MOURNING MARCH DEDICATED TO MEMORY OF PONTIAN GREEKS’ GENOCIDE HELD IN YEREVAN
Noyan Tapan
May 21 2007
YEREVAN, MAY 21, NOYAN TAPAN. A mourning march to Tsitsernakaberd
dedicated to memory of the Pontian Greeks’ genocide committed by Turks
took place on May 19. According to different data, 350-600 thousand
Greeks were killed, about 650-700 thousand were expatriated in the
consequence of the genocide taken place in 1916-1923. Few hundreds
of people participated in the march.
"Every year on May 19, which is affirmed by the law of the state of
Greece as the day of the Pontian Greeks’ Genocide, we pay tribute of
respect to victims of that period of time," Panayota Mavromikhali,
the Ambassador of Greece to Armenia said at the unquenchable fire
of Tsitsernakarberd.
In the Ambassador’s words, after the fall of Constantinople, 1134
churches and 960 schools were completely ruined in Pontons, the last
territory passed to Turk Ottomans.
As Eduard Sharmazanov, a member of the Greek Community Council,
Press Secretary of the Republic Party of Armenia mentioned, the
Parliament of Greece recognized with the same sitting both Pontian
Greeks’ and Armenian Genocides. In his and Genocide Museum Director
Hayk Demoyan’s words, any genocide, including the Greek one, must
not be discussed separately and in a separate format.
"Genocide of the Greek, Assyrian and Armenian peoples was a planned
phenomenon. As Greek historians mention, the Pontian Greeks’ Genocide
was the logical continuation of the Armenian people’s Genocide. And
it was not accidental that both in Shapin Garahisar, and Zmurnia,
and Trapison, Armenians and Greeks back to back struggled for
self-defence," Eduard Sharmazanov said.
During the mourning ceremony, Eduard Polatov, the Co-Chairman
of the Anatolia Greek Compatriotic Union of Armenia and Artsakh
considered inadmissible the prospect of Turkey’s membership to the
European Union. He mentioned some cases from the history of Turkey:
the Greeks’ massacres organized after setting fire of the Ataturk
House-Museum provoking by Turks in 1955, during which Armenians also
suffered, occupation of 37% of the Cyprus territory in 1974 by the
Turkish armies in the consequence of what thousands of Greeks died
and were lost traceless, solemn marking of the 60th anniversary of
Taleat’s death in 1981 in Turkey, massacre of the Armenian population
of Azerbaijan by Turk-Azeris in 1988-1992, sleeping Armenian officer
Gurgen Margarian’s murder in Budapest in 2004, by Azeri officer Ramil
Safarov, the murder of Hrant Dink who dared to speak about the Armenian
Genocide in 2007 in Turkey.
"And such Turkey strives for becoming a member of the civilized
family of the European peoples. After not all the crimes described
here we hear statements about the issue that one must address to the
Turkish archives, which have already been "cleaned" long before, to
find out the fact of the genocide. And why do I need those archives
when the best evidence of the genocide is disappearance of millions
of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians who populated by centuries their
historic Fatherland which is now called Turkey," Eduard Polatov said.
Hayk Demoyan expressed an opinion that the world keeps silence about
all these in the name of interests of the world great policy, but
the Armenian and Greek peoples are decisive in the affair of reaching
the final condemnation of the crimes committed by Turks.