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The Hellenic Parliament marked the 107th day of the Pontian Greek Genocide with an emotionally charged commemorative lawsuit successful Athens, where governmental leaders, assemblage representatives and dignitaries called for unity, humanities designation and planetary accountability.
Held successful the Senate Hall of the Greek Parliament and organised by the Pan-Pontian Federation of Greece, the lawsuit carried the theme: “The Genocide of the Greeks of Pontus: Memory, Strategy and the Internationalisation of Historical Responsibility.”
Opening proceedings, Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Nikitas Kaklamanis delivered a strong connection connected the value of humanities memory.
“Whoever closes their eyes to past is condemned to relive it,” helium said, describing the day arsenic not lone a achy remembrance but besides a telephone for “national effort, prudence, dialog and consensus”.
Kaklamanis stated that the estimated 353,000 victims of the Pontian Greek Genocide betwixt 1914 and 1923 represented portion of a broader systematic persecution of Greeks crossed Asia Minor, Pontus and Eastern Thrace. He argued that the run constituted a coordinated argumentation of extermination carried retired during the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the aboriginal Turkish Republic.
The Speaker besides criticised the European Union for failing to formally recognise the Pontian Greek Genocide, contempt recognising the Armenian Genocide.
He noted that the International Association of Genocide Scholars, on with countries including Cyprus, Armenia, Sweden and the Netherlands, arsenic well arsenic regions such arsenic South Australia and New South Wales, had already recognised the genocide.
Kaklamanis additionally revealed that Argentina’s parliament is presently discussing authorities concerning designation of the Pontian Greek Genocide pursuing caller talks with Argentina’s ambassador to Greece.
Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias delivered the keynote address, describing 19 May arsenic “a time of memory, nationalist self-awareness and nationalist duty”.
“It is simply a day that belongs to the corporate representation of each idiosyncratic who wishes to consciousness human,” helium said.
Dendias spoke of the deportations, decease marches, executions and organised demolition faced by Pontian Greeks, stressing that the atrocities were not acts of spontaneous violence but portion of a deliberate argumentation implemented by the Young Turk leadership.
He besides praised the resilience of Pontian refugees who rebuilt their lives successful Greece while preserving their language, faith, traditions and identity.
“The organised extermination of national, spiritual and taste groups is not an interior substance of immoderate state,” Dendias said.
“It is simply a substance of planetary responsibility.”
The lawsuit besides featured remarks by Pan-Pontian Federation of Greece president Giorgos Varythymiadis, who highlighted the ongoing value of planetary designation efforts. Former Parliament Speaker Apostolos Kaklamanis was honoured for his relation successful the passing of Law 2193/1994, done which Greece officially recognised the Pontian Greek Genocide.
Representatives from Armenian and Assyrian organisations besides addressed the gathering, emphasising what speakers described arsenic the shared suffering of peoples subjected to genocidal violence successful the region.
The ceremonial was attended by elder politicians, subject officials, diplomats, religion representatives and members of the Greek diaspora community.
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