A monument in Thessaloniki for the victims of the genocide of Turkey's Black Sea, or Pontic, Greek population.
Athens municipal authorities will erect an official monument to the victims of the genocide of Black Sea, or Pontic, Greeks by the Ottoman Empire more than a hundred years ago, the capital’s mayor said Tuesday.
Haris Doukas made the announcement in a social media post but gave no information on when and where the monument might materialize.
Greece has declared May 19 as a day of remembrance for the centrally organized persecution, that led to some 350,000 estimated deaths, of millennia-old Greek populations along modern Turkey’s Black Sea coast and its mountainous hinterland between 1914-23.
The proposed monument was debated at Monday’s municipal council session. The Greeks who formerly lived along Turkey’s Black Sea coast are known in Greece as the Pontic Greeks, from Pontos, the ancient word for sea that came to be used in reference to the Black Sea.
