I would firstly like to say that it is an honour for us to be here.
I do not want to thank you for being here.
Because that is duty. It is logical to be here.
It’s expected. But many, simply do not believe that, and they come here for other reasons. We do not mind. It never bothered us.
For a very simple reason: The dead do not vote. Therefore, let’s spend our time on them, because we’re pro substantiality.
I am very happy today, with what I saw, with what is behind me, because it is also in front of course. You know, with the Pontians everything becomes strange.
In front of the monument they placed me behind the priest, and now during the event they placed me in front of the youth. So there must be some intermediate. You will understand it too. The idea is simple.
We do not come here just in order to say that we came, and that we will return next year.
We come here because there is a need. We hear a lot, but we see little. Many movements, and a few actions.
The Greeks are pro value, and not pro principles. No one in Greece believes in principles. Not before, not now, nor in the future. That’s why we are timeless.
The authorities are changing. Sometimes they co-operate. Sometimes they torment us. Sometimes they oppress us. To us, the law is a law, only when it is humane. We are not pro the roman judicial system. When the law is tough, we do not accept it. We must understand, finally, that the issue of genocide is no longer historic. History has recorded it. The problem now is that it is a humane issue.
If we forget it, and unless we claim its existence, then it merely disappears.
Do not expect anything, nothing at all from academics. Never!
They always arrive later. When they are studying the problem.
Do not expect anything from historians. They also arrive later, to explain to us what happened to us.
History is written by people, not by experts. What the Pontians wrote, was the inspiration for Lemkin to invent the word genocide, by combining one Greek and one Latin word, to indicate to everyone that it is not something local. That it is not something nationalistic. That it is something panhumane.
We lack in intelligence so much, that we do not understand that each time someone uses the word genocide, they automatically recognize the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks, the Armenians and the Assyrians. Because it was those genocides which constituted the example for Lemkin to invent this word.
Because there were no words. There is so much lack of intelligence, that we continue, at the genocide remembrance day, to request a minutes silence.
We haven’t understood anything. That’s what the genocidors wanted. For us to be silent. That’s why we even see it in the Bible in simple words: Even if the people are silenced, the stones would cry out. Nobody can impose on us to keep silent.
We are silent for one, not for a genocide. The aim of the genocide, is for us not to talk. In actual fact we should’ve produced a scream.
In order to prove to the genocidors that they didn’t do such a good job. That we are still here, after years, and we are not planning to leave.
We are not planning to stare at Pontus from afar.
Pontus is an occupied territory.
Therefore we must continue this fight in order to become prepared.
The issue is not just the apology.
Many beg a pardon.
They do nothing more. And what will happen by saying that they are sorry? And you must bare in mind – for all those who know about strategy – at some point they will say sorry, and some of us will just stop. And that’s because they haven’t understood that it is merely the beginning.
The correction process has several stages. Recognition is the first step. Nothing else. In the correction process, the apology is not enough.
Why?
Because, you can not commit genocide against so many people and then say you are sorry. Do not emphasize only on that word.
This word is merely the first, but not the last. We must also understand that if we want international recognition, we must also recognize others.
I am glad because this year, the Pan-Pontian society has decided to recognize the Assyrian Genocide. It is a deficit for Greece as well. Because, we are a result of three genocides. A triad of genocides by the same perpetrator.
According to the same strategy, we have recognized the first two, and yet we can’t understand that, when we go with the issue to courts, they tell us:
But you yourselves don’t recognize what you are insisting on.
We are three. Not separately. Three as religion puts it . A triad. It is this triad which has achieved the results. In Sweden, and in the European Union and in Australia. Individually we would not have succeeded.
The genocidor has a plan, has a strategy, obtains geopolitics.
The victim does not comprehend what they are up to.
And even if we warn them, they say: It can not be happening. Yet, it is happening.
We must become serious. There are really some in here, who believe that by organizing these events, it is enough for a genocide not to recur.
But even now, there are genocides taking place. These events are merely to activate the youth. How many times have you seen the youth in black ? And yet, it is what awaits them, because in genocide there is no youth, there are only elderly.
Genocides function through the centuries. You rightly said it: We also are speaking to the unborn. It is what they will remember. What we have done, what we will do, what we will pass down to them. It is not enough anymore to merely say that we were victims.
The Greeks of Pontus were not born victims. They already had a civilization and because they had a civilization, they became victims of barbarism.
Because it is regarding barbarism. I heard it said by a gentleman, quite simply, what we are talking about when we hear about the accession process? It is unacceptable.It’s quite simple, genocide is a criterion, we can not have barbarism built into a civilization.
The context is very clear, there is no diplomacy regarding this, we are not under discussion whether or not there is genocide.
Genocide exists. First comes the genocide, and then we are discussing it. Otherwise it makes no sense. We reject our very selves otherwise.
We continue to do the same as the previous ones, who haven’t done anything.
The Armenian genocide is prohibited in Turkey. You can get ten years imprisonment just by talking about it. The same applies to the occupied territories of Cyprus.And we are still wondering what we should do?
It is very simple, we have to be included as well in this article. The Pontian genocide must also be prohibited, otherwise it goes to show that we haven’t bothered barbarism enough.Barbarism is simple, when you look at it directly, you know what you are. There is no need to cry each time.
But there is a need for us to fight, there is a need for the existence of a battle, and that fight should have continuers.
It can’t be just us, always the elderly. And then what; Here we have old ladies with us right now. They are young, but are dressed in black, the light of black, which allows the people to understand what is the colour.
We put on the costumes and we assume that they have some value, while we are at a carnival.
We must understand that every detail is important, every detail. Here we are all together, because we didn’t forget the dead.
Quite often though, we forget the unborn. We are tired sometimes, but who can say to a genocide victim that, they got tired on their behalf.
They were even stripped of the right to get tired. They were even stripped of the right to cry. It’s not enough. We are here because of human dignity.
If we do nothing, they will all forget them. We are the ones who represent Humanity, as they have represented Humanity.
They are crimes against Humanity, and there’s nothing local about them.
So we have to understand, that when we are united, that’s when there are real difficulties.
When this monument was established, we had problems.That was a good sign! We got points for it! If you face no problems upon establishing monuments, then most propably it was not necessary to create them.
(to: Konstantinos Fotiadis) You wrote books and had problems. That was a good sign! Did you get points for it. There is no one who fights against barbarism and has no problems. Those who do not have problems, it is very simple, it’s because they do nothing that bothers it.
Lasker, the chess world champion, once said, “do not look for the best move, find the good one, the one which will bother the opponent.” I would like for you to wonder, how many times have you annoyed barbarism, how many black lists do you belong to, because they find unacceptable what you do in regards to promoting the issue of genocide.
If you review it slowly, you will understand why we in Greece, when a person who produced work dies, we simply say: “worthy”. So we must understand that if Pontus has become a victim of barbarism, it’s because the civilization that it had created, was important. It bothered and it harassed.
We have gone through many stages in Greece regarding the issue of Pontus. We have gone through from the nonexistent, slowly reaching the anecdotal. Now we nearing the phase of claiming.
But pride is also needed, we need enthusiasm, we need strength and durability. We are not about to finish now. When you hear that all of this struggle is in order to be recognized by Turkey, then, this will be the end.
What we aim for, the president said it quite correctly, is international recognition. International recognition will not derive from Turkey. It will be made by all countries which respect civilization, who find unacceptable whoever promotes any barbarism, and for this reason we should finally now move over to the next step and ban barbarism.
There is no Greek who accepts barbarism, as it is against Hellenism. We can not simply say that it doesn’t bother us, since we believe it.
Quite the contrary it bothers us, because each time someone swears at the genocide, they are swearing against our ancestors and we say nothing in regards.
We call it freedom of expression. It is merely free disgust. Free timidity, simply because we do not have the guts, because there are no shops selling guts. But fortunately, those who came from Pontus, came with guts.
Therefore, we all need to understand, even though we are not Pontians, never mind, we are not all perfect, we need to understand this: the contribution of Pontus to Hellenism is a huge issue, whereas, we simply think that is just a matter of a section of the population. Nothing further than the truth.
Pontus is a reference point. If it were not, it wouldn’t have genocide inflicted upon it. I want you also to notice something very simple: When we talk about the genocide of the Pontian Greeks, the Pontians are talking about Romaniae. The Pontians refer to Romaniae, because they were there even after it.
The Pontians sang about Constantinople because they were still there.
So what is the issue here then?
It’s that after the Pontians, there was no one else left.
Who would sing of Pontus? What it lived through?
And the problem is with the last ones.
When you’re the last, you talk about the previous.
But when you’re last, who will speak in regards of you?
Quite simply – and that is a direction of Christ himself – the last ones would be the first.
If the Pontians do not understand, that they are no longer the last, but they are the first to claim certain things, in order to indicate as a spearhead to others, that they haven’t kneeled, that even a genocide didn’t confine them, that they are still here and continuing, because quite simply, the genocidors did not succeed.
The Ottomans, the Young Turks, Kemal, were not enough to eliminate us.
You may tell me: it’s logical, with the Greeks, always the enemy must be stronger, otherwise we are not in it.
Therefore, whenever I hear someone saying to me “but is it possible to struggle against them?
where is the power?
where is the population?
where is the economy”?
It is certainly possible, because that’s what we do for centuries now.
We were always weak, we always growled and we are always here.
And that is why we have chosen as our motto for Greece “Greece will never die.”
Therefore, those who think they are going to die, those who have the Stockholm syndrome, those who are serviles, those who are traitors, do not bother us.
For centuries on we lived with all of them .
They never bothered us, in becoming a gift for Humanity.
Hellenism is this gift.
The Pontian element is a piece of this gift. Do not see Pontus in a miserable way. Upon them making mistakes while claiming something, you must let them know about it.
I’ll give you an example. Here is a visible one: some put the single-headed eagle upside down. If they thought that I would say nothing to them, they are wrong. They should downhaul the flags when they are upside down, because in that way they don’t constitute a motto.
Pontus faces Constantinople.
Pontus faces at what we should be looking at also.
Constantinople is the center for centuries on.
We have not chosen any other city to be called the City.
None other.
That City is one.
And if now it’s an occupied territory, we do not mind, it would still be ours.
Thank you very much.