Remembrance Day of the Greek Genocide of Asia Minor
Description:
Today, probably most people who are not professionally engaged in history associate Greece with a relatively small piece of land near the coast, where the Greeks live compactly. But such a small homeland of the Greeks was not always.
At the beginning of the first millennium BC, the standard of living and culture of the Greeks were so developed that there was a natural need to expand their influence. The Greeks willingly began to travel around the world, and on the southern coast of the Black Sea ("Eusksinos Pontos") soon appeared the first Greek city - Sinop. Following were founded Trebizond, Cromna, Pterius, Kitor... Soon the entire southern and northern Black Sea became almost entirely Greek (the territory of modern Turkey and the Caucasus, from Batumi in the east to Inepoli in the west, i.e. about 140,000 square kilometers).
Trade, science and culture flourished. The Greek population carefully preserved traditions, customs and customs. One city helped another, thus contributing to the growth of new colonies, created not only in the coastal strip, but also in the interior of the mainland. Over time, the Pontic state began to develop independently of other Greek lands. My own coin was minted, my tongue was minted.
In 1461, the state was captured by the Ottoman Turks. During the difficult years of the Turkish yoke, the Pontic Greeks tried their best to preserve their faith, their language and culture, despite the numerous and sometimes very cruel attempts of the Turks to Islamize and “outlaw” the indigenous population. The Greeks opened Greek schools and even higher educational institutions in their cities.
Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, the history of the Pontic Greeks numbered about 3 thousand years. The Greeks constituted the vast majority of the population in the northern (Ponte) and western (Anatolia) regions of Asia Minor, as well as in the province of Cappadocia. Being, like the Armenians, the native inhabitants of these territories, the Greeks did not succumb to Islamization and "Outreach". The Turkish government feared that Anatolia and Pontus would escape from Turkish rule, as had already happened in Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria; besides, among the Greek subjects of Turkey (especially the Pontians) there were many highly educated intellectuals and successful entrepreneurs who occupied a prominent position in society and had a significant influence on the Turkish economy. Therefore, Turkey prepared "decisive measures" to eradicate the Greek element, which were implemented after 1908, when the party "Young Turks" came to power, proclaiming the slogan "Turkey - for the Turks!". In September 1911, the destruction of the ethnic (especially Christian) minorities of Turkey, primarily Greeks and Armenians, was openly discussed.
Few people know about the Greek genocide. But this is a historical fact, evidence of which is recorded in the archives of many countries of the world. The history of repression against the Greek population in Turkey, which began in 1453 with the fall of the Byzantine Empire, dates back five hundred years. Before the outbreak of the Greek War of Liberation in 1821, cruel measures against civilians were used mainly for punitive purposes (for example, the suppression of the Peloponnesian uprising of 1770). But as the political and economic crisis in the Ottoman Empire intensified, the pogroms and mass extermination of Christians became more and more hysterical.
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 introduced the ideology of “pan-Turkism” into the use of the Turkish political elite, which is in fact a racist doctrine that created the basis for the total extermination of the Christian peoples of Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of Greeks, who have lived happily in fertile lands for centuries, were expelled from their native places, brutally tortured and killed. Famine and cold, disease and death, years of wandering and hardship – all this fell to the lot of the Greek people. The events of those years in relation to the Greeks fall under all the components of the legal category of "genocide" - the mass systematic extermination of civilians. The number of killed and tortured is estimated by the official figure of 353 thousand people, which is more than 50% of the total population before the beginning of executions and forced resettlement, the purpose of which was not to move people from one point to another, but death on the way. It was a great opportunity to say that “...the hands are not stained with blood, because the Christians themselves died on the way!”
On February 24, 1994, the Greek Parliament decided to recognize 19 May as the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor by the Turks.
A lot of time separates us from the events of those years, but the Greeks still feel pain for their people, who were victims of a monstrous genocide. The modern generation of Greeks prays to God and asks for his blessings to his people who have endured such suffering.
The Greeks are making every effort to achieve recognition of the genocide of the Greeks by the Turkish government and the international community as a whole.
You can read more about these sad events of the Greek people. here and here.