Expressão e Cultura |year= 1972  }}</ref><ref>Gerald A. Carroll. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5iJ1dFfxjdQC ''Project Seek: Onassis, Kennedy, and the Gemstone thesis'']. Bridger House, 1994, {{ISBN|978-0-9640104-0-6}}, p. 50</ref>

[[File:Onassis-1932.jpg|thumb|upright|Onassis, 1932]]
Smyrna was occupied by [[Greece]] (1919–1922) in the aftermath of the [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] victory in [[World War I]], but then Smyrna was re-taken by Turkey during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–22)]]. The Onassis family's substantial property holdings were lost, causing them to become [[Greek refugees|refugees]] fleeing to Greece after the [[Great fire of Smyrna]] in 1922.<ref>Hussein, Waris (1988) ''Onassis, the richest man in the world'', TV movie.</ref> During this period, Onassis lost three uncles, an aunt and her husband, Chrysostomos Konialidis and their daughter, who were burned to death in a church in [[Akhisar]] where 500 Christians were seeking shelter from the Great Fire of Smyrna.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Aristotle Onassis |url=https://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Person/en/AristotleOnassis.html |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=www.hellenicaworld.com}}</ref> The Asia Minor catastrophe in 1922 was devastating for the Onassis family. His father was imprisoned and his business was transferred to Turkish ownership. The rest of the family fled to Greece where they had to stay in an outdoor refugee camp.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

=== Argentina ===
In 1923, Onassis returned to Istanbul with $250 in his pocket. In August of that year, he arrived in [[Buenos Aires]], Argentina, by [[Nansen passport]], and got his first job as a telephone operator with the British United River Plate Telephone Company,<ref name="headliners">Hoenig, Gary (16 March 1975) "Headliners, Aristotle Onassis is Dead". ''New York Times''</ref> while following studies in commerce and port-duty administration at ''Aduanas Argentinas''. He later became an entrepreneur, creating an Argentine import-export company, going into business for himself and making a fortune importing English-Turkish tobacco to Argentina.<ref name="Diva" />  He reportedly told [[Maria Callas]] that he made his fortune in Buenos Aires by forming a shipping company used for trafficking heroin.<ref>{{cite news|last=Spence|first=Lyndsy|date=21 October 2023|title=Toxic relationships and drug abuse: Maria Callas's harrowing life|url=https://www.thetimes.com/magazines/the-times-magazine/article/angelina-jolie-maria-callas-film-pablo-larrain-nzdfpck3h|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=21 October 2023}}</ref> He obtained Argentine citizenship in 1929.<ref name="historiaybiografias.com"/><ref name="laterminalrosario.wordpress.com"/> Eventually he established his first shipping trading company in Buenos Aires, Astilleros Onassis. After gaining his first fortune in Argentina, he expanded his shipping business worldwide and relocated to [[New York City]], United States, where he built up his shipping businesses empire while keeping offices in [[Buenos Aires]] and [[Athens]].<ref name="Diva">[https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/05/reviews/001105.05smitht.html The Diva and the Tycoon"], by Sally Bedell Smith, New York Times, 5 November 2000</ref> His legacy in Buenos Aires was the creation of a shipping empire and a Hellenic Culture Fund providing youth scholarships and an academic international exchange program between [[Argentina]], [[Greece]], [[Monaco]] and the [[United States]]; the programs are funded and administered by the [[Onassis Foundation]] and were eventually under the managing direction of his daughter [[Christina Onassis]].