19 of May is the commemoration day of Pontic Greek Genocide.

Representatives of Greek community in Armenia paid tribute at the Armenian Genocide Memorial to the memory of thousands of innocent victims of genocide.

The attendees prayed for the innocent victims, afterwards archbishop Yeznik Petrosyan conducted a memorial service.

After the ceremony the participiants visited the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, and the openning of the exhibition dedicated to the occasion took place in the temporary exhibitions hall. The exhibition was prepared with the support of the AGMI archive.

The guests were welcomed by Lusine Abrahamyan, the Deputy Director of AGMI:

“Dear guests,

It is my pleasure to welcome you in the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. Every year on May 19th together with the Greek community of Armenia we commemorate the victims of the Pontic Greek Genocide. This year marks the Centennial of the Genocide. On this day, 100 years ago, the Turkish troops at the head of Mustafa Kemal entered the city of Samsoun and the second wave of the massacres of the Pontic Greeks started continuing the genocidal campaign against the Christian population of the Ottoman Turkey launched by the Young Turks’ government in 1915. Massacres, deportations, confiscation of property, forced turkification and national dispossession; hundreds of thousands of Greeks fall victims to the genocide.

The similar historical fate allows the Armenians to better understand people of the same destiny. What happened to the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century was unprecedented in its scope and consequences. This crime has left a trace not only on the history of the Armenians and Greeks, but also on the history of all mankind. The centenary of the Greek genocide is a psychological boundary between the past and the present, which should be considered as an impetus for national cohesion and as a new starting point in the struggle for international recognition of the Genocide and the elimination of its consequences.”

Afterwards the participants had a meeting-discussion with Gevorg Vardanyan, the author of the book Greek Population in the Ottoman Empire and the Asia Minor Disaster (1914-1923). Mr. Vardanyan touched upon the history of the Greek genocide, commemoration and the international recognition.

At the end of the meeting documentary movie “Pontus. The Great Times” was screened in Armenian translation, produced by the Greek Livemedia company on the occasion of the Centennial of the Pontic Greeks’ Genocide. The centennial events were organized by the Union of Greek communities in Armenia.

In 1916-1923, 353 thousand out of 700 thousand Greeks living in Pontus were murdered by Turks; others migrated to Greece, Armenia and elsewhere.

On 24 March 2015, the Armenian Parliament unanimously adopted a statement condemning the genocide of Greeks and Assyrians in the Ottoman Turkey. The statement was unanimously approved by 117 deputies. Greece, Cyprus and Sweden have officially recognized and condemned the Pontic Greeks' genocide.