Vice Speaker: Genocide of Pontic Greeks inseparable element of Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire

 National Assembly of Armenia perceives Genocide of the Pontic Greeks as an inseparable element of the Genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Empire in 1915, which is documented in the preamble of the Constitution of Armenia. Vice Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov made such statement in response to ArmInfo's question when visiting the Armenian Genocide Memorial in memory for Genocide of the Pontic Greeks.

"As a historian, I must say that there was no Genocide of Greeks as a separate scene. There was genocide of the entire Christian population in the territory of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923. It was Genocide of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians," Sharmazanov said. He recalled that Izmir is a symbol of merciless annihilation of three Christian peoples - the Turkish authorities annihilated 12,000 Armenians, over 60,000 Greeks, who were nearly 90 percent of the town's population.

Sharmazanov said that in 2010 the Armenian Parliament called on the world parliaments to recognize Genocide of Armenians, Pontic Greeks and Assyrians as one. Sharmazanov recalled the Winston Churchill's indelible imprint in the history, who declared that Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) needed anew Turkey without Christian population, i.e. Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians.  "We must do our best for international recognize of the Genocide of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians.  We must work on this. I am sure the truth will triumph sooner or later," he said.  For his part, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Greece to the Republic of Armenia Ioannis Tais said that Genocide of Pontic Greeks is of great importance for the countries with Greek population.  Those countries have already recognized the fact of Genocide.

"Parliament of Greece has also recognized the fact of the Greek Genocide, which paves the way towards international recognition of that fact," the Ambassador said. He said that the issue of compensation will be raised only after international recognition of the Genocide of Greeks.

In 1994, May 19 was selected by the Greek parliament as the day to commemorate the Pontic Greek Genocide by the Turks. In March 1915 Young Turks massacred Greeks drafted to the Turkish army near Smyrna (now Izmir) and in the Pontic region on the Black Sea coast. Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal committed ethnic purges of the Greek population in Turkey in the course of the Greek-Turkish war in 1919-1922. On May 19 1919 Kemal launched a second wave of massacre in
Samsun, which is marked as Day to commemorate the Greek genocide. By different assessments, 350,000 - 1,2 million Greeks were annihilated.