Inauguration of a monument in memory of Pontian Greek victims of the Greek Genocide took place on Thursday afternoon (October 6) in the Pontic Hellenism Park in the center of Kos town.
During the event, organized by the Pontian Kos “Xeniteas” association, the atmosphere was particularly charged and moving as the speakers flooded their memories and spoke of the 353,000 Pontian victims of the Greek genocidereported Directus.
This memorial disturbed the Turks. What they reported:
“Greece has taken up a new challenge: it has erected the so-called “Pontian Genocide Memorial” in Kos.
The Turkish article:
“We had a new challenge from the Greek island of Kos. The so-called Genocide Monument of Pontic Hellenism was erected on the island just opposite Halicarnassus (Ἁλικαρνᾱσσός, Turkish: Bodrum). Speaking at the ceremony, the Greek official hinted that they expect a complaint from Turkey.
“While Greece continues to arm the Aegean islands and Western Thrace with US cooperation, this time it has heightened tension with Turkey by erecting the so-called Pontic Hellenic Genocide Memorial on the island of Kos, just opposite the area of Halicarnassus.
“The so-called Monument and Park of the Genocide of Pontic Hellenism, whose construction began a month ago by the Pontos Association, following a decision of the Kos City Council, was inaugurated with a ceremony in the evening of October 6, 2022.
“The ceremony was attended by the sculptor Kikotis Georgios who built the monument, Charalambos Navrozidis, president of the Pontos Kos association, the mayor Theodosis Nikitas, municipal officials, citizens, members of the association and senior commanders military.
“In his speech at the ceremony, the President of the Pontos Association, Mr. Charalambos Navrozidis, said: “We organized this ceremony here to honor the memory of our 353,000 loved ones and to keep their memory alive, we inaugurate the monument”. Turkey still does not apologize because it does not want to make peace with its past, and the grandchildren of our compatriots will also protect this monument.
“The President of the Turkish Solidarity Association of Rhodes-Kos and Dodecanese (ROİSDER), Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kaymakçı, said he condemns the inauguration of the monument.
“Kaymakçı said that Greece accepted May 19 as the so-called Pontus Genocide Remembrance Day by a law unanimously approved by the Greek Parliament on February 23, 1994, and that this law was approved by the President of Greece on March 7, 1994 and entered into force.
“Stories built on this historical lie, which are far from reality, are being edited and imposed on the Greek people,” he said.
Kaymakçı also said he condemns the erection of the statue.”
READ MORE: Magdalini Pavlidou: a 107-year-old Pontian survivor of the Greek genocide recounts her horrors.
