Turkey Fires Back Over Pontic Greek Genocide: “Unfounded Claims”
Turkey's Foreign Ministry issued a formal statement pushing back against Greece's annual commemoration of the Pontic Greek Genocide, which was marked on Thursday, May 19.
The Turkish government called Greece's recognition of the genocide "legally baseless," taking specific aim at a 1994 Greek law that formally acknowledged the Pontic massacres as genocide. Ankara accused Athens of continuously expanding what it described as unfounded claims against Turkey without hesitation.
The Pontic Greek massacres and deportations killed an estimated 350,000 Pontic Greeks between 1914 and 1923.
What drew the sharpest language from Turkey was the fact that these historical events are being taught to schoolchildren. The ministry's statement singled out a Greek Education Ministry circular that introduced the genocide into primary and secondary school curricula across Greece, calling it an extension of claims that Turkey firmly rejects.
Greece has officially commemorated the Pontic Greek Genocide every year on May 19, the date also chosen by Turkey to celebrate Ataturk and Turkish nationalism. The date itself is a point of historical tension, as the Pontic Greek massacres and deportations carried out by Ottoman and Turkish nationalist forces between 1914 and 1923 killed an estimated 350,000 Pontic Greeks. The Greek state recognized these events as genocide 32 years ago.
Turkey has never acknowledged the genocide and consistently rejects any legal or historical framing that uses that term for the mass killings and forced expulsions of Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian populations during that period.
The annual Turkish reaction to Greece's May 19 commemoration has become a predictable diplomatic friction point, with Ankara responding each year to what Athens treats as a solemn day of national remembrance.
