Memorial service will be held at the Saint Sarkis Church in Yerevan in remembrance of the victims of the Genocide of the Greeks in Ottoman Turkey.
14-05-2025 10:20:59 | Armenia | Press release
We would like to inform you that on Monday, May 19, 2025, at 11:40 AM, a memorial service will be held at the Saint Sarkis Church in Yerevan in remembrance of the victims of the Genocide of the Greeks in Ottoman Turkey.
The church is located near the «Victory» bridge, not far from the Yerevan City Hall.
In Christianity, as in many other religions, it is believed that a person possesses not only a physical, earthly body but also a soul. The soul does not perish with the death of the body – it continues on its journey. During their lifetime, our ancestors prayed for themselves; after their death, the Church prays for them, and we, as the relatives of those who were violently killed, will ask God for mercy on the souls of our loved ones and forgiveness of their voluntary and involuntary sins committed in life.
It should be noted that the Genocide of Pontic and Asia Minor Greeks was carried out alongside the Armenian Genocide and the extermination of other indigenous peoples living in their own homelands.
Today, in the 21st century, the fate of the Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian victims of the 19th–20th century genocides has once again befallen the Greeks and Armenians of Artsakh. Erdogan has openly declared that it was Turkey who helped Azerbaijan occupy Artsakh. A blockade was imposed, many lives were lost, and the entire territory was subsequently occupied, accompanied by ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Artsakh.
The civilized world, as a century ago, expressed outrage but eventually accepted Turkey’s policy as a fait accompli.
It is often said that murderers have no nationality. This may be acceptable when a crime is committed on a personal level. But when a systematic, state-organized mass killing of civilians based on ethnicity occurs, it would be a sacrilege to the memory of the murdered Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Arabs, and other peoples not to mention the nationality of the perpetrators.
In the language of international law, such organized mass killings committed by one nation against another are classified as genocide.
According to the profound Christian wisdom reflected in European laws, a murderer is not deprived of life but given a chance to save, if not the body, then at least the soul. Even the most horrific crime can, if not be forgotten, then be forgiven—if the perpetrator fully realizes the gravity of their actions and repents. In Christianity, this gives a person a chance to save their soul. I believe the Qur'an also addresses this matter extensively.
For more than a century, Turkey has had the opportunity to repent, yet it not only continues to deny its monstrous crimes but also pursues a policy that differs little in essence from that of the Ottoman Turks.
With such an approach to its own history, it is no surprise that Turkey has engaged in significant falsifications both in the present and with regard to the future.
As a result of the genocide of the indigenous Christian peoples, Turkey has been completely de-Christianized.
More than 5 million Christians were killed.
Chairman
Organization of Greeks of Armenia and Artsakh «Patrida»
Ed. Polatidis
Organization «Community of Greeks of the Lori Region of Armenia and Philhellenes»
Ya. Kilinkarov
P.S.
On August 23, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR (Parliament of the Republic of Armenia) adopted a declaration, signed also by the Greek community.
In 1990, we made our first official appeal to the Supreme Council of the Armenian SSR (National Assembly) for the recognition of the Greek Genocide in Turkey.
The texts of our appeals and letters to the government have been updated annually.
To accelerate the recognition of the Greek Genocide in Ottoman Turkey by Armenia, «Patrida» formed an initiative group comprised of prominent political, military, religious, and scientific figures, as well as several dozen public and political organizations.
The organization «Patrida» published the magazine «Byzantine Heritage», which advocated for humanitarian values and Christian morality in a pragmatic world where everything is measured by geopolitical success—regardless of the suffering of nations.
Nations such as the Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, and others who lived in Turkey—and those who today continue to pay with their lives and well-being in the name of someone’s vision of global order.
The publication of the magazine was blessed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The Patriarch’s blessing is kept in the archives of «Patrida», and the magazine is preserved in the Patriarchate’s archives in Constantinople.
25 years later, on March 24, 2015, the Greek community of Armenia «Patrida» was invited to the Armenian Parliament to attend a session where, in its presence, representatives of all six parliamentary factions unanimously voted in favor of a resolution recognizing and condemning the Genocide of the Greeks and Assyrians in Ottoman Turkey.
ENGLISH 
Հայերեն
Русский
Դաս. հայերեն
French
