The genocide of Pontic Hellenism - which since 1994 has been officially recognized by the Greek state with the declaration of May 19 as the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks - refers to the violent, massive, murderous events of the second and the beginning of the third decade of the 20th century. which took place in the then collapsing Ottoman Empire, until the creation of the modern Turkish state, which resulted in the physical extermination, annihilation, displacement, uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Pontic Greeks from their ancestral homes.
These events were triggered by the gradually increasing emergence and intensifying influence of Turkish nationalism in the multinational Ottoman Empire, which towards the end of the first decade of the previous century became the dominant ideology, assuming through its political exponents, the power and control of the empire.
The assumption of power by the Young Turks in 1908 in Ottoman Thessaloniki is considered the beginning of the systematic and organized persecutions, exhausting marches of extermination, incarceration in forced labor battalions, looting, violence, at the expense of all the Christian populations of the East.
As they point out, these atrocities were carried out in different times and places and in different phases, in the decade 1913-1923 and in warlike conditions, but also in peaceful intervals, in the Ottoman Empire.
The exact number of victims is difficult to calculate, due to the prevailing conditions. The historian Vlasis Agzidis reports:
"The Greeks throughout the Ottoman Empire, before the beginning of the persecutions, numbered approximately 2 to 2.2 million. In the area of Pontus there were about 450,000. In the official census of 1928, 1.2 million were officially counted as refugees in Greece. It is estimated that the number of Greeks who perished in the period 1914-22, those whose fate is unknown, is of the order of 700,000-800,000, throughout the entire extent of the Ottoman Empire".
The official Turkish state, which succeeded the Ottoman Empire, denies that "genocide" was committed against the Christian minorities of the East in the last years of the empire's existence.
"The Turkish Republic was created in 1923, i.e. after the end of the events. The events and genocides were caused by extreme Turkish nationalism, the Young Turks at first and Kemal afterwards. The relationship between the modern Turkish state and those who committed the genocides may not be institutional, but it is organic, because they essentially create the Turkish state," states Mr. Agzidis.
The term "genocide" itself was formulated and incorporated into international law, later (1948) by the Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, in order to legally describe "mass crimes" by sovereign powers, with preplanning, organization, systematicity and with aimed at "the methodical extermination, total or partial" of various "ethnic, racial, religious, or other minorities" and gave the impetus for the development of a wider scientific dialogue and social reflection.
The demand for the recognition of the Pontian genocide, according to scholars of the events, either because of Greek-Turkish relations, or because of the ongoing scientific dialogue and documentation process, or both, was kept low for decades, until it gradually began to be raised by the refugee "Civil Society", the survivors and their descendants, during the last decades of the 20th century
The organized study of the sources, the utilization of the testimonies, but also the works of younger historians, Greek and foreign, among them modern Turkish historians, in the last decades helped to clarify the historical landscape and to a wide scientific documentation of the request for "memory" and recognition of genocidal practices, which were applied against the Christian populations of the East, including against Pontic Hellenism (1916-1922).
Reputable Greeks and foreigners, historians, lawyers, sociologists, decide today, quoting facts and arguments, that the persecutions, deaths, burning of villages and displacements, during that period in the Ottoman Empire, were part of a methodical and systematic plan of the nationalist "elite" of the Young Turks, with the main goal of displacement, expulsion from the territories of the empire, using violent, inhuman practices that resulted in a huge humanitarian disaster , with irreparable consequences for the Christian minorities of the East.
Here are the opinions of four Greek scientists, scholars of the events of that period, which sealed the fate of the refugee element, Pontic and Asia Minor Hellenism.
Theodosis Kyriakidis. PhD in history, scientific associate at the Chair of Pontic Studies of AUTH
Chronology - the milestone is certainly the "Revolution of the Young Turks" in July 1908 in Ottoman Thessaloniki, when Talat - Kemal - Enver, they degrade the Sultanate power and become absolutely dominant, politically, especially after 1913. The conferences of the Young Turks are regular, the most important being the one in 1913 in Thessaloniki, where the slogan crystallizes:"Turkey to the Turks".
The Balkan wars will create intense problems in the Ottoman Empire, because with the loss of Ottoman lands and the exodus of Muslims from Balkan lands, the elites and the Young Turks will be pressured, who will be called upon to solve this problem. They accuse the Christians of "destroying the country" and of always trying to "turn against the motherland".
There are references to them, about "internal carcinoma in the body of the empire", or "a wound that needs to be healed", or about the "wild grass that needs to be uprooted", etc. This trend of Turkish nationalism finds ideological exponents, such as Ziya Golkap, who with poems and articles in the press reinforces this Turkish nationalism.
Towards the end of 1914, a few weeks after the outbreak of World War I, a rallying of Muslims is observed and the slogan prevails:"The war for the salvation of the country is not only necessary, it is also desirable".
The elite have decided to expel the Christian communities. This, of course, cannot happen without provoking the great powers, the international community. So the plan they have is attempts to exchange supposedly volunteers for the exchange of populations, then with pogroms especially on the coasts of Asia Minor 1913-14 to create conditions of terror, such as the massacre of Phocaea, to expel these populations. The testimonies are shocking, they have been published.
The next important milestone is the Armenian Genocide in 1915, where the massacres stir up public opinion. Because, with the massacres of the Armenians, they provoked public opinion, the Germans constantly send telegrams and express their concern - as they were close allies and collaborators during WWI - that the international public opinion will accuse them of causing them these massacres. In fact, there is an article from a Munich newspaper that the massacres are being carried out in the name of the Kaiser...". Therefore, the violent displacement of the Christian minorities towards the interior is chosen".
The elite of the Young Turks organizes the extermination, through displacements. The design works with a double mechanism. The idea was to move, as they said, for "military reasons" about 30-50 km inland. Observing their routes, however, we see that they reach Malatea (Melitini) and areas that are 300-400 kilometers away. So one can see that it does not serve military purposes, but through the marches, the hardships, the cold, the hunger, the purpose was extermination.
Even the allies of the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian consul, or the German ambassador note in the telegrams they send that "one can understand the movement of men into the interior for military reasons", but they also wonder, "what is the reason for them to be displaced women and children?' Guerrillas in Pontus were created during that period, as an attempt to defend themselves, to preserve their lives.
The commander of Teskilati i Mahrusha, – after the Armenians have been exterminated – arrives in the autumn of 1916 in Pontus, and the systematic massacres in Pontus are observed exactly at the same time he arrives there. Which is yet another indication of the targeted and organized extermination of the Greeks of the island. The systematic displacements, murders, persecutions began in the autumn of 1916 and progressed vigorously until the summer of 1917.
From April 1916 to February 1918 the area of Trebizond and the eastern point is occupied by the Russian army. On May 15, 1919 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk leaves Istanbul and on May 19 he arrives in Amiso, in Samsuda, with the mission to "pacify" the area from the activity of armed gangs. It is autonomous from the High Gate and does exactly the opposite. Ten days after his arrival, on May 29 he meets in Hamsa with Topal Osman, the local leader of Muslim gangs, who operates mainly in the Kerasunda area.
He seems to reinforce him with men and arms and grants him amnesty "for what he has done, but also for the future". And this can be seen very clearly in the diplomatic and missionary documents, where everyone wonders how a simple boatman a few years ago could carry out all these crimes with impunity. The answer lies in this meeting and the immunity he enjoyed from Mustafa Kemal. The activity of Topal Osman and his groups peaks from 1919 and 1920 in the areas around Trebizond and in the eastern Pontus.
Kemal himself has distinguished himself in the battle of Gallipoli, is respected and manages to rally the remnants of the Turkish miscreants in the interior of Anatolia. It was confirmed in 1921 with the signing of treaties with our allies during World War I and later with the Bolsheviks. From the end of 1921 until May 1922 we have the second great wave of massacres in the Pontus.
Vlasis Agzidis. Doctor of Modern History of the Department of History and Archeology of the Faculty of Philosophy, AUTH
"The Greeks throughout the Ottoman Empire, before the beginning of the persecutions, numbered approximately 2 to 2.2 million. In the area of Pontus there were about 450,000. In the official census of 1928, 1.2 million were officially counted as refugees in Greece. It is estimated that the number of Greeks who perished in the period 1914-22, those whose fate is unknown, is of the order of seven hundred, eight hundred thousand, throughout the entire extent of the Ottoman Empire".
Let us underline that there is a significant difference between the Armenian genocide that was carried out and completed within a few months and the genocide of the rest of the Christian populations, especially the Greeks of the East , which is a process starting from 1913 to 1922, culminating in two periods, 1916-17 and 1920-1922.
The "originality" of the Young Turks in History was that for the first time in modern years, an authority, completely cold, chooses from the beginning, identifies and prescribes the victims, forms and spreads to the rest an ideology of hatred, follows methods of social exclusion of the targeted populations, sets up and organizes in calm times parastatal mechanisms that will take action, when the general conditions allow.
The Ottoman army also played an important role in the execution of the persecutions, which during World War I was on the side of the Central Empires against the Entente and was trained and equipped by German officers. First objective to nullify the potential reaction, in principle of the minority population that can take up arms, but the displacements are not limited to men only, they take the form of large-scale ethnic cleansing with victims and women and children.
The western point, east of Tripoli, the areas of Samsoudas, Bafras, etc. will be hit first. with extensive movements and "death" marches from the coasts into the interior of Anatolia, resulting in hardship, starvation, death and confinement of those who survived in the "tambour neglects". The goal is the expulsion, with violent, inhumane practices, of the Christian minorities of the east from the territories of the empire, regardless of the humanitarian consequences.
In the second phase, after the withdrawal of the Russians from the eastern Pontus, the landing of Mustafa Kemal in Samsuda in 1919 and the creation of his army, the national purges with the participation of parastatal Muslim groups will intensify and expand throughout the Pontus, until 1923.
Vassilios Meikhanetzidis. Member of the International Genocide Study Association
The "International Union for the Study of Genocide" has ruled since 2007 that the persecutions that took place from 1913-14 to 1923 do constitute genocide, as defined in international law. This view is shared by a growing number of genocide scholars, jurists and historians, and this is the first step towards further recognition of genocide.
Genocide is a legal term, as well as a historiographical term, because it has been introduced into historiography as such, because it accurately expresses a specific event which is the genocide of a people.
When these events took place, the term "genocide", at least in the form Lemkin gave it, may not have existed in this form, but it did exist in the Germanic languages with exactly the same meaning. Lemkin, who coined the term and introduced it to international criminal law, with the UN convention in 1948 drew on the precedents, against Armenians and Greeks in the Ottoman Empire and against Jews in WWII, to define the meaning of the specific crime. And he tells us this himself.
Recognizing a genocide is a complicated matter. Scientific recognition precedes and possibly follows political recognition, parliaments, political bodies and international organizations. The most important recognition is scientific because it is based on the political recognition that comes afterwards.
This became more evident in the case of the Armenians. Those who study the Armenian genocide see that the same things happened at the same time and later to the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire.
Political recognition has a moral significance in principle. And it is very important and necessary, in this particular case, because the perpetrator, Turkey, is both unrepentant and potentially prone to repeating the crime. Because, therefore, in 1918 with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, or later in 1923, no international courts were set up to try Turkey for the crimes it committed, from World War I, until 1923 and therefore remains unpunished and without remorse comes the international community to make amends, in part , through the political recognition of genocide, the consequences of genocide. Because the consequences of genocide remain incurable.
Turkey did not follow the example of Germany, as it should have followed. Therefore, it is necessary to continue the process of recognition and internationalization of the genocide, so that the perpetrator does not remain completely unpunished.
Nikos Michaelidis. Social Anthropologist, Lecturer at Princeton University
"The crime of genocide was committed by Ottoman parastatal groups and parts of the Ottoman army mainly with the participation of a very special organization "Teskilat-i-Mahusa", the secret service (controlled by the Committee of Union and Progress) of the Ottoman Empire of that period. The aim was to locate where Christian, Greek and Armenian populations lived, so that they could be expelled and disappear from the area.
Ottoman officials were already planning from the end of the 19th century. – we have newer studies coming to light and by young Turkish historians – to expel the entire Greek population, after the establishment of the first independent Greek state, in 1830. Σχεδίαζαν να εκδιώξουν τον ελληνικό πληθυσμό ακόμη και από την Αίγυπτο. Για διαφόρους λόγους αυτό το σχέδιο δεν υλοποιήθηκε, αλλά είναι πολύ σημαντικό να το έχουμε υπόψη μας, γιατί δείχνει τη γενοκτονική πρόθεση που διαμορφώθηκε σταδιακά ως αντίληψη.
Θεώρησαν ότι οι Έλληνες θα γίνουν εργαλείο των δυτικών στα εδάφη της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας και θεώρησαν σκόπιμο να τους εκδιώξουν όχι μόνο από τον Πόντο, αλλά και από τη Θράκη, τη Μακεδονία, από την Αίγυπτο από όλα τα εδάφη που ζούσαν ελληνικές κοινότητες.
Η τουρκική αστική τάξη δημιουργήθηκε σε μεγάλο βαθμό από την περιουσία των εκδιωχθέντων Ελλήνων και Αρμενίων. Πολλοί μεγάλοι τουρκικοί επιχειρηματικοί όμιλοι, όπως τους γνωρίζουμε σήμερα, έχουν τις ρίζες τους στη γενοκτονία των χριστιανικών πληθυσμών στην εκδίωξη και στην κατάχρηση του πλούτου από τους χριστιανικούς πληθυσμούς. Έχει τη και αυτό τη σημασία του.
Δημιουργήθηκε ο «μύθος» του τουρκικού απελευθερωτικού αγώνα. Στην ουσία δεν υπήρξε απελευθερωτικός αγώνας, αυτό που υπήρξε ήταν μια πολιτική γενοκτονίας και διώξεων των χριστιανικών πληθυσμών. Δεν είναι τυχαίο, άλλωστε, ότι συγκροτήθηκαν οι λεγόμενες ομάδες «τουρκικής αυτοάμυνας» μόνο στις περιοχές που ζούσαν χριστιανικοί πληθυσμοί, πουθενά αλλού στην Ανατολία δεν υπήρξε κάτι τέτοιο.
Ο Κεμάλ Ατατούρκ, ως κομμάτι αυτού του νεοτουρκικού κινήματος, του «Κομιτάτου Ένωση και Πρόοδος» κατάφερε να κινητοποιήσει, χρησιμοποιώντας το μουσουλμανικό σουνιτικό ένστικτο, σημαντικά τμήματα του μουσουλμανικού πληθυσμού τα οποία γειτόνευαν με χριστιανικούς πληθυσμούς και να τους χρησιμοποιήσει ως εργαλεία για την εξόντωση των χριστιανικών πληθυσμών.
Δυστυχώς, η κυρίαρχη αντίληψη σήμερα στην Τουρκία είναι ότι η ίδια υπήρξε θύμα του λεγόμενου δυτικού ιμπεριαλισμού κι όχι θύτης και αυτό ερμηνεύει και τη συμπεριφορά της προς άλλους, ιδιαίτερα τους πρώην υποτελείς λαούς της Οθωμανικής Αυτοκρατορίας. Φανταστείτε, την ίδια οπτική και συμπεριφορά να είχαν άλλες πρώην δυτικές αυτοκρατορίες προς τους πρώην αποικιοκρατούμενους τους; Κάτι τέτοιο σήμερα είναι αδιανόητο.
Θεωρώ, ότι η αναγνώριση της γενοκτονίας και από ελληνικής πλευράς – αναφορικά με τις ελληνοτουρκικές σχέσεις – χρειάζεται μια νέα προσέγγιση, η οποία θα ενσωματώνει το ζήτημα της γενοκτονίας και θα το κάνει θεμελιώδες στις σχέσεις στην Ανατολική Μεσόγειο, ως ζήτημα ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων, δημοκρατίας και προοπτικής συνεργασίας.
Το γεγονός, ότι μέχρι στιγμής η Τουρκία δεν έχει πιεστεί να αναγνωρίσει αυτό το έγκλημα σημαίνει ότι ουσιαστικά ότι έχουμε μια αναπαραγωγή της πολιτικής κουλτούρας της βίας και των διώξεων. Η προώθηση του ζητήματος αναγνώρισης της γενοκτονίας μέσα στην ίδια την τουρκική κοινωνία και στο εξωτερικό θα συμβάλει καθοριστικά στην αλλαγή και στη φιλελευθεροποίηση της κυρίαρχης τουρκικής πολιτικής κουλτούρας, που είναι μια κουλτούρα επεκτατισμού και κρατικής βίας, όχι μόνο έναντι των γειτόνων, αλλά και των ίδιων των πολιτών της χώρας.
Βαθύτατα πιστεύω ότι αν καταφέρουμε και προωθήσουμε το αίτημα της αναγνώρισης της γενοκτονίας θα αλλάξει αυτή η πολιτική κουλτούρα και η πολιτική συμπεριφορά του τουρκικού κράτους , όχι μόνο έναντι της Ελλάδας και της Κύπρου, αλλά και στο εσωτερικό. Θα είναι ένα σημαντικό λιθαράκι προς τον εκδημοκρατισμό αυτής της χώρας και επομένως στη βελτίωση των ελληνοτουρκικών σχέσεων.
Το Χρονικό της Γενοκτονίας
1908: Κίνημα των Νεότουρκων στην οθωμανική Θεσσαλονίκη. Οι εθνικιστές ηγέτες (Κεμάλ – Ενβέρ – Ταλάτ) υποσκελίζουν το σουλτάνο Αμπτούλ Χαμίτ και αναλαμβάνουν τον πολιτικό έλεγχο της αυτοκρατορίας.
1910: Αυταρχικά, κατασταλτικά μέτρα κατά των χριστιανικών κοινοτήτων της αυτοκρατορίας.
1911: Σε συνέδριο του «Κομιτάτου Ένωση και Πρόοδος» των Νεότουρκων κυριαρχεί το σύνθημα:«Η Τουρκία στους Τούρκους».
1913: Οργανώνεται από τους Νεότουρκους το «Γραφείο Εγκατάστασης Φυλών και Μεταναστών» και ιδρύεται η μυστική υπηρεσία (Teskilat i-mahsusa)
1914: Έναρξη του Α’ ΠΠ. Οι πρώτες μαζικές διώξεις κατά Ελλήνων στην Ανατολική Θράκη. Πογκρόμ στη Δυτική Μικρά Ασία και η σφαγή της Φώκαιας. Ρωσοτουρκικός Πόλεμος. Έξαρση του τουρκικού εθνικισμού, συσπείρωση του μουσουλμανικού στοιχείου.
1915: Καλούνται στην Κωνσταντινούπολη και εξοντώνονται οι πρόκριτοι των Αρμενίων. Η Γενοκτονία των Αρμενίων ολοκληρώνεται σε λίγους μήνες.
1916 – 1917: Πορείες «θανάτου» στο εσωτερικό της Ανατολίας από τον οθωμανικό δυτικό Πόντο (Σαμψούντα, Μπάφρα, κ.α) και απώλειες χιλιάδων χριστιανών – αντρών, γυναικών και παιδιών – από τις κακουχίες, το κρύο και την πείνα. Τάγματα καταναγκαστικής εργασίας (Αμελέ Ταμπουρού). Ο ανατολικός Πόντος υπό ρωσική κυριαρχία. Οκτωβριανή Επανάσταση στη Ρωσία και λήξη ρωσοτουρκικού πολέμου.
1918: Λήξη Α’ ΠΠ. Η ηγεσία των Νεότουρκων παραδίδεται στους συμμάχους της Αντάντ. Αποχώρηση Ρώσων από τον ανατολικό Πόντο και τον Καύκασο.
1919: Αποβίβαση του ελληνικού στρατού στη Σμύρνη. Αναχώρηση από Κωνσταντινούπολη στις 15 Μαΐου και άφιξη στις 19 Μαΐου του Μουσταφά Κεμάλ Πασά στη Σαμψούντα, με αποστολή την «ειρήνευση» από τη δράση ομάδων ατάκτων. Αυτονόμηση του από την Υψηλή Πύλη και συνάντηση του στη Χάμσα, στις 29 Μαΐου, με τον Τοπάλ Οσμάν.
1920: Συνθήκη των Σεβρών. Ανατολική Θράκη και Σαντζάκι της Σμύρνης υπό όρους, σε ελληνικό έλεγχο, ο Πόντος εξαιρείται των ρυθμίσεων.
1920-1922: Από την περιοχή της Βιθυνίας ξεκινούν σε όλο τον Πόντο σφαγές, λεηλασίες, καταστροφή χριστιανικών χωριών από παρακρατικές νεοτουρκικές ομάδες. Δεκάδες χιλιάδες Πόντιοι και Αρμένιοι φεύγουν να σωθούν προς τη Σοβιετική Αρμενία και προς τους υπό γαλλικό έλεγχο Συρία και Λίβανο.
1922: Μικρασιατική καταστροφή.
1923: Συνθήκη της Λωζάννης. Ανταλλαγή πληθυσμών, προσφυγιά.
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