WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) joined today with Pontian Greeks – and all Hellenes, Assyrians, Syriacs, and other communities representing the victims of Turkey’s genocidal campaign against its Christian minorities – in commemorating May 19th, the international day of remembrance for the genocide initiated by the Ottoman Empire and continued by Kemalist Turkey against the historic Greek population of Pontus along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea.

“We join with all our brothers and sisters – in the Hellenic, Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac, and other Christian communities subjected to genocide under Ottoman and Turkish rule – in solemnly marking the anniversary of the Pontian Genocide – a genocide that remains unrecognized by its perpetrator and unpunished by the international community,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. “In commemorating this date, we reaffirm our determination to work in concert with all the victims of Turkey’s genocidal campaigns to secure full recognition and justice for these crimes.”

The Ottoman Empire, under the cover of World War I, undertook a systematic and deliberate effort to eliminate its minority Christian populations. This genocidal campaign resulted in the death and deportation of well over 2,000,000 Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, and Greeks.

The Pontian Genocide has been formally acknowledged by Greece and Cyprus and, within the United States, by the states of New York, New Jersey, Florida, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, among others.