Commemoration & Recognition

The Greek Genocide is commemorated annually on September 14th by the international Greek Diaspora. Greek Law 2645/98 recognizes the Greek Genocide and declares September 14th as a day of commemoration. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), an organization of the world’s foremost experts on genocide, have also affirmed the 1914-1923 Greek Genocide. Numerous U.S. States also recognize the Greeks of Ottoman Turkey were subjected to a policy of genocide.

The current Turkish Government vehemently denies that the Greek Genocide took place and claims that inter-ethnic fighting and the turmoil of the World War resulted in the destruction of Hellenism in Ottoman Turkey. Similarly, the Turkish Government also denies that the extermination of the Armenian and Assyrian minorities were acts of genocide. However, some past administrations and rulers of Turkey have acknowledged their government did carry out a plan to exterminate the Greeks. The founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, involved in the later stages of the genocidal campaign, said in a 1926 interview with a Swiss reporter that "these holdovers from the Young Turkey Party should be made to account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred". Damad Ferid, the Turkish Grand Vizier, described Turkey's policy of extermination against the Christians at the Paris Peace Conference as crimes "such as to make the conscience of mankind shudder with horror for ever."

Resolutions:

Organizations:
International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)
Governments and States:
Greek Government (Greek & English)
State of Connecticut, USA
State of Florida, USA
State of Georgia, USA
State of Illinois, USA
State of New Jersey, USA
State of New York, USA
State of Ohio, USA
State of Pennsylvania, USA
State of Rhode Island, USA
State of South Carolina, USA

Monuments:

Monuments have been erected in numerous locations to commemorate the plight of the Anatolian Greeks during the Genocide era. The links below contain photographs and details of some of these monuments.

Canada:
Toronto
Germany:
Stuttgart
Greece:
Hortokopi, Kavala
Kastania, Imathia
Eleftherio Kordelio (1), Thessaloniki
Eleftherio Kordelio (2), Thessaloniki
Kalamaria (1), Thessaloniki
Kalamaria (2), Thessaloniki
Kilkis, Thessaloniki
Nea Moudania, Thessaloniki
Nikopoli, Thessaloniki
Panorama, Thessaloniki
Polihni, Thessaloniki
Saint Sofia Square (1), Thessaloniki
Saint Sofia Square (2), Thessaloniki
Saint Sofia Square (3), Thessaloniki
Thermi, Thessaloniki
Kazakhstan:
Almaty
USA:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Columbia, South Carolina