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IAGS Resolution: Greek Genocide affirmed

In a groundbreaking move, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to recognize the genocides inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923. The resolution passed with the support of fully 83 percent of IAGS members who voted. The resolution (text below) declares that "it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution."

Persecutions of the Greeks in Turkey since the beginning of the European war

"From the 1st to the 15th of May (1915) the inhabitants of the villages of Bouyoukdere, Kephalikioi, Kirits and Yeni-Machala were ordered to abandon their villages within three days. Although the Turkish Government maintained that the deportations formed a general measure and were due to military necessity, as both the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) and German Ambasssador told me when I protested in person about the deportations - still, after the departure of the Greeks, their houses and properties were seized by the Turks."

Greek Genocide death toll: 1.574.235

In his book titled The Concise History of the Genocide of the Greeks of Anatolia (Kyriakidis Publishers, 2009, in Greek), historian Haris Tsirkinidis uses archival material from a number of sources to conclude that the final death toll of Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire during 1914-1923 was 1.574.235. Tsirkinidis breaks the genocide period down into three phases when calculating the final death toll. As Tsirkinidis states himself, "In other words, in Thrace, in Pontus, and the remainder of Asia Minor, virtually half the Greek population was exterminated primarily from the beginning of 1914 until the end of 1923."

Osman Agha (1883-1923)

Also known as "Topal Osman", he served for the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in the Balkans. It was there that he received an injury to his foot which resulted in him being referred to as ‘Lame' or ‘Crippled' Osman. He roamed the Black Sea (Pontus) region with his band and was responsible for numerous massacres and deportations of Greeks. He was a brigand and a Kemalist Military Commander. He had a fanatical loyalty to Mustafa Kemal to whom he served as a bodyguard. He was made Mayor of Giresun (Kerasus/Kerasund) in 1919 as a reward for his murderous deeds.

Relief for Greeks of Asia Minor

The wording accompanying the following photograph describes the plight of the Greeks of Asia Minor following the deportations they were forced to endure. The Turks deported hundreds of thousands of Greeks into the interior of Asia Minor without taking necessary steps to safeguard them. The world had already learnt how deadly these marches were, since the same method was used by the Turks only years earlier in the extermination of the Armenians. The Relief Committee for Greeks of Asia Minor sent messages to the American public appealling for monetary help to care for the Greek refugees.

Courts of Independence: Amaseia 1921

The first part of the 20th century has been stigmatised by three major genocides: the Jewish, the Armenian and that of the Greeks of Pontus, Asia Minor and Thrace. However the genocide of the Greeks of Pontus has the following particularities. As opposed to the genocide of the Jews, the genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor and in particular the genocide of Pontus, a vast array of extermination methods were employed.(1) Also, the genocide in Pontus became a holocaust, in other words, this minority knowing full well the cruelty and satanism of the Turk, didn't transpire into an ‘easy' genocide. The Pontus Greeks resisted vigourously, and therefore the genocide eventuated into a holocaust. (2)