“We owe the Pontic community not only a debt of memory but also a debt of gratitude,” stated Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a social media message marking the memorial day for the genocide of the Pontic Greeks. “They built new cities, enriched our culture, and became the backbone of the modern state,” he added.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s post
The full text of Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s post: “Today, the heart of Hellenism beats to the proud rhythm of the lyre. On this Memorial Day for the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks, we reflect with emotion on one of the most tragic chapters in modern history: the systematic extermination of 353,000 of our compatriots.
112 years have passed since the persecutions began, the executions, the ‘death marches’ in the depths of Anatolia, the forced labor battalions, the transport of civilians to concentration camps. Since monuments, churches and monasteries were destroyed and entire villages were consigned to the flames.
Despite the passage of time, however, the memories remain vivid. We remember the mothers who lost their children. The men who were violently separated from their wives. The elderly who were uprooted from the land where our ancestors had lived for over three millennia.
The systematic plan to eliminate Christian populations and their culture failed. And it failed because the survivors who reached the new homeland carried little with them, apart from the icons of their saints and an inextinguishable light.
This light illuminated their path here and allowed them to transform pain into progress. They did not simply revive customs and traditions. They built new cities, enriched our culture and became the backbone of the modern state. We therefore owe the Pontic community not only a debt of memory but also a debt of gratitude.”
