May 19 is deeply engraved in the collective memory of Hellenism. It is the day commemorating the Pontian Genocide, one of the most heinous crimes of the 20th century. It is the moment when some 353,000 people perished in the plans of the Kemalist regime.

This crime was committed during the period 1914-1923 and was aimed at the disappearance of the Pontian Hellenism, a people that had lived for centuries in the Black Sea region, creating culture, education, trade, churches and schools.

The mass massacres and the ‘amele tamburu’

From the early years of World War I, the Young Turks and later the Kemalists engaged in systematic persecution, with massacres of men, death marches for women and children, and forced labour battalions (amele tamburu), in which tens of thousands of Greeks were exterminated.

In 1916, mass executions of men and rapes of women were recorded in Sanda, Pontus, while in 1919, the destruction of Samsun by Kemalist soldiers was one of the most horrific episodes of the genocide. Houses were set on fire, people were slaughtered in the streets, children were executed in front of their mothers.

The testimony of Nikos Astrapelis – 1919

One of the thousands of victims who survived to speak out was Nikos Astrapelis from Samsounta, who in 1960 recounted: “I saw with my own eyes our children being put in canoes and thrown into the river. The women screamed, the soldiers laughed. They tied us up and sent us on foot to Ankara. Of the 300, only 20 returned. The others perished on the road, from hunger, beatings and disease.”

The voice of the international community and foreign missions

Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, documented as early as 1915 that the Greeks of Pontus, along with the Armenians and Assyrians, had been targeted in an organised extermination plan. Along with him, missionaries from Sweden and Austria recorded atrocities, confirming the organised nature of the genocide. The American Committee for Near East Relief had been sending reports of “genocide in progress” since 1918, describing the extermination of communities and the disappearance of cultures.

From uprooting to rebirth

The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 sealed the uprooting. Over 400,000 Pontian Greeks were forced to leave their ancestral lands, coming to Greece in conditions of extreme poverty and mourning. And yet, through pain and silence, the Pontians managed to build new lives. They established settlements such as Nea Trapezounda, Nea Santa, Pontokomi and many others. They carried their rich cultural heritage, the memories of their lost homelands, their lyre music and their language – a unique combination of ancient Greek with Caucasian influences.

Recognition and continuous assertion

The Greek Parliament officially recognised the Genocide in 1994, establishing 19 May as a Day of Remembrance. This was followed by recognitions from Cyprus, Sweden, Armenia, the Netherlands, and several US states, including New York, New Jersey and California. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) in 2007 included the genocide of the Pontic people in its list of crimes against humanity. However, international recognition remains incomplete. Turkey continues to deny any responsibility, while Pontian Federations worldwide are fighting for the restoration of historical truth, not out of hatred, but for the vindication of the victims and the prevention of any new genocide in the future. 106 years later, the Hellenism of Pontus lives on through future generations. Every year, the black May 19 becomes a light that illuminates history. There is a march, singing, wreath laying, speeches, traditional dancing, and tears. Because as the Pontian saying goes: “Our root cannot be uprooted as long as there is a soul to remember it.”