AHI Commemorates Greek Genocide Remembrance Day
No. 42
WASHINGTON - Today the American Hellenic Institute (AHI) commemorates May 19 as Greek Genocide Remembrance Day. AHI recognizes the crimes against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish National Movement against Pontic Greeks and other Greek minorities in Asia Minor as a direct attempt to eradicate a group of people based on their ethnicity and their Christian religion. Their suffering deserves to be remembered to honor those who were systematically and deliberately annihilated in this genocide.
The historical record on the Greek Genocide and the broader genocidal campaign against Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire is well documented. For thousands of years, Greeks lived in Asia Minor before being forcibly removed from their land on the basis of their ethnicity and their religion. Yet, there is a continued effort by present-day Türkiye to deny this genocide, which is an affront to historical truth, enables dangerous revisionism, and serves as an obstacle to greater stability in its region.
Earlier this month, as part of an initiative led by the Pan Pontian Federation of USA and Canada, AHI sent a letter to President Donald Trump calling on him to make May 19 the official day of remembrance of the Greek Genocide. The letter urged the president to bring attention to one of the worst instances of religious oppression and anti-Christian sentiment in the history of humankind. In addition, last year AHI legislative director Alexander Christofor, a decedent of Pontic Greeks, testified to the Connecticut General Assembly for a bill that would allow the inclusion of the Pontic Greek genocide in the state’s Holocaust and Genocide Education and Awareness curriculum. Education on this topic must be included in efforts to protect religious freedom and prevent further prosecution of Christians and the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
AHI will continue to promote further recognition and education of this tragedy, because acknowledging the events that took place is essential for promoting justice, reconciliation, and preventing similar acts from occurring in the future. AHI stands with the survivors and descendants of the Greek Genocide.
The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) is a non-profit policy center and think tank founded in 1974 that promotes the interests of the United States in foreign affairs involving Greece, the Republic of Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Southern Europe.
For media inquires, please contact us at (202) 785-8430 or pr@ahiworld.org.
For general information about the activities of AHI, please see our website at americanhellenicinstitute.org
