2010-04-07
Answer to Ingmar Karlsson's article in SvD
Press release . From the day that the Parliament recognised the Genocide, many articles have been written in Swedish media about it and our association respects that everyone has the democratic right to express their own thoughts. On the other hand, we can not respect the article that was written by the former Swedish general consul in Istabul Ingmar Karlsson which he published in SvD on April 3, where he propagates that the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks never took place in history. The Turkish methodical denial has once again shown its face, this time in form of Karlsson with the same arguments as always that aren't acceptable by history.

The almost three thousand years old presence of Pontian Greeks in today's Turkey, with its strong cultural, social and economic character, was abruptly terminated with the conquer of the historic settlements by the Ottoman Turks. The discrimination of the Greeks, the violent conversion to Islam and the persecutions were the first signs of the mass murders that would follow. With the creation of the young Turkish movement, the Turkish nationalism was confirmed and it was expressed in forms of ideas to annihilate the non-Muslim population. The Pontian Greeks was the main target for the nationalistic young Turks and the followers of Mustafa Kemal who sought after a homogenised Muslim-Turkish state free from Christians.

The Genocide of the Pontian Greeks had the same analogies as the one of the Armenians. That was mass violence, arrests of women and children, violent conversions to islam, death marches, mass murder and persecutions. Almost one million Greeks (where 350,000 were Pontian Greeks) of a total of two and a half millions disappeared. An annihilation that is a Genocide according to UN’s convention about prevention and punishment of Genocide crimes from 1948 (paragraphs a, b, c, d and e).

The term Genocide was first presented in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, lecturer at Yale University. The term was established just before the Nürnberg trials against the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Lemkin put together the term Genocide by the Greek words genos (state, country) and ktinodia (murder, inhuman behaviour). To support his argument (as the UN’s Genocide convention is based on) he used the mass murders of the Armenians and the Greeks as an example.

The Turkish military and paramilitary groups and civilians took upon them to carry out the plan of the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks that was witnessed by thousands of foreign diplomats and even by Turks who reacted on the mass murders.

For example, the US diplomat Henry Morgenthau who pointed out the methods that was used during the mass murders on the Armenians was the same as those which were used against the Greeks. "The Turks adopted the same methods against the Greeks as those used against the Armenians. The were drafted to the Ottoman army and then sent to thousands of work camps... these Greeks died by cold, starvation and lack of other supplies, just like the Armenians...".

Morgenthau's testimony about the Genocide that was carried through by the Turkish army continues: "When the Turkish powers gave order to implement the plan of deportation, they didn’t anything else than to condemn a whole population to death. The Turkish leaders were fully aware of this and didn't even try to hide it during their conversations with me".

According to the Turkish researcher Taner Akcam "the fundaments of the Turkish state and the Turkish Republic are based on the history of murdering a whole population. The Turkish Republic, that is a product of this history, its structure and its psychological state, is per say a problem. The Turkish Republic has been created by the blood of the minorities...".

The organised violent plan annihilated the Pontian Greeks and led several thousand people to death and millions to deportation, spread throughout the world. Until today, the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks has been recognised, except the Greek Parliament, by Cyprus, by Sweden, by Southern Australia and different states and other officials in the USA (such as governors, mayors and city councils).

The subject has also been discussed in the Economic and social board in the UN and in the Organisation for security and cooperation in the EU. The Genocide was also a subject in the EU Parliament's committee for European commissions through a report written by the Dutch Member of Parliament Camiel Eurlings who emphasized his critical point of view against Turkey's progress to the EU.

In December 2007, the IAGS (International Association of Genocide Scholars) recognised the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks, a recognition that was decided by vote of its members. The decision is based on the methods that were used by the Ottoman state that led to the Genocide of the Christian minorities (Armenians, Assyrians, Caldeans, Syrians, Arameans, Orthodox Syric and Greeks).

The Genocide of the Pontian Greeks is a subject that all national and international authorities have the obligation to recognise so the historic truth and ethical rehabilitation of the victims is compensated.

We Greeks have the right to demand an international recognition of the Genocide that was carried out against our grandparents. A recognition is also a big part of the reconciliation process that is ongoing where all parties can live under worthy forms and mutual respect based on the historic truth.

* This press release has been written with the help of PhD Theofanis Malkidis at the Democritus University in Greece. He is also a member of the IAGS, International Association of Genocide Scholars.