PONTIAN GENOCIDE
89th Anniversary 1919-2008

WE NEVER FORGET
dedicated to Peter Fogel
a surviver from the Hebrew Genocide
To seal our destiny and friendship

Click above for more information -Video Clip - Pontos Genocide pictures

Click for a Historical Tour - The evidence - English comments

Pontian Greek Genoctony is a term used to refer to the fate of the Pontic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire during and in the aftermath of World War I.It is used to refer to the determined persecutions, massacres, expulsions and death marches of Pontian Greek populations in the historical region of Pontos, the southeastern Black Sea provinces of the Ottoman, during the early 20th century by the Neo-Turk administration. G.W. Rendel of the British Foreign Office noted the massacres of Greeks in Pontos and elsewhere during the Turkish national movement, which was organized against Greece's invasion of western Anatolia.

Click above

According to the Greek census of 1926, 182,169 Greeks from the Pontos region had migrated to Greece during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. The International Association of Genocide Scholars recognizes the events as a genocide but other official recognition is limited at present. The question of whether these incidents constitute a genocide is a matter of dispute between Greece and Turkey. Turkey similarly denies the historicity of the contemporaneous Armenian and Assyrian genocides, both of which have also been recognized by the International Association of Genocide Scholars

"The Armenians are not the only subject people in Turkey which have suffered from this policy of making Turkey exclusively the country of the Turks. The story which I have told about the Armenians I could also tell with certain modifications about the Greeks and the Syrians. Indeed the Greeks were the first victims of this nationalizing idea.

Ambassador Morgenthau's Story
CHAPTER XXIV
Henry Morgenthau - 1918

Each year on the 19th of May, Pontian Greeks commemorate the massacre of 353,000 of it's citizens at the hands of the Turks in Asia Minor. The 19th of May was chosen as the day to commemorate the genocide, because it was this day in 1919 that Turkey's then leader Mustafa Kemal landed in Samsun (Samsounta) a coastal city in Pontos to begin his campaign of cleansing Turkey of it's last remaining influential minority, the Greeks.

 
Pontians on Death March - Reminds me Jews 1942-1944

The Hellenic Genocide was the systematic torture, massacre and ethnic cleansing of several millions Hellenes (Greeks) perpetrated by the Turks in Asia Minor, Constantinople (now called Istanbul by the Turks), Eastern Thrace, Imvros, Tenedos, Macedonia, Cappadocia and Pontos.

Most of the victims were massacred between 1895 (much earlier than the World War I) and 1955 (much after the World War II). The present estimate is that some 2.000.000 Greek children, men and women of all ages were killed during that period.

In the same places and often at the same time, the Turks tortured and massacred millions of Armenians and Assyrians of all ages. The fact that the three nations were victims of the same extermination policy is another proof of each of the three Genocides. It was not a "war", it was not a "revolt". It was a planned effort of extermination. It was an effort of the Turks to get rid of their former slaves, since they were not useful anymore. It was an effort to create a "Turkey for the Turks", as the Turkish leaders called it, in the lands of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks still under Turkish occupation. The Turks had invaded the lands of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks. Since they couldn't continue to use them as slaves, they decided to exterminate them. And they did it.

It was not a "religious fight" either. The persecution of the Kurds, who are Muslims like the Turks, began as soon as most of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks, who are all Christians, had been exterminated. The Kurds were misled into thinking that by helping the Turks to exterminated the "infidels", as the they referred to the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks, they would have a land of their own. The Kurds did help the Turks but only to become the next victims of the plan to create a "Turkey for the Turks". The persecution of the Kurds was a natural consequence. After all, the objective of the Turkish leaders was not a "Turkey for the Muslims".

The New York Times record 1911-1922. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke. Click on the Picture

In a way, the Hellenic Genocide still didn't end, as its few survivors are persecuted right now in all territories ruled by the Turks, especially in Constantinople and Imvros. For instance, in Imvros, in 1999, a six years old Greek boy was burned alive by the Turks. The Orthodox Patriarchate, located in Constantinople, which has a similar meaning as the Vatican, is attacked often. The rights of the few survivors of the Hellenic Genocide are shamefully denied. The Treaty of Lausanne is continually disrespected. Even the frequent invasions by Turkey of the airspace and the territorial sea of Greece (which amount to hundreds every year), can be considered reflexes of its extermination policy. If for the Turkish rulers, the Greeks don't have the right to live, they don't have any rights.

This forum will contain a detailed work on the Hellenic Genocide. It will analyse all aspects of that crime against humanity, with documentation from many sources, including recent ones. It will contain hundreds of accounts on the Hellenic Genocide from eyewitnesses from several nations, as well as hundreds of photographs, several maps, posters, documents and films. The work has many references to the Armenians and Assyrians. It's not possible to research any of the three Genocides using accounts of eyewitnesses without researching also the other two.

The work uses only quotes from documents that are completely and freely available on the Internet, which are linked to each quote used. Thus, there's no risk of anything being used out of its original context and the reader can easily extend their research.


* Genoctony (Γενοκτονία) is the Greek word for genocide