IAGS Genocide Resolution

In 2007 the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), an organization of the world’s foremost experts on genocide, passed a resolution affirming the 1914-1923 massacres and death marches of Ottoman Greeks was "genocide". The resolution also affimed the Armenian and Assyrian genocides.

The resolution was proposed at the IAGS seventh biennial meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 13, 2007.  It was adopted on December 1, 2007. To read the official IAGS press release as issued by IAGS on December 16th click here.

The text of the IAGS resolution reads:

WHEREAS the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;

WHEREAS the Ottoman genocide against minority populations during and following the First World War is usually depicted as a genocide against Armenians alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire;

BE IT RESOLVED that it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution.

Note that the ambiguous phrase "Pontian and Anatolian Greeks" should simply read "Anatolian Greeks" or "Greeks", as Pontian Greeks are a subset of Anatolian Greeks.

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Source: http://www.genocidescholars.org/resolutionsstatements.html