Nikos Filis insults Pontian Greeks
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
"Genocide" is another thing according to the scientific meaning of the term said Education Minister Nikos Filis, adhering to the view he had expressed previously
Education Minister Nikos Filis does not recognize the genocide of Pontic Greeks, as in his opinion it does not meet "scientific criteria" for such a characterization. Mr. Filis, who is a journalist by profession and not a historian, argued that "years ago as a journalist, I made the statement, sharing the views of many historians and many international relations pundits."
Mr. Filis in a television interview said in relation to the issue: "We made a distinction between the bloody ethnic cleansing and the phenomenon of genocide. This does not mean that we do not recognize the blood, the pain, felt by the Pontians from the ferocity of the Turks. This is another thing and another thing genocide in strict scientific sense. "
The genocide of the Greeks of Pontos refers to massacres and deportations against the Greek population of Pontus made by the movement of the Young Turks in the period 1914-1923. It is estimated that about 213,000-368,000 Greeks were killed. The survivors fled to USSR after the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922 in Greece. These events are officially recognized as genocide by the Greek State, Sweden, and Australia as well as from international organizations such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who introduced the term genocide into international law, formulated his early ideas on the definition of this war crime by studying the destruction of the Christians of Asia Minor, while the distinguished Turcologist Neoklis Sarris has noted that the annihilation of the Christian minorities represented an integral element in the formation of the Turkish Republic. The recent resolution by the International Association of Genocide Scholars recognizing the Greek and Syriac genocides suggests a wider range of victim groups.
Considered one of the first modern genocides, it was a premeditated crime, which the government of the Young Turks carried out systematically. The methods used were uprooting, exhausting hardships, torture, hunger and thirst, and death camps in the desert.
Upon recommendation of the then Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, the Greek Parliament recognized the genocide in 1994, and voted the proclamation of 19 May as a "Memorial Day for the Genocide of Greeks in Pontus Asia Minor."
