THE GENOCIDE OF THE GREEKS OF PONTUS (1914-1923)

On May 2, 2000, thirty five congressmen spoke before a packed audience in the Capitol Building to commemorate the 1915 genocide of Armenians. About 1.5 million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, representing the Twentieth Century's first genocide. Their annual event is being organized by the Armenian National Committee of America and co-hosted by the Congressional Armenian Caucus.

The Capitol Hill commemoration is part of a systematic campaign by the Armenian American community to get official recognition for the genocide by the United States government. For many years, various Administrations have been loath to acknowledge and characterize the massacre of Armenians as "genocide" for fear of insulting Turkey and alienating what Administration officials believe is a critical ally of the U.S.

With this brief presentation we would like to bring to your attention another crime against humanity which was committed during the same period, in the same region, by the same perpetrator. 353,000 Greeks of the Pontus region fell victim to the barbaric and criminal acts of the Turkish establishment. The Young Turks (Itihatists)—first and foremost—and the Kemalist authorities not only encouraged and exhorted the fanatic Turkish masses, the army and the irregulars, but also planned and participated in the Genocide. The order for the deportation of Pontian populations to Kurdistan or Syria, whether in the form of government decisions or Bill 1041 of June 12, 1921, or bill 941 of June 16, 1921, are signed not only by all the Ministers but by Kemal himself. The savagery and the atrocities practiced by Eichmann's predecessor Topal Osman were escalated and executed by order of Nuredin Pasha, the leader of Kemal's army, who later participated in the massacre of the Greeks in Smyrna.

Three months before the outbreak of World War I and six months before the Turks entered the war as allies with Austro-Hungary and Germany, they began to implement their plan for the extermination of the Christians through persecution, massacre, attacks by irregular forces and systematic deportation of the Greeks living in Thrace, Western Asia Minor and the north-eastern provinces of Chaldea and Erzerum. Hundreds of thousands of Christians were forced into exile, exposed to harsh weather conditions, hunger, the rape of their women, the abduction of their children, and deliberate attacks by Turkish irregulars (chetes). Anatolia was filled with the corpses of these miserable exiles, a veritable "Auschwitz on the move", who fell victim to privation, torture and murder. Characteristic is the term used in the West to describe this form of extermination: la morte blanche, or "white death".

After Turkey entered the war, however, and in the wake of its heavy defeats on the Russian front in the Caucasus and its February 1915 attempt to retake Egypt from the English, it conceived a new method for exterminating the Christians. It created special units, known as "labor battalions" (amelet tamburu), formed solely of Greeks and Armenians. The victims of these units numbered in tens of thousands, killed by the privations, the exhausting labor and the summary executions, which earned them, among the Christians, the name of "accursed death squads".

The above deliberate and pre-planned events constituted successful policy of Genocide. This was the second Genocide (after the Armenians) of this century, and was committed by the same perpetrator; only the victim was different. The proofs of the events, the atrocities and the massacres are numerous and convergent. They come from the Ottoman and Turkish Archives and publications (government decisions and bills), from the archives of European countries and of the United States, and from reports by foreign diplomatic and consular staff, missionaries and charitable organizations. The main details of the perpetration of this crime, however, come from the history of the Pontic families, each with its own victims and the testimony of its own survivors.

Substantiation of the Genocide.
In this Genocide of the Pontic Greeks, we have: the killing of members of a specific ethnic group; the infliction of serious bodily and mental harm on the group; the deliberate subjection of the group to conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part; and the forcible transfer of children to another ethnic group. We have, in other words, all the acts that, according to the provisions of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1948, constitute this tremendous crime against humanity, the crime of Genocide. The principles of human rights, of personal, political and religious freedom, democracy, and the principle of equality before the law were scorned and flouted in the harshest and most barbaric fashion. Writings on democracy and human rights from antiquity to the present were ignored and violated by the Young Turks, the Pan-Turkists and the Turanists.

When other ethnic groups have suffered "crimes against humanity", they have received national days commemorating those tragedies along with substantial reparations. Yet the Greeks and the Armenians have received no such acknowledgments. In fact, to this day, the Turkish government does not even acknowledge these events took place.

We support recent efforts of the Greek and Turkish governments leading to a Greco-Turkish reconciliation and to the peaceful resolution of legitimate disputes within the context of the rule of law. We believe that none of these goals can be attained if Turkey continues to challenge the legal status quo in Thrace and in the Aegean and to consolidate and legitimize the occupation of Northern Cyprus. The tolerance shown towards Turkish policy by the international community has only encouraged the Turks in the intractable assertion of their demands.

The Turkish position on the division of Cyprus in two separate states, or the creation of double union (both variations on the idea of partition) would serve the interests of nobody, not even of Turkey if she is sincere in her ambition to join the European family and its institutions. A permanently divided Cyprus would create a border that would be a permanent source of friction between Greece and Turkey creating a constant threat to the stability and peace in the region, including Israel and the Arab states, and the definitive exclusion of any possibility of Greek-Turkish rapprochement. Unless of course we abandon the Greek Cypriots to the expansionist designs of the Turks, which would certainly eliminate the problem, but also eliminate the Greek community of Cyprus.

The international community must send a clear message to the Turks that it is vehemently opposed to any solution involving partition, and that only a united Cyprus can serve its strategic, political and economic interests in the region.

The recent events in Iraq established a new precedent. The myth that Turkey is an invaluable strategic ally of the U.S. in the region can remain just a myth—especially for some of the usual proponents of the Turkish "lobby" who are definitely losing credibility after Turkey's denial to allow our troops access to Northern Iraq.

The future establishment of a democratic government in Iraq creates a new approach in the politics of the Middle East, an approach that was not in existence a couple of years ago. This approach diminishes substantially the role of Turkey in the region especially with Syria abiding by the U.S. demands and slowly transforming to a more peaceful, more productive and cooperative player.

A viable solution of the Israeli—Palestinian conflict will even make Turkey's role less important.

Finally, we believe that no matter what the outcome of the talks, a compelling atmosphere should be established by recognizing the wrongdoings of the past in order to pave a stable path for a solid and sincere friendship for the future.

• The vindication sought from the international community will not take the form of material reparations or criminal liability.

• The vindication sought is recognition of the historic events that are quite literally of a moral order, and specifically in relation to the inalienable right of every people to the preservation and non-obliteration of its history, its memories, its monuments, its traditions, its mores and customs.

• It further seeks recognition of the inalienable right of every citizen to return to his ancestral home, as is dictated for the Greeks living in the countries of the former Soviet Union, who are not bound by the provisions of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

On the basis of these facts and the documents substantiating the crime of the Genocide, and in the framework of the relevant mandate bequeathed by the 4th and the 5th World Congress of Pontian Hellenism, we ask the United States Congress and the International Community (UN) to issue a resolution recognizing the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks.

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