May 19 marks annual commemoration of Pontian Genocide

Events are taking place throughout Greece on Tuesday to mark the Pontic Genocide of 1914-1923, when Ottoman and then nationalist Turkish forces slaughtered upwards of 368,000 Christian Pontians in what is modern-day Turkey’s northeast, particularly along the Black Sea coast.

The main remembrance events will take place in Syntagma Square, across from Parliament in central Athens, as well as in the Aghia Sofia square in Thessaloniki.

The 19th of May has officially been designated as a day of remembrance in Greece.

Pontians are ethnic Greeks and Orthodox Christians who resided in the eponymous province of Pontus for millennia before WWI and the subsequent exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1922-23.

On Monday, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos urged all democratic peoples not to downgrade or overlook a “heinous crime against humanity,” as he called the Pontic Genocide.

The Pontic Genocide was recognised by Parliament in 1994, with May 19 selected for the annual commemoration of the grim anniversary.