|
GREEK GENOCIDE
|
Contents
|
4. Greek Genocide Recognition and Commemoration Greek Genocide Recognition Greece*
Armenia Armenia recognized the Greek Genocide in its entirety in 2015. Armenia is the only country to fully recognize the Greek Genocide Australia Although the Greek Genocide is not recognized at the federal level as of yet, a few Australian state and civic governments recognize the Greek Genocide in its entirety since 2013, with the most recent recognition taking place in Tasmania in 2023 International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) The IAGS officially recognized the Greek Genocide in 2007 [1] United States of America The United States of America officially affirmed the Greek Genocide in 2019 in the texts of both the US House of Representatives Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.296) and also in the US Senate Armenian Genocide Resolution (S.Res.150) [1][2]. Prior to the US House and Senate recognitions in 2019, a half dozen US states had recognized the Greek Genocide in its entirety since 2015, and a few as of 2022. As of 2025, Greek organizations in the United States have not taken this affirmation any further Other The Hellenic Institute does not recognize the validity of any of the dozens of other Greek genocide proclamations and/or recognitions in other cities, provinces, states or countries that specifically recognize or proclaim a separate, region-specific genocide for one group of Greek victims over the totality of all the victims of the Greek Genocide killed throughout the Ottoman Empire Commemoration Greek Genocide Remembrance Day
Greek Genocide Remembrance Days (Regional)^
__________ Notes: * The topic of the genocide reemerged in Greek society about a decade after the fall of the Greek military dictatorship in 1974. Unlike the Armenians and the Assyrians, the topic of the genocide had been deemed a taboo subject in Greece since 1930 via successive Greek governments who wanted to pacify Turkey, as part of the overall Greek government measures meant to keep the tension between the two countries to a minimum. Outside of the Greek Refugee communities, mainstream Greek society was generally unaware of the facts surrounding the genocide. By the mid 1980s to the early 1990s the genocide was brought back into the national discussion in Greece; however, it became highly politicized by certain second-generation regionalist voices that pursued genocide recognition in Greece via a revisionist, regional point of view (Agtzidis, 2009). As a result, the Greek government in 1994, without consulting historians or experts, nor interested in historical accuracy, took the decision to recognize the genocide only in one region of the Ottoman Empire, based on the demands of the aforementioned. The fallout from that decision started immediately and persists to this day in Greece and in the Greek diaspora. ** In 2022 and in 2025, a law and a presidential decree were respectively issued by the Greek government for the remembrance of the genocide in Eastern Thrace. However, both were poorly worded and lacked the word "genocide" from the text that officially designated April 6 as a "Day for Thracian Hellenism." Although the Greek government went out of their way to keep Turkey at bay by not using the word "genocide" in these laws, the Turkish government immediately protested after the presidential decree came into force in early 2025 as it was very self-evident that, in fact, the laws were for a genocide. In Greece, with the presidential decree in force, the Greek political establishment, media, schools, organizations and religious authorities throughout Greece commemorated April 6, 2025, not as a "Day for Thracian Hellenism", but as the "Day of Remembrance of the Greek Genocide in Eastern Thrace." Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was the first Greek Prime Minister in history to make an official announcement for the Greek Genocide in Eastern Thrace, stating one day earlier on April 5, 2025: "I close this [monthly] review with a mandatory reference to the day of remembrance for Thracian Hellenism, which is commemorated in memory of the Greek Genocide in Eastern Thrace, perpetrated by the Young Turks. We remember the "Black Easter" of Eastern Thrace not only as a tragedy, but as a part of the soul of a people who endured and moved forward. When we remember, we honor, we keep alive what brought us here." [1] ^ The Hellenic Institute duly commemorates the victims of the genocide on the three officially designated regional days of remembrance as victims of the broader Greek Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, but does not recognize that each regional day of remembrance constitutes a separate Greek Genocide on its own. Genocide remembrance and genocide recognition are two different things. The Hellenic Institute opposes any and all initiatives in Canada that call for a partial recognition of the Greek Genocide in a region-specific basis. |
