ANCA MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF PONTIAN GENOCIDE
Yerkir
20.05.2010 15:57
Yerevan
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) joined today
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.