Eduard Sharmazanov on the genocide of the Pontic Greeks: We remember and demand

Arminfo, Armenia

ArmInfo. Former deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament Eduard Sharmazanov honored the memory of the victims of the genocide of the Pontic Greeks.  “May 19 is the Day of Remembrance of the Pontic Greeks’ genocide. On March 24, 2015, the Armenian parliament unanimously recognized and condemned this crime. We remember and demand,” Sharmazanov wrote on his Facebook page.

It should be noted that May 19 is the Day of Remembrance of the  Genocide of the Asia Minor Greeks by the Turks. In March 1915, in the  vicinity of the city of Smyrna (now Izmir) and in the Black Sea  Pontic region, the Young Turks carried out the massacre of the  Greeks, who had been called up to the Turkish army shortly before.  Ethnic cleansings against the Greek population of Turkey were  actively carried out by Turkish nationalists and under the leadership  of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) during the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922.  It was May 19, 1919, the day of the landing of Kemal in Samsun and  the beginning of the second wave of massacre is celebrated as the day  of the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks. According to various estimates,  the number of victims of the Greek genocide ranges from 350 thousand  to 1.2 million people.

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Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS