ANCA COMMEMORATES PONTIAN GREEK GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 20, 2010 – 16:57 AMT 11:57 GMT
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) joined with Pontian
Greeks – and all Hellenes, Assyrians, Syriacs, and other communities
representing the victims of Turkey’s genocidal campaign against its
Christian minorities – in commemorating May 19th, the international
day of remembrance for the genocide initiated by the Ottoman Empire
and continued by Kemalist Turkey against the historic Greek population
of Pontus along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea.
"We join with all our brothers and sisters – in the Hellenic, Assyrian,
Chaldean, Syriac, and other Christian communities subjected to genocide
under Ottoman and Turkish rule – in solemnly marking the anniversary
of the Pontian Genocide – a genocide that remains unrecognized by its
perpetrator and unpunished by the international community," said Aram
Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "In commemorating this
date, we reaffirm our determination to work in concert with all the
victims of Turkey’s genocidal campaigns to secure full recognition
and justice for these crimes."
The Ottoman Empire, under the cover of World War I, undertook a
systematic and deliberate effort to eliminate its minority Christian
populations. This genocidal campaign resulted in the death and
deportation of well over 2,000,000 Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans,
Syriacs, and Greeks.
The Pontian Genocide has been formally acknowledged by Greece and
Cyprus and, within the United States, by the states of New York,
New Jersey, Florida, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
and Illinois, among others.