The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) sent a formal request to US President Joe Biden, asking for the United States government to recognize the Greek Genocide.
In a June 7 letter, Supreme President George G. Horiates wrote that it is time the US government “recognizes the Greek Genocide that occurred 1914 to 1923 as a matter of affirming a historical truth and upholding a commitment to human rights as well a matter of education to prevent future atrocities from occurring.”
“I write to request for the United States to formally recognize the Greek Genocide, the systematic extermination of between one million and 1.5 million indigenous Greek minority of the Ottoman Empire,” the AHEPA President wrote.
“This year, we commemorated the 102-year Pontian Greek Genocide as part of the larger Greek and Christian Genocide where hundreds of thousands of Pontian Greeks were murdered. More than one million more were forced to seek refuge in Greece as their homes and property were confiscated in addition to the destruction of Greek Orthodox churches in the area. Ottoman Turkey endeavored to destroy Hellenism – its history, culture, and language,” he stressed.
Horiates cited resolutions passed by the US Congress that referenced the United States’ history of providing relief to “the survivors of the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians,” and a 2007 International Association of Genocide Scholars resolution that affirmed that the “Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire constituted a genocide,” including Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, to justify the recognition.
He also conveyed the appreciation of the Greek diaspora to President Biden for the correct historical reference to Constantinople in the President’s April 24, 2021 statement recognizing the Armenian Genocide.