New York State commemorates genocide of Asia Minor Greeks
15 October 2002
Oakland, California
The Governor of New York State, George Pataki, has declared October 6, 2002, "the 80th Anniversary of the Commemoration of the Burning of Smyrna and the Persecution of the Greeks of Asia Minor, in the Empire State."
The Governor's press release describes the events that took place in Asia Minor between 1915-1923 stating that Greeks who lived there "endured immeasurable cruelty during a Turkish Government-sanctioned systematic campaign to displace them; destroying Greek towns and villages and slaughtering additional hundreds of thousands of civilians in areas where Greeks composed a majority..."
The proclamation suggests that recognising such historical events can serve as "valuable lessons."
"It is believed by many that acknowledgement and awareness of this shameful event will not only teach future generations, but also will help mankind prevent such crimes from being repeated."
Earlier this year, in another official proclamation, Governor Pataki declared May 19, 2002, "Pontian Greek Genocide Remembrance Day." The proclamation stated that "an estimated 353,000 Pontian Greeks died while being forcibly marched without provisions across the Anatolian plains to the Syrian border and those who survived were exiled from Turkey and today they and their descendants live throughout the Greek diaspora."
"The Turkish perpetrators of genocide in Asia Minor were notably brutal when executing their campaign to displace Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians from their ancestral lands; the former's attack on the latter was widely noticed but largely unchecked by the world community."
In August, the Pontian genocide was also recognized by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey, in a Joint Legislative Resolution, which remembered the victims and paid tribute to the survivors.
"In what is considered to be the first mass genocide of the twentieth century, 353,000 Greeks living in Pontus were murdered and equal amounts forced to flee their homeland in terror by the Ottoman Empire during the period of 1914 to 1922, an event which represents one of the most condemnable atrocities in the history of the world..."