The Turkish Foreign Ministry criticised PM Mitsotakis over his speech at a Pontian event marking the 100th anniversary of the Genocide by the Ottoman Empire
The Greek Foreign Ministry’s responded in a sharp tones to the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s provocative statement which berated Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his address at the International Conference on the Crime of Genocide event marking the 100th anniversary of the Greek-Pontian genocide in Athens.
“Hubris is the choice of one who cannot accept his History. The one who has no arguments and prefers to provoke and threaten” pointed out Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexandros Gennimatas.
Mr. Gennimatas also spoke of “a sustained attempt by Turkey to distort historical events” which, he said was “sad and exposed Turkey”.
“We call on Turkey to refrain from further provocations and to work towards dialogue and respect for international law. It must understand that good neighbourliness, security and stability, as well as the prosperity of our wider region, will also benefit.”
The Turkish Foreign Ministry had issued a highly provocative statement scorning the Greek PM on the speech he delivered during the centenary anniversary event of the Greek-Pontian Genocide (Turkey rejects it ever took place, like the Armenian Genocide). “We reject the statements of the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivered at the “International Conference on the Crime of Genocide” held in Athens on 6 December 2019. His statements concerning our past and present are devoid of any base and its hostile tone is laden with lies and slander”, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The statement went as far as to indirectly threaten Greece pointing to the 1922 war which pushed the Gfreek forces into the Aegean Sea. “Should the Greek leadership, which seems unable to overcome the then Greek occupying forces being driven into the Aegean during the Turkish War of Independence, wish to face its past, the starting point ought to be the report of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry which recorded the war crimes of the Greek Army during its invasion of Anatolia, as well as the articles of the Lausanne Peace Treaty which sentenced Greece to pay compensation for massacres and atrocities committed against the Turks.”
The Greek PM had delivered a speech at the International Conference on the Crime of Genocide calling the massacre of the Greek in the Pontus region a Genocide (The Greek Parliament has recognised it as such).
“As you know, the Genocide in Pontus and Asia Minor – a subset of only the genocides of the Christian populations of the Ottoman Empire – has not only been recognised by the Greek Parliament. It has been recognised by numerous foreign countries and states. Like the International Association of Academics for the Study of Genocide. This circle must be enlarged, and for this particular purpose the government – as I had promised you on May 19th – is acting methodically.”